- Unfortunately, as we age, gravity takes over often
and causing this hunched forward and painful posture.
- So we're gonna show you the five best fixes
to correct this hunched-over posture,
and one big mistake you may be making.
- All right, you need to first take that initial test
to find out where your posture is.
You simply take a yardstick,
or you may only need a 12 inch ruler.
Wooden one is better, of course.
And a second person to help you out.
Now you need a wall and you're gonna place your hips
or your belt line up against the wall,
and then see if you could touch your shoulders
on the wall like this.
Most people can get to that point.
This can be the part where you're a little contracted
if you've been this way for years.
In other words, stuck.
Is most people, a lot of times,
cannot get their shoulders back into perfect posture.
So we're gonna measure how much our body is actually stuck.
So a second person will come in with the ruler
and measure the back of my head to the wall.
And at this point,
I believe we're approximately at about nine inches.
We'll take a closer look right here.
Okay, there's one common mistake I must show you,
is when you're at this point, your eyes have to be level.
If you go up like this to try to get your head closer,
that would be cheating.
You can't do that.
Eyes level and that chin actually needs to come in
for that perfect posture which we're going to get to.
(upbeat music)
Okay, it's important
that you write down the number of inches your head
is away from the wall.
We're gonna use that in one week to look at your progress.
There are two specific exercises you're gonna do every day
between now and the next one week from today.
The first one, very simple, lying down in your bed.
Before you get up, you're gonna reach up behind your head
and pretend that you're gonna extend your body.
Reach your hands up as far as you can,
reach your feet down and stretch out that body.
It's a great way to start that stretching posture
and really get that hump relaxed
and ready for the next exercise.
Do this three or four times.
Mike, can you clarify any extra tips?
Breathe, Mike. You're turning red.
- Breathing is the first tip.
Second tip, if you can't lift your shoulders up,
you got one bad shoulder, clasp your hands together,
and then lift them above your head and stretch.
If your head can't even touch the bed here,
you can grab a pillow and put it there for comfort as well.
And just do it this way.
- Yes, we're gonna do this three to five repetitions
and five times per day.
Now the next stretch.
Now the second exercise is extremely easy to do
and you can do it throughout the day.
Every time you walk through a door,
you're gonna use the door frame for a stretch.
Mike, can you show 'em how to do it?
- So you're gonna put each arms
on either side of the doorway
and you're gonna lean into it what you comfortably can.
Make sure your head is in a good position.
Not forward and looking down like this.
Again, straight up, try to do a chin tuck.
If gravity and your hunchback is causing you to do that,
it's okay.
Just over time, try to work on getting a good posture
with the stretch.
- Good job.
Now you're gonna see how things pull back
and the posture, the head is coming back.
So the doorway, you could do this maybe twice,
and every time you walk through a doorway,
give it a stretch.
Extremely easy and it just,
the door is your friend for posture.
(upbeat music)
All right, after week one,
you've been doing these exercises.
We wanna retest and see on your progress.
However, if you are experiencing any pain,
any particularly sharp pain while doing these exercises,
you want to stop that exercise
and we'll go on to the next one
and see how things go on.
There should be no pain,
sharp pain particularly created.
So let's do the retest and see where we're at now.
Okay, that's second week.
The first test, again, up to the wall,
we're gonna do the same test and get the measurement.
Now what happens is we made good progress on this one.
You can see about four inches.
Now you may not make this kind of progress and that's okay.
We have two more exercises
that are probably gonna make more progress
and it's all in an individual basis.
So let's go onto the next two exercises.
We'll remeasure in one week.
Okay, we're starting week two. New exercises.
Continue the ones we were doing,
we're gonna add a simple one.
It's lying down.
You take a towel roll, you wrap it up,
and here we have some tape.
You can use rubber bands and it's gonna be placed
right between the shoulder blades.
The stretch is easy 'cause gravity does all the work.
- To perform this stretch,
you can either do it on the bed or the floor.
The floor will be a little more aggressive.
Place a towel roll in the spot Brad had showed before.
And you're going to do that W stretch in the doorway again,
but while you're lying down.
You are gonna want a pillow behind your head for this.
Otherwise, your head's gonna be way down here like this.
This is gonna be a good stretch.
You can hold it for 15 to 30 seconds.
If it's tolerated, you can sit here for a minute or two.
- Good job, Mike. How you feeling?
- Great. - Great.
It's a wonderful way to get this done.
Let's go to the next stretch.
All right, the second exercise,
we're adding, the beauty of these,
they're all extremely simple
and you don't have to buy anything.
It's a seated, all you have to do is have a chair to do it.
And here it is. It's simple, quick. Go ahead, Mike.
- So first thing is fix your posture.
Sit up straight, scoot your butt back,
sit upright like this.
Then again, we're gonna do the W stretch,
making a W like this.
We're gonna bring our arms back, retract the scapula,
and hold this for three to five seconds
and then come forward.
Again, try to bring your neck back, retracting like this.
Don't look up when you're doing this.
This is not the motion we want. Try to perform 10 reps.
You can work up to 15 each day.
- Make sure you breathe and relax with these.
And even if you do three of 'em,
it's a lot better than none of 'em.
Do 'em consistently throughout the day.
They will get you straightened up.
