Has anyone here had success in fixing forward head posture?

[Arthur Wong]

My forward head posture is terrible and sometimes it makes me very self conscious in public. I try to correct it but I also don't want to walk about like I have a stick in my ass. I have tried the thing where you push your chin back everyday for months now with little (maybe even zero) improvement. I know it's silly to think you can correct  years of terrible posture with a couple chin retractions but it's still discouraging. 

 

Has anyone had success with this? Are there any stretches/exercises that work better? 

 

I feel like shoulder posture also plays a big role in this. Like maybe I have to push my shoulders back before my neck can find a better position. I'm working on that as well. Visually they remain the same, but I've gotten more flexible in my dislocates and my chest feels more "opened". Slow process for sure. 

[Philip Chubb]

I have had success with this through strengthening the neck extensors, trap-3s, and lower back.

[Daniel Burnham]

Trap3 works wonders. This was a huge weakness of mine.

[Rachid Tahri]

In addition to Alex and Daniel I would also recommend stretching the thoracic spine (thoracic extension plays I major role in posture). You can buy a foam roller and try to lye on in. The main idea you have to follow is to stretch the muscle that are tense and strengthen the muscle that are weak. For example stretching the lats/chest (when those are tight they oppose overhead movement), and strengthen the lower traps (those are the muscle that pull the shoulders overhead).

 

And yes, to answer your original question: I myself had bad posture and fixed it in two years! I actually have posted articles about this on this forum. If you are interested I can provide you the link.

[Mats Trane]

Funny you mention this trap3 work. I just sarted working these to improve my posture

[Connor Davies]

And yes, to answer your original question: I myself had bad posture and fixed it in two years! I actually have posted articles about this on this forum. If you are interested I can provide you the link.

Please do!

 

Okay guys, I'm off to look up what a trap3 is...

[Rachid Tahri]

Here is my story. It's also funny that my journey wasn't started to improve posture but it started with: "I badly want the handstand". But after I while of going to the school of hard knocks (means having overuse injuries, neck pain etc etc..), I realised the following: bad posture = bad handstand = injury.....etc etc...

Now I can proudly say that I train almost an hour a day on my hands (wall handstands, freestanding, walking etc), and don't feel any pain!

[Connor Davies]

Something like this a good idea then?

 

[Rachid Tahri]

This is better

 

[Daniel Burnham]

Something like this a good idea then?

That's what I used to do. Presses and other exercises have since taken over and I find I need little supplement.

[Philip Chubb]

I use both variations, and some other ones including prone ones for beginners. And then as Daniel said, it gets phased out as presses can begin to take over.

[Rachid Tahri]

For my own understanding: with presses do you guys mean handstand presses?

 

P.S: Also HS/PE 5 (exercise from handstand one) is amazing. You can even make it harder if you engage PPT!

[Christoph Pahl]

All scapula retraction helps: Manna, correct front lever.

[GoldenEagle]

Start training your back more than your chest.

[Guest]

Would the "trap3" exercise fix my posture?

[Arthur Wong]

Thanks for the help guys, I'll look into some of the stuff. 

 

@Richard grats on fixing your posture. 2 years is a long time to think about, hopefully I can take it a day at a time and stay consistent

 

@GoldenEagle Funny thing is relatively speaking my back is my strongest part of my body. For a while I even went as far as only training back (pull ups). Right now the only push work I do is ppp from foundations which isn't much considering I can hardly do 4 reps. 

[Rachid Tahri]

Thanks for the help guys, I'll look into some of the stuff. 

 

 

 

@GoldenEagle Funny thing is relatively speaking my back is my strongest part of my body. For a while I even went as far as only training back (pull ups). Right now the only push work I do is ppp from foundations which isn't much considering I can hardly do 4 reps. 

 

'Training back more' is too general because the lats are a major part of the back, and training (weight training) lats 'more' will also make them more tighter and your overhead motion WILL be restricted by the lats. Imagine wearing a tight suit and trying to move your arms overhead. I would advice: train those upper/lower traps more, and especially if you have very strong/overactive lats lower the volume of pull ups (and other lat work) for a while. When your mobility and posture is 'ok' (again), then you can off coarse continue the pull ups.    

[Christoph Pahl]

Yeah this is a thing I only understood recently: Lats are back muscles but still roll the shoulder forward!!

