Hopefully you know what I mean .I’m actually not too bad considering My upper back is rather kyphotic?
I do however have a constant battle with maintaining a good posture .My shoulders creep forward and upwards whenever I’m not paying attention and I guess smartphone use doesn’t help …texters neck seems to be a recent phenomenon.
I’ve tried various exercises and stretching as well as a posture correcter/ brace and although sometimes I’ve made progress ,it’s not long before the hunch reappears .My main motivation tbh is not to simply to look better but to relieve the ache between my shoulder blades that has been with me for decades and is very resistant most therapies. Being a daily meditator it has become a source of great irritation tbh …try sitting still for 45 mins with a pain in the back …Yes I know I should just let it be!
Anyhow I was wondering if others have experienced similar trouble and managed to overcome it?
Thanks
Bill

Nope – I have to constantly think about it as my posture does get bad (desk job too) and I have half of 1 of my Vertebra missing so I have a kyphotic deformity of about 10 degrees (broke spine knocked off bike).

There are a couple of videos on the Althlean X channel on YouTube. No idea if they will work or not but the guy is credible and has done remedial stuff in the past.

Have you tried low zero drop shoes?

Don’t worry about it. It’s more aero when on the bike 🤗

Mate at work has a strap he wears, it looks a bit like James Bonds gun harness. Minus the holster.

No.

It hurts.

Following with interest.

best thing i have done for my shoulders (also desk bound at work) is to get back into archery.
used to have a lot of issues with pain in shoulder from them being to far forward due to all the time spend at desk but it got better and better almost instantly when i started shooting my bows regular.

Have you looked into the Alexander Technique ?

No, but my mother always used to say “stand up properly.. like a real man”

Probs why I alway look like i’m navel gazing.

Deffo not into belts/straps or any other BDSM type leather, more into rolling back shoulders and head up..

Will watch with interest…

I went and got my back checked out by occupational health physio. I have terrible posture, kyphotic as you describe. I also “slump” to one side, a bit like scoliosis, favouring one leg over the other so I get hip pain. If I remember and straighten up, I gain about 3 inches in height!

The physio was good, describing what was going on. She just gave me Pilates exercises to do, essentially to strengthen my core and the muscles in my back either side of my spine. It makes sense, strengthen all that up and it pulls the back straight, but I’m rubbish and haven’t kept it up so never saw any improvement. Would it really work? Can’t answer that!

I definitely recommend pilates for strengthening the muscles you need to attain and maintain good posture.

I’ve also read about a wearable device called Upright Go. Might be worth a look.

yep – constant battle mind: slipped disc related to bad posture 10 years ago, physio for 6 weeks but as above alexander technique for 6 weeks to remind yourself what good posture looks like – then adopting that posture (or reminding yourself to when you slip up) and i haven’t had back issues for 6 years, clearly have a less curved spine – even have less double chin (a sign of curvature of spine) – it’s a long process but it’s doable if you’re determined (my motivation was to not have surgery).

From a different angle weight lifting may help (some people focus on bench press too much, over develop their chest compared to the back, and the shoulders pull forward, same as too much sitting at a computer).

Back and shoulder exercises like rows, pull ups, pull downs, shrugs etc can strengthen the back and shoulder muscles and pull your shoulders back.

May not be relevant to your situation, but may be worth considering as an option.

Join the army.

Yes. Partly from time on a computer and partly self inflicted by not paying attention to which muscle groups I was working and how much. Switched to working the back half twice as much as the front until I was better balanced and then gradually tapering down, while stretching the front a lot

Started doing “Wall Angels” 2-3 times a day.
Did an exercise twice a day. Don’t know what it is called. Reach each hand behind the head and touch the opposite shoulder blade. Pull your elbows in towards your ears and backwards at the same time. Hold for 15-30 seconds. Repeat working up to about 19 reps.

They don’t sound like much but they hurt at first and start helping pretty quickly.

Thanks for the suggestions ..i will persevere with more exercises. Funnily enough i did build a fairly big chest with bench pressing and flys? many years ago without doing any work on the back . left me with big Moobs as the years advanced but they’ve shrunk a bit since weight loss. I guess I’m out of balance .

