October 28, 2024 • 22 mins
Imagine a life free from the nagging pain of a stiff neck and aching upper back. Join me, Courtney, your guide and personal trainer, as we explore actionable strategies to combat the discomfort that plagues our modern sedentary lifestyles. We’ll uncover how everyday activities like desk work and driving can sneakily influence our posture, leading to that persistent muscle tension. Together, we'll practice envisioning a string pulling from the crown of your head to correct forward head posture—a simple yet powerful tool towards achieving better alignment and easing muscle stress.
Throughout our episode, I share easy movements and stretches you can incorporate right into your daily routine, without having to carve out extra time. From opening your chest with hands behind your head to engaging the mid-back with exercises like rows and Lat pull-downs, these strategies are designed to promote mobility and strengthen your upper back for lasting relief. We’ll also touch on the significance of varying your sitting positions and identifying compensatory patterns that might be affecting your body’s overall movement. If you’re ready to embrace midlife and aging with grace, join our community, share these insights with others, and let’s journey towards a healthier, more confident you.
Head to www.movingthroughmidlife. com to learn more
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How are you feeling today?
Do you notice that you maystruggle with tension in your
upper back, or maybe you thinkof it as upper back pain or
shoulder blade pain?
Do you notice that you arestruggling with that a lot?
(00:21):
One thing that I tend to see alot with my clients is this
upper back and neck pain that wehave, and it's especially
around the shoulder blades.
It's very common and thisusually happens due to all the
things that we are doing in life.
(00:42):
So whether we're liftingchildren or grandchildren,
carrying heavy bags, workinglong hours at a desk, using our
mouse, even sometimes the way wedrive and sleeping in awkward
positions, can create this backtension, this upper back tension
(01:05):
, and I wanted to share a coupleof things that you can work on
practicing to help to relievethat upper back pain and improve
your posture so that you startto feel a little bit better.
(01:26):
Welcome to Moving ThroughMidlife.
I am your host courtney, apersonal trainer and movement
specialist who wants to help youmove through midlife with more
grace.
Each week we will discuss wayswe can show up better for
ourselves and our childrenwithout the burnout.
We will focus on overall healththrough habit stacking to help
(01:47):
increase energy, providemovement snacks to help you move
more throughout the day, whilealso moving your body more, and
learn from professionals onmoving through midlife with ease
so that you can feel confidentwith aging.
Gracefully Grab your earbudsand join me on a leisurely walk
while we discuss moving throughmidlife.
(02:11):
With our modern lifestyle, wetend to suffer with back tension
, upper back pain and neck painbecause we live such a sedentary
life and because of the roundedforward of our shoulders due to
computers, due to reading books, due to phones, due to a lot of
(02:33):
things.
It's just the way it is.
So I want to provide you withsome strategies to help you work
through this pain and see ifyou can help to alleviate it.
Now, obviously, if you'redealing with a lot of pain, you
definitely need to go see adoctor.
I always would recommend thatfirst, especially if it's this
(02:57):
aggravating pain.
But if you're just dealing withlike a stiff neck in the
morning, when you wake up,things like that, or you've been
working at your desk for awhile and you start to feel that
tension between your shoulderblades, these are the exercises
that you can work on practicingto help with those types of pain
.
(03:20):
So I try not to give a bunch ofcorrective exercises, even
though I, you know, that is afield that I'm passionate about.
I want to provide you withthings you can do in your
everyday life because, therefore, you're more apt to do them.
If I gave you a slew ofexercises to add on to the end
(03:42):
of your workouts, most peoplewould not do them.
You know, if you think of ifyou've ever seen a physical
therapist, they'll give you alist of things to do, and I have
clients who work with physicaltherapists and then they see me
as well and I'll say somethinglike did you do those exercises?
And they're like, no, I didn'texercises.
(04:07):
And they're like, no, I didn't.
So I mean, it's very commonthat we don't do these exercises
because it's just adding onemore layer in.
So if we can find ways to dothis in our everyday life,
wouldn't that be so much better?
So the first thing we're goingto do is talk through driving.
(04:27):
When you are driving, there aresimple things that you can do
to start to help alleviate thispain and sit with better posture
.
Now, I always caveat thisbetter situation.
