Posture Stretches For Anyone Who Wears a Backpack | Chiropractor in West Omaha, NE
Hey there, it’s Dr. Jeremiah Sample with Family First Chiropractic, and today I’m here to talk about posture exercises for those of you that are constantly carrying a book bag or backpack. Now, Boston Children’s Hospital indicates that children will compensate for heavy load by rolling their shoulders forward, slouching to the front and then tilting their head upwards. What this does is it causes an excessive strain to the cervical spine and pinching on the shoulders causing a compression syndrome that makes it difficult to breathe and puts pressure on the heart.
What is Healthy Posture
So the first thing we’re going to work on is determining what is the proper posture to have when we’re in a backpack. First of all, both shoulder straps should be utilized up as high as possible without clamping off making the hands tingle or numb. Then what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna take our shoulders all the way up, and I want to hold that there for two Mississippi. Then I’m gonna take it, while keeping them up, all the way to the rear, then let them drop naturally. Okay next, translate the head back, just slightly, giving yourself that double chin. This will now allow for you to have your head over your shoulders and hips to properly distribute the weight. Once you’re home though, there’s a few other exercises that you can do to help relieve that soreness from the bad posture. The first exercise we’re gonna utilize is going to help turn those shoulders outwards so they stop creeping forward. This ultimately stops our posture from creating that upper cross syndrome which tightens the upper back scrunches the chest muscles.
Strengthening The Upper Back
Alright, so how to open this all up to stretch the pectoralis and the rotator cuff muscles. So we’re going to externally rotate our arms, and just bring them in large arcs around us. We will repeatedly do this motion 10 to 15 times to not only relax those areas, but help stretch these muscles out to give you a better posture throughout the day. The next thing we can do to help with those rotator cuff muscles. So you can take something, such as a golf club, holding it tightly and what we’re gonna do is just bring it straight up and over rotating those shoulders properly. This is giving a full range of motion, allowing the rotator cuff muscles and the synovial fluid to do their jobs properly. Adding that in as well can greatly reduce the strain that you have on your upper back and help you carry that pack for longer and more safely throughout the day.
If you have any questions or comments about your posture, please reach out to our office for more information!
