- Today we'll be discussing a common problem
many people face as they age,
and it may be causing some pain in your neck.
And we are gonna be talking about the neck hump.
- That's right, in this video,
we're gonna help you understand
three common causes of neck hump,
as well as how to reduce or eliminate it.
- We'll be guiding you through three exercises
and tips to help improve your posture
and eliminate that pain. - That's right.
(upbeat music)
So with neck hump there is a big problem.
The number one problem is your posture may look like this,
like Mike is showing you right now.
The biggest problem even preceding this, causing this,
is people are not aware of this
unless someone at home will say,
"Mike, your head is forward, terrible posture."
My wife does that to me on a regular basis,
which is helpful for me.
She does it because she loves me.
So make sure your family members or friends
let you know about forward head posture.
It stresses the muscles, it stresses the joints.
There's nerves that can become pinched,
causing pain down into the arm, headaches.
I can continue on with pain all day long,
and neck hump certainly does not look good as well.
We can show you ways to help you out with this,
and it's gonna be not that difficult.
All right, there's two hinging points
that you need to understand to really get this correct
and have a grasp on it.
And that is here, it's the first joint at C7.
That's where there's a bump at the base of your neck.
And then right below the skull there's C1,
and that's the second hinge.
Now when those hinges are working properly,
you have good posture, very little stress on the neck,
and everything is going very well.
Okay, so let's look at an actual human body.
At C7, the first hinge is right here.
C1, the next hinge is right here.
Those are stress points,
and when they work properly, it's all good.
Now, Mike, demonstrate using the hinge on the first one.
Flex forward.
Okay, now that's not real good.
That's okay for a short period of time.
Come back up to good posture.
Now just flex forward at C1 or the top hinge.
Okay, and that's okay.
That can be a good stretch.
Here is the big no-no.
And this is where neck hump comes in.
When you flex or the hinge down here goes forward,
and the hinge here actually goes in the opposite direction.
We've got this down, and the hump, and then down.
This is so common when you're on the phone,
when you're at the computer,
when you're driving your car, when you're sitting,
when you're watching TV, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Okay, well, I made up a little model.
Actually Bob worked with me on this idea.
We've got Wilson, the tennis ball.
Here's the head.
Now this represents the neck,
and here we have the C1 hinge and the C7 hinge.
This represents the body.
So if we have good posture, it's like this.
If you wanna look down, you can, properly.
If you wanna just flex the lower one, that's okay.
But here's what happens is the bottom hinge flexes forward,
the top hinge goes backwards, and things bind up.
Right here is that neck hump.
We need to eliminate that,
straighten things back up, and look at him smile.
Isn't that nice?
So just think about these tennis balls and poor Wilson.
"Owie, owie, neck hump.
Ah, that feels better."
So ah, better, owie, neck hump, back and straight, good.
- So the first solution in that cup is to hinge
at the proper place like Brad was discussing earlier.
So we're gonna hinge
at the top hinge versus the bottom hinge.
Now to do this, you have to have some flexibility
in your neck to be able to go to an upright posture,
like Brad is showing here.
So if you can get to this posture,
then you will do this type of looking down
that we're gonna demonstrate here.
So Brad, if you bend at your C7 to look down at your phone,
that is a no-no.
We're putting more neck hump stress there.
Now, if he were to start up right again
and go at the top hinge and look down,
this is what we wanna try to do.
Get that pressure off of that C7
or lower hinge region to help prevent
that neck hump from getting worse.
- Well, Mike, what if a person has this posture
and they're unable to get up into good healthy posture
so they can work on the top hinge?
- Well, we have a solution for you
if that is a case and we are gonna show it next.
So if your hinges are frozen,
like Brad is demonstrating here,
and you're unable to lift your head in a correct position,
we're gonna show you some tools you can try to use
to get those hinges unrusted and unstuck
and try to get your neck back in a proper place.
For this, you'll either need a pair of rolled up socks,
a soft tennis ball, or we're gonna show you how to do it
on a posture pad, which is also an option you can try.
So to stretch out the lower hinge here,
we're gonna start with a rolled up sock
and you're gonna place it right here
on the lower hinge muscles in that region.
So we're gonna lay down typically on the floor.
I'm gonna show you on the mat for video recording purposes.
You're gonna take the pair of rolled up sock,
place it on that lower hinge area,
and you're gonna simply try to relax.
If you are tight in your neck region,
like I'm demonstrating now,
your head is gonna be off the mat.
Over time, laying here for a minute or two,
gravity will start to stretch these neck muscles out,
allowing you to eventually over time,
meaning weeks or months,
to get your head down to the ground.
Now, if this is tight or problematic early on,
you can place a pillow under your head
to get a little bit of support.