Obviously, posture is a movingtarget and our body is designed
(04:47):
to move through differentpositions, so a stagnant hold of
sitting really tall is notbetter posture, so to speak.
Okay, but we do have somethings that we can work on to
help with our alignment, to easethe stressors on our muscles.
(05:12):
Our body is designed to stackupon itself, joint by joint,
stack upon itself.
What happens is due to weakness, movement patterns, things like
that, weakness in the muscle,movement patterns we tend to
pull into positions.
(05:34):
So I'm going to provide youwith an exercise to kind of help
you to stack your body more upon itself, and you'll notice
that well, you may notice thatyou feel a sense of relief in
this position.
So what you're going to do is Iwould recommend doing this in
(05:57):
your car, while driving, but youcan practice it now if you're
not driving and all you're goingto do is you're going to
imagine someone pulling a stringand you may have heard me talk
about this before from the crownof your head.
Okay, now, the reason I don'twant it from the front of your
head or from the top of yourhead is because of what may
(06:18):
happen at your chin.
So, the crown of the head, ifyou imagine someone wearing a
crown, it's going to be thatback area of the head kind of
like where, if you wore a highponytail not the top knot, but a
higher ponytail on the back ofthe head, right about that area,
and we're going to imaginesomeone pulling a string and
(06:42):
lifting us up, and what youshould notice when you do that
is one you sit a lot taller, butyour chin drops slightly.
You sit a lot taller, but yourchin drops slightly.
So what happens?
When we are living our normaleveryday life, many of us move
(07:02):
into this forward head posturewhere our head kind of juts
forward, our chin juts forwardand our eyes are always looking
for the horizon.
That is kind of what thevestibular system tends to do is
we're looking for the horizon.
So no matter what position ourhead is in, it's going to try to
(07:24):
level itself based on what thehorizon is doing.
So if you have this roundedforward position, your chin is
going to jut forward as well, sothat your eyes see the horizon
level.
What we're going to try to dois counteract that.
(07:44):
So when we lift and lengthen up, you'll feel this slight drop
of the chin and you should stillbe able to see the horizon.
Well, okay, so from here.
So we're not dropping too fardown is my whole point.
We don't want to drop the chin.
I never said drop the chin.
(08:05):
I said lift up, lengthenthrough the crown of the head
and your chin will naturallydrop.
I just want to make sure thatthat's clear, because then you
don't want to be creating a lotof tension in the neck from
trying to drop the chin.
So once you're in this position, lengthening up, chin is
slightly dropped.
(08:27):
You want to imagine pulling backtowards, if you're in the car,
the headrest.
Now, the way the seats are made, a lot of them are
ergonomically made, butunfortunately it's like this
ergonomically made, but in thisrounded position I feel like
every time I get in my car I'mlike sinking pelvic is tucking
(08:49):
under and so don't push as farback as maybe the headrest is if
it's far back and it feelsawkward.
Always listen to your body forcues.
If something doesn't feel right, stop.
So what you're going to do fromthat point is just gently pull
(09:10):
the head back and all you'retrying to do is get that ear
directly over top of theshoulders, right?
So if I were to draw a linefrom your ear to your shoulders,
they would be in a straightline.
They wouldn't be at an angle.
That is the first thing you do.
It's going to correct your headposture.
(09:30):
That is the first thing you do.
It's going to correct your headposture.
The next thing that you can dois the back breathing, which I
know.
I've recently done an episodeon back breathing and I tend to
mention it a lot when I talkabout core anxiety, all of these
different things, because it isjust that important.
All of these different thingsbecause it is just that
(09:51):
important and it is where wework on trying to get those back
ribs to expand that 360breathing, jellyfish breathing.
What you're going to do again,if you're sitting in your car,
you want to breathe in, take adeep breath in, and you want to
see if can you feel that backyour back ribs moving into the
(10:13):
seat behind you.
That is working on thatexpansion.
You might feel like this dropor lengthening in your back.
Those tend to be the thingspeople will say like I'll feel a
sense of relief or thislengthening stretch in my back
(10:35):
when I do that.
So that is the second thing.
And then the third thing you aregoing to need a tennis ball.
