Video – Posture Videos

Good Posture – How to Hardwire Your Brain | Posture Doctor

What if it was possible to hardwire our brains to sit up straight? The new science of habit loops may just be the answer to the eternal question: How do I correct my posture?

What if it was possible to hardwire our brains to sit up straight? The new science of habit loops may just be the answer to the eternal question: How do I correct my posture?

Charles Duhigg, journalist and MBA Harvard graduate, in his excellent book The Power of Habit tells us that individuals are all very different, and so changing the patterns in our lives will differ from person to person. As a result, changing a habit isn’t prescriptive. Although Duhigg introduces the habit loop – formed of cue, routine and reward – this is more of a framework than a recipe. This framework helps us understand how habits work and provides structure to experimenting with how they might change.

I’ve taken Duhigg’s habit loop and applied it to the habit I like to call good posture. I believe that achieving good posture is more to do with the practice of creating healthy new habits, than it is about good genetics or good luck.

Further Resources:Posturecise – How to Create a Healthy New Habit for Life

Forward Head Posture – Alzheimer’s & Stroke | Posture Doctor

Is your forward head posture capable of making you sick?

Rene Cailliet, an American born physician of French ancestry, was one of the pioneers in physical rehabilitation and is well known for his books on musculoskeletal medicine.

Rene Cailliet, an American born physician of French ancestry, was one of the pioneers in physical rehabilitation and is well known for his books on musculoskeletal medicine. He says:

You can realign your entire body by moving your head … your head held in a forward position can pull your entire body out of line.

He goes on to explain that the vital lung capacity is reduced as much as 30% with forward head posture.

Forward head posture also causes compression in the upper neck joints (which causes pain and irritation). In order to prevent your forward head from falling toward your chest, your muscles sustain continual contraction, which causes nerve entrapment and artery compression. It isn’t hard to see that there exists the potential for neurological and vascular complications as a result of forward head posture.

Further Resources: Forward Head Posture: Cause & Cure

Reverse Neck Curve – What Causes a Cervical Kyphosis? | Posture Doctor

When the neck curve kinks the wrong way, it pushes the head forward. With the head pushed forward, the lower spine is more prominent and vulnerable.

If you know you have forward head posture and also a hump on the back on your neck, you may benefit from x-ray investigation to rule out a reversed neck curve, also known as cervical kyphosis. When the neck curve kinks the wrong way, it pushes the head forward. With the head pushed forward, the lower spine is more prominent and vulnerable.

Some of my posture pupils complain about fatty neck hump and explain that it has a hard bony feel to it. What they are often feeling, is the kinked region of the neck. If this structural deviation has been there long enough, the body may lay down fat, in an effort to protect the spine – or at least that’s the way I like to simplify and explain a complicated process to my students.

If you’ve suffered long term symptoms that may include: headaches, stiff and/or painful neck, dizziness, arm and hand tingling or numbness, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, round shoulders, teeth clenching, TMJ dysfunction or anxiety, and you’ve had any sort of past trauma that might have affected your neck – car accident (over 20mph) , a fall from a height as a child, off a horse, out of a swing, down a flight of stairs – you may find this video relevant.

Further Resources: Forward Head Posture: Cause & Cure

Spinal Anomalies (Like This) Can Cause Forward Head Posture | Posture Doctor

Congenital vertebral anomalies are malformations of the spine that you are born with. In some cases these spinal defects can deform the alignment of your spine affecting your posture, spinal cord and health and well-being.

Forward Head Posture >> Learn More

What Causes Forward Head Posture & How Severe Is Yours?

Understand the specific cause of Forward Head Posture; use that knowledge to begin the appropriate mirror-image exercises and know when to seek treatment and/or further medical investigation.

Further Learning: Forward Head Posture: Cause & Cure

Core Workout | Best Abs Exercise You Can Do in Your Car

Traffic jams are frustrating! In this lecture we use the time you are stuck in your car (maybe during a traffic jam) to strengthen your abs.

Further Resources: Travel Exercise – Best Travel Workouts for the Car or Plane

Hump Back | Neck Hump, Buffalo Hump, Dowager’s Hump or Kyphosis?

There are a lot of euphemisms used in medicine. I find euphemisms, when it comes to our health, patronizing.

I think my patients can handle the truth, so I don’t intentionally soften my words to ease a diagnosis.

One very common euphemism is to call a neck hump a buffalo hump. I prefer the term neck hump, but they do mean the same thing; except the hump on an actual Buffalo consists of about 70 Ib of muscle used to move snow! The neck humps on humans – if due to a structural change in the neck – consist of fatty tissue not muscle. So the correct euphemism for neck hump is Buffalo hump, but I just don’t like it!

Further Resources: The Top 25 Posture Blogs to Follow in 2018

How to Fix Unattractive Round Shoulders | Posture Doctor

The way we hold ourselves is a reflection of the way we feel about ourselves; so good posture improves confidence.

The way we hold ourselves is a reflection of the way we feel about ourselves; so good posture improves confidence. If you sit for long hours and worry about your slouching, you can learn to open and expand your chest with this simple and rather fun exercise.

Further Resources: The Posture Makeover | The Posture Doctor’s ‘Best-of’ Series

What Texting Does to the Neck and Spine | Posture Doctor

most people look down at a 60-degree angle when texting on their phones, which places a lot of force on their neck muscles, discs and joints.

The weight of the head (roughly 10 -12 Ibs) is a key factor in developing Text Neck. Our neck muscles are positioned to support the weight of the head in a neutral position— in other words, directly in line with our shoulders, not out in front.

However, most people look down at a 60-degree angle when texting on their phones, which places a lot of force on their neck muscles, discs and joints.

Headache & Migraine | When is Headache Serious?

You don’t get important things done and you definitely can’t motivate yourself feeling like this. Your headaches leave you feeling isolated from your friends and family, your quality of life is deeply affected and it pretty much takes the joy out of life.

Even worse than the pain, you don’t feel you can’t work because you can’t concentrate or focus; you’re worried about your health; it makes you moody because the pain is exhausting.