What's up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com. Today I’m going to show you how to fix that
ugly, forward-head posture. Quickly. All you have to do is this: Wow. That worked quickly. JESSE: Instantly. JEFF: Was that actually you in that video? JESSE: Yes, that was actually me. But I swear to God, it was not my fault. JEFF: Okay, concussion number 17, I think,
in that video. JESSE: 16, I think it was. JEFF: We’ll explain that at the end. There will be a serious message attached to
that as well. However, what we’re trying to do here today
is fix that forward head posture and do it the right way. When it comes to postural fixes, a lot of
times people approach it in the wrong way. I’m going to show you the right way to do
it, specifically the right way to correct this posture problem. So, you never have to deal with it ever again. To set the stage for this correction, it’s
important that you differentiate between the site of the issues that you’re having and
the actual source of the issues you’re having because they’re very different. I’ve talked about this concept before, in
relation to medial elbow pain. A very common source of pain for a lot of
people that lift weights. However, if you looked at this area alone
in trying to attack the problem, maybe did some ultrasound, or you massaged the area
you’d be doing nothing long term to fix the problem. I made a whole video about how the source
of this issue led all the way out here in your fingers. What happens is, you have to learn how to
look above and below the site. When it comes to the neck itself, you really
can’t go looking too far up overhead because there’s nothing there. So, we have to look below. It’s very easy to see that because we know
the spine is one, interconnected unit. We know if we did something to the spine below
it’s going to have repercussions and compensations above. All you have to do is look at that example
right here. If I were to take a spine and put it into
thoracic flexion here, like this – which we see all too often – we know what’s
happening is not necessarily an issue with the neck, but a compensation of the neck to
go back into this direction. Why? Because we know we want to keep our eyes aligned,
to be able to see what’s happening in front of us. So, if I were to round myself down, my head’s
looking down, but I have to make that adjustment in the neck to be able to compensate. Likewise, I could go even further down the
spine here into the lumbar spine and I could take myself into posterior tilt. As I do that it takes that thoracic area into
excessive flexion. What happens then? In order to get my head back into that position
to see right, I’ve got to make another adjustment here. So, a lot of times this site, this type of
thing going on here has nothing to do with what’s going on here. There are some things we’re going to have
to address from a strength standpoint, but most of all, it’s what’s happening down
here. I’m going to show you exactly how we do
that with Jesse, right now. So, we go from that skeleton to a skeleton
with a little bit of meat on him. We’re going to make the same correction. I want you guys to do this with me. You’re going to feel and see this right
away. Everything I just showed you. If we’re here we know this is one connected
element and this is a compensation. So, if I say, “sit up straight”, try to
sit up right now in your chair straight, immediately, as soon as I do that, I still have this rounded
shoulder thing going on. We still have this thoracic rounding, but
we’ve gotten less. It’s gotten less severe because we fixed
the spine from below. Next what I have to do is say “Jesse, stick
your chest out as far as you possibly can”. By doing that, look what happens to the head. All of a sudden, the head and neck are in
proper position. Why? They no longer have to compensate and adjust
to the positioning of the rounded thoracic spine or the posterior pelvic tilt. As a matter of fact, you don’t really ever
see people who still have this corrected and then have that head that protrudes that far
out. That’s happening only in conjunction with
these other things going on. So, if we could fix these things, we would
be well on our way to getting rid of this for good. The good news is, I’m going to show you
exactly what to do for that now and we’re going to be able to do that with a bench,
just like this – or even the side of a couch, if you’re doing this at home – to get
going on it right away. All right, guys. There’s a two-part fix to this and it starts
right here. You’re going to be able to do this, like
I said, on that bench or even the arm of a couch if you want to do this at home. It’s going to hit all the areas at once
that we already talked about over there. We want to work on that thoracic spine. So, we know that this is one of the areas
we need to get more extension through. So, if we can use something to get us to get
more into extension, we’re on the right path. We know we can do that right here with the
edge of the bench. Almost acting as if it’s a foam roller,
or any type of mobility tool. So, we get ourselves in that position. Jesse props himself up while pushing the edge
of this right at that point of most restriction. Now, we know we could also address that secondary
component here, the lower portion, the lumbar spine, and get out of that posterior tilt
that he’s in and get into an anterior tilt by dropping down. So, with that combination you’re in a good
spot to start working on the third component. That is the strength of the deep flexors of
the neck that tend to get a little weak over time when we stay in this position chronically. So, what we do there is try to tuck the chin
down and keep our head – if we got all this hair out of the way – we keep the head here,
parallel to the floor. This is an isometric contraction of the neck. What you want to do is do this for one minute,
