Today I wanted to talk to you about neck pain, and also give you some exercises that will help eliminate neck pain or prevent neck pain.

Hi Dr. Vas here,
 
Today I wanted to talk about how to improve your posture. Posture is something that I tell my clients to work on, and in today’s blog post I am going to discuss 5 ways to improve your posture general posture.

Chiropractor in Irvine helps fix your posture

 
Identify good posture.
 
Good posture is nothing more than keeping your body in alignment. What good posture looks like when a person is standing : a straight back, squared shoulders, chin up, chest out, stomach in. If you can draw a straight line from your earlobe through your shoulder, hip, knee, to the middle of your ankle—–you’ve got it.

• Using a mirror, align your ears, shoulders, and hips. Proper alignment places your ears loosely above your shoulders and above your hips. Again, these points make a straight line, but the spine itself curves in a slight ‘S’. You’ll find that this doesn’t hurt at all. If you do experience pain, look at your side view in a mirror to see if you’re forcing your back into an unnatural position.The spine has two natural curves that you need to maintain called the ‘double C’ or ‘S’ curves.

• These are the curves found from the base of your head to your shoulders and the curve from the upper back to the base of the spine. When standing straight up, make sure that your weight is evenly distributed on your feet. You might feel like you are leaning forward, and you may even feel you look odd, but you don’t.

Train your muscles to do the work.
 
Exercises that strengthen the muscles across your upper back and shoulders will help you to maintain good posture. You don’t need to develop a body builder physique—–it’s more important to build “muscle memory” so that you unconsciously and naturally maintain correct posture without fatigue. Try the following, with or without hand weights:
 
Exercise One
 

• – Square your posture, head upright, so that your ears are aligned over your shoulders.

• – Raise both arms straight out, alongside your ears, palms up.

• – Bend forearms in and back, toward shoulders, in an effort to touch your shoulder blades with your fingertips.

• – Do ten repetitions with both arms, then alternate ten reps for each arm singularly.

 
Exercise Two

• – Align ears with shoulders as in Exercise One.

• – Raise both arms out to sides at shoulder height, and hold for a slow count of ten.

• – Slowly lower arms to sides, counting ten as you lower.

• – Slowly raise arms back to shoulder height, counting to ten as you raise arms.

• – Do ten reps, constantly checking your alignment with each rep. If ten reps are too many to start, do as many as you can. You should at least feel a slight fatigue in the shoulder muscles.

 
Be a penguin.
 
While you wait for a web page to load or the bread to toast, place your elbows at your side, and touch your shoulders with your hands.

• Keeping your hands on your shoulders and your ears aligned, raise both elbows (count one, two) and lower them back down (count one, two). Do as many reps as your wait allows. You’ll be surprised how much exercise fits into 30 seconds.

 
Do stretches.
 
This can greatly help if you find that you have a sore back or neck. It’s also good to do during the day, if your job requires you to sit for long periods.

• – Tilt or stretch your head in all four directions over your shoulders (forward, back, left, right), and gently massage your neck. Avoid rolling in a circle, as it may cause further strain.

• – On your hands and knees, curl your back upwards, like a cat, and then do the opposite. Think about being able to place a bowl in the hollow of your back.

• Repeat the exercises a few times each day. Doing them in the morning helps your body stretch out the muscle lethargy of sleep. Done periodically throughout the day, it will help to raise your energy level without a heavy workout.

 
Practice yoga.
 
Yoga is excellent for posture, and for your health in general. It can also improve your balance. Yoga works your core muscles making them stronger and helping you to keep a proper body in alignment. Yoga will also help by teaching you how to hold an erect posture while sitting, standing, and walking. We offer yoga videos here at Next Level Wellness Center please call 949.478.0622. If you are having any pain is any part of your body we can help you.
 
Come over to www.nextlevelwellnesscenter.com, and follow the instruction on the video.
 
That’s all for today. If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to call.
 
Dedicated to taking your health to the Next Level,
 
Dr. Vasili Gastinaris D.C.