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Other/Mixed Neck posture video - help for people with posture problems

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
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Jon A

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I found a very helpful video today, and just thought I'd share it in case other people were having the same problem as me.

When I think of 'good posture', I always think of someone standing bolt upright in a kind of military stance. But apparently 'military neck' is a problem, because it puts too much strain on your 2nd cervical vertebra. I've realised that myself over the years, because if I got into what I thought was 'good' posture, I'd end up with a sore neck before too long.

This video (on YouTube) shows you how to fix that by sending your occipital bone (the pointy protruberance at the back of your skull) backwards instead of cranking your chin down and back and putting strain on your neck. (The whole video was useful to me, but the specific part about the neck starts at 0:50 ish. I can't vouch for the contents of the video, of course, but the guy is very qualified and seems to know his subject in and out.)

I'm sorry if this is old news to people, but it was such a lightbulb moment for me that I thought I'd share.

Cheers,

Jon
 
I practice Foundation Training on a daily basis. It helps me tremendously with my posture and in battling the effects of the hours of sitting at my office desk.
 
I practice Foundation Training on a daily basis. It helps me tremendously with my posture and in battling the effects of the hours of sitting at my office desk.

That's fantastic it helps so much. I think it was your comment on another thread that got me to check out Foundation Training in the first place, so thank you very much for the recommendation!

That's interesting that you use it to counteract the effects of sitting at a desk - that's something I have quite bad problems with, and that's what I'm trying to do too. May I ask, do you do anything else mobility-wise after a day at the office? Or is Foundation Training enough to do the trick? If you have any tips, I'd be very grateful! (I've noticed they have an office working section on their FT streaming website that I'm going to check out).
 
That's interesting that you use it to counteract the effects of sitting at a desk - that's something I have quite bad problems with, and that's what I'm trying to do too. May I ask, do you do anything else mobility-wise after a day at the office? Or is Foundation Training enough to do the trick? If you have any tips, I'd be very grateful! (I've noticed they have an office working section on their FT streaming website that I'm going to check out).

My parents and my sister already have several spine related injuries (herniated discs). I spend 9 to 11 hours a day in the office at a desk. As I started to notice some aches in my back, I decided to do something. After some research I came to Foundation Training. I'm sure there are other ways to approach this, but FT worked for me. What I usually do is 15-20 min. of FT every morning. Generally I start with a hip spin-up as they tend to get very stiff. This really preps me for the day. At work I use the FT office workouts from the streaming website (around 5 min, twice a day). Regular FT helped me especially with my self awareness besides strengthening the working muscles- usually I notice now when I start to slouch. Then I do some decompression breathing. At home I often just hang dead from a pull-up bar. Before I go to bed I do 20-30 min of soft tissue work from Kelly Starret's The Ready State. You might want to check out Starrett's book 'Deskbound', too.
Although you have to pay a monthly fee, I can highly recommend the FT streaming website (especially for me it is the only option as there are no certified instructors in mid Europe). You might want to check out the FT 12 min. workout and see if it is something for you.
 
My parents and my sister already have several spine related injuries (herniated discs). I spend 9 to 11 hours a day in the office at a desk. As I started to notice some aches in my back, I decided to do something. After some research I came to Foundation Training. I'm sure there are other ways to approach this, but FT worked for me. What I usually do is 15-20 min. of FT every morning. Generally I start with a hip spin-up as they tend to get very stiff. This really preps me for the day. At work I use the FT office workouts from the streaming website (around 5 min, twice a day). Regular FT helped me especially with my self awareness besides strengthening the working muscles- usually I notice now when I start to slouch. Then I do some decompression breathing. At home I often just hang dead from a pull-up bar. Before I go to bed I do 20-30 min of soft tissue work from Kelly Starret's The Ready State. You might want to check out Starrett's book 'Deskbound', too.
Although you have to pay a monthly fee, I can highly recommend the FT streaming website (especially for me it is the only option as there are no certified instructors in mid Europe). You might want to check out the FT 12 min. workout and see if it is something for you.

Thanks very much for the information - that's very helpful. I'm sorry to hear your family have back trouble.

That's really useful to know about your routine with FT, hanging and TRS - I'm glad it works for you. And thanks for the recommendations - I actually started with the FT streaming website's baseline course about 10 days ago, and it's been great so far - I feel a lot better, and someone actually told me I look taller yesterday. I don't want to be too optimistic, but if the results continue as they have so far it'll be well worth the subscription fee.

And I have Deskbound, too - I like it. For what it's worth, I think it's Kelly Starrett's best book for beginners (like me) - he's got so many ideas it can be hard to choose what to do from Supple Leopard, etc.

Thanks again for the advice, Jon
 
I had some painful neck issues and went to a physical therapist. I found that what is described in the video above was exactly the key element in getting better and I learned to reproduce it in the different exercises the PT gave me. And now my neck no longer bothers me.
 
I had some painful neck issues and went to a physical therapist. I found that what is described in the video above was exactly the key element in getting better and I learned to reproduce it in the different exercises the PT gave me. And now my neck no longer bothers me.

That's good to hear! Is it possible to find those exercises anywhere online?
 
That's good to hear! Is it possible to find those exercises anywhere online?
I haven't seen them online and they were prescribed by the pt after an exam so there's no guarantee they would be applicable to someone else. I feel like I should put in a bunch of disclaimers here. I'm not a medical pro, this is just what was helpful to me.

In the first exercise, the first step is to sit upright and do what they described in the video, lifting the head and lengthening the back of the neck. It took me a while to get a feel for it and find the right muscles, this is where working with a pt can be important. Also look for tension in the back of the neck and try to relax it. Then turn your chin to one side and do the same thing kind of tucking the jaw toward the collar bone. Return to center and reset, then repeat on the other side. [Edit] If there's any discomfort you're doing it wrong.

The other is to lay face down on a bench with the head off the end, the pt also had me do this sitting upright. Then do the whole lengthen the neck and lifting the head thing. While maintaining it, look up as far as is comfortable, then back down and reset. Sets of about 10.
 
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Thanks very much, that's interesting to read. And your disclaimers are duly noted - thanks :)
 
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