Are You Looking Or Feeling Hunched Over-This Will SAVE You!
- chelsie462
- 5 days ago
- 9 min read
This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in June of 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/Ih-4jTxOuvE
Brad: If you're looking or feeling hunched over and you may be experiencing neck, shoulder pain, or back pain, then this is for you.
Mike: Or if someone has been rude enough to tell you you're kind of hunched over, then you definitely want to give these exercises and stretches a try.
Brad: That's right, so we have a three-step program to work this through. We're going to go through it step by step. You can do it at home. All right, now a lot of people aren't even aware of their posture. I want to give you an example. This is a story that Bob has told many times, it's about his cousin David. He works at this location, and he's talking to the security guard, and they're having a chat. They know each other. He's worked there for a long time. And he's looking at a film of someone walking out of the building that he himself works in. And this person walked out of the door, and he's looking at his backside, and this person's all hunched over and walking forward. He asks the security guard, "I work in that building, and I know everyone who works in that building. And who is that old person? I've never seen him before." And the security guard stops and looks at him, and says, "That happens to be you." So his posture is hunched over. He had no idea until he saw himself in a video. And this can be your situation unless you have a family member or friend who actually says, "You are looking pretty hunched over." If it's a stranger, then you know you're hunched over badly. The three primary demons that give you hunchback or that rounded poor posture is, number one, is when you're a child are people telling you, "Sit up tall" and making that a habit at a early age.
Mike: Number two demon, as Brad is saying, is modern-day technology. Obviously, looking down at your smartphone or maybe your laptop over there.
Mike: Oftentimes, we do not have good posture unless we have a good ergonomic setup or hold our phones like this.
Brad: And number three is gravity. Once you start this posture, gravity continues to work against you every day, all the time while you're standing or sitting. And you have to actually fight that and consciously prepare yourself to be upright. So we're going to talk about how to do that. Now, if you were to actually test if you have this hunch back or this rounded posture, simply go up against the wall, put your bottom side against the wall, and then your shoulders here and then see if you can straighten your back so that your shoulders are touching, your chin is tucked in, and everything is touching. Then you know you have a good range of motion, and that's a good sign.
Brad: If you go against the wall and you cannot get back flat, you definitely need to go to step number one. We're going to show how to break things and stretch things up so this is possible. Okay, now Mike is going to pretend he has poor posture, and he's so tight when he lies down on the floor, he can't even get his head down to the floor or his shoulders. And I have worked with people like this in the clinic, it's not that uncommon. Mike, can you talk about how you're going to use gravity to stretch yourself out to get good posture?
Mike: So first, if you're this bad, you may need to take a pillow or two for support and rest on that. Just be going from here, say if I'm tight to here, it may feel like a stretch. This is where you can begin. Just lie down like this for a certain duration of time, maybe 30 seconds, a minute, maybe you can go for five minutes if it feels okay for you, and work on it eventually over time, getting fewer pillows if possible. Eventually, try to get to the floor. Now, if you're someone that's kind of hunched over, you notice, but you can easily touch your head to the floor, we can show you how to stretch it a little bit more by either using a ball or a rolled up towel.
Brad: So if you take a towel or two towels, roll them up so it's about six inches in diameter. We're going to put that right there. Go ahead, Mike.
Mike: So we just lie on that. And then I'm going to need a pillow for this because I'm so high up here. But you could see how just having the towel here, you can even put your arms up to your side. Now this is really going to stretch. Because oftentimes when people are bent forward, their pec and shoulder muscles also get tight. So this will actually help stretch those out as well.
Brad: So it's really important that you learn how to relax and breathe. And when you can do that, it'll actually allow the muscles to stretch. So if you're tight and it's a little uncomfortable and you're really breathing with shallow breaths, it's going to be more difficult to get the stretch.
Mike: This feels good.
Brad: Yeah, it does feel good, doesn't it? Then you can bring your arms from straight out and do that upwards. There you go. Get a more aggressive stretch.
