STOP Taking Your Shoulders Back & DOWN | Do THIS Instead!

[@YourWellnessNerd]

Hopefully this both makes sense and helps with any ongoing neck, upper back or shoulder aches and pains!

[@loriwilliamson5738]

This info and perspective is thought altering and fabulous! Helped me. When I look in the mirror, my clavicle area is indented. When I pull my shoulder back and up(just a tiny bit), both sides of my collar bones are perfectly symmetrical - no longer any indent on my right side. Thank you!!!!! What muscle(s) can I strengthen to groom this better posture without having to consciously be aware all the time?

[@YourWellnessNerd]

Great to hear this may have helped as well Lori! Typically, exercises like shrugs and rows can help promote growth in these areas

[@PRC420]

I'm going to have a go at this

[@Mrieder79215]

I remember in PT school all the professors were always going on about back and down. In 15 years of practice, I've never had the cue help someone. Usually instead of activating the lower traps(the goal per old-school PT dogma) the patient just ended up activating the lats or the pecs or some other wonky combination of back and shoulder muscles which inevitably did not help. It's good to see the paradigm changing. Good video. Liked and subscribed.

[@YourWellnessNerd]

Appreciate it mate. I'm not sure this is as widely realized as it ultimately should be, but we'll all get there eventually!

[@avleck]

GENUINELY USEFUL VIDEO! 🙏🏼💎

[@YourWellnessNerd]

Appreciate it Mandy!

[@luca1064]

Hey Grant! Quick question about costochondritis. I'm 17 and have had costochondritis for around 9 months or so. Noticed pain when doing bench press one day and hasn't gone away since. I'm assuming i got it due to overdoing it with dips whilst having poor form and heavy bench press. Everytime I use a lacrosse ball/back pod on my back I notice an immediate increase in my pain. I don't know why that is and I keep thinking it's normal and will help with recovery but I don't think it's helping. I notice that my pain get significantly better when I train. I think the main cause of my costo is a weak upper back because my pain is on the upper side of my chest that correlates around to the upper back. I also get tight traps when sitting for to long I get a lot of neck pain. I think that the reason my traps get so tight is because I have a weak upper back which causes my traps to get tight and causes my neck to hurt to hurt because it has to compensate for my weak upper back. I think the most crucial thing for me to recover is to really strengthend my shoulders/upperback/traps. I don't think the backpod or lacrosse ball will do anything but hinder my recovery. I also am still able to train my back really hard till faliure. I can still do rows and such. What do you think? Would love to here your professional opinion!

[@YourWellnessNerd]

Hey mate! Sounds like youre heading down the right track! Unfortunately I cant give you specific advice as I can't assess you for myself but there are some general things to consider. With the ball, it's important to hit the side of the spine that feels the stiffest. It's often the same side as someone's Costo symptoms but can also be the opposite. Might be worth double checking if you feel there's a chance that applies to you. Strength is generally important for most people to improve the strength and conditioning of their upper back and thoracic muscles. It's also often important to make sure their postural habits are strong as well! Hope that helps in some way!

[@mindfulmomentswithColm]

very helpful thankyou

[@YourWellnessNerd]

You're welcome Colm!

[@azzayoba]

Thanks for sharing your advice. I appreciate your point on how stress exposes weakness or over loaded muscles. I’ve found that forcing the right posture tends to make things worse and that strengthening the postural muscles is the right way to go about relieving these overloaded muscles.

[@YourWellnessNerd]

Strength is often an important part of the process for sure. For me, it's often about freeing up any restricted areas, strengthening the right things and encouraging better shapes overall.

[@reality8434]

Good explaination 👍

[@YourWellnessNerd]

Thanks 🙂

[@cziffra1980]

Is it mostly about judging them relative to the ribs perhaps, rather than in isolation? Having had TOS, I've been learning to keep my ribs down while keeping the shoulder in upward rotation and aiming to get the collarbones just slightly forward rather than back (without also tipping them down). What I notice is my shoulders are actually a lot lower relative to my head. When I only thought of holding the shoulders higher, it didn't help much because my ribs came along for the ride. It seems to me that the main thing we need to do is talk in relation between two parts at once, rather than in relation to a single part without a context.

[@rigaleb]

Yeah.. shoulders back exacerbates TOS like hell, especially if you have weak scm or scalenes.

[@YourWellnessNerd]

I hear you mate. Not a fun experience!

[@ItsaStringThing]

Great tip. Really helped with my thoracic outlet syndrome. By the way, your channel name is a bit of a misnomer. You may be smart, but I wouldn't call you a nerd. More like physio Hugh Jackman

[@rigaleb]

Yeah, defenitely not a nerd.

[@YourWellnessNerd]

Appreciate you taking the time to comment! I'll take that comparison!