Over time, try to go to thinner pillows,
and eventually you wanna get your head
to be able to touch the floor.
Now we'll show you another variation.
You can use a tennis ball or with the posture pad.
- Okay, just a little more detail
'cause this is critical.
When we're trying to break the rust loose
on that lower hinge, so to speak,
and at this point if it's really tight and rusted in,
we need to take your time, maybe take a pillow,
fold it up so that you can relax,
so you don't have that pain in your neck
because pain is gonna make things tighten up even more.
If this is comfortable,
you'll lay like this for a couple minutes.
Maybe the next day you can actually put a thinner pillow in
or open the pillow up like that,
allowing that neck to go down,
breaking things loose a little bit each day.
And a few more days or a week or two
you may be down to without a pillow.
Now, if your neck is tight and you see that your chin
is up in the air like this, that's good.
There's one final phase,
and that is to get your head from here to here
so you can look straight.
Now, this, I want you to think about tucking your chin in
to make a double chin right there,
and that flattens the lower neck
right in this area to get that perfect posture
and then it'll be a little extra stretch.
At this point your neck hump is pretty much gone lying down.
Now, when you stand up,
you have to look at it maybe in the mirror,
a family member, friend, and say,
"How does my neck hump look?"
Hopefully they're gonna say, "What neck hump?"
So this is the process as we go from here.
Mike started out wonderfully,
and look at him, your neck hump is gone.
- Perfect. (laughs)
- Okay, a little side note.
Sleeping posture with neck pump, it's very critical.
If you like to have two pillows or pillows like this
'cause you're watching TV or whatever the case may be,
this is a big no-no.
We need to get the head from being flexed.
This is the lower hinges all being pushed forward.
Pillow out.
Now, that's a big change, that might be too much.
Maybe the next step is two thinner pillows
and then eventually get down
to one thin pillow while you lie there.
That way, all night long
you are actually treating your neck hump,
making improvement, making it better in the morning.
Mike, what say you?
- I do this at home.
- Say no more.
- So an alternative option to the rolled up sock
would be using a soft tennis ball.
So we pulled this from the posture pad.
There are firm tennis balls and soft tennis balls.
So start with the soft one,
roll it up in a towel, and place it on the lower hinge,
and do exactly what we demonstrated earlier.
Brad is now gonna talk about how to use the posture pad
to get the same stretching effect on that lower hinge.
- Right, so this posture pad is squishy,
it's soft, but it's firm.
The balls in here are for the advanced stretches.
We're gonna take these balls out actually
and do it without them.
We're gonna lay this down.
Carpeted floor works quite well actually.
Down here, now I am going to lie on my back
so that my lower hinge is gonna go right at this upper edge.
It's has a radius on it specifically for comfort,
but yet it will mobilize those vertebrae.
In other words, get 'em to move and stretch
so you eliminate and get rid of that posture pad.
Oops, I just feel a crack right there in a good way.
It doesn't hurt.
None of this should create any pain.
If it does, you're getting too aggressive.
So I'm gonna go here.
And you're gonna have to kind of move around
and get that radiused edge,
that rounded edge right at the right spot.
And now it's a little uncomfortable on my head
and I can't go down.
So yep, we're gonna put a pillow in there,
and I'm gonna drop my head until it feels like, there we go.
As my head goes down, it's stretching, stretching,
and I'm reasonably comfortable, and that pad,
I can feel it working at that upper hinge
right below the neck with the neck touches the shoulders.
And you can add a stretch, and this is critical.
Back like this, and now I can really feel
my upper back extend.
In other words, it's taking that hunch back.
Ooh yes, taking it away. It feels so good.
This is hard really to work with and talk at the same time
'cause it really feels good there.
So you can do this five to 10 times.
Now, if you have shoulder problems and this is painful,
simply bring your arms up, whatever's tolerated,
and think about extending and letting that head drop back.
Do the best you can.
If you have one shoulder that's tight
and it just doesn't work so well,
you can do it with one side if you can.
You're gonna do the best you can, work with your body.
If you look right here, I'm extending, in other words,
lifting and arching the back right here
to help that upper hump get unhumped, if you will.
- Another critical component
to the neck hump is looking at the shoulder blades.
So what we wanna do is a lot of times
they are depressed down, putting more stress going down,
putting more pressure on that lower hinge.
So we wanna get the shoulder blades back in place
with some stretches and exercises and posture corrections
we'll be showing you to get more of an upright posture.
So we're working the first two exercises
with the upper part of the neck,
and this is more the lower region
of the shoulder blade into the neck.
- That's right.
- So once you've completed doing the posture pad exercise
or sock, whatever variation you're doing,
if you're able to roll over on all fours,
we're gonna do this stretch next.
Brad will demonstrate it how to do it in a seated position
if this is too hard of a position for you.
