Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Work your Posture


We know with forward head posture certain imbalances will start to show themselves. The SCM, upper trap and levator scapulae shorten. This pulls the shoulder blade up.

First lets target the muscles that will hold the shoulder blade in the proper position. Let's target the lower trap. This muscle is just at the bottom of your shoulder blade. Get in an athletic stance like your guarding someone in basketball. Lean forward a little bit more. With your arms straight, thumbs up. Raise your arms till they are parallel to the floor. This is a Y raise. If you were standing straight up, you would be making a Y with your body. Second, the serratus anterior. This little important muscle is almost under your arm pit on your rib cage. Get in a push up position. Keep your arms straight, elbows locked throughout the whole move. Let your shoulders fully retract and then push your shoulders blades as far apart as you can. This is called a push ups plus.

Now lets stretch those tight muscles. First up SCM. With your right hand behind your back, bend your head laterally away, so your left ear is trying to touch your left shoulder. Keeping your lateral bend, rotate and look up to the right. Repeat for both sides. For the levator, it's the same move, but instead of rotating and looking up, rotate and look down towards the opposite.

Then be conscious of your posture. Doing a few exercise here and there, but sitting in poor posture for 8 hours will never bring back the head into proper alignment.

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