If you don't have one, noworries, but at some point see
if you can find a ball, it needsto be the size of a tennis ball
.
It could be a soft ball.
Harder balls like a lacrosseball, a golf ball, those are
(10:59):
going to be a little bit toohard.
So I would move with cautionwith that.
If you're in a chair whereyou're going to be putting it
between your body in the chair,it's not going to be terrible
because it's going to be pushinginto that seat a little bit
more.
But I think a tennis ball is abetter option.
(11:20):
So I keep my tennis ball in mycar and I just take it with me
when I'm driving.
If I'm feeling some tension inmy shoulder blade, I just pop
that tennis ball back in betweenmy shoulder blade in the car
seat and I just kind of rollaround.
When I find those tension spotsI lean back into it and I take
(11:40):
a few deep breaths.
I try to fix my posture,sitting up straight, practicing
that back, breathing and breatheand see if I can release that
tension spot.
That is one of the easiestthings and it provides so many
people with so much relief.
So let's move on to now.
(12:01):
We're living our day and maybewe sit a lot at work or maybe
you're sitting and waiting foryour child.
I mean the endless hours that Ispend at my daughter's dance
studio.
These are the kind of thingsthat you can do If you're
sitting a lot, waiting forpeople watching a soccer game.
All of these things you can do,these different movements that
(12:25):
will again help to relieve upperback and upper neck pain.
So all you're going to do is,when you're sitting, you may
notice that you start to slouchforward it's probably pretty
common for most of us and you'llfeel this tightening of the
chest.
So it's like this roundingforward.
Your chest tends to tighten upbecause all those muscles are
(12:45):
shortened and all of the muscleson the back start to become
lengthened.
And all of the muscles on theback start to become lengthened.
They're getting rounded andthey're being pulled out of.
You know they're extendingtheir length.
So what we can do is we're goingto then place our hands behind
our head.
We're going to open up and kindof create that extension.
(13:06):
We're going to press our headinto our hands, letting our
elbows open up out at the side.
I'm trying to do it while I'mtalking, so I'm sorry if my
voice starts to sound like it'sfarther away and you'll go
through a slight extension.
This should feel really nice.
It should feel like you'reopening your chest muscles,
(13:27):
should feel like you're maybelengthening.
You might feel some upper backpopping, neck popping.
All of it should feel reallynice, and just do that.
You can lean back against achair.
If you have a chair high enoughand that will allow you to.
You know, use gravity to kindof extend through that position.
(13:51):
This is a gentle stretch.
This is not something thatyou're trying to press yourself
into.
It's just a relaxing positionto be in.
The other thing that I wouldencourage you to do is some side
reaching and stretching.
So every few hours or every 30minutes, take a moment to reach
your arms from side to side.
(14:11):
You might reach for somethingfar away.
Imagine you're reaching towardsthe right for something far
away.
That's going to allow your ribsto slide back and forth over
the pelvis from side to side andthen reach like you're reaching
towards the left as well.
You might notice some tensionsticking points.
(14:35):
If you do, you need to practicesome breathing and some core
exercises.
That's where that move better,feel Better bundle is great,
because I've got the coreconnection course in there for
you to look through and work on.
So just moving side to sidewith the rib cage and then even
(14:56):
reaching up over your head andcrossing that arm over.
So your right arm is going tocross over to the left side and
the left arm is going to crossover to the right side, and
that's going to give you somenice stretching and this is
going to help release the upperback tension that is caused by
static sitting.
You can also stand up and dothese exercises.
(15:20):
You'll probably notice a lot ofrelief as well.
And then the third thing thatyou're going to do is vary your
position while you're sitting,try to move through different
positions throughout the day,bringing one leg up and moving
it, you know, maybe in a figurefour style or knee up to where
it's popping up above the desk.
(15:42):
If that makes any sense, youcould even cross the legs.
I'm not a big proponent ofcrossing the legs just because
it does tend to torque thepelvis, but if you make sure to
go back and forth between bothsides, you will notice that
there's less issues of pelvicproblems.
(16:05):
I mean not pelvic floorproblems, although they can be
affected, but more like hipproblems.
So you know, if you're going tobring your right knee up.
You also need to make sure youbring your left knee up.