[Connor Davies]

@GoldenEagle Funny thing is relatively speaking my back is my strongest part of my body. For a while I even went as far as only training back (pull ups).

To expand on what GoldenEagle said: You need to train more horizontal pulling.  Pullups won't do too much to help you, but rowing motions will train your rhomboids which are hugely beneficial in correct posture.  Plus, having that little diamond shape stick out between your shoulderblades just looks damn cool...

[jasesun23]

I've been lurking in these forms for awhile. Main reason is to find info on this exact question. I'm really glad someone posted it and some answers have come back. Jamez thank you for posting the pic, I feel I have very similar posture to you. I can't stand see a picture of myself all slouched over with my head forward. 

 

I'm curious if anyone feels the following stretching or exercise would be helpful?

 

Shoulder pass throughs / dislocates? Doing the exercise seems to target that area I'm just not sure if it really helps with forward head posture. 

 

Second stretch I like is back bends or extending the spine in that direction. I'm not a big fan of back bends on the floor because I feel like my lower back is taking the majority of the stretch. I like the idea of the backbend with feet elevated. It seems to hit the thoracic part of the spine more. Making sure to keep the hands directly below the shoulders.  It makes sense that working on a handstand with good form will help as well. Can anyone think of a backbendish type exercise that would mainly target the thoracic spine and not the lower spine or neck. Some way to isolate it. 

 

I do do foam rolling of the thoracic spine which I believe helps. 

 

I will add trap3 exercise to my workouts. If theres anything else people can suggest it would be appreciated

 

I know practicing good posture helps but even if I try to stand up straight I can't get my shoulders back. I don't believe I have the flexibility in my spine, shoulders, and other muscles to even practice good posture.

 

Lastly I feel if I was able to do a yoga pose such as reverse prayer ,(which I can't even get close to)  I'd be going in the right direction of good posture. To be able to do that you have to have flexible chest and shoulder area. 

 

Thanks in advance for any help

Jason

[Guest]

@jasesun23 Thanks for your post, knowing that someone else has a similar problem to me helps me feel not so alone (if that makes sense). Every time I look in the mirror I always check my posture and it's not a pretty sight. All those years of not being physically active have come back to bite me. Hopefully the "trap3" exercise along with F1 series and H1 can alleviate my problem and yours too. 

[jasesun23]

No problem Jamez. And don't sweat it too much. Other people don't notice it as much as we think. I ask friends and they just reply yeah I guess you hunch over a little. Also don't blame inactivity that much. There are plenty of inactive people with perfect posture, and then there is me who runs 3 days a weeks and lifts weights 3 days a week for as long as I can remember. I can row more then I can bench so its not a muscle imbalance. My forward head posture is just from decades of bad posture habits. Sitting in front of the computer hunched over. Sitting on the couch slumped down. Shoot any time i'm sitting down my back is round forward and my elbows are on my knees basically holding me up. After 20 years of this, like people have mentioned, the upper back muscles that hold your shoulders back weaken, the muscles in your chest region tighten, your thoracic spine section just becomes used to being rounded forward. Good news is I'm sure this can be reverse this with some hard work. 

 

Like I said earlier I feel if I was able to perform certain exercise or acts that  my posture would have to improve. 

Backbends and handstands for one. Working up to doing a correct bridge/backbend and handstand will strengthen the specific area and increase mobility in that area. Take a look at the thread below. If you work up to being able to do a correct bridge with your hands below your shoulders and not putting all the bend in your lower back then I feel you will have the flexibility to stand up correctly.

https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/181-developing-active-back-flexibility/

 

Shoulder dislocates seem to help in stretching the chest and shoulders . I sometimes just hold the bar when its directly behind me even with my shoulder height and just let the stretch set in. In this position my shoulders are back my chest is being stretched wide open. Every week I get my hands a little closer to each other on the bar. 

 

There are also certain poses in yoga, that I believe if you were to work towards you'd help your forward head posture. Most are extreme and have nothing to do with gymnastics but I couldn't imagine anyone being able to do these and have bad posture. Just google image search them to see what they look like.  First is reverse prayer. Its stretches the chest and pulls the shoulders back. The complete opposite of what we are doing. We internally rotate our shoulders forward putting our chest muscles in a constantly relaxed short position. Second is any backbend motion like above. Camel pose seems to put less stress on the lower back. Need to focus on the bend in the thoracic region of your back not the lumber. Usually people with forward head posture have a posterior tilt and constant arch already in their lower back/lumbar region.  Other poses - fish pose, king pigeon pose. Well pretty much all poses in the link below.

