What Is The Best Stretch For Bad Posture?

A common “bad posture” is the sway back posture, whereby the thoracic spine translates backwards and the hips translate forwards. As a consequence the neck also protrudes forwards, but we’ll get into that in another video. Here, we’re going to focus on the movement of the thoracic spine which in addition to the translation backwards, also rounds more, increases in the degree of Kyphosis.

The problem with this is that it weakens the resting position of all the mid back muscles by placing a stretch through them, somewhat permanently. It also creases issues with the lower lumbar spine, putting more pressure on the lower lumbar spine at the level of the lumbo-sacral junction. This is the area where the lumbar spine meets the tailbone – the sacrum.

This simple towel stretch has the fundamental movement of reversing the translation of the thoracic spine as well as reversing the degree to which the kyphosis increases. When doing it, you will often find that there are small cavitations or pops from the spinal joints releasing pressure that builds up as a result of this terrible posture – these releases often feel great too – an added bonus.

You can do this posture stretch as frequently as needed and it will be a particularly great stretch for your posture after a long day at the desk!

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