Mike: Oh, now I'm really feeling it.
Brad: Yes.
Mike: Yeah, this is going to work on your shoulder motion more, but it'll help with your kyphosis.
Brad: Now, the towel we put under there was pretty big in diameter. You may want to start with a smaller diameter towel. You could also use a ball that's soft, like a kick ball, and that can be a good way. That's a pretty big ball. You'd probably start with a smaller one.
Mike: Yeah, this is pretty aggressive, but you can use a smaller one, it'd be fine.
Brad: Okay, now it may take a few days or even longer, depending on how tight your muscles are in your joints and your back, but once you get to the point where you can lie on the floor comfortably, your head is flat, you can tuck your chin in and you can lie out like this, then it's time for phase number two.
Brad: You're going to do the same thing I had done before to assess and go to the wall so gravity is no longer assisting you. It's all muscle contraction. Mike, take it away.
Mike: So, go against a wall like Brad showed earlier. We're going to make contact points first with our buttocks. Then we're going to try to do shoulder blades. And last, you're going to try to touch the back of your head. In order to do this, we want to do a chin tuck, so retracting this way. We don't want to look up towards the ceiling and turn our head. So we're going to do a chin tuck. If you can't touch the wall and it feels okay, you can try and just take your fingertips, push back a little bit to try to get there. You can just perform chin tucks if this seems hard.
Mike: Now, if this is easy, you get more advanced, you can try to do a "W." I have some little wings here hitting on the side, but you can make the "W" shape. It can go up and down if you want. This is really going to work on your posture. This is even pretty challenging for me, but you can also just hold it here if this feels like a good stretch.
Brad: Yeah. Can you put your arms down once, Mike? Now Mike is against the wall, we actually want to see if we can touch the shoulder blades back because that is one thing, and I've done this with patients many times who are tight here. I'll just gently put some pressure there and stretch, and it's a nice, gentle stretch and relaxing. And there you go. Boy, you've got a lot of beef. You've been lifting weights.
Mike: I feel like a football player again, doing that.
Brad: All right, now when you get to the point where you can touch your buttock, your shoulders, and you feel flat up against the wall, this may take again days or a week or two, depending on how tight you are, then the maintenance exercise comes along. And this is one of my favorite posture exercises. You actually face the wall. We want to strengthen the muscles in the back that help pull you into that upright posture, good posture. Now what you're going to do is hands up against the wall, feet out about a foot or two feet from the wall. You're comfortable, and you're going to make sure your head is back with good posture, not sagging down. Now this is the part I really like because it works those muscles in a certain manner that promotes good posture. The left hand is going to go up in this direction, and at the same time, the opposite leg with the straight knee is going to go out. So you tighten them up, and you arch, and you will feel the muscles. Mike, can you point out where these muscles are working? That cross-sectional thing from there, from there to the opposite hip. And then you go here and you go back.
Mike: So he's working the shoulder muscles, retractor muscles up in the shoulder, and he's working his low back, lumbar paraspinal muscles down here.
Brad: Yep. And it's important that you do it opposite, arm, takes you a little bit to get used to for some people. There we go. And I can really feel those muscles working, and I'm feeling tall and strong, and it really is a good stretch. I do want to mention that there may be people who can already touch the wall in the first step. They can go straight to the wall. You don't even have to go to the floor. Step one, you can skip, you can go right to step two, and then possibly to step three very quickly, depending on how tight your body is and your muscles are, if they're contracted or not.
Mike: Now with a hunched-over posture, if you're younger, you may get to these progressions quicker. You could typically have more elasticity in your muscles and tendons, and ligaments, so you can get stretching. If you're older, it may take a while. You had more years to get more rigid and in that posture. So just take your time and eventually, hopefully, it'll improve.
Brad: And we also have another video. And this actually addresses posture, hunched over while you're walking, and how you can correct that.
Mike: Check out the video "How To Stop Walking Hunched Over! 5 Best Fixes."
Brad: There you go.
Mike: It's good.
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