If you bring your right kneeout into a figure four position
while you sit a lot like whereyour ankle is on your knee make
sure you flip it up.
It's going to feel reallyawkward in the beginning and if
(16:31):
it does feel awkward, that meansyou need to do it more, because
that tells you you have apattern that has occurred and
that other position isuncomfortable and there's a
reason for that.
So that means you know leaninto those uncomfortable
positions.
Those are positions you need tomove into more.
So while these things thisstretching and these posture
(16:52):
adjustments can help ease theimmediate discomfort that you're
feeling, you really have tostart strengthening your upper
back.
It is essential for long-termpain relief.
Now I do want to caveat thatwith we first have to make sure
that we're not practicingcompensatory patterns.
(17:13):
So you could test if you dealwith a lot of neck tension.
You can test for me laying downon the floor and bringing your
knees up like you're gettingready to do a sit-up.
But you're not going to do asit-up, just lay down and relax.
Place one hand behind your necknot behind your head but behind
(17:33):
your neck and just relax andbreathe, then you're going to
let that knee fall down towardsthe floor on one side.
Notice if anything happens atyour neck.
If you are getting tense in yourneck, then you use your neck in
(17:55):
the way you move.
That's a compensatory patternyou have to.
You may not even realize it,like if you're out walking, you
may not realize it, but bypracticing this you may be like
oh my gosh, my jaw tightens up,my neck stiffens up, just so
that I can move my leg out tothe side.
(18:16):
That means you aren't usingyour core.
Your core is no longerstabilizing you, so you're
trying to find it somewhere upthe line, which might be your
thoracic area and your neck,something to pay attention to.
This is not a common I mean,yes, common overall.
But if you're like that's notme, then don't worry about it.
(18:38):
But I would encourage all ofyou to go down to the floor and
just see, especially those ofyou with neck issues, neck pain
when I say issues neck pain andnotice if you're compensating in
other areas of your body.
And if you are, the first thingI would start to do is try to
(19:00):
relax and breathe and see if youcan get the neck muscles to
relax completely and then juststart moving around and see if
you can practice with yourbreath, using your core muscles
to hold you stable rather thanyour neck.
If you have questions, feel freeto reach out to me.
(19:20):
You can always go through theMoving Through Midlife community
on Facebook.
I'm there to help answer anyquestions you have along the way
.
You can reach out to meprivately.
You can reach out through apodcast or through my email, or
you can go into my program whereI kind of dive deeper into
(19:44):
movement patterns and thingsthere.
So you do want to make sureyou're starting to strengthen
your upper back.
I will say that I want to makesure that people do it correctly
.
So if you can find someonelocal to you who's a personal
(20:06):
trainer just to start learningmovement patterns, that is the
best thing that you can do foryourself.
It does not mean you have tohave a personal trainer for a
lifetime.
It doesn't even mean I meansome personal trainers require
packages, but some will be happyto work with you a couple of
times to make sure your postureis good while you're moving
through different movements andthen you can be on your way.
(20:27):
But definitely make sure thatyou're not compensating using
other muscles to try toalleviate some pain in your back
while you're strengthening yourupper back, some pain in your
back while you're strengtheningyour upper back.
So those are the things that Iam going to recommend for you.
(20:49):
If you have questions, again,always feel free to reach out to
me.
You can go tomovingthroughmidlifecom this
week.
You can always ensure that theweek that I am pushing this
information out, I will be inthere talking more in the Moving
Through Midlife community,talking more about that.
But if no one asks questions,then you know I'm not going to
(21:13):
spend endless hours waiting forquestions to be asked.
So feel free to come over there.
I'm happy to help you.
Oh and exercises.
I want to tell you exercises.
Oh and exercises.
I want to tell you exercisesyou might want to incorporate.
So you want to think rows.
Make sure we're not using ourupper traps for rows.
We want to get our mid-back tostart firing on for those Lat
(21:38):
pull-downs, reverse flies.
All of these are great machinesor exercises you can do.
Start lighter for those of youwho are new, even if you're
dealing with pain and you'vebeen doing exercises for a while
.
Sometimes it helps to drop downto a lower weight, to check
your movement pattern before yougo back up to a higher weight.
(21:59):
So that is it.
