We all know the old adage that our moms gave us: “stand up straight, stop slouching!”

Although we may look better this way, it is also very important for our joints and overall health.  The head weighs approximately 10-12 pounds which is not much of an issue for our spine if we are standing up straight.  However, once our head starts drifting forward the force changes; for every inch forward our head migrates, 10lbs of abnormal force is added to the spine to try to keep the head up.

In addition to looking awkward, this creates increasing tension and pressure on the muscles and joints of the neck. This can lead to headaches, bulging discs, degenerative joint disease, shoulder impingement, decreased breathing capacity, and low back pain as well as many other chronic pain diagnoses. Forward head posture flattens the curve in the neck and imposes excessive strain on the muscles, ligaments, bones, and fascia in the neck. So, what can we do to improve our posture or at least take steps to negate the effects of forward head posture?

Related: Why Back Pain is So Common

Here are a few tips and exercises to improve neck strength, neck positioning, and flexibility in the spine:

Shoulder Stacking:

Step 1: Sit with your normal posture, then shrug shoulders up.

Step 2: Slowly roll them back.

Step 3: Drop them down, and you should feel a gentle stretch in your clavicles (this is good – this means the force of your head is through your shoulders as it should be!)

This brings us into good posture and is how we should attempt to sit and stand most of the day.

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I will finish up with a stretch for tight upper trapezius muscles (the muscles that connect our shoulder to neck) and an exercise to improve strength in the back muscles to help keep us standing straight. The upper trapezius muscles tend to tighten with poor posture due to the constant, abnormal tension of keeping our head up when it is shifted forward.

Upper Trapezius Stretch:

Sit up straight, looking forward. Grab the edge of the chair with right hand; this hand is helping keep your right shoulder down.  Then slowly drop your left ear to left shoulder, making sure to keep your head looking forward and not forcing your head down just letting the weight of the head create the stretch. Hold this position for 15 seconds and then come back to center. Repeat four times. Switch sides.

The next exercise is to improve back strength in order to minimize stress on the neck. If the back muscles are strong, it will be easier to stand up straight and it will off load the pressure from the neck.

Scapular Retraction:

Stand straight, make sure to stack your shoulders as demonstrated above, and squeeze shoulder blades together down and back. Hold for 5 seconds and relax. Repeat 10x. Perform 2 sets. Make sure to not hunch your shoulders up which is a common tendency and will only aggravate the upper trapezius muscles (the ones we were trying to stretch before).

I hope these tips have been helpful! They are all safe (and recommended) to do daily; so in the end, mom was right!

Related: The Most Important Exercise You Can Do

Don’t forget to take advantage of our free pain consultations at our Gorham, South Portland, and Portland clinics. We will always be able to help you within 24 hours.

By Maggie Masiak, DPT

Back in Motion® Physical Therapy – Gorham, Maine