I find the thing that helps the most is staying away from the tablet/laptop etc in the evenings at home, especially if you are desk based in the day. I’m a massive hypocrite giving out this advice : )

I’ve been recommended doing backstroke in the pool for better posture-I can’t tell you if it’s working yet as I’m terrible at it! I generally only swim front crawl & breast stroke and I think those strokes, while building muscle, are not helping my already bad posture.

YTWL exercises, warrior 1,2 and 3, bridge exercises and overhead squat three times a week FOREVER.

You will find these tough, dig deep, how bad do you want it?

Try a good osteopath. I had the same issue but only went to an osteopath following a car accident where I received severe whiplash. She found loads of long term issues with my posture and sorted them all out and I’m now much more upright. It was like a complete posture reset for me and I was amazed how bad I’d got over the years………..

If you want to look at your posture, I really recommend going for Alexander Technique lessons. Probably the only way to understand posture and be able to do something about it short of becoming a professional dancer – almost every other way is guess work with low odds on improving it.

Get some gymnastics rings and a pull up bar. Use the bar for passive hangs – just hang and try to gradually relax your shoulders. Do support-holds and inverted hangs on the rings. Assuming you’re strong enough to support your own bodyweight for a few seconds, if not then don’t do this, or if you have heart/blood pressure problems etc it might not be the best idea apparently. Work up to 30s 3 reps of each.

Defeated in early childhood

I always thought bad posture was a choice

#everydaysaschoolday

Kinda -see bottom.

Sounds like you need a combination of stretching/releasing acoss the chest and upper back, plus strengthening the upper back and muscles that stabilise the shoulder blades (and there are some good suggestions above).
Btw – stretches don’t so much lengthen the muscles but rather allow the nervous system to allow them to lengthen.

Chest/shoulder release : wall angels – make sure you engage your core (‘cinch’ in the waist/scoop the belly and close in the ribcage) to stop your lower ribcage from popping up off the wall; lie face up on the floor(prob feet drawn towards the bottom), either a foam roller at various positions under (across) the upper back, or a small 7″ish inflatable gym ball (inflate to suit) in a similar position, and extend the upper back over it (support the head with your hands). With the ball in a similar posn can also open the chest, or can lie on the roller with it lengthways along the spine, and allow the arms/shoulders to release towards the floor.

Exercises: seated cable row, sitting upright, don’t allow shoulders to shrug/keep them down, keep shoulder blades snug to ribs and down the back – stabilises shoulder blades and engages lats;
shoulder blade/scapula pushup (engages muscles that stabilise them); shoulder blade pullup (either from a hang or from holding the bar on a lat pulldown machine) pull the shoulders blades snug to the ribcage and down the back, them release to allow the shoulders to elevate, repeat..; (pilates) dart/cobra prep -to extend upper back(thoracic and cervical) and strengthen it in extension, plus the ytwl mentioned above – tho’ I’d ditch the L and lie down prone, doing them bent over standing just adds another level of confusion over precise form IMO..for dart/cobra prep/ytw, tho you’re prone on the floor , engage the core to support your lower back; pilates swimming (or the upper body section thereof) – extends upper back with added load of arms forward, and also has scaps hugging ribcage hence stabilising.
Standing chin tucks -not exactly a tuck, but move/press the skull backwards using the neck (might help against a wall so you know the rest of your spine is static keeping it vertical, so the chin starts to tuck towards the throat. Could also do that lying in bed, pressing the skull into the mattress. Similarly if holding a plank position (snugging the scaps to the ribcage !) – don’t let the head drop, it should be in line with the spine/similar chin tuck, so you’ll be looking slightly fwd of your hands, not towards them. Can also do the aforementioned dart with a chin tuck, rather than extending up through the neck.

Also just try to lengthen up through the spine when standing – just be aware that some people (mebbe us old gits) equate that to ‘standing to attention’. Which *might* help in your case but might just mean you extend your lower back rather than further up..I used to do that slightly but I’ve seen one bloke almost bend over backwards!

