In today’s video, I will go through the best exercises for forward head posture and upper crossed syndrome.
Upper crossed syndrome is when the muscles in your neck, shoulders, and chest become deformed, generally due to poor posture. Typically, the upper trapezius and the levator scapula are the most affected. These muscles are on the back of your shoulder and neck area. When the syndrome first starts to develop, these muscles become strained and are working overtime. After this, your chest muscles begin to compensate and the muscles in the front of your chest, such as the major and minor pectoralis muscles, become short and tight. The overactive muscles cause the surrounding counter muscles to become underused and they weaken. The overused and underused muscles can overlap, which causes an X shape to develop, thus upper “crossed” syndrome.
The most common cause of upper crossed syndrome is poor posture, especially sitting or standing for extended periods of time with the head pushed forward. This posture can develop while you are reading, watching TV, biking, driving, and using your laptop, computer, or phone.
Best Exercise For Forward Head Posture and Upper Crossed Syndrome B
YouTube to watch the YouTube video.
I’ll get Donnalee to demonstrate.
And then breaking it down, you’re standing, so arms are out front, this is almost like zero. You’re going to bring the elbows back and that ends up being one. So with the elbows touched below shoulder height, that’s one. Now, bring the elbows to the side which ends up being two, and then straightening the arms and then reaching down a little bit ends up being three. So that ends up being an excellent exercise when it comes to helping with forward head posture and upper crossed syndrome.
Now, when it comes to sets, reps and time I would end up doing one set of this. And then when it comes to repetitions, I start off with three repetitions and then you’re going to hold the end position for three seconds. Then they can end up progressing on to five repetitions, holding that end position for five seconds and then progress to ten repetitions and then for each of the repetitions held for ten seconds.
So give that exercise a GO. It’ll help with forward head posture and upper crossed syndrome.
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Take care!
Rick Kaselj, MS
If you want to instantly restore balance to your posture making you physically stronger, mentally sharper and achieve peak performance, then click here to check out the Forward Head Posture FIX program.
