Welcome to today's video. Do you find that you get a little bit tight and sore in the upper back
and the neck? Perhaps, because you've got a desk job and you're sat for a long time. In this video, we'll
take you through some upper back and neck posture exercises with the Pilates ball that you may find
will help you. Because with these exercises, you'll increase the blood flow to the area, the neck and
the upper back and that can actually help feel like it reduces some of that tension.
My name is Claire. I'm a Physiotherapist from PhysioFit Health.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you can keep updated with our videos.
If you're unfamiliar with the Pilates ball then check out the video
we've got on beginners exercises, just to give you a bit of an overview about what you can do with it.
Start with the first exercise and then work your way into the second and the third. It can be
a quite a nice little sequence to go through. So, for the first one, you want to have the ball
deflated a little bit. Half to three quarters and what you're going to do with the ball, you're going
to place it in between your shoulder blades. So, roughly on the upper back.
And then you're going to have a lay down on it. So, you're going to lay down and you're going to arch
yourself over the ball and if possible you wanna get your head onto the mat, And then your knees
are bent and your feet are flat. And all I want you to do with this one is to relax into this position.
So, you're going to hold it for a minute or so. It doesn't have to be too long. You can practice your
breathing exercises, your deep breathing exercises whilst you're in this position. Or you can just
like I say, relax into it. Now, I'll tell you the reason we're doing this is because when you're
at a desk people typically get quite hunched over forward and so using the Pilates ball
to arch in the opposite direction can be really nice just to get a little bit of extension back.
So yeah, that's your first exercise. Now, when you first try it, I'd probably say that
it'd feel a little bit awkward but I would strongly recommend repeating because the more
you do it the more you're gonna get used to that back arching up and over.
And it can really help reduce some of that tension.
The second exercise, again you want the ball deflated about half.
And you're gonna pop the ball on the mat and then you're going to lay down and you're going
to place the back of your head onto the ball. Your knees are bent, feet are flat and arms are
down by the side of the body. Now, if you have watched our beginners exercise, you'll see that
this can be an exercise in itself. Just having a little bit of relax, it can feel really lovely
because you get that support from the wall. But to add a little bit of extra movement with this
exercise, you can add a chin tuck. So, imagine something is going to chop
your nose off. So, coming to chop the nose off and you're just
trying to push the back of your, sorry and get your head pushed back away. So, you're actually
pushing the back of your head into the ball and you're going to hold it for 5 seconds
and then you're slowly going to ease off. So, it's a really small movement. Push the back of your
head into the ball. I hold it for a count of 5 seconds and then you're slowly going to ease off.
So, anyone watching you do this exercise will probably be thinking you're not really doing
very much but when you're doing the exercise you should start to feel work around the neck with this one.
So, for your repetitions, I'd suggest maybe 5 - 10 repetitions of your chin tucks.
What I'd then get you to do is actually add a little bit of a turn.
So, turn the head and you're still trying to get the back of the head into the ball
but you've just added a little bit of rotation. And it's just trying to get
these really small postural muscles fired up in the neck which can then translate to
helping you keep yourself upright when you're in that sitting position.
So yeah, that's your second exercise. Try it, see how it feels.
For your third exercise. Again, you want the ball into that half deflated position.
And for this one, you want to pop it on the front so,
into the sternum. So, fairly like high up into the chest area It'll be a little bit
of an experiment for you just to see how high or low you want to put it. Please make sure you
are away from the neck and if it's too far down, you're just not going to get that leverage.
So, a little bit of trial and error when you first try it out. So, the ball is like I say onto
the sternum and then you're going to relax up and over. So, that's your start position and
then you're breathing out as you raise the head and upper back and arms all the way up. Reach your
fingertips to your toes and then you're slowly relaxing all the way back down. So, you breathe
out as you raise the head and the chest up. Keep that chin tucked in. So, you're looking at the mat
and then you are lowering yourself all the way back down. Try your 10 repetitions, if you can go
for 3 x 10 that would be great. What this one is doing is working the neck and the
upper back and potentially all the way down into the lower back as you're getting that lift. So, the
ball just adds a little bit of leverage for you with that kind of exercise and that will take you
into your strengthening of the neck and shoulders, which again translates into keeping yourself nice
and upright in that sitting or standing position.
So, those are your three. Like I said, work through
them as a step-by-step process. Do the first one, then the second one, then the third one.
And it just means that you're mobilizing the upper back and then focusing on the neck to
then focusing on the neck and the upper back all together with that third one.
Share this video if you know somebody that would be interested in these kind of exercises
and I'll see you soon!