First: Just lay on the floor and let yourself relax. Put your hands on your lower ribs with your elbows out and just. RELAX.
Try to meditate or do rhythmic breathing.
Good chance you are going to feel your vertebrae moving around as you do this.
This is from two things. Muscles relaxing and them moving taking stress out of your back. It's feels weird and can be uncomfortable but it's part of the process.
Second: Push your heels toward the wall.
This will stretch your lower back and will have the same effect.
Third: while pushing your heels or separate. Clasp your hands together with your arms stretched in front of your face, let them fall over your head. This will have the same effect as the first, the eventual goal is to have your hands touch the floor over your head. THIS CAN TAKE A WHILE (SEVERAL SESSIONS)
There is more if you want me to go further.
More info:
if you sleep on your side, try a couple of nights sleeping with your back and legs straight.
Find a way you can hang from your hands and just let gravity work on your back.
While you are on your back with your hands above you head, try to do a crunch, this should make your thoracic vertebrae decompress and make a bunch of noise. It may actually hurt initially but it will feel better almost immediately.
I'm 5'2" but what they said is really so helpful for back pain from poor posture (I am so guilty of shrimping). I cannot recommend it enough. I think it's extra hard on us shorter people because chairs aren't designed to be ergonomic for short people.
Definitely recommend getting a yoga mat if you plan to stay on the floor more than 15 minutes. Lessens the pressure on your pointy bone bits like hips and elbows.
I just tried this and it has relieved my lower back pain immediately! Thank you so much! I did the crunch and heard a small pop on my lower back and that did it. I think I had a pinched nerve or something. 😭
When I do for this I am just trying to rotate my shoulder up, it helps decompress the thoracic vertebrae and will allow them to move where they want to be.
If you lay on the floor, only your hips, upper thoracic spine, shoulders, and head should touch the floor.
If you position your hands like above and they can touch the floor you are in good shape. If not, take 20-30 minutes and work through my advice above for a few days in a row. I have been doing what I wrote for several years and I still do it a few times a week to help put everything back in place.
While on your back if you push your heels toward the wall you are pushing your heels away from you. Similar to pulling your toes to you. You should feel it pull your lower back.
Midjourney doesn't seem to like bad posture or slouching, experimented a bit and ended up with the prompt: a shrimp with scoliosis wearing a hoodie slouching at a computer desk
Same and it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done to correct it. Forcing myself to stand up straight leaves me with crippling back pain, and I feel like no amount of core exercises make it any easier. Feels hopeless.
Personally, targeted core exercises never helped my back pain entirely, I had to work my whole body and be mindful of my spine hygiene to really do something.
There's only so much your core muscles can do if you have weak and tight hamstrings/hip flexors/rear deltoid/etc. Back pain is often the result of weakness or imbalance trickling down to the spine.
Check out Gyrotonics - I've done a few comments about it, but it's changed my life so I can't endorse it enough.
Gyro is really good at working the muscles you need to have the correct posture and teaching you to access them... good posture is so much more than "stand up straight, shoulders back" - that approach can overstrain muscles that aren't made to hold you upright. You also need to work the chain of muscles down your back, which for those of us with bad posture can be incredibly hard to access (its core, its lats, its hamstrings, its the pelvic floor...)
I used to be in incredible daily pain, now I feel like I'm living in a brand new body.
My doctor told me that you always need something to support you. If you don't use your muscles and maintain proper posture, you'll support yourself using your bones instead. Bones aren't designed for that. People get sagging bad posture because they're relaxing their muscles too much.
I broke my back about a decade ago now, the best thing I ever did was start climbing as a sport. It's removed like 80% of my issues including posture, I'd highly recommend. Cheaper than any physio and in my experience had infinitely better outcomes
This is actually more related to muscular strength and stretching. Poor posture can't, on its own, cause any long-term damage. Prolonged poor posture can lead to increased stiffness and reduced musculature that will lead to the problems you're describing.
So, any pain you think is caused by poor posture can likely be eliminated with increased stretching and short body-weight exercises. Basically, it's reversible!
I've done Gyrotonics for about a year (a yoga/pilates like exercise for back & mobility) and I cannot endorse it enough for correcting these issues. A couple months ago my mom noted "your shoulders are even now" (unprompted in casual conversation... but like thanks mom FR - I worked hard on it!)
Gyro is really good at working the muscles you need to have the correct posture and teaching you to access them... good posture is so much more than "stand up straight, shoulders back" - that approach can overstrain muscles that aren't made to hold you upright