How to Fix Rounded Shoulders and Forward Head!
We all spend so much time hunched over our computers and phones these days. If you’ve been noticing these effects on your posture, you might be wondering how you can fix rounded shoulders and a forward-dropping head.
You might be surprised to learn that it’s actually not about fixing your shoulders. It’s about everything else!
When targeting a rounded posture start thinking about everything that encompasses the upper body. Let’s start with the rib cage.
Diaphragmatic breathing to open up the ribcage
We’re going to focus on accessing and expanding the rib cage with diaphragmatic breathing. Our goal in this exercise is to relax and open the rib cage, encouraging the chest to release tension and tightness.
Lie on your back in a relaxed position. Place your fingertips underneath your rib cage and begin to (gently!) massage. Be mindful as you explore this area of your body. Can you relax the belly? Can you breathe deeply into the sensations? Maybe you’re still working on relaxing enough to wiggle your fingers underneath the rib cage. Just observe here without judgment. You don’t want to wiggle so hard that you feel any pain.
Once you begin feeling more comfortable, see if you can take a deep breath into the rib cage. Imagine expanding into both sides of the body. A lot of people imagine sending their breath only to their stomach but it’s actually the rib cage that we want moving.
When we are able to access this lateral expansion of breath and train the rib cage to move naturally in this way, we decrease the pressure and elevation and release the work from our trapezius muscles, or our upper back muscles.
Rounded shoulders occur when these upper back muscles are lengthened and our pectorals in the front of our chest get really tight, pulling our energy forward, causing our shoulders to round.
Stay in this exercise for at least two minutes – find what feels good for you!
Pectoral stretch to open the front body
This is one of my favorite pec stretches! I show and tell this move to everyone.
Come to standing and find a wall. Your inside leg is going to be forward and your outside leg steps back. Don’t step into a huge lunge. Tuck the tailbone under and squeeze your glute. This holds the low back in place so we can focus on the chest.
Bring your inside arm up and back at a diagonal. Keep the shoulder blade back and imagine driving it in towards the spine. Really focus on this as it’s key to the stretch. Mindfully begin to turn away from the wall – you should be feeling a really good pectoral stretch here right in the front of the chest.
Make sure that you’re not allowing the shoulder to roll forward because then you lose the stretch and release. The focus here is opening the chest. By opening the chest it allows our shoulders to relax and melt down the spine.
For this exercise, I like to place my hand on my belly do five slow breaths at least three times.
If your arm (placed on the wall) begins to fall asleep that’s normal. It just means that you have some increased tension and it’s pressing down on nerves and the arteries that allow blood flow. If this happens just take your arm down, shake it out, and try again.
It’s going to take time for the chest to open!
Active rotations to fix rounded shoulders
Now we want to get the upper back moving in a way that’s not putting tension on the low back or the shoulders.
Take the same position as the pectoral stretch. Lift up, arm back, squeeze the bum. Now we’re going to reach up and back but this time we’re trying to avoid touching the wall. Rotate your sternum toward the wall as much as possible, rotate the arm all the way back, down, and around.
For this exercise do 5-10 rotations on each side.
Now that the rib cage is expanded, the shoulder blades are in place, and the back is nice and open we can start the exercises. These are going to make a big difference in how the posture actually holds!
T Exercise
Grab a pull-up band or a resistance band. If you don’t already have one you can easily find one on Amazon or you can use my discount code DOCJENFIT to get 20% off at Hope Fitness. I use this band all the time!
We’re going to use the wall for this exercise. Step into the band and place your tailbone, upper back, and shoulders against the wall. Give a slight bend in the knees to release any pressure on the pelvis. To check for proper alignment here, we want the upper back and head against the wall without dropping the crown of the head back. Look straight ahead.
We also want to pay attention to the rib cage that we just warmed up. Is it lifted high towards the chest? If so, we want to focus on lowering the rib cage toward the pelvis. It might be hard at first to keep your head back without the rib cage lifting up, but that’s okay. Just keep practicing.
A good way to begin focusing on this is to take a breath in, expand out, and as you exhale allow the rib cage to lower.
Taking the band with you now, pull the elbows back, and try to open up the chest as you expand the band laterally.
As you do this you want to avoid the elbows coming away from you. Keep the elbows hugged into the side body as much as possible.
Keep the shoulders down, rib cage down, chin tucked, and squeeze your back between your shoulder blades, and then release the band back to its starting position.
Do about 10 of these.
If you feel like the band is too much you can take some resistance off by stepping off the band with one foot.
T Exercise Pt. 2
Bring the arms out in front of you. Keep the shoulders down and relaxed. What we want to avoid here is the shoulders popping up towards the ears and the rib cage popping out.
Keeping the rib cage down, chin tucked, and use your shoulder blades as the driving force to pull the band back. Think about the shoulder blades pulling down and back towards the wall. Then release.
Do another 10 of these!
You might be ready to stop here if your upper back isn’t used to this dynamic motion. That’s okay! Let this be where you start and eventually you’ll be ready to move onto…
Y Exercise
I’d call this exercise a bit more advanced, so if you’re just starting out you may want to try this first without using the band. But if you’re going for it, let’s do it!
Bring the arms out in front of you and, this time, we’re going to lift into a Y shape.
As your arms raise we want to make sure that the rib cage isn’t popping up, that your back isn’t jutting off the wall, and that the shoulders aren’t lifting up towards the ears. This is very important! Make sure your elbows aren’t bending.
You don’t have to touch the wall! You’ll continue this exercise for 10 reps and, again, you don’t need to touch the wall. We’re focusing on opening the upper back and helping it grow to be nice and strong, especially right around the rotators in the back of the shoulder.
When you keep up this practice you’ll notice that you begin to naturally stand up with a better posture without having to force anything.
Do this exercise about 10 times.
Wall Angels to fix rounded shoulders
Remove the band for this one. You can do this exercise against the wall or you can take it sitting on the ground. If you’re sitting on the ground it’s going to make keeping your rib cage down a bit more challenging- so just keep that in mind!
Bring your arms as far back against the wall as you can. If your body is a bit out (away) from the wall, that’s okay, try to get your upper back press against it. If your head isn’t quite reaching that’s fine for right now, too. Keep the chin tucked.
Bring the arms back, elbows bent, and simply slide up the wall and then slide back down.
The goal here is going to be bringing the hands together at the top. It’s going to be tough to keep the shoulders from popping up towards the ears or without bringing the hands off the wall. That’s okay! This is why we practice.
So, keep the upper back against the wall, rib cage down, and keep the chin tucked. Glide your arms up and come back down.
Do 10 of these wall angels.
Wall Angels on the ground
If you’re looking for more of a challenge, come down to the ground. Sit with your knees up (this helps to tuck the tailbone!) and ribcage down. This really helps you put the focus on the upper back.
In conclusion…
With these stretches and exercises, you can fix rounded shoulders and a forward head for good. Practice makes progress! Continue doing these exercises often and you’ll begin to see an improvement in your daily posture. It takes dedication but wow, are the benefits worth it! Enjoy seeing some real changes in the body.
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