hi I'm paula moore the chiropractor
talking today about forward head posture
and the effects on the aging process
first of all forward head posture is the
leaning of the the head relative to our
shoulders it's not the same as a
dowager's hump a dowager's hump is
something we see between the shoulder
blades and it's a result of a disease
called osteoporosis where the person's
actually fractured some vertebrae in
their spine giving them a wedged posture
that's a real dowager's hump
we're talking about with forward head
posture there's a little squiggy bit of
skin here that maybe you've seen on your
mother yes well that's the body's way of
protecting the area as the head comes
forward the body lays down more fat in
this area because it perceives the risk
to the spinal cord in that region well
that's the way I describe it to my patients
now naturally life tends to pull us
that way everything we do
reading books working on computers
writing washing up everything you know
running about washing our hair always
leaning forward so over the decades we
see more of this posture if it's not
worked on and i'd really like to tell
you that the more pronounced the forward
head leaning the more devastating the
health effects I've seen
thousands (ok maybe 100's) of patients over
a number of years and it's no
coincidence that the ones with more
pronounced forward head leaning are
usually the ones on a cocktail of
medication and you can read out a lot
about that there are some really great
studies now in the medical literature
so first of all what I like to do with
this corrective posture is to hook my
hands in a bit of a web they go right
down over the belt area where
you'd be wearing your trousers and you're
using that is a bit of a lever to help
you stand tall it's not a military
posture it's a lengthening posture
I tell my patients to think about a
great big balloon attached to their
chest and to their head lengthening them
and it feels good see if you can do that
as if you're trying to get your head
right up to the ceiling
so use your hands first use them wedge
them in and as you're doing that bring
your posture taller feel the weight go
back over your big toe your little toe
and your heel those three points should
be holding the weight of your body
equally not leaning back on your heels
not up on your tiptoes like heel wearers
or over on the sides so as you're
going tall nice relaxed as well don't
hold your breath
really straining when you do this gently
lengthen feel the weight over your big
toe your little toe and your heel then
the next part of that as you go up into
that tall posture you're going to tuck
the chin in it's not looking down it's a
sliding backwards like that it's
bringing the earlobe back over the
shoulders so watch me I'm breathing in
going tall tucking in bring it out
breathe in now I'm quite flexible so you
can see my head comes back a long way
I've been doing these for years so some
of you might be so stiff the head
doesn't seem
to move at all if that's the case and
you're older you'll probably find you
have more stiffness you may need a wall
to help you when you're doing that you
simply let the head touch the wall now
by the way if you have to do that to
touch the wall you've already got fairly
advanced forward head leaning and you
probably need to see a health
professional to start getting the joints
moving again before I can do this
exercise so for those who are little
stiffer head against the wall tuck the
chin right back in and hold and
relax and you'll notice the head will spring
forward touch the head against the wall
tuck in I call it the double chin
exercise because you'll notice you get a
double chin you can use two fingers tuck
in relax tuck in relax
tuck in relax tuck in now really tuck in now watch that
from the side two fingers I'm going tall
tuck in relax now I'm only
using one hand to wedge because I've taken
this one away okay
tuck in relax
tuck in relax watch my shoulder blades
they go for a little bit round to really
straight you can maybe hear click click click when
the vertebra (well the joint space) release some gas as you do
that it's fine tall tuck in relax
breathe in relax do ten in a row you're
holding each just for two three seconds
four times a day
now we can start with that you might get a
little bit sore you can start with three
four or five at a time four times a
day okay
you may need to use the wall when you
start it the downside of using the wall
is you can only bring the
chin so far when your freestanding you
can bring it beyond correction so you
get more correction out of that okay so
let's go through that one last time
it's tall tuck in when you get good at
it it won't meet the fingers as much now
actually my weight was a little too far
back there right up on the toes tuck in
give that a try and let me know how
you're getting on posturevideos.com
and don't forget to get a free chapter
in my book abundant health (no longer available) available
over there too great I hope you really
enjoy that it's a great exercise I do it
every day