(upbeat music)
All right, the beginning of week three,
we wanna reassess and see where that posture is.
So we get back here, the shoulders, shoulders come back,
the chin comes in and it touches!
We did it! Our goal of perfect posture is made.
Now there's one more critical exercise
so it maintains throughout the rest of your life
and I'll show you that in just a second.
Okay, now you have the posture that you want.
We need to maintain it.
And to do that,
we have to strengthen the scapular muscles to hold it there.
We have two simple exercises
that you can do every day for long-term success.
And I'm gonna show you the biggest mistake
that a lot of people make to correct their posture,
right in a second.
All right, the two exercises for maintaining,
Mike's gonna show one seated.
I'm gonna show one against the wall.
Easy to do. Go ahead Mike.
- So again, we're still doing the W stretch in a chair
with good posture and head looking forward, not up.
If you want a little variation,
you can simply take a ball you steal from the neighborhood
and put it behind your back like this.
And then you can do these same W stretches.
Hold them in this position for three to five seconds
and try to do five to 10 repetitions.
And Brad is gonna show a different variation yet.
- But wait, there's more.
I did wanna mention,
take the ball and you can adjust it wherever you want.
That's gonna actually get your stretch even more.
It's a really good addition. On the wall, same thing.
I'm gonna go back to where we were.
Head against the wall and then do the W.
Get the shoulders now against the wall.
You might find that you cannot touch your arms
against the wall right away.
That's okay. Just work towards it.
Myself, my right elbow goes towards the wall easily.
My left shoulder's a little bit tighter.
That's okay, you're gonna work on that.
So just do this.
Now if you're doing this in a restaurant against the wall,
people will look.
Don't worry about it. You got posture to work on.
At home, it's not an issue.
All right, just a little joke. Dry humor.
Okay, the biggest mistake
is when people are using a walker or a cane
and they have the hunched-over posture.
People think,
"All we have to do is raise up the walker a few inches
or the cane,
and that's gonna correct the posture in the back."
And it does not do that.
It just actually makes the arms flex, the elbows flex,
and the back posture is still stuck.
And that's why we need to do the wall stretch.
Now we're gonna show you some advanced posture stretches.
If you're really stuck,
or you wanna just be more comfortable,
you can use a six-inch roller that's 36 inches long.
Get the soft density one. It'll be more comfortable.
We also have a product
that if you're really stuck in your upper back,
and you have that hunch there and it's not coming out,
we have a product that's gonna help break up
that adhesions in the upper back.
It's the posture pad.
We're gonna show you how to use 'em in a second.
- If the towel roll stretch you did at week two helped,
this could be a good progression for you.
Using a foam roller, I'm gonna place it at my belt line,
and I'm gonna lay flat on it.
I'm gonna put my arms at my side, thumbs facing up.
Then I'm gonna work my arms like I'm doing a snow angel.
I guess if you don't have snow,
it's just looks like you're angel with wings.
You're going to try to keep your hands touching the ground
if you can the whole time throughout the movement.
You're gonna notice parts that get stuck
or your hands start to creep up.
That is perfectly acceptable.
Just slowly work and do 10 repetitions as tolerated.
- That's right.
Now you may find it uncomfortable
'cause your head doesn't touch there very easily.
You can put a pillow there for comfort.
That's completely up to you.
In regards to the six-inch roller,
I would recommend getting the soft density one,
36 inches long and that'll work out the best.
Okay, now if you have a hunch right in this area,
and it's very stubborn, it doesn't wanna straighten out,
the posture pad will get after that.
It has a radius here at this corner.
That is gonna be placed there
and that allows you to stretch over that
with a reasonable amount of comfort.
There are tennis balls that come with the posture pad.
That is not for this reason, so you'll take those out,
and that's for muscles that are tight and knotted up.
That's another video. Go ahead Mike.
Let's show 'em how to do it.
- To use the posture pad, we're gonna start on the ground.
You can do it on the bed and I'm gonna lie down on it.
The top of the posture pad
is on the bottom part of my scapula here.
If I go up like this, you'll notice,
'cause it's really awkward to try to lift your arms up.
Once you find that sweet spot,
you can start lifting your hands above your head like this.
Go to the motion that feels good for you.
This is kinda like the bed stretch we did in week one
and then back down.
Again, if you have a shoulder issue,
you can clasp your hands together
and do it this way as well.
Try to do 10 to 15 repetitions.
If that is easy and you want to try the snow angels
like we did with the foam roller,
you can certainly do that exercise as well.
- I do wanna mention, Mike does have a pillow.
You'll probably wanna have that pillow, possibly two,
to get started and work at that.
This should not create any sharp pain.
It should just feel like you're really starting
to open up that chest and get in the stretch.
All right, so in three weeks,
we go from hunched to a nice upright posture.
Now if at Week Three,
you are not at that position yet
where we wanna be with a head touching the wall, it's okay.
You just need to continue to work at it,
'cause it does take time.
It took you years to get hunched.
May take longer than three weeks to get upright.
- If you want some other options
on how to fix your neck hump, we also have a video on that.
We'll link it down below, pinned to the top comment.
- So remember this with upright posture,
you can see over the fences better.
- Okay, Mr. Wilson.
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music continues)