Take a look at our video above of Dr. Bryan showcasing those exercises and stretches.
Lets dive into the details of each exercise/stretch!:
Foam Rolling: The goal of foam rolling the thoracic spine is to mobilize the vertebral and costovertebral joints. In other words, the joints of your spine and of your ribs connecting to your spine. These joints get restricted during long hours of seated posture, resulting in sharp pain, dull aches, and restricted range of motion that puts pressure on your neck and low back. During this drill, you will experience cavitations (popping sound) in your mid back and that is the sign of your joints releasing!
Pectoral Corner Stretch: As a result of extended seated posture, our shoulders tend to become very tight, specifically the pectoralis major muscles. This is a great stretch to elongate those tight muscles to eliminate the shoulders rounding forward.
Rhomboid Isometric Drill: In this exercise, you will activate the muscles that bring your shoulder blades together. This helps improve posture and takes pressure off the mid back and lower neck region. To properly execute this exercise, it is important to focus on the muscles in between your shoulder blades (rhomboids) instead of your posterior shoulder muscles.
Wall Angels: Posture, posture, and more posture! When executed properly, wall angels activate all muscles that are needed to be contracted to improve your posture.
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