Fwiw, office chairs that come up much past mid back drive me nuts -ymmv – I like to extend back over them, swapping to a new spanky high back chair years ago gave me a cranky back within a day or two, fortunately I rescued my old low-backed one 🙂

Despite having generally good posture (and improved over the last 15+ yrs of practising pilates – and more recently, training to be an instructor), I’ve often been fighting shoulders that pop up towards my ears when it’s cold (or even when it’s not)..noticed this more mebbe 6 months ago when I started doing more seated cable pull rows in the gym, and my shoulders weren’t staying down. Reduced the weight till I could keep my shoulder blades back and down (and hence shoulders), and have steadily increased the weight since, and including far more pulling/hanging type work than o used to. Have also kept awareness of what the damn things are doing, and seem to be winning. Funny thing is, mostly they behave, esp. with heavy loading, but with light loading, not so much – standing, my shoulders elevate, holding a plank, sometimes the shoulder blades wing.

Finally -and I would say this 😉 – mebbe try some pilates matwork classes (there’s machine/studio based stuff too but more £££). Just make the teacher aware of the issue (tho they should quiz you anyway), and be aware that *some* classes -but not all – may be quite flexion (think upper body crunch-like)-centric . In fact, much of that stuff is harder with the head down, and in reality most people need more extension because they’re hunched over desks..

Err..hope there was something worthwhile in that lot 😉

I work from home quite a lot (and do suffer from bad posture) got one of these:

I work from home quite a lot (and do suffer from bad posture) got one of these:

can be tough on your knees those if you aren’t careful.

I have a Stokke Duo in the loft that has a kneeling position as good as decent one of those and also 2 other positions. Takes up a bit of floor space though, but less than the balans.

I have rounded shoulders and a lot of it was to do with a tilted pelvis. My weight when standing was nearly always on my heels instead of my toes.

When trying to fix a rotator cuff issue in the Maldives I found swimming aound the island with a long breaststroke and no leg action for 1.5 hours fixed it, but also after a fortnight of that (at least 10000 stokes plus snorling time) I found that my shoulders had ‘moved’ backwards and I could feel more tension across the front of my t-shirt.

And my hips seemed to move forward as well, so my weight was now on my toes – which did my skiing some good 🙂

Now that I don’t go to the maldives so much I use my Macebell, which has a similar effect.

I do mainly 360s and lots of reps. But it is a very time-efficient form of exercise.

Benefits of Macebell Training

(at least 10000 stokes plus snorling time)

Snorling is my favourite  Pokemon.

@TurnerGuy – that macebell training looks interesting – think I’ll give it a go – what weight of macebell would you recommend for starting with please ?

Yoga has done wonders for my posture.

@TurnerGuy – that macebell training looks interesting – think I’ll give it a go – what weight of macebell would you recommend for starting with please ?

My normal one is only 8Kg – I have a lighter one that I leant to a mate that I would use for rehab. Maybe 5kg. I am about to buy a 10Kg.

You need to be smooth with it so for learning maybe get a 5Kg as you can always upgrade and then use the 5kg for rehab later.

However I am not ‘Mr Muscles’

Bear in mind that the faster you spin it the more the load.

If you are near Woking in Surrey you are welcome to try mine.

The musco-skeletal guy I am using to fix my knee tried it and immediately bought one and says his shoulder issues are now gone. He recommends it to his patients now and they are reporting the same results.

@turnerguy – thanks for reply – I’ll get myself a 5 to start off with – thanks !!

@turnerguy – thanks for reply – I’ll get myself a 5 to start off with – thanks !!

post back with how it is going – I am the only one mentioning these things on here and could do with some backup…

Wow.. I’d forgotten about this thread as initially got few replies but seems to have picked up since and some comprehensive answers/ ideas have appeared.Great stuff and many thanks. BTW I suspect my issues are aggravated by gradual smartphone addiction and the posture that entails. I also use a laptop for many hours in the evening whilst on the sofa which again is bound to be contributing. Is it possible to use a laptop/tablet on the sofa without stressing the neck but still being comfortable?

I also use a laptop for many hours in the evening whilst on the sofa which again is bound to be contributing. Is it possible to use a laptop/tablet on the sofa without stressing the neck but still being comfortable?

I don’t have a solution, but agree that on the days I’m working on my laptop (rather than PC monitor), my back and neck are much sorer.

Jeff Cavalier to the rescue

Jeff Cavalier to the rescue

that’s too simplistic for this problem