I was walking with my oldest this morning and I noticed his posture is beginning to slip a little. His shoulders are beginning to round in, and he’s getting a touch of forward head posture.
As you can imagine, I’m not thrilled about this. Yes, he’s in the midst of a tremendous growth spurt, his height is getting ahead of his habits and he spends too much time on a screen.
His is not exactly a unique story; in fact it’s an altogether too common story. Hell, it’s my own story. I’ve been in the process of correcting my posture for years now, and I have the same problems. A lifetime of being taller than average contributed to my habitual stooping down.
I don’t want that for him, or any of my boys. Seeing him rounding in like that got me to talking to him about posture and hopefully I made a dent.
Anyway, his shoulder-rounded posture provides for us today’s exercise, the simple act of squeezing your shoulder blades together.
This exercise can be done sitting or standing. Heck, you could even do it lying on your stomach.
Begin by sitting or standing with your back upright:
- Tuck in your chin
- Lift your chin slightly
- Lean slightly back
In short, take a proper neutral spine, and then
- Pull your shoulders back
- Press your shoulders down, away from your ears
- Squeeze your shoulder blades together while rotating your palms forward
- Repeat for 10 to 12 reps
This little exercise will train your neutral spine, teach you to relax your shoulders down (away from your ears), pull your shoulders back (un-rounding them) and help to pull in winged shoulder blades.
In short, you get a lot of bang for your buck in this simple little exercise.
