This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in April of 2024. For the original video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjwKe_YLLEM&t=6s
Mike: If you're a busy person but know you should do more stretching, then this video's for you.
Brad: Whether you're young or old, this one stretch will help you combat poor posture. That's an epidemic, you know, nowadays.
Mike: It is.
Brad: It is, really. Here I am an absolutely poor posture and we have a lot of things like this that promote poor posture we're not aware of. It absolutely can change your life, create pain, and actually make you look not so good. Mike, talk about its effect on the spine.
Mike: So this is what your spine looks like in poor posture. Oftentimes the region known as your thoracic spine is rounded forward, and then your thoracic spine is rounded forward as well. But if you want to see what you're doing, you have to look up, so your neck is kinked like this.
Mike: This causes a lot of pain and discomfort over time. Even being in this position for a few hours a day, every day, is going to start adding up. So we're going to show you one stretch to get out of this bad posture. Now we realize not everyone can get into all these positions to do this stretch, so we're going to show three variations of it.
Brad: That's right. And they're very helpful and they're not hard to do. All right, so the first stretch, it's one of these things that works really well. You do need a ball. And let's say we have that rounded posture. The ball is actually a fulcrum point and we're going to use it to straighten that back up where it needs to go. Mike, show it in real life.
Mike: So you will need a chair for this. If you don't have a ball, they're pretty inexpensive to buy. We deflated this one a little bit. You can certainly roll up a big towel roll. It will work, but the ball's a little bit nicer option here. So you're going to place that wherever you're kind of hinging forward, whatever position. Some people may be lower, some people higher. Find that sweet spot. And then you're going to just start by trying to make your spine go into extension with that ball being there.
Mike: If this seems easy for you, you can make it a little more aggressive by lifting your shoulders up like this. If you have bad shoulders, you don't have to lift your arms up, but it just gets more of a stretch and works those scapular muscles, meaning shoulder blade muscles, too, that can help stretch out.
Mike: You can hold this for a time. If you want to hold this for 30 seconds, you can. If you'd rather just do a few seconds and do repetitions, that's fine as well.
Brad: That's right. If you do have shoulder problems and this hurts, just simply do the cross-arms and work that. That's another option as well.
Brad: And you notice Mike is bringing his head back with that, not keeping his chin forward. Head forward position, going back, we don't want that. Everything's in line. Make sure you breathe and really open up with this. It makes a big difference. It makes you feel great. It's kind of the thing you can do while you're working every half hour or hour or so and really get that posture stretched out, that thoracic spine. Let's go on to the next one, Mike before I bore these people to death.
Mike: I'm already bored. For this next stretch, you're going to need a foam roller, 36 inches in length and 6 inches in diameter. The amount of firmness or softness is gonna be dependent upon you. Some people like the soft foam roller like I have, and Brad has more of a dense one.
Brad: That's right. And you can buy these about half this length, which will work for this particular exercise. I like the longer one because I use it for other things. So you need to do this on a floor. A tight carpeted floor works well, but any type of floor will pretty much work. And this is the one that both Bob and I really like to do at home. Typically, we'll start right about where your rib cage hits your back. We do not do this on your lower back. It's a little uncomfortable, and it just doesn't work well. We don't promote that. So start here, and then you can make it more intense by lifting your butt up. You can put your hands behind your head like this to relax your head. And you simply roll from that point to the low neck, and back and forth. Now what I like to do is open up and really stretch out. If I bring my arms up here, the weight on my arms will help extend that thoracic back.
Brad: And this is one that I really like, and I'll go on the right side a little bit. And over on the left side. It really feels good. It's a nice, nice easy stretch. You'll find a lot of times your back will crack or cavitate when you do that, getting things in line. It's a really good back stretcher. It's kind of fun to do, actually. Mike, do you ever use this one?
Mike: I don't do this one too much. If I foam roll, I do it, but I prefer other methods. Again, with these, pick which one you like and what works for you. You don't have to do all three.
Brad: Right. Let's go to number three, eh?
Mike: Okay, this last version was created by Dr. Stewart McGill. Again, do this one if it feels good to you. Dr. Stewart McGill is a spine specialist. You will need a chair, and to kneel. You don't need a pad if you're comfortable kneeling on the ground. I want a pad. Brad will show another version, if you're uncomfortable kneeling, of this specific stretch. So what I'm going to do is place my elbows on the chair and interlace my hands behind my head. Right now I'm in a flexed position. We want to get into extension, to flatten your back, and almost go the other way. When I'm doing this, I'm sitting towards my butt a little bit, and I'm pushing into my elbows. This really gets a good stretch in there. I feel like you can get more aggressive with this one because you can push through the elbows and it really extends your spine. Actually feels really good for me, personally.
Brad: Yeah, it is a nice stretch. One little trick that I do is when I go down and arch the back, I exhale and relax and just think of that dropping down and letting it stretch out. Don't force it. Allow your body to relax and it will work better. All right, we got the same stretch, different way to do it, on a chair with wheels. You can do this at a countertop or your desk. If you've got a workstation, where you have wheels on your chair, you could do this. Get the keyboard out of the way and do this throughout the day, every hour or so. So here I'm going to get my hands behind my head. I like to clasp my fingers just like Mike was doing. Elbows on the desk or counter. And then we simply roll out and stretch. I'll open it up a little bit. Now this is actually a little bit lower than most desks or countertops, and it's a little hard for me to do it. If it was a little higher, I would be a little more comfortable and it would work well. If that's the situation for you, you could simply put some books or a cushion like I'm using here and yeah, that's much better. There we go. Oh yeah.
Brad: Stretching it out. There. And then you could put the ball behind your back and do a double stretch. If you had the foam roller, you could do that and kind of mix it up and do a little bit every day. Make it not so boring that way. Yeah, it really opens up that chest. It's a great stretch. Without a doubt, it's going to make a difference in your posture and you'll feel much better.
Mike: So again, pick which one feels best to you, or you can actually perform. And if you want to check out more videos, the next one is "One Exercise That All Seniors Should Master." And I think Bob and Brad are in this one.
Brad: Well, yeah, it could be, but yep, one for every... And you don't have to be a senior. You could do this at any age, but you know.
Mike: That's the video title.
Brad: There you go. All right, enjoy. And enjoy your good posture.
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