So what I'm gonna do, get on all fours,
I'm gonna bring my feet closer together and touch like this
and then I'm going to push down into my palms.
As I'm pushing with the downward pressure,
I'm gonna sit my buttock towards my heels.
This is gonna help elevate that shoulder blade,
putting it back into place,
getting more stress off of that lower hinge
that we've been talking about in this video.
Now, you can kind of rock back and forth
in a slow, gentle motion like this.
Maybe you can't go as far back as I can, and that is fine.
Just start with what motion you have.
Eventually over time, try to get down into this position.
If you are able to, you can hold it for 10 seconds,
make sure to push down through your hands the entire time,
and just go slowly and gentle
because a neck hump is painful.
- All right, now a alternative that Mike was talking about
is you can do it in a chair.
That's not as aggressive, it will work,
but you may need to work a little longer with it.
Take your chair up to a desk or a table, countertop even.
Your hands are gonna go on there.
You can slide your hands forward.
If you have a chair with rollers on,
it actually works really well.
You can roll that chair back
and you'll feel those shoulder blades come up and stretch.
We're actually putting the muscles here
on slack that connect up to that hinge area,
taking the stress off there.
Hold it for five seconds at first and come up.
You can hold it three to five times.
And if you wanna hold it longer, if it feels good,
again, none of these should create any sharp pain,
but just a nice stretch,
and I can feel that throughout my shoulder blades down here.
There we go.
And I'm gonna actually stretch things out,
do a little noodling,
that's just going back and forth like this,
and do that three to four times per day,
depending on how it hurts.
The first day, you may just do it once.
As you do it more,
you'll do all these stretches a little more often.
I'm starting to feel taller, straighter already.
- Another tip to elevate the shoulder blades
into the proper position again
or get some tension off of them
from pulling on that lower hinge area
is to actually elevate your shoulders
and your elbows when you're seated,
when you're maybe watching TV, or working at your computer.
So to do that, you may have a good ergonomic chair
that has elevating armrest, but if you do not,
like this chair here, you can simply take a pillow,
place it underneath here, and rest your elbow there.
You want to get a one and a half
to one inch elevation to take that stress off
of that scapula and shoulder blade region,
taking less pressure on the hinge and neck pain area.
If this isn't high enough,
you can always fold the pillow like this.
Or you can also use a second pillow as Brad has there.
Do you wanna add anything to this?
- Well, sometimes I like to just fold them in half
and squeeze 'em between the existing armrest
and your body right there and then that.
And you'll feel the big difference
in how these muscles relax as you put 'em on the pillows.
Work nice 'cause they're squishy,
allowing you to relax more, feels good.
So if you're watching TV for a couple hours,
it's nice to have the appropriate relief
throughout the shoulders.
And then you're also gonna think about your neck posture.
We're not doing that head forward.
We're gonna maintain that.
Everything becomes more relaxed,
life is more reasonable and enjoyable.
- Now we're gonna get onto another option
you can try as well.
- I say let's go for it.
Okay, so finally we just wanna consider
is your posture overall.
This is a really good mindset to correct your posture.
Some people say pull your shoulders back like this.
That's not what you wanna do.
I want you to take one hand, put it on your sternum,
your chest right here, and one on the upper stomach area,
and think about lifting those hands up and out.
So we're just gonna go up and out here,
and that puts that spine into that good posture.
The shoulders will go where they need to go
as a normal position.
So it's here and here.
Bring that out like this.
And that also brings the chin in.
So this is not possible when this happens.
So it all works together.
So if you walk around like this
and people ask you what are you doing,
I'm checking my posture, what do you think?
Just kidding.
Okay, now this may seem awfully daunting,
maybe a little complicated, but take your time with it.
Neck hump doesn't come in one day.
It takes years to develop it.
It's gonna take some time to get over it.
So work with these one out at a time,
particularly the stretch where we break that hinge loose.
Okay, so work with it over time.
And I do wanna say one thing in conclusion,
I couldn't remember this, but I got it,
stay healthy, stay balanced, and keep on moving.
Mike, go ahead.
- Also, let us know in the comments section
what stretches really worked for you
if you are experiencing neck hump
or maybe some things we forgot that have worked.
Make sure to check each other's comments
'cause we're all here to help each other out.
We'll also pin five different videos
in the top comment relating to neck hump and posture.
So if maybe these didn't work for you,
you can check out those videos and see if any of those help.
- Yeah, and that's a really nice idea,
because when I'm looking,
you don't have to like search all over.
We have...
Sorry about this, getting late in the video.
We have these options and you just click to it.
They're gonna follow the same concepts
that we're talking about,
which makes things fall into place very nicely.
Can we finish now?
- Thank you for watching. - Thank you.
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