I am a Chiropractor. I talk to people about the things that they do day-to-day that may be having a slow, cumulative detrimental impact on their bodies and give them ways of helping to make it better.
People often ask me, “Can stretching help my posture?”, so today I want to share with you a wonderful little stretch that I have been doing at the end of my working day for years. It's quick, it's easy, it feels great and my cat loves to get involved too.
What's not to love?
It's all very well me sitting here talking about posture and stuff and how important it is, and it is important, but when I talk about these things with patients in practice, it's not uncommon to have people turn round and say,
"But I can't do that, because at work I have to do this, that and the other" and I get it. It's hard.
I completely understand and accept that we can't do things 100% right, 100% of the time. My goal is to give you the ideal, the goal, the gold-standard as something to aim for as well and as often as is practically possible.
Whether you are someone with quite a flat spine or someone that is a bit more rounded or hunched, many of us spend a surprising amount of time each day leaning forward. What I mean by that is being in a position, either sitting or standing, where your shoulders sit further forward than your hips. It can happen whether you are sitting at a desk, in the car, walking about, cooking or doing housework.
You may even be doing it now.
It's not easy keeping upright. So many of the things we do, draw our upper body forward and when standing, our hips and pelvis end up moving backward to compensate. When sitting, we get so used to being in this forward position, that we end up seeing echoes of it in our standing position too. This stretch is a really effective way of helping to counter a day of leaning forward.
Prevention is better than cure
The correct posture is really important, especially when sitting for long periods of time.
(1:50) So remember, when sitting,
lean back so your shoulders are behind your hips
slightly lift your chest (up, not out)
let the chair hold and support you in this position
When standing, you may need to draw your shoulders back and down a little, but typically, when standing it is more important to slightly lift your chest and push your hips forward a little.
Think of it like leading with your belt buckle. Both of these positions can be taken to extremes and made to look and feel ridiculous. Don't do that. Be sensible about it.
Both of these positions, sitting and standing, are likely to feel quite odd. They're not going to feel natural, because they are no longer your natural position, and they probably haven't been for quite some time, but that doesn't mean they're not 'better' positions.
Think of these instructions as adjustments to improve your current way of working that, just like braces on teeth, with enough encouragement, will promote positive change and adaptation over time. Now, that said, back to the stretch.
No one is immune
(3:33) As a Chiropractor that started in Chiropractic in 2002, I have either been learning or practising or preaching all of this for a while now and I am VERY aware that it just isn't possible at all times. Ironically enough, being a Chiropractor is not good for your back! I spend long days leaning over patients that are lying on a treatment table, five to six days a week, so I feel it too! No one is immune (I also know that keeping a watchful eye on HOW I go about my day to day, at work, at home and EVERYWHERE, helps to make sure that the scales are kept tilted in my favour and not in a way that things are deteriorating faster over time).
So we can do stretches to help with posture, which is why I do this fantastic little stretch/position that only takes two minutes every day when I get home from work for my own personal comfort and to give something back to a spine that has been working hard for me throughout the day.
Short and simple stretch
(4:54) To do this exercise, you start by lying on the floor, face up with your knees bent up and feet flat on the floor and raise your arms up to point to the ceiling.
Gently let your arms fall backwards towards the floor to lie by your ears, as far as they will go comfortably. Hopefully, they should lie flat on the floor with no problem. If they don't, don't worry. Just let them hang as far as is comfortable. Never force them.
With your arms in this position gently pull the bottom of the front of your rib cage down, pull your belly button back towards the floor, tuck your chin down without lifting your head off of the floor and gently try and flatten the whole of your spine against the floor. That is the main part of the exercise.
Once here, keep trying to let your arms fall back towards the floor.
Hold this position for one minute, then tuck your chin down to your chest and roll up like trying to do a ab-crunch or a sit-up, peeling one vertebra off the floor at a time, as far as you can comfortably, before slowly curling back down, hold for another minute and then curl up and down again. You may even get a few satisfying little clicks and pops.
This is a great way to gently stretch and elongate your spine after being upright, loaded and leant forward during the day.
If the whole of your arms are able to lie flat against the floor, that's great, congratulations. For those whose arms don't quite reach the floor, you should find that they begin to drop further back over time.
Key things to remember
(6:31) Whilst resting in this position, you may feel that your head wants to tilt back and your chin lift; gently keep your chin tucked. Also the bottom of your rib cage may want to rise upwards and your low back may want to lift away from the floor; try and keep them gently pressed down towards the floor. Remember the goal here is to stretch out and spread as much of your back and spine into the floor as you can, gently and comfortably.
For a quick and easy way of turning this into a really effective core strengthening exercise that I frequently recommend to patients, check out my post on core strengthening.
So that's it! An excuse to lie down for 2-minutes that will also help do good things to your spine after the rigours of the day. Just to warn you, if you have pets, or young children then they will love getting involved and “helping“ when you’re lying on the floor.
If you have any questions about whether this exercise is good or right for you, just ask your Chiropractor, or get in contact with us and we will do all we can to help.
We are working to bring you all the great little tips and tricks that you can do that really make a difference and help you, so please tell us how you find the stretch and if there are any other topics you'd like us to cover and any videos that you want to see us make.
In the meantime, stay safe, stay well, stay mobile and I'll see you soon.
Have you tried this stretch yet? Let us know how you found it!