The last blog addressed the low back in our posture discussion. The next two posts will deal with helping poor upper back posture, or slouching.

Slouching is due in part to tight muscles of the front of your chest pulling your shoulders forward and/or weak muscles between the shoulders which are not strong enough to keep your shoulders pulled back. So it’s not just a matter of “sitting up straight.” It’s having the proper muscle flexibility in the front and tone in the back to comfortably maintain the correct posture in your upper back.

To stretch the muscles on the front of your chest, find an unoccupied corner of your house. This may be a chore since you’ll find out you probably have things in the corners of your house. Start out facing the corner with your toes about 24 inches from the corner and feet spread at shoulder width.  Lean into the corner with the palms of your hands at the level of your shoulders or a little wider. Now slowly attempt to put your nose in the corner buy stretching the chest muscles as you go forward. Once you feel a pull in your chest muscles stop and hold that position for 4 seconds, repeat 6 times. Don’t bounce. 

In my next post, I’ll address the muscle between the shoulder blades.

Your local Chiropractor,

Dr. Z

at Main St. Chiropractic

For part 1: click here

For part 2: click here

For part 4: click here