Posture check. How’s your posture as you read this?

Most of the neck and shoulder pain we experience is a symptom of bad posture, and we experience a lot these days. We drive in front of us, use computers in front of us, I’ve even heard of ‘text-neck’ pain as a result of our mobile phone addictions. Our chests are tight, our shoulders are forward, and our backs are weak. We make it even worse with chest-breathing.

Take a deep breath. Did your shoulders and chest lift or did your rip cage expand? Most of us are chest breathers. We only fill a portion of our lung capacity and end up using our necks for every breath. As you can imagine, over time this causes serious repercussions- we take a lot of breaths each day!

Try sitting up straight and taking 20 belly breaths a day. Its hard, especially in good form. Start laying down on the ground and with your spine in a neutral position, breathe in and out and watch your belly expand, three seconds in, three out. Squeeze your belly to decompress the bottom of your lungs (WITHOUT LIFTING YOUR SHOULDERS OR CURLING YOUR SPINE), and repeat. Strengthening and activating your intercostal muscles to breathe with proper neuromuscular patterning will save you a ton of money in physical therapy and a huge ‘pain-in-the-neck’ (sorry I had to).

 

 

image credit: shutterstock.com