Hopefully this gives you sometips, some ideas for how you can
work on easing and relievingthat upper back pain and
shoulder blade, and I hope youall have a wonderful day and
make sure to keep moving.
I hope you enjoyed this episodeand found something to take
(22:23):
away to help you practicehealthier habits, move more or
handle the midlife and agingwith grace.
If you enjoyed this episode,please share it with a friend or
leave us a review to help usreach more moms just like you.
Head to movingthroughmidlifecomto join the free community or
(22:43):
learn how you can move more andfeel better in your daily life.
How are you feeling today?
Do you notice that you maystruggle with tension in your
upper back, or maybe you thinkof it as upper back pain or
shoulder blade pain?
Do you notice that you arestruggling with that a lot?
(00:21):
One thing that I tend to see alot with my clients is this
upper back and neck pain that wehave, and it's especially
around the shoulder blades.
It's very common and thisusually happens due to all the
things that we are doing in life.
(00:42):
So whether we're liftingchildren or grandchildren,
carrying heavy bags, workinglong hours at a desk, using our
mouse, even sometimes the way wedrive and sleeping in awkward
positions, can create this backtension, this upper back tension
(01:05):
, and I wanted to share a coupleof things that you can work on
practicing to help to relievethat upper back pain and improve
your posture so that you startto feel a little bit better.
(01:26):
Welcome to Moving ThroughMidlife.
I am your host courtney, apersonal trainer and movement
specialist who wants to help youmove through midlife with more
grace.
Each week we will discuss wayswe can show up better for
ourselves and our childrenwithout the burnout.
We will focus on overall healththrough habit stacking to help
(01:47):
increase energy, providemovement snacks to help you move
more throughout the day, whilealso moving your body more, and
learn from professionals onmoving through midlife with ease
so that you can feel confidentwith aging.
Gracefully Grab your earbudsand join me on a leisurely walk
while we discuss moving throughmidlife.
(02:11):
With our modern lifestyle, wetend to suffer with back tension
, upper back pain and neck painbecause we live such a sedentary
life and because of the roundedforward of our shoulders due to
computers, due to reading books, due to phones, due to a lot of
(02:33):
things.
It's just the way it is.
So I want to provide you withsome strategies to help you work
through this pain and see ifyou can help to alleviate it.
Now, obviously, if you'redealing with a lot of pain, you
definitely need to go see adoctor.
I always would recommend thatfirst, especially if it's this
(02:57):
aggravating pain.
But if you're just dealing withlike a stiff neck in the
morning, when you wake up,things like that, or you've been
working at your desk for awhile and you start to feel that
tension between your shoulderblades, these are the exercises
that you can work on practicingto help with those types of pain
.
(03:20):
So I try not to give a bunch ofcorrective exercises, even
though I, you know, that is afield that I'm passionate about.
I want to provide you withthings you can do in your
everyday life because, therefore, you're more apt to do them.
If I gave you a slew ofexercises to add on to the end
(03:42):
of your workouts, most peoplewould not do them.
You know, if you think of ifyou've ever seen a physical
therapist, they'll give you alist of things to do, and I have
clients who work with physicaltherapists and then they see me
as well and I'll say somethinglike did you do those exercises?
And they're like, no, I didn'texercises.
(04:07):
And they're like, no, I didn't.
So I mean, it's very commonthat we don't do these exercises
because it's just adding onemore layer in.
So if we can find ways to dothis in our everyday life,
wouldn't that be so much better?
So the first thing we're goingto do is talk through driving.
(04:27):
When you are driving, there aresimple things that you can do
to start to help alleviate thispain and sit with better posture
.
Now, I always caveat thisbetter situation.
Obviously, posture is a movingtarget and our body is designed
(04:47):
to move through differentpositions, so a stagnant hold of
sitting really tall is notbetter posture, so to speak.
Okay, but we do have somethings that we can work on to
help with our alignment, to easethe stressors on our muscles.
(05:12):
Our body is designed to stackupon itself, joint by joint,
stack upon itself.
What happens is due to weakness, movement patterns, things like
that, weakness in the muscle,movement patterns we tend to
pull into positions.