three times a day. Now, if you can handle this and this is something
you’re good at already, we can make a modification to make it more difficult. We take the arms and place them up over our
head. What we’re doing is here is further challenging
the extension through our thoracic spine, the same way we know we can because of the
interconnectivity with the spine as we would with an overhead squat. You get those arms up and it’s a lot harder
to stay ‘not rounded’ as your body goes down into the squat. So, there’s an additional challenge to get
more out of our thoracic extension. The same thing applies here with the neck. That three, isometric, one-minute contractions
for one minute, three times a day. The last thing we can do is make this weighted. If you get to the point where you’re looking
for a little more of a challenge. You take a weight plate, you wrap a t-shirt
around it, you hold it in that same position, he's working on that same spot in the thoracic
spine. He drops the pelvis down a little bit into
anterior tilt and now he goes from this extended position, from here, just back to neutral. Up to there. It’s not a big movement. It’s small, but the key is you want to work
on that strengthening and now we’re taking it beyond isometric. We’re taking it into a little bit of a concentric
shortening. So, you work on the level that’s appropriate
for you and challenging to you, and we’ve got one more thing we’ve got to do. Once we correct all this, we have one other
thing to help strengthen all those muscles to keep it there. That is a face pull variation. Guys, no video of ATHLEANX’s is complete
without a face pull. We’ve learned that by now, but we already
know that I’ve made a video about how important it is to include this exercise at the end
of every workout that you do, and for good reason. However, we’ve made an additional modification
that I showed you in a couple videos back that will help this problem even more because
of the muscles it’s helping to train. When we take the face pull one step further,
we go up. What happens is, when we go up, we involve
the activation of the lower traps as well, whose main role is to keep those shoulders
back, and down. If we can get that, what are we doing? Thanks, Jesse. What we’re doing is correcting that posture
that we’ve been working on this whole time. We’re getting those shoulders from this
rounded, forward position to one that’s back and down, which helps to correct that
autocorrection of the neck. Additionally, we're working the rotator cuff
whose job is to keep the shoulders back. We’re working on the interscapular and mid-scapular
muscles, and we’re even working on the lumbar paraspinals, all of which are going to keep
us more in this position, as opposed to this. We know if we can drive this position, that
head is going to naturally adapt to it. So, make sure you don’t forget to do your
face pulls with this additional modification at the end of every workout. Just a couple sets is all I need. So, there you have it, guys. There is your plan of attack that you can
now instantly start to work into your training program to start getting those fixes in place. Guys, it’s going to take consistency and
if you do it, you’re going to be permanently fixed, I promise you. You just have to make sure you’re doing
the right things. With this video, now you’re taking the right
approach. I did mention Jesse in the open. I promised we would explain the video. You’ve got some explaining to do, Jesse. JESSE: Yeah, someone was heckling a kid on
the ice at a hockey game and mom thought it was me. JEFF: And it wasn’t you, right? JESSE: It wasn’t me. It wasn’t. JEFF: Okay. And she took umbrage with that, apparently? JESSE: Yeah. JEFF: And crashed your head into the wall. JESSE: Yes. That was concussion, I think, 16 or 17. JEFF: So, guys, I want to take this – we
have a large platform here. ATHLEANX has a large social media following
and I thank you guys for that. You’re responsible for it. But I want to do some good as well. This is almost the end of Brain Injury Awareness
Month. JESSE: Yes, it’s Mindful March, as it’s
also known. JEFF: So, Jesse has been very closely connected
with that because we haven’t really disclosed this much over the years, but Jesse has had
multiple concussions, starting back in his childhood, playing lacrosse. JESSE: Yeah. JEFF: And then moving onto adulthood doing
stupid things. JESSE: Yes. General tomfoolery. JEFF: And basically, it led to the point where
he was dealing with a lot of serious post-concussion syndrome, if you want to elaborate. JESSE: Brain fog was a big one. Memory loss. Exertion headaches. Depression, anxiety. A lot of things that are pretty common with
concussions and traumatic brain injuries in general. These things don’t always go away. They can sometimes last for years, and years,
and years. The accumulation of the effects – it’s
gotten bad for me. JEFF: Right. We have all totally supported your efforts. JESSE: Yes. JEFF: And obviously, everybody out there,
there’s been a lot of love for Jesse. JESSE: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. JEFF: So, we’re glad for that, guys. I appreciate that. If you want to help out, you can head to loveyourbrain.com
and donate. There’s no connection to us at all. It’s just a cause that Jesse’s passionate
about and I want to take a quick moment at the end of this video to share that with you
guys. In the meantime, if you’ve found this video
helpful leave your comments and thumbs up below. Let me know what else you want me to cover. If you want more Jesse let me know, too. We’ll make sure we work him in somewhere
from time to time and pull him out of the cage. The fact of the matter is, guys, we’re here
to make the videos you want to see. If you haven’t already, please subscribe
and turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when we put one out. See you.
