Lessons

Lesson Info

Daily Exercises for Every Creative

Nice, so we're gonna begin with unwinding the unsightly pattern of forward head posture. So forward head posture also known as upper crossed syndrome is a complex of being pulled from the front, so the muscles in the front of the chest, peck minor, peck major, all these muscles on the chest they get pulled forward and then the muscles, the crossed portion, the muscles up and around the neck, the suboccipital muscles, unnecessary words, those all get tight as well so you get bound in this position and then the muscles in and around the spine, rom voids, mid trap, low trap, those become inhibited, elongated, also the muscles in the throat get elongated as well. So what we're going to do is we're gonna unwind all of that. We're going to open up the chest, open up the neck and then engage those muscles in the back and start to reorient re correct this whole position. So we have the beautiful model Anna here and she is going to do these exercises with us, with me, and I appreciate it. So we...

're gonna start off. First thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna start to unwind this tension we have on our shoulders. So if a person that's holding the camera up like this, perhaps, or like this, or you're an artist you're working from this position, you're work on a computer, these shoulders are gonna rolled forward there's gonna be a lot of tension in this area. Might lead to headaches, might lead to neck tension, back pain, things of the sort. So, beautiful Anna, what are you gonna do is you're gonna pass this band around the front of your shoulder, bam, like that. Then you're gonna step your foot forward like so into a lunge position, creating about 10 pounds or so of, of tension on that shoulder. Kind of follow what works feels good for you. And then you're going to slowly start to just lean into that position. And I want you to reach your fingertips down to the ground on the right arm particularly. Yes, reach, reach, reach. So you're actively trying to touch the ground with that hand, so you're creating elongation through the neck. Now, from here, you can start to turn the head to the left, turn the head to the left. Keep yourself in that hinge forward position. And we're slowly starting to create an elongation and a stretch. You could also side bend your head to the left a little bit as well. Side bend and turn to the left. Wooooooooo! Very good, that's good. So from here, what we're doing and now using your breath to open this space. So the exhalation, as we learned in the aligned method series, that's going to be activating that parasympathetic or calming side of the nervous system. So as you're doing any type of mobilization or stretch whatever you wanna call it, you can use that exhalation... (instructor exhales) to go a little bit deeper into the stretch. So going through a few rounds of that reaching the fingertips down, turning the head to the left, side bending to the left, keeping the ribs slightly tucked towards the hips so you maintain good spinal mechanics and just play with this position. What we're doing here is we're creating space in the front of the shoulder and space in the side of the neck. Now from here, what the lovely Anna is going to hinge herself forward more so that now that tension is going into depression of the shoulder. Depression being the opposite of elevation. This is Ugh, elevation. This is Ahhh, depression. So in depress that shoulder creates more space hinge yourself forward even a little bit more. Yeah, so now it's really starting to open up through those traps. Open up through that anterior delt, anterior shoulder complex and same thing, playing with side bending the heads, playing with turning the head to the left and just opening up some space to that area. Now, what Annie can play with as well is reaching the hand. You're gonna turn your hand inward, boop, and then reach the hand back behind you. Boom. And then come up into overhead motion. You're going to reach the thumb up towards the sky and go up overhead. And then just exploring, you can turn the head, side bend. You can wiggle the spine a little bit. Just kind of, once you skip the general mechanics of how to do this, you can kind of play with exploration of what movement feels good for you specifically. So we're just gonna go through about a minute of this in total, and then we're gonna go onto the next exercise of starting to open up some space around the back of the neck. So remember, this upper cross syndrome or forehead posture it's gonna be tension in the front of the shoulders, tension to the pecks, spec minor, anterior delt, all these guys, and it's gonna be tension around the suboccipital muscles, muscles in the back of the neck. So what Anne's gonna do now is she's gonna bring the band around the bottom of her neck. So this space, right, that little bony protrusion area here where your skull, the base of the skull top of the neck. And so come a little bit up, a little bit higher with the band, so it's right around like here, Anna, yeah. And then slowly walking yourself back, back, back. Just getting a little bit of tension in there doesn't mean need to be a lot of tension. And then from here Anna's gonna start to draw the chin backward and forward. Yes, exactly. So that forward is an exaggeration of that forward head posture. And then retracting back, she's starting to engage these muscles back through the spine. She's starting to elongate these muscles. Good, beautiful. Back of the the suboccipital in the lower neck. And she's paying attention to staying nice and stacked, well oriented down through her feet. Yep. And just forward and backward with the head a few times. Forward, backward, forward, back. Yes, exactly. Yep. Good, good, good. So this is a beautiful motion to start to reset that neck jutting forward. So you're gonna go through 10 to 12 reps of that or so. Remember your cervical spine is, it can be a bit on the fragile side in comparison to say like thoracic spine or your hips. So less is more, you don't need to really batter this area, really be gentle with it and be intentional about quality of movement. Then pop your head out of there Anna. And the common tendency after we come outta that, as a person kind of feels like their head's like drifting up, like you feel taller. How do you feel? I feel pretty tall. Tall, right? Yeah. It's a very interesting sensation. You literally it's like, it's like a, it's a strange reaction. Next thing we're gonna play with is engaging these muscles in the mid trap. These muscles going across