Attention All SENIORS: Get "Perfect Posture" Today!

all right seniors are you ready to get perfect posture in this video I'm going to show you how everyone welcome to the channel at Deo physical therapist from integrated physical therapy in Bellingham Washington now you don't need me to tell you how important posture is but it's particularly important when we think about functioning of our shoulders and neck ideally in a perfect world we want to try to have this ear lob blind up over our shoulder the best we can but many of us are weak through the scapula we tend to collapse down and in and our head gets forward no one's really has perfect posture but the idea is we want to try to work and strengthen the muscles that support good posture so that at least we're avoiding this position and trying to be in that scapula back and down position the best we can so I'm going to pull a workout straight out of my book it's called perfect posture there are four exercises that we're going to work on reverse flies shoulder blade squeezes wall push-ups and shoulder front races the great thing about all these exercises in my book is is you don't need any special equipment when you're first starting now as you get stronger you may need some weights and things like that but for right now we're going to use a couple cans of soup let's get started the first exercise is called a reverse fly so now regardless of how strong you are whenever you are weight training it's very important to actually feel the muscle that you're trying to strengthen so when we're trying to improve our posture one of the things that happens is we get weak through our scapula or our shoulder blade area and then as the course of the day goes on we kind of collapse further and further down into this and so we really want to make sure that we activate and strengthen the muscles in between our shoulder blades so you'll hear me talk a lot about scapula in the back pocket and basically what I mean by that is try to visualize that you're trying to put your shoulder blade in your back pocket so you're going to go back and down and the idea is is that we're trying to get out of this posture which our scapula would type kind of rotate up and out so we're going to go back and down and that's going to be our basic starting position for all the exercises I recommend also not using any weight when you first start so to do the reverse flies and I'll show you from different positions it's important that when we lean forward that we are not rounding out our low back we really want to try to hinge at the hip and if you're having trouble learning how to hinge at the hip it's one of the exercises in the book so once you've learned how to hip hinge you're going to come forward and then scal it in the back pocket and you're going to bring your arms back back just until you feel the muscles in between the shoulder blades activate and then come back down again squeeze those muscles feel them in between the shoulder blades working now you notice the position on my head is I'm not cranking it up so I'm not doing this I'm just keeping my neck neutral and I'm coming up into a reverse fly position once you've done the reverse flies first without any weight and you can actually feel the muscles in between your shoulder blades activating then you can start by just getting a can of soup now this is really important the soup must be organic and gluten-free just kidding hip hinge down arms out in front of you lift up and back until you feel the muscles in between your shoulder blades activated and then back down again speed is important I'd rather have you go slower and really squeeze when you're in the contracted position feel the muscles that you're supposed to and keep the tension in that muscle the whole time the next exercise we're going to do our shoulder blade squeezes same kind of concept we're trying to work on upper back strengthening this time scapula back and down your arms are bent to your side you're going to keep your elbows fairly close in so they're not going to come out this way and then first of all remember no weight bring your arms out squeeze the muscles in between your shoulder blade and back down again if you're feeling it more in the upper trap muscle you're really not doing it correctly because we have an upper trap and we have a middle trap and a lower trap the upper trap on most people is really tight overactive so we really want to go back and down so really make sure that you're not hiking your shoulders up so back and down elbows bent and tucked in come out this way you notice here I'm almost forming a little W come out here feel the muscles in between the shoulder blades and then come back in again first few sets just get the movement down feel the muscle that you're supposed to feel doing the work then you can always add a can of soup couple water bottles whatever you have and what you'll do with all these exercises we're looking for about three sets of anywhere from 8 to 12 repetitions but start slowly maybe start with just one set maybe two sets to start with and then progress as you start to feel stronger third exercise is shoulder front raises arms are down by your side and you're bringing your arms up just about shoulder height and back down again shoulder height and back down again what this is doing is working on strengthening the front of the shoulders once the first few sets get easy can of soup the last exercise is a wall push-up push-ups are a great way to help strengthen up the chest the shoulders and the tricep but you can start on the wall first if you can't do regular push-ups on the ground the idea is once again scalpel in the back pocket you're going to put your hands no higher than your shoulder and the further you stand away from the wall the harder it is going to be do the push-up so initially start off close and remember on all these exercises you want to feel the muscles that are supposed to be working so in this situation when you do a few you should feel your triceps kicking in you should also feel the muscles across your chest working nice and slow pause and back up again now you notice my elbows they're not coming way out this way they're kind of coming straight back maybe about a 45 degree angle none of these exercises should be painful as you start to get stronger you can do this on the back of a couch or a kitchen counter now perfect posture was just one of the 25 different exercise routines I have in the book there's 40 different exercises all with clearance instructions and illustrations on how to make the exercise harder and easier and then I've combined that and put different combinations of four different exercises to make up 25 different programs you like to travel got you covered you like to Garden I got you covered having back pain got you covered get your copy of the book at amazon.com if you have any questions please leave it down below and also please if you have purchased the book give me some feedback tell me what you think leave it down below I'm always trying to look to be better myself thank you very much for watching stay strong and I'll see you at the next video