This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in December 2017. For the original video, watch How You Can Get Rid of Neck Hump With a SOCK. Dowager's Hump.

Bob: Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.

Brad: Brad Heineck, physical therapist.

Bob: Together we are the most famous physical therapists on the internet.

Brad: In our opinion, of course.

Bob: By the way, our subject today is how to get rid of neck hump with a sock. Isn't that intriguing? We have a sock right here.

Brad: Not just any sock, but a rolled-up sock.

Bob: That's right, a rolled-up kind of solid sock. So, neck hump, it's that big bump you see on some people right here. And actually it often can have a little bit of a fatty deposit, and it's called Dowager's hump.

Brad: Is that from a doctor, Dowager?

Bob: I'm sure it is. What else would it be but Brad's already putting the neck in the position, and he's showing you what is forming that bump. So if you go down, there are seven cervical vertebrae and the seventh one is often the one that's the most prominent one. It's sticking out. That little bump on the end is called the spinous process. There you can see that bump right there sticking out.

Bob: So what we're going to do with the sock is we're going to provide a counter pressure right there on that hump to help correct that and move it back into place again.

Brad: There should be a little bit of an arch in there, but it's obvious. Everyone's seen people in public or whatever with that posture; you may know someone, you may have it yourself. So how could we correct that?

Bob: Or better yet, how can we stop it from happening in the first place? So you can do some of these exercises that prevent it if you start heading that way already. So I took a sock. Actually, a pair of socks here. I guess that'd be two, and I rolled up the first one, and I just took the second one, and I rolled it over the top of it. So this one rolled this way, and on this one I rolled right over the top.

Brad: Is this how you keep your socks in your drawer, or do you do the other method?

Bob: I just throw them in there. All the same color, don't worry about matching. I think I'm good today. So you have a nice solid sock here, and now this is going to provide the counter pressure. This works well for me in my car. Now, I'm not going to recommend that you do it while driving, no. But you can do it as a passenger, or you can do it before you start driving, and do some of these exercises with the sock in place. Now we don't have a high enough chair to do this to simulate the driving, so what we're going to do is we're actually going to take a chair, and we're going to take a foam roller by OPTP.

Brad: So if you have a chair that has a tall enough back that goes to the top of your shoulders, you could use a firm chair. It's not going to work in a soft cushion chair; it has to be a firm chair. Or you can use a foam roller like this, and we're going to show you exactly how to do this.

Bob: So you put it right in place here, right at C7 there. And I'm going to do some chin tucks while it's in place. And it really feels good, to be honest with you. This is my treatment I do in my car every day.

Brad: I've seen him do it.

Bob: I actually drive with this in place. My kids' ongoing joke is, you know, we get in the car, my sock's not there, I'm going, where's my sock? The kids know I won't leave until the sock is found.

Brad: I've seen him use a glove.

Bob: Yeah, I've done a glove, and I've done everything. So you do chin tucks. But also you can actually do some extensions that way, and you can do some side bending, back and forth, all that while keeping that sock in place and working on it.

Brad: And if you notice Bob's shoulders are back. The whole posture thing is being attempted. But people are going to want to know: what, 5-10 repetitions at a time?

Bob: I'd say you could do more, 15 to 20. It's just one of those things that feels really good, and you almost can't get enough of it. So obviously, if you don't have a foam roller, another way to do this is just on a hard surface. You could do it on the floor.

Brad: A carpeted floor is desirable.

Bob: Tile would be tough. This is not a floor, obviously, but we want to show you just so you can see it. This is a fairly hard surface, but same thing: I can put it right in place here. Now, it's right on C7 again, and now I can do my chin tucks with this in place. You probably can't see, I suppose.

Brad: If we rotate your body a little bit here.

Bob: And you could do a side bending this way too, Brad. It feels really good. All right, next one, Brad. This would be a really aggressive one because this is going to work on a couple of things all at the same time. We take our foam roller; you want to take the softer one, and that is a little more comfortable. So Brad and I are big fans of this foam roller. It's a little bit softer. It's by OPTP. People really like this one. I always have trouble getting on this thing a little bit.

Brad: Don't, don't worry about it, Bob. They've got time.

