We’re here at Body Works Sports Physiotherapy to demonstrate a technique for neck strength and improving posture for day-to-day life.
- Stand up against the wall with your knees bent, so you’re sort of squatted
- Put your feet out in front of you, so your lower back and hips are still connected to the wall.
- We want to focus on your ability to look forward, as well as your neck and chest position.
- Nod in the chin to work the deep neck flexors at the front of the neck, and lengthen or slide the head up the wall.
- We want to be able to maintain our focus horizontally while looking straight ahead, because this is what we need to do for functions such as driving, walking or using a computer.
- Then we’re going to relax and let it go, thinking about breathing out, softening your chest and lengthening your neck.
- Nod your chin in to work the deep neck flexor muscles, and keep looking straight ahead to work on coordinating with your eyes
Work on repetition, trying to retrain this movement so that we can maintain a better posture and help build some endurance in our neck muscles.
Aim to do 10 to 20 repetitions at a time, stopping at fatigue. This is also a position that we can work on while driving or working at the computer, even though we don’t have a wall behind us in those situations. Better neck strength means less pain and better posture.