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This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in December of 2024. For the original video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm_dcM6uvrw&t=59s
Mike: Get ready to discover the ultimate posture exercise that we swear by. And it's so simple, you can even do it in a chair.
Brad: That's right. But we also have a bonus treatment at the end.
Mike: Before we get into the exercise, we're gonna show you the four different muscle groups that can get tight with bad posture.
Brad: And not only muscle groups, but we're going to talk about some joints that can rust, just like a hinge, and cause that posture to be permanent in a way. So we need to break away. If we look at the number of joints in the back, we've got facet joints at each vertebra. Plus joints where the ribs connect up to the vertebra itself. So there's a lot of movement going on there, but small movements. But it's very critical to have good posture.
Brad: Alright, so the first critical location that we want to talk about is, from what I talked about recently, this area right here. It causes head forward posture and that hunch back. Mike, what else does it do?
Mike: It's going to tighten the muscles in your neck, which is the second group we're going to focus on. It also makes your pecs tight being in a forward rounded posture. And the last muscle group is your abs, or core muscles because I'm constantly flexed over like this. So we need to stretch and open all these joints up to get them functioning properly.
Brad: Now we're going to get right into the stretch. The reason why we feel it's the best stretch is because it covers all of the joints and the muscle groups that we talked about to get you into good posture. You simply need a ball, usually about 10 inches in size. It's going to be a soft, squishy one. Or a 6-inch ball works nicely too. It's whatever works best for you. If you don't have a ball, you could use a throw pillow, but it will not be as effective. So we're going to take the ball, we'll use the red one. This will probably be best for most people, and you'll place it behind your back. And Mike's going to go and cover more details on the stretch itself.
Mike: So the first thing we're going to do is straighten up our posture like this. What this is gonna do is straighten the abdomen out. If you notice I was slumped forward, my pelvis is now up. Good posture. The next thing to look at is the neck. In order not to have a forward neck still, you want to perform a chin tuck. So bring your chin back in position.
Mike: Now from here to work on the pecs and even shoulders a little bit, you can bring your arms out to your side. And you're going to bring them straight up, kind of like you're making a snow angel. If you don't have snow, I guess you're just making an angel. And you're going to go up and down. Notice my hands are as back as far as I can comfortably get them. They're not forward, they're nice and back. So we're getting those pecs opened up, the abs opened up, the neck. And the ball's helping with the upper back.
Brad: That's right, and you'll notice as you do this, your breathing, all of a sudden, you'll notice more volume of air getting in those lungs. Just another bonus of good posture. That ball is in the back. Now, you may find that you want to move the ball up or down depending on which joints are locked up back here. So you simply adjust it up. And sometimes a small ball gets more specific. If you have one tight spot, you can go ahead and try that, Mike. What do you think of that, Mike?
Mike: Oh, yeah, that's different.
Brad: Yeah, it is. So it might be worth it if you don't have a ball, maybe the neighbor kids have one or, you know, you can take one from your grandchild or whatever. You can maybe order one. The last case scenario.
Mike: So it's good to try to perform 10 reps of bringing your arms up and down. Now, if you have a shoulder problem and you can't quite get one side up, you certainly can clasp your hands together and try to lift this way as high as you comfortably can. Make sure to keep that chin-tuck engaged the whole time.
Brad: And we could also just do the famous Bob Hallelujah stretch.
Mike: We could.
Brad: Bob, do you concur? I like that one. Just lift your arms straight up overhead.
Brad: Alright, so in conclusion of that best stretch for posture, I'd like you to do that at least three times a day. 10 repetitions. Maybe start with five, five to 10 repetitions three times per day. And you'll notice improvement day-by-day with your posture and your breathing improving. Now for the bonus treatment we mentioned earlier on, we're talking about actually using an assistive device, a massage gun that reciprocates. And it really can work well on the tight muscles that keep your shoulders forward and rounded. If we can loosen up and break up that muscle tightness, this will become much easier. So go ahead, Mike, talk about what you're doing.
Mike: So you can just massage on the pec major and minor muscles. Now, typically when they're rounded forward like this, the tighter parts are gonna be on the outside of the pec muscle. So you can just kind of massage in here. If you find any knots or tender areas, work around them first, and then go into it.
Mike: We have some pretty cushioned soft heads right now. You could pick whichever head feels best for you for massaging this area. And we would like to mention that these massage guns were ranked very high by "TechRadar" and "Women's Health".
Brad: I think they're rated number one, and they're excellent guns.
Mike: They're in the top five.
Brad: They are Bob and Brad's massage guns, of course. We don't sell anything but excellent products and quality. I did want to mention, Mike has the airhead, which is soft. You can use a round head, which can vary by going sideways or straight in.
Brad: One big warning, you do not want to get under the armpit because you do have lymph nodes there. You don't want to massage lymph nodes. Stay in the front, on the muscles. So, this you could do before your stretch, after your stretch, and you'll find it works great on other parts of the body, arms, legs, and calf muscles.
Mike: If you'd like to check out more videos on how to not walk so hunched over, you can check out the video "How To Stop Walking Hunched Over! 5 Best Fixes." We describe some different exercises or treatment options.
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