Bob: This is pulling the shoulders back, stretching, getting the neck a little bit of a stretch, too. But I'm going to go ahead and put the sock in place along with this. I'm too far down, aren't I?

Brad: So you want to get the roller so that your head can rest on the roller, and Bob's a tall person. If he can do it, pretty much anyone can.

Bob: This is aggressive. But just lying here, now I'm not only stretching the chest, but I'm also stretching that bump. I'm working right on that bump, so this is just a really easy one to do. For some of you, you probably won't be able to get your head down.

Brad: Right. So shall we show them a little trick? You can use a small pillow. They do make a nice little arch that fits on here and stays right there. It works really well.

Bob: Yeah, actually it does. A good starter thing, and again, you can just lie here. This is often recommended for people who even have the hump in the mid-back. If you're having trouble with thoracic outlet syndrome. A lot of times, they recommend this.

Brad: I like to just lie on this after I work out just to relax, and things just fall. I don't think I have the hump yet, but I want to maintain so I don't.

Bob: That's right. I can confirm that you don't have the hump, Brad. You're doing fine. The other thing you can do without the foam roller is put the sock down here. I'm going to bring it out again, and you can lie down on it again. And I'm going to put it in place, and now with this in place, I'm going to do my snow angels. I've got my arms out to the side, my elbows are down, and I'm going back and forth like this. So I'm getting some strengthening now.

Brad: This is what it looks like from the top.

Bob: I'm doing some strengthening, and I'm getting a counterforce on that C7.

Brad: You don't have to go out in the snow bank to do this. Right at home on your living room floor is just fine.

Bob: If you want to, you can.

Brad: You can do that if you've got that climate.

Bob: If you have trouble getting the neck all the way down, you might just use a thin pillow to start.

Brad: Or you could use another sock or rolled towel. Bob and I like to keep things simple, so you don't have to go and buy something every time you turn around. Unless you want to, that's fine.

Bob: Do you want to show just one strengthening one, Brad?

Brad: Nope, I don't want to. Just kidding. Yeah, I'd love to. Should we start with the typical scapular retraction? So if you've got some bands, resistance bands.

Bob: He's squeezing his shoulder blades together, and that's helping strengthen the muscles that keep you from going forward like this.

Brad: When I do this, I think to myself, I think, bring my sternum out that way and my shoulders back, and you can really feel that extra stretch. But not with your head forward; keep it back.

Bob: If you're doing it in bad posture, it's not going to help you.

Brad: It'll exaggerate it; I'm not kidding. Don't worry about people watching. If you're at your house, you don't have to worry about it unless your kids are, your wife or your spouse is watching you.

Bob: The thing about this is you can do lots of repetitions. I mean, you can honestly do 50 of these.

Brad: It's a postural muscle.

Bob: There's a toning muscle. So it's not one you're bulking up. It's one you want to really do.

Brad: I want to tell you, if you have never done this before and you can do 50 of them, you're going to be sore the next day.

Bob: I agree, you're not going to start off with 50.

Brad: Now, obviously I need to come in closer so I'd have so much resistance, and then that's what you were talking about? Yeah. I like to call it the hitchhiker, and this not only works the postural, but it gets the rotator cuff muscle as well. This one is hard to do. I'm not going to get 50 of these. I'm going to do about ten.

Bob: Then why don't you finish with one last one, Brad? Just point down low and kind of get the lowest of the lower muscles.

Brad: And then we're thinking about going down, and you get the lower traps, which is a nice muscle to promote.

Bob: Good postural muscle too.

Brad: Down, you can see my shoulders. Tell them about the scapular thing where we put them into your back pocket.

Bob: Right. He's trying to picture it in his mind; he's trying to squeeze the shoulder blades and push them downward, so they're going down into the back pocket. It's a weird thought, but that's what you want to be thinking about: taking the shoulder blades down into the pockets.

Brad: That imagery thing can really be helpful with getting the right motions.

Bob: All right, Brad. I think we've done enough.

Brad: We've done enough to confuse these people; let's give them a break. They can go work on these exercises.

Bob: And remember, we can fix just about anything with a sock; no, we can fix just about everything...

Brad: Except for that broken heart. But we're working on it. The sock is about the size of a heart, though. If we get a red sock.

Bob: That's true.

Brad: We're going in the right direction.

Bob: Thanks.

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