Forward head...

[bee]

Originally Posted by herya

Would this yoga routine be of any help? I like it precisely for the better posture feeling it gives me. It's 20 minutes of heart and shoulder openers, it includes a shoulderstand but it's optional and can be modified. It's quite static and deliberate so perhaps it would be realistic for your DH to follow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWuvwDOcZxk

This one is very good too and specifically posture orientated but it has more movement, plus being Anusara it might be a little too verbose for a beginner... but all this upper back work might be worth it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AF7aknb-ZA

Did that first shoulder stand one just now.... terrific! Thank you very much.

[Lauracat]

So many great suggestions and things to follow up on! He has a quiz tomorrow (it's an engineering class called, ironically enough, Deformable Bodies), and he's really looking forward to reading the thread once that's over.

Thank you so, so much - VFers are absolutely the best . I'm glad others seem to be finding this helpful, too.

Laura

[mizach]

Thanks for all your links ladies! DH did the first stretch on bee's link. He said he can barely lift his hands above his head. His condition is not good.

jerebo,
I have Gokhale's book! I love it. She has a youtube clip that made me buy her book.

[Vintage VFer]

I worry about this, too.

All the suggestions are great. Another thing is to try and avoid recliner sofas. (Yeah, like anybody can keep their hubby out of the recliner, I know.) Still, the rounding of the back and neck is bad from the recliner position.

Also, keeping a small pillow or pad in the lumbar spine while sitting at a desk or driving helps to keep the lumbar spine supported and the neck from jutting forward. I bought a couple of the self-inflatable McKenzie pillows. The big lumbar pillows are too big for me and too hard.



I'm sure you can find similar items in many stores.

Charlene Prickett had some exercise to combat this in one of her old videos. I forget which one now.

[bee]

Originally Posted by mizach

Thanks for all your links ladies! DH did the first stretch on bee's link. He said he can barely lift his hands above his head. His condition is not good.

jerebo,
I have Gokhale's book! I love it. She has a youtube clip that made me buy her book.

mizach, encourage him to keep working on it. Also, maybe sitting down on a bench against the wall with his full back/head still against the wall may make it easier? I'm not sure. My chiropractor taught me this exercise/stretch in a sitting position, but Craig always has it standing. Anyway, tell DH it does get easier and I think it really makes a difference. Hmmm, maybe I ought to get my DH doing it!!!

[mizach]

Originally Posted by bee

mizach, encourage him to keep working on it. Also, maybe sitting down on a bench against the wall with his full back/head still against the wall may make it easier? I'm not sure. My chiropractor taught me this exercise/stretch in a sitting position, but Craig always has it standing. Anyway, tell DH it does get easier and I think it really makes a difference. Hmmm, maybe I ought to get my DH doing it!!!

He figured out what gave him shoulder pain. He's been complaining about it for 3 weeks now. He has a dual monitor set-up. His main one is to the left. I forgot to tell him what our ergonomics consultant at work made me do with my dual monitor. Have one directly in front of me. The second one is to my right. She encouraged me to try to just use the main monitor. She also told me to use a narrower keyboard so that my arms are close to my body and not like this:
/| |\
DH and I did a lot of stretches at the park while waiting for DS to finish baseball practice. He has a hard time following instructions and want me to guide him.

Alta,
We have 2 Mackenzie back support things. One is in DH's car, the other in mine. I need a new furniture that is back friendly!

[jerebo]

Originally Posted by mizach

Thanks for all your links ladies! DH did the first stretch on bee's link. He said he can barely lift his hands above his head. His condition is not good.

jerebo,
I have Gokhale's book! I love it. She has a youtube clip that made me buy her book.

I was introduced to her method years ago; my yoga teacher was very interested in Gokhale's work. But then I moved away and didn't really remember the name. Only recently did I stumble across it. It's good stuff, though I find it difficult to do the "stretchsitting" that she calls for.

[bfit]

I'm not sure whether this is the same foam roller stretch that someone mentioned in an earlier reply, but I found that lying down with my hands behind my head (in crunch position) with my upper back on the roller is helpful. Then roll up and down from the top of the shoulders to about the "bra line" area on the roller. It rubs out sore spots and helps with flexibility in that area - especially with keeping the shoulders back and down. A PT showed me this when I had a neck/shoulder injury.

[Dobby]

Originally Posted by jerebo

I have Esther Gokhale's book 8 Steps to a Pain Free Back. She suggests a few different things for improving head and shoulder positioning. First are chest stretches, as so many VFers have already suggested, and stretches for the trapezius. She also suggests strengthening the rhomboids, as Kathryn mentioned, and the neck. Here are two exercises to strengthen those respective muscles (from her book):

Rhomboid Toner.

1. Start with shoulders pulled back and down away from ears.
2. Grab a theraband or strap with palms upward.
3. Pressing your elbows against your sides, draw your shoulder blades as close together as you can. Naturally your hands will move away from each other.

Neck Strengthener

1. Fold a 6-foot length of fabric into a 6-inch wide band.
2. Wrap the fabric band behind the neck and hold one end in each hand.
3. Get into a position on all fours with your shoulders directly above your hands and your hips directly above your knees.
4. Anchor the fabric securely under your hands, ensuring that the band is snug against the back of the neck.
5. Use your neck muscles to pull back (up) against the band.
6. Hold for 10 seconds and repeat several times.

I thought the pictures of the change in her husband's posture (he's in the upper right corner) were absolutely amazing!

https://egwellness.com/

Pam

[FitBoop]

Originally Posted by jerebo

Thanks for posting this one! I'm going to give it a try. Have you ever done it yourself? If so, just wondering if you found it helpful with forward head (like the OP's DH, I have a serious problem in this regard).

Yes, it absolutely has helped me. I have done Alexander Technique for years, and part of the lesson is done while lying on your back on a table, in this position. In a lesson, the teacher gives you verbal direction such as thinking of lengthening your spine, freeing your neck, widening the shoulders and torso, freeing the legs and arms, and simultaneously uses her hands to assist you. You can do a lot on your own doing what I described above, to help you with neck and postural issues. The key to Alexander Technique is that we need to do less. That means not trying to straighten our spines; you only need the thoughts because without realizing it, when we think of a direction such as "free the neck," it happens.