Lazy Rehab: one posture and it is done. Reset the body from a jutting neck and rounded shoulders
Have you ever observed your own body while working?
When we are absorbed in work, our body gradually turns into a letter C, with the character of a jutting neck, rounded shoulders, a hunched back, and a protruding belly. The body being in this character makes the chest muscles contract in spasm until the breath is not full, and makes the muscles of the shoulder blade at the back so tired that it turns into office syndrome.
Bruegger's Relief Position, or what is called Lazy Rehab, is a simple exercise posture for people who are lazy about physiotherapy, which can be done every day, and is also the posture that gives the highest return, because this one posture alone can put right almost all of the mechanism of Upper Crossed Syndrome, whether releasing the muscles of the neck and the upper back, or helping put right the problem of rounded shoulders.
How to do it:
- Sit at the edge of the chair, putting the weight on the sitting bones
- Spread the legs apart slightly, with the toes pointing outwards
- Stretch up so that the spine is straight (Axial Extension)
- Turn the palms up and rotate the arms outwards (External Rotation), trying to make the thumbs point backwards
- Squeeze the shoulder blades towards each other and pull them down low
- Tuck the chin in (Chin Tuck), pulling the head back into the same line as the shoulders
- Breathe in deeply with the belly, and hold it for 30 seconds
The mechanism: this posture uses the principle of Reciprocal Inhibition. When we tense the muscles of the back and rotate the arms outwards, the chest muscles that are tight are commanded to release automatically, together with stretching the muscles of the shoulder that have been working too hard.
Doing this posture often will help train the brain to remember what correct body form is like, and then the chronic pain will gradually go away by itself.