Tip of the Week Thursday: Posture

By now, I’m sure everyone is starting to get the flow of our posts! (Or at least we hope so 🙂 ).

This Thursday, we will be discussing a really important tip: Posture! Posture is one of the most overlooked bio-mechanical dysfunctions that can lead to a myriad of issues. Lets talk about how posture can impact the upper body today. Next week, we will tackle the lower body!

Upper Crossed Syndrome is often seen with a strong forward head carriage:

As you can see this can often be caused by weak neck flexors and weak muscles in the mid-back. It can also be caused when the muscles of the chest (pectoralis major) and the upper neck (trapezium muscles) become very tight.

If you’re a gamer, forward head posture can happen from prolonged sitting at a computer, trying to focus on the screen. Or if you’re sitting down in your gamer chair trying to raise your KDR on Call of Duty for the 10th match today….no? Is that just people at Nerd Chiropractor?

So why do tight or weak muscles matter to you? Well, here’s a graphic from a pretty popular study about the weight of our head “increasing” the further our head is from being centered with our body:

And the more weight demand we put on the body, the more prone we are to diseases such as:

• Headaches
• Migraines
• Chronic Neck Pain
• Carpal Tunnel Sydrome
• Midback Pain
• Neck and Rib subluxations
• Shallow breathing

So unless you’re trying to conquer the galaxy in a Sith-run take over…

….we have some recommendations to help you out with correcting your posture:

1. Get Adjusted (aka: Go see your Chiropractor 😉 )
2. Neck Retraction
3. Wall Stretches
4. Yoga ( with supervision from a trained yogi teacher)
5. Strengthening your core

Finally, just because you don’t game or spend long hours sitting, you can still cause poor posture:

If one of the above scenarios apply to you, it’s time to go see a Chiropractor. Chiropractors can help you to correct your posture through specific adjustments, help give you advice on overcoming poor posture, and keep you honest as you overcome Upper Crossed Syndrome.

Live Long and Prosper,

The Nerd Chiropractor

P.S.: We don’t own the rights to anything amazing like Star Wars, Lucasfilm Ltd, and all those rights are reserved, nor are we affiliated with those companies.