the back of the spine, low trap, muscles are coming down like that. Rhomboids and some of the rotator cuff muscles in the back of the shoulder that might be inhibited or elongated in this position. So what Anna's gonna do is she's gonna grab the yellow band. This is from the total strength kit that we also sell on the website. I'm sure there'll be a link here someplace. And she's going to grab both sides of the band. Yes. Just like that. And she's going to come backwards, she's gonna go like this with the band, yep. And while she's doing this she's keeping the ribs tucked down towards her hips, so she's not compromising spinal mechanics to go into this range of motion. Beautiful, so good. So as she's going back into this motion she's starting to engage the lap muscles, she's starting to engage some of those posterior shoulder muscles, engaging the traps and really just starting to reignite all these, all these muscles in the back of the shoulder that gets so disengaged from chronically hunched over sitting positions. And so playing with new ranges of motion as well. So going, so she started off going down low. Now she can go out to the side like that. Then she can go out to the side even higher, keeping the shoulders depressed, meaning dropped down towards the ground the whole entire time. Beautiful. And go through a few rounds going side you can go kind of even higher, you can turn the arms facing back. So the thumbs are going back, yes! Keep the thumbs or the ribs tucked down towards the hips, and then just going through, you could say maybe four ranges of motion, go high, go kind of middle, go low, and then you go all the way down to the sides. So with this you're gonna do about 10 repetitions in each range of motion. And then tell me how you feel. So we're gonna continue this journey of starting to unwind the unsightly pattern of forward head posture and recognize that it is not just a shoulder thing or a neck thing. These patterns are tied into the orientation of your entire body. So we're gonna come down, if a person is sitting on a chair with great regularity and they're in that forehead posture, a part of that is gonna be tension and shortness in these hip flexors. So if I stand up from this position and this is all bound and tight as I come up in order for me to come into have my eyes facing forward like this, I'm gonna end up actually going into that forward head posture because I'm so tight in my midsection, in my hip flexors. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna start to open some space up and around those joints. And we're gonna start off actually with a little bit of gut massage, which sounds wild that we would be thinking of massaging through the guts to open up the neck but it makes a big difference. So have beautiful Anna, come here and we're gonna bring the band around your abdomen. Abdomen! Pretty nice. And so, yeah, not around the hips yet. So just around the abdomen and then you're going to, again, like five to eight pounds of pressure. Yep, yep. And using the band as almost like a floss of sorts. So you're gonna breathe into the band, like using it as like a feedback mechanism to breathe into the belly. Good. Expanding, open, breathing into the side of the ribs, breathing into the band. (Both breathing) Very good. And from here Anna it can start to comfortably roll forward. So bending, flexing forward in the spine and still breathing into the band and just using that band to start to traction create a little lift in the viscera, in the whole abdominal territory here and just letting your body hang, letting the arms hang. Good! Now breathing actively from this position, breathing into the band. This is so healthy for you, for any person, no matter what the scenario and it's not just fixing forward head posture. Massage, and, and pressure through the abdominal cavity, amazing for downregulation, amazing for the, the up regulation or the functioning of your organs of your viscera. All the, that connective tissue inside of your organs, you want those to be sliding layers. You want them to be hydrated. You want it to be buoyant. You want it to be dynamic. You want it to have full range of motion just like any other part of the body. So this is a beautiful way to go through, If you feel any tension, density, anything of sort in your midsection this is a beautiful opportunity to find that with the band, breathe into the band, create a little wiggle, just like Anna's doing perfectly right now and start to bring some, some more space and hydration into that area. Next, Anna can start to do pretty much exactly what she's doing, come into like a down dog position, and then the band's gonna naturally start to create a little traction in the lower back. It's gonna create a little bit of space in the sacroiliac joints and it's gonna start to really feel just like a nice elongation through the entirety of the spine. And Anna just naturally is going through what any healthy person would do. They're going through and kind of twisting and turning. And you can send your breath into your lower back, send your breath into the bands, send your breath into the sides of the ribs. This is such an amazing, I can't stress enough how lovely of an experience this is and how important it is for any modern human to go through a range of like of motion like this with some level of regularity. And so last little bit, as Anna's on the ground with her hands, she's going to actively be driving the hands down into the ground. So being very active with the hands just like we'd be active with our feet. And so driving down, bringing the hand, the whole Palm down to the ground, actively driving that index finger, that thumb down in the ground create a subtle external rotation so the elbow pits are facing slightly forward. That's gonna help engage these muscles in the posterior side of the shoulder girdle. I know that that was a lot of information but the most important parts are just enjoy it. Use your breath as a feedback tool and make sure it feels good. And you know, from there you can be as specific as you want. The main thing is just be in this position for about a minute or so. Wiggle, use the band's feedback. And the next thing that we're going to explore is how to specifically open up range of motion through the hips and start to create a little bit more length and relaxation through the quads. So again, if a person is sitting down on a chair for a long time, all of these muscles and connective tissue starts to get bound up. So next thing we're gonna come over to the living room and start to open up this space.