Fix Your Posture in 5 Simple Steps | Full Body Alignment in 5 Minutes

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Hi, I’m Dr Clayton Roach from Roach Chiropractic Centre. Today I want to talk to you about something that’s very serious, something that we see in the clinic all the time that could be affecting you. More importantly, I think it’s affecting your kids. So here’s the deal. I am seeing this dreaded posture appear in my clinic every single day, with probably 95 to 99% of the patients that we see. It is this posture. And this posture is sucking the energy out of your life. Here’s why it happens. We drive to work, we’re sitting. We get to work. Most of you are sitting at lunchtime. Most of you are sitting while you’re eating. You get home after driving in the sitting position, only to arrive and watch TV in the sitting position. So is it any wonder that you or your kids who play video games, probably too much, are on devices all the time end up in this dreaded posture? More commonly, you’ll end up with also a hump on the back of the neck. Who wants that? So I want to share with you today a very special routine that I’ve tailored for myself. Because of what I do, I’m always hunched forward treating patients. I have to do this for myself too. So I’m revealing this routine that I do every single day to make sure that I stay upright and be an example for my patients, and not a mirror image of what they are.

So watch this. Stay tuned. And at the end of the video, you’ll have a great routine that you can do every single day to help help kill this posture. Let’s go. So step one to killing this dreaded posture. The first step you have to externally rotate your shoulders. How do you do that? You activate something called your rotator cuff muscles. They are all externally rotating muscles. So what that will do is it will bring your shoulders back, your chest forward, head back, and you’ll actually feel like you’re breathing better. What you’re going to use is this inexpensive but very useful yoga band. You’re going to push against this yoga band, and then you’re going to bring your shoulders through this range of motion, activating those rotator cuff muscles until they burn. If you’re like me, you’ll feel this. You’re going to do ten repetitions and you’re going to do that twice. So overall 20 repetitions, two sets of ten. And you’ll feel those rotator cuff muscles burning. Those are the ones that are going to allow you to open up and not be internally rotated. Stay tuned till the end of the video. I’m going to show you five things you can do to kill this dreaded posture. Next one.

Step number two to killing this dreaded posture. You need to bring the shoulder blades back. The way you’re going to do that is, again, with this inexpensive but very useful yoga band. What you’re going to do is you’re going to bring this yoga band as far as you can into tension. Now, what you’re doing is you’re actually bringing those shoulder blades together, activating muscles called your rhomboids and also a little bit of the rotator cuff muscles. We rarely do this during the day because we’re always doing stuff that’s in front of us. I’m going to suggest you do ten repetitions of these and do it twice. So two sets of ten repetitions. Do this along with the first exercise I showed you. And you’re going to start going from here to here, opening up that chest, bringing that head back and actually expanding your chest so that you can breathe better, bringing oxygen to the brain. Step number three to killing this dreaded posture. What you’re going to do is you’re now going to stretch your pec muscles. So it’s one thing to exercise the muscles that externally rotate. But you’re going to have a hard time maintaining this if your pec muscles are so tight that they’re bringing you this way, working against what you’re trying to do by activating those external rotators. So here’s what I found to be the best way to stretch your pec muscles.

You’re going to go down from your knees into this position here, you’re going to put your arms out here. And what you’re going to do is you’re going to turn your body to one side. We’re going to start with the left side right away. I can tell that I’m stretching everything in through here. You’re going to stretch and you’re going to count to five, one, two, three, four, five. Turn and stretch the other way. Count to five, one, two, three, four, five. And I would do this five times on each side. So five times on each side, counting to five every time you do it. This is going to stretch your pec muscles. So along with activating the rotator cuff muscles by externally rotating, now you’re stretching the pecs, allowing your shoulders to gradually come back, bringing the head back and actually having good posture where your ears are over your shoulders and not sitting out here. Stay tuned for step number four. Step number four, what you’re going to want to do to kill that dreaded posture where your shoulders are rounded forward and your head is forward. You’re going to want to activate your psoas. So many times when we’re sitting that psoas is short. Short muscles are always weak and we’re always told to stretch our hip flexor.

Stretch your psoas. I’m going to recommend that you actually work your psoas and actually activate it. So here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to use this mighty yoga band again. And what you’re going to do is you’re going to put it on your foot and you’re going to wrap it around the other foot. So we have this thing going on here. So what you’re going to do is you’re going to bring your hip into flexion against resistance, and you’re going to do ten repetitions of this. And you’re going to do it twice. So after ten you’ll take a break. And then you’re going to flip to the other side. You’re going to do ten of these. You obviously want to relax your head I’m talking. So I’m not doing this. So ten on both sides twice. So in all you will be doing 20 repetitions on both sides. This is going to help strengthen your psoas. The psoas is a major contributor to stability in your back and allowing you to have good glute activation, your buttock muscles so that they can fire and stabilize your lower back so you don’t have any low back pain. Keeping yourself erect so you’re nice and tall. Try this one and stay tuned for the last step to killing that dreaded posture. So we’ve made it step number five to killing this dreaded posture.

The last step, the last muscle group are the mighty hamstrings. Most people have tight hamstrings. Here’s the best way to stretch the hamstrings without compensating and irritating other things. You’re going to be on a bench. Leg is going to be flat on that bench. You’re going to sit up nice and tall. Foot is relaxed. It is not pointing towards you. Foot is relaxed. Leg. Thigh is on the table. Sit up nice and tall. You are going to contract your quad muscles. This will send your knee towards the bench. So you’re going to contract and count to five. Right away I’m feeling that hamstring pulling. The key to stretching the hamstring is to keep everything upright, because if you start to flex, you take the pressure off the hamstring. Why is the hamstring important is because it attaches to your sitz bone. When it gets tight, it flexes your pelvis this way, pushing the discs towards the back where the nerves are irritating nerves causes pain going down the legs, a condition called sciatica. So you’re going to sit up nice and tall. Contract your muscle here. The quad knee goes down. Hold it for five seconds. Do this five times. So a total of 25 seconds total five seconds.

When you get good at this and you’re no longer feeling tension in the hamstring, here’s the next step.

Contract. Your muscle knee goes down. Bring the foot towards you. You’re going to feel that right away. Now we’re activating the calf as well, but we’re further stretching the hamstring. So contract pull the foot towards you. Count to five. When you’re at that progression you’re going to do five seconds five times when you get good at this progression, you’re ready for the next one. Sitting up nice and tall. Contract the quad muscle foot towards you. Lean forward with your chest. Bam! I’m feeling that hamstring and you’re holding it for five seconds. I can’t go any further than this. Five seconds. Relax. Relax everything. Let go of this. Muscle foot goes back there. You’re sitting, not slouch, but relaxed. Do it again. Contract the muscle foot towards you. Lean forward five seconds. When you’re at that level, you’ll do it five seconds. Five times. You stretch the hamstring and you do the last four steps. You will kill that dreaded posture. You’ll feel more energy, you’ll breathe better, and people will actually say that you look taller. I’m Doctor Clayton Roach. If you like these videos, make sure you like and subscribe. We’re from Roach Chiropractic Centre. Stay tuned for more useful things for you to do to preserve your back and actually get better and look younger. Take care.