- I get patients asking me
how to get rid of this bone.
I'm going to show you just one exercise
to prevent and reverse the hunchback.
If you do this exercise regularly,
you will start to notice results
as little as one to two weeks.
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Welcome back to the Dr. Mo Show.
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Having a rounded back is becoming increasingly popular.
I say this because I see more and more young people
with what's called the Dowager's hump.
Let's look at the normal structure of the spine.
This is the back, when you look at it from the side
you're suppose to have a smooth curve
in the neck looking like this.
Followed by an opposite curve
in the mid-back called the kyphosis
and when the head and shoulders move forward,
you end up with what's called Hyperkyphosis.
This weakens the muscles in between your shoulder blades
and the deep muscles at the front of your neck.
Before we start the first exercise,
let's look at an easy way to check
if your posture's not at 100%.
When you look from the side,
your ear should be aligned with the shoulder.
You either need someone else to take a look at you
or take a photo or you can record a video
of yourself from the side and look at a screenshot.
This exercise is brilliant for strengthening the muscles
between your shoulder blades and your neck muscles.
You have your palms out,
chin into your throat,
chin should be parallel with the ground.
It's very easy to think this is chin into the throat.
You want the chin straight back.
This will already activate some of the deep neck muscles
and your upper back muscles.
While keeping the chin there,
put your arms out in front of you,
palms facing the ceiling
because that protects the shoulder tendons,
make a fists and keeping the arm straight,
squeeze the shoulder blades together.
As tightly as you can, hold it for 10 seconds.
Squeeze and let go.
Squeeze as tightly as you can and let go.
You have to make sure you're not shrugging the shoulders up.
Otherwise, that's going to make
your upper traps even tighter.
Hold it for 10 seconds,
eight repetitions, twice a day and relax.
There's another variation to this
which activates more muscles.
You squeeze the shoulder blades together
and then gently lift your arms up
and that will activate your lower traps.
As you lift up, it's important
you don't shrug your shoulders.
You're only lifting your arms
to activate your lower traps.
Do you feel the activation in between the shoulder blades?
Let me know by typing in the comments below.
Just write the word, "feel".
You can do the same exercise using a resistance band.
If you have a straight resistance band,
just tie a knot and that will do.
So you're keeping the palms facing up,
making a fist, keeping the arms straight,
chin to the throat and squeezing
your shoulder blades together,
and hold it there for 10 seconds.
You'll really start to feel this.
While we're doing these strengthening exercises,
it's equally important to rectify
what's contributing to this posture in the first place.
So I have two suggestions for that,
before that I have a confession to make.
When I was younger,
I always remember being told by my parents,
by my aunt to sit up right.
And now my job involves
using the muscles at the front the body.
So I make sure every time I go to the gym,
I end up training my back.
And my personal trainer will assure you
how fussed I am about training my back.
So here's my first suggestion.
Most people use their laptops
and their phones at a height
which causes them to look down.
This is how the load on the neck increases
with the change in angle.
I've included the link
for the full article in the description below.
So I recommend holding your phone up here
in line with you eyes.
And if your arms start to ache,
that probably means you need a break.
There is an app which tracks your head position
and cautions you when your head
is in the "text neck" posture.
If you're finding this valuable,
please hit the like button
because it will help me reach more people with this message.
The other important thing
you can look at is your sleeping position.
If you're a back sleeper and if you have a thick pillow,
that's gonna push your head forward.
If you're a side sleeper
and you sleep with your shoulders quite rounded,
then that's going to reinforce
that posture throughout the night.
An easy way to stop yourself from rounding
your shoulders while sleeping on the side
is to hug a pillow or someone else while sleeping.
A bonus stretch that you can do anywhere is Bruggers relief.
I will include the link for it in the description below.
Let me know how you get on these stretches
and I will see you on my next video.