(05:34):
So I'm going to provide youwith an exercise to kind of help
you to stack your body more upon itself, and you'll notice
that well, you may notice thatyou feel a sense of relief in
this position.
So what you're going to do is Iwould recommend doing this in
(05:57):
your car, while driving, but youcan practice it now if you're
not driving and all you're goingto do is you're going to
imagine someone pulling a stringand you may have heard me talk
about this before from the crownof your head.
Okay, now, the reason I don'twant it from the front of your
head or from the top of yourhead is because of what may
(06:18):
happen at your chin.
So, the crown of the head, ifyou imagine someone wearing a
crown, it's going to be thatback area of the head kind of
like where, if you wore a highponytail not the top knot, but a
higher ponytail on the back ofthe head, right about that area,
and we're going to imaginesomeone pulling a string and
(06:42):
lifting us up, and what youshould notice when you do that
is one you sit a lot taller, butyour chin drops slightly.
You sit a lot taller, but yourchin drops slightly.
So what happens?
When we are living our normaleveryday life, many of us move
(07:02):
into this forward head posturewhere our head kind of juts
forward, our chin juts forwardand our eyes are always looking
for the horizon.
That is kind of what thevestibular system tends to do is
we're looking for the horizon.
So no matter what position ourhead is in, it's going to try to
(07:24):
level itself based on what thehorizon is doing.
So if you have this roundedforward position, your chin is
going to jut forward as well, sothat your eyes see the horizon
level.
What we're going to try to dois counteract that.
(07:44):
So when we lift and lengthen up, you'll feel this slight drop
of the chin and you should stillbe able to see the horizon.
Well, okay, so from here.
So we're not dropping too fardown is my whole point.
We don't want to drop the chin.
I never said drop the chin.
(08:05):
I said lift up, lengthenthrough the crown of the head
and your chin will naturallydrop.
I just want to make sure thatthat's clear, because then you
don't want to be creating a lotof tension in the neck from
trying to drop the chin.
So once you're in this position, lengthening up, chin is
slightly dropped.
(08:27):
You want to imagine pulling backtowards, if you're in the car,
the headrest.
Now, the way the seats are made, a lot of them are
ergonomically made, butunfortunately it's like this
ergonomically made, but in thisrounded position I feel like
every time I get in my car I'mlike sinking pelvic is tucking
(08:49):
under and so don't push as farback as maybe the headrest is if
it's far back and it feelsawkward.
Always listen to your body forcues.
If something doesn't feel right, stop.
So what you're going to do fromthat point is just gently pull
(09:10):
the head back and all you'retrying to do is get that ear
directly over top of theshoulders, right?
So if I were to draw a linefrom your ear to your shoulders,
they would be in a straightline.
They wouldn't be at an angle.
That is the first thing you do.
It's going to correct your headposture.
(09:30):
That is the first thing you do.
It's going to correct your headposture.
The next thing that you can dois the back breathing, which I
know.
I've recently done an episodeon back breathing and I tend to
mention it a lot when I talkabout core anxiety, all of these
different things, because it isjust that important.
All of these different thingsbecause it is just that
(09:51):
important and it is where wework on trying to get those back
ribs to expand that 360breathing, jellyfish breathing.
What you're going to do again,if you're sitting in your car,
you want to breathe in, take adeep breath in, and you want to
see if can you feel that backyour back ribs moving into the
(10:13):
seat behind you.
That is working on thatexpansion.
You might feel like this dropor lengthening in your back.
Those tend to be the thingspeople will say like I'll feel a
sense of relief or thislengthening stretch in my back
(10:35):
when I do that.
So that is the second thing.
And then the third thing you aregoing to need a tennis ball.
If you don't have one, noworries, but at some point see
if you can find a ball, it needsto be the size of a tennis ball
.
It could be a soft ball.
Harder balls like a lacrosseball, a golf ball, those are
(10:59):
going to be a little bit toohard.
So I would move with cautionwith that.
If you're in a chair whereyou're going to be putting it
between your body in the chair,it's not going to be terrible
because it's going to be pushinginto that seat a little bit
more.
But I think a tennis ball is abetter option.
(11:20):
So I keep my tennis ball in mycar and I just take it with me
when I'm driving.