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/finder/browse_categories/backbends

 

Watch some videos on Kit Laughlin on youtube. Always has some great info. Remember it took years for you to get your posture like this its going to take time to get it right. Set aside 10-20 mins everyday to do something to improve it. If youre really serious about improving it and willing to put in the work I'm sure you can fix it or drastically improve it in a couple months. 

 

And these are just some conclusions that I have come to. If anyone think this is bad advice please say so. For the benefit of myself and anyone else I'm giving it to.  

 

Jay

[Craig Mallett]

The biggest contributor to this position is habit and a tight chest/sternum and thoracic spine.  

 

Here's an exercise that can help:

 

Stand back to the wall with the feet together and heels touching the wall.  Bend your legs as much as you need to to allow the back to be completely flat against the wall.  This means hollowing out the lower back (slight pelvic tuck) , and turning the chest upwards to the sky as much as you can without pulling the middle/upper middle back off the wall. The shoulder should naturally roll back into a "correct" position if this second queue is done properly.  You should have a feeling of the sternum stretching, the spine lengthening (as if there were an air gap between each vertebrae) and the chin should relax into a gentle tuck (GENTLE IS THE KEY POINT HERE, forcing the chin back won't do anything to help this problem). The back of the head should rest gently against the wall.  Once in this position, queue yourself to soften/relax the entire body without losing your shape. I cannot emphasise the importance of this queue enough. Stay in this position for 10 - 15 seconds, until it is reasonably comfortable and relaxed.  Next, begin to straighten the legs so the back of the knees get a bit closer to the wall and the body creeps upwards. You will feel the entire body attempt to tighten once you have moved up the wall a few centimeters. At this point you stop, and requeue yourself to soften and relax again. At no point should you lose your form. Continue moving upwards and softening and upwards and softening till you cannot make any more progress that day without excessive tension or the back coming off the wall. Once again the SOFTENING is the key part to this practice. You will likely spend 2 or 3 minutes against the wall.  When you're ready step away from the wall, you will feel your whole body grow tall almost immediately. Take note of this feeling, and pay attention to the feeling of the "open" chest and lifted head. walk around for a bit and soak in the new feeling of tallness.  As a side note this will also help relax/open the hip flexors (and combined with kits hip flexor stretch, is AMAZING).

You can repeat the action against the wall 3 - 5 times, eventually you will be able to stand into straight knees without the back leaving the wall.

 

The other thing you need to do is change your daily habits. You should be regularly queuing an opening of the chest/straightening of the thoracic spine (i.e. turning the chest up in the same way you did against the wall).  Done properly the head and shoulders should naturally and softly move into a properly stacked position.  Another nice image/queue is to think of your head as a helium balloon that is always gently lifting towards the ceiling, and the spine is like the string of the balloon, pulled long but always soft and pliable. A final queue is to imagine your crown is attached to a wire that is being suspended from overhead, and the rest of the body is just "hanging" from the head.  In all cases mentioned, SOFTNESS is the key. Constant hard activation will just create more problems, even with a straight spine.

 

Again these queues need to be attempted as often as possible through out your day, as you're walking, sitting, running, whatever. The more regularly you queue them the faster the body will adapt.  If you're doing 10 minutes of practice and then spending the other 1,430 minutes of the day with the head forward, the body is going to continue adapting for the head forward position (which means laying more fascia and more density into existing fascia, and tighter structures around the spine and neck to support it against gravity), and that means zilch in the way of progress.

[Tristan Curtis]

I had the head slump for years. A practitioner put it down to weak head retractor muscles (sternocleidomastoid etc.).

 

She recommended I do some simple head retraction exercises. I thread the handles of a resistance band on a door-knob, and wrap the middle of the band around the back of my head. Kneeling down in front of the door, I slowly squeeze my chin towards my collarbones - with the added resistance of the band - to strengthen the muscles that pull my head back. It has made a huge difference to my overall posture.

[Guest]

So many overwhelming possible solutions, you guys are very helpful