Forward Head Posture - 30 Day Posture Makeover

another really common posture mistake is a forward head position where the head starts to migrate forward and you can see it sets off an entire chain reaction in my body automatically with a forward head my upper back needs to round to counterbalance myself the head weighs about 10 pounds and the spine is supposed to be a pillar of support and when the head is not resting on the bones it's being held up by the muscles and you're kind of hanging on your ligaments and so in order to counter bound balance this 10 pounds forward I'm sticking my upper back out and as you can see it's very connected to forward shoulder posture it's very common to see young people with kind of a hump in their upper back now that can be because of some medical problems I mean older people have osteoporosis and there are reasons for that but a lot of times when you see young people with a big fatty neck hump right in here it's because their body is laying down fat deposits around the spine to protect it because it's having to hold that forward head posture the further forward your head goes the more it seems to weigh like think about it if you knew that you had to carry a child for a long period of time you're going to carry them close to your body because that's the most efficient use of your energy you wouldn't stick your arms out straight and hold them out here because that is going to be very very very taxing on the body very quickly it's the same thing with your head so we've talked about the position of the head now let's talk about the position of the neck you know your head is forward when your neck is not straight up and down it's supposed to be a vertical pillar of support if it's at an angle you know you have a forward head position and so one of the key things about achieving a good neck position is relaxation and just really trusting that your head can balance on top of your neck and we're going to try to find that sweet spot right now so the first thing that we're going to do is we're going to think about letting the chin drop a little bit now notice if my head is forward or my head is tilted backwards I'm going to have a kink in the back of my neck so look it's not a straight line it's just a big kink in the back of my neck we want to try to get a nice straight long back of the neck and so in order to achieve that let your head tilt down a little bit now it's not the same as letting it slump forward you're tilting it down using your ears as the axis right so it rotates from the axis of the ears so it's tilting down a little bit and really you're creating length all the way from your neck up through the back of your skull what's really important to achieve here is really thinking about relaxing those muscles right at the base of the skull those sub occipital muscles let them relax they're the ones that are pulling you into a kinked position so we're just gonna let the chin come down the muscles are gonna relax you might want to do a few shoulder rolls here and you're gonna take a couple deep breaths forward head posture is very very often connected to forward shoulders and a very tight chest and so in order to get that head to get back into alignment we need to open that chest and so that's what this next series of exercises is designed to do so the first stretch we're gonna do needs a prop so I'm going to use a dog leash but you can also use a bath towel or really anything else you have so I'm gonna take a nice wide grip on my leash here and the main thing about this stretch is that I need to keep my elbows straight so really think about keeping your elbows straight lift your arms up and here's the point where everyone bends their elbows fight to keep them straight if you can't bring your arms back any more than this your grip is too narrow so let go and take a wider grip but we're bringing the arms up and over keeping the elbows straight now another common mistake is arching the upper back and the lower back just arching the back when you're about at this point so keep yourself up right here we go all the way up and over and once you've done a couple you might want to try scooching your hands a little closer together and trying again you'll get a little bit more of an intense stretch now the perfect time to do this is after you've had a shower you've got the towel in your hands anyways just do a couple of these I'm gonna just bring the hands up and I'm very gently just gonna do a side Bend now I'm kind of pushing my opposing hip out so I can counterbalance and I'm just trying to get a nice stretch through the side I'm not leaning forward I'm pretending like my body is between two panes of glass and I'm just trying to go exactly sideways you don't have to go really far just take it nice and easy but we're working on separating the ribcage from the pelvis just getting a nice opening let's do one more time on each side and other side good now from here we're gonna do a little back strengthening exercise and it's called the bow and arrow and so all I'm going to do is bend one elbow the other elbow stays locked out I'm gonna bend the elbow pull it back as far as I can I'm engaging the muscles in the upper back that's gonna help me migrate the shoulders backwards I'm pulling pulling pulling and twisting and I'm gonna turn and look behind me engaging the entire upper back here it is from the side view good when you're done with those shake it out a little bit you should really feel it in your upper back we're trying to really strengthen those upper back muscles and stretch the chest muscles the next thing we're gonna do is a chest stretch and this one can be a little bit tricky so watch carefully I'm going to take the leash behind me we roll up my sleeves so you can see and I'm going to have my knuckles forward okay that's the number one first thing now it's a little tricky to get into this position for the first time so we're just gonna do one hand at a time I'll show you facing forwards and then I'll turn around so you can watch again but I'm going to rotate my palm forward and I'm going to bring my knuckles over the leash and then I'll end up with my palm forward and the leash behind my knuckles other side rotate forward and now from this position I feel a nice big stretch through my chest and through my forearms as well if you find yourself in this position and you aren't feeling much of a stretch start again with your hands a little bit closer together now I'm gonna turn around and I'll show you again from the back so I'm going to start off with my knuckles facing forward I'm going to rotate my hand around rotate my hand around and so from here it's pulling my shoulders backwards it's pulling my forearms open I'm getting a stretch all through my shoulders so again six to ten breaths just breathe and when you're finished you just release and do a couple shoulder rolls and feel the positioning of your shoulders feel if you're a little bit more open in the chest

Channel: Posture Makeover

Views: 2,421,731

Keywords: posture, makeover, michelle joyce, 30 day, challenge, app, forward head, buffalo hump, stretches, exercises, ergonomic, rounded shoulders, back pain, neck pain

Id: b9ISV7TfuBY

Length: 9min 9sec (549 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 03 2016