If I'm feeling some tension inmy shoulder blade, I just pop
that tennis ball back in betweenmy shoulder blade in the car
seat and I just kind of rollaround.
When I find those tension spotsI lean back into it and I take
(11:40):
a few deep breaths.
I try to fix my posture,sitting up straight, practicing
that back, breathing and breatheand see if I can release that
tension spot.
That is one of the easiestthings and it provides so many
people with so much relief.
So let's move on to now.
(12:01):
We're living our day and maybewe sit a lot at work or maybe
you're sitting and waiting foryour child.
I mean the endless hours that Ispend at my daughter's dance
studio.
These are the kind of thingsthat you can do If you're
sitting a lot, waiting forpeople watching a soccer game.
All of these things you can do,these different movements that
(12:25):
will again help to relieve upperback and upper neck pain.
So all you're going to do is,when you're sitting, you may
notice that you start to slouchforward it's probably pretty
common for most of us and you'llfeel this tightening of the
chest.
So it's like this roundingforward.
Your chest tends to tighten upbecause all those muscles are
(12:45):
shortened and all of the muscleson the back start to become
lengthened.
And all of the muscles on theback start to become lengthened.
They're getting rounded andthey're being pulled out of.
You know they're extendingtheir length.
So what we can do is we're goingto then place our hands behind
our head.
We're going to open up and kindof create that extension.
(13:06):
We're going to press our headinto our hands, letting our
elbows open up out at the side.
I'm trying to do it while I'mtalking, so I'm sorry if my
voice starts to sound like it'sfarther away and you'll go
through a slight extension.
This should feel really nice.
It should feel like you'reopening your chest muscles,
(13:27):
should feel like you're maybelengthening.
You might feel some upper backpopping, neck popping.
All of it should feel reallynice, and just do that.
You can lean back against achair.
If you have a chair high enoughand that will allow you to.
You know, use gravity to kindof extend through that position.
(13:51):
This is a gentle stretch.
This is not something thatyou're trying to press yourself
into.
It's just a relaxing positionto be in.
The other thing that I wouldencourage you to do is some side
reaching and stretching.
So every few hours or every 30minutes, take a moment to reach
your arms from side to side.
(14:11):
You might reach for somethingfar away.
Imagine you're reaching towardsthe right for something far
away.
That's going to allow your ribsto slide back and forth over
the pelvis from side to side andthen reach like you're reaching
towards the left as well.
You might notice some tensionsticking points.
(14:35):
If you do, you need to practicesome breathing and some core
exercises.
That's where that move better,feel Better bundle is great,
because I've got the coreconnection course in there for
you to look through and work on.
So just moving side to sidewith the rib cage and then even
(14:56):
reaching up over your head andcrossing that arm over.
So your right arm is going tocross over to the left side and
the left arm is going to crossover to the right side, and
that's going to give you somenice stretching and this is
going to help release the upperback tension that is caused by
static sitting.
You can also stand up and dothese exercises.
(15:20):
You'll probably notice a lot ofrelief as well.
And then the third thing thatyou're going to do is vary your
position while you're sitting,try to move through different
positions throughout the day,bringing one leg up and moving
it, you know, maybe in a figurefour style or knee up to where
it's popping up above the desk.
(15:42):
If that makes any sense, youcould even cross the legs.
I'm not a big proponent ofcrossing the legs just because
it does tend to torque thepelvis, but if you make sure to
go back and forth between bothsides, you will notice that
there's less issues of pelvicproblems.
(16:05):
I mean not pelvic floorproblems, although they can be
affected, but more like hipproblems.
So you know, if you're going tobring your right knee up.
You also need to make sure youbring your left knee up.
If you bring your right kneeout into a figure four position
while you sit a lot like whereyour ankle is on your knee make
sure you flip it up.
It's going to feel reallyawkward in the beginning and if
(16:31):
it does feel awkward, that meansyou need to do it more, because
that tells you you have apattern that has occurred and
that other position isuncomfortable and there's a
reason for that.
So that means you know leaninto those uncomfortable
positions.
Those are positions you need tomove into more.
So while these things thisstretching and these posture
(16:52):
adjustments can help ease theimmediate discomfort that you're
feeling, you really have tostart strengthening your upper
back.
It is essential for long-termpain relief.
Now I do want to caveat thatwith we first have to make sure
that we're not practicingcompensatory patterns.
(17:13):
So you could test if you dealwith a lot of neck tension.
You can test for me laying downon the floor and bringing your
knees up like you're gettingready to do a sit-up.
But you're not going to do asit-up, just lay down and relax.
Place one hand behind your necknot behind your head but behind
(17:33):
your neck and just relax andbreathe, then you're going to
let that knee fall down towardsthe floor on one side.
Notice if anything happens atyour neck.
If you are getting tense in yourneck, then you use your neck in
(17:55):
the way you move.
That's a compensatory patternyou have to.
You may not even realize it,like if you're out walking, you
may not realize it, but bypracticing this you may be like
oh my gosh, my jaw tightens up,my neck stiffens up, just so
that I can move my leg out tothe side.
(18:16):
That means you aren't usingyour core.
Your core is no longerstabilizing you, so you're
trying to find it somewhere upthe line, which might be your
thoracic area and your neck,something to pay attention to.
This is not a common I mean,yes, common overall.
But if you're like that's notme, then don't worry about it.
(18:38):
But I would encourage all ofyou to go down to the floor and
just see, especially those ofyou with neck issues, neck pain
when I say issues neck pain andnotice if you're compensating in
other areas of your body.
And if you are, the first thingI would start to do is try to
(19:00):
relax and breathe and see if youcan get the neck muscles to
relax completely and then juststart moving around and see if
you can practice with yourbreath, using your core muscles
to hold you stable rather thanyour neck.
If you have questions, feel freeto reach out to me.
(19:20):
You can always go through theMoving Through Midlife community
on Facebook.
I'm there to help answer anyquestions you have along the way
.
You can reach out to meprivately.
You can reach out through apodcast or through my email, or
you can go into my program whereI kind of dive deeper into
(19:44):
movement patterns and thingsthere.
So you do want to make sureyou're starting to strengthen
your upper back.
I will say that I want to makesure that people do it correctly
.
So if you can find someonelocal to you who's a personal
(20:06):
trainer just to start learningmovement patterns, that is the
best thing that you can do foryourself.
It does not mean you have tohave a personal trainer for a
lifetime.
It doesn't even mean I meansome personal trainers require
packages, but some will be happyto work with you a couple of
times to make sure your postureis good while you're moving
through different movements andthen you can be on your way.
(20:27):
But definitely make sure thatyou're not compensating using
other muscles to try toalleviate some pain in your back
while you're strengthening yourupper back, some pain in your
back while you're strengtheningyour upper back.
So those are the things that Iam going to recommend for you.
(20:49):
If you have questions, again,always feel free to reach out to
me.
You can go tomovingthroughmidlifecom this
week.
You can always ensure that theweek that I am pushing this
information out, I will be inthere talking more in the Moving
Through Midlife community,talking more about that.
But if no one asks questions,then you know I'm not going to
(21:13):
spend endless hours waiting forquestions to be asked.
So feel free to come over there.
I'm happy to help you.
Oh and exercises.
I want to tell you exercises.
Oh and exercises.
I want to tell you exercisesyou might want to incorporate.
So you want to think rows.
Make sure we're not using ourupper traps for rows.
We want to get our mid-back tostart firing on for those Lat
(21:38):
pull-downs, reverse flies.
All of these are great machinesor exercises you can do.
Start lighter for those of youwho are new, even if you're
dealing with pain and you'vebeen doing exercises for a while
.
Sometimes it helps to drop downto a lower weight, to check
your movement pattern before yougo back up to a higher weight.
(21:59):
So that is it.
Hopefully this gives you sometips, some ideas for how you can
work on easing and relievingthat upper back pain and
shoulder blade, and I hope youall have a wonderful day and
make sure to keep moving.
I hope you enjoyed this episodeand found something to take
(22:23):
away to help you practicehealthier habits, move more or
handle the midlife and agingwith grace.
If you enjoyed this episode,please share it with a friend or
leave us a review to help usreach more moms just like you.
Head to movingthroughmidlifecomto join the free community or
(22:43):
learn how you can move more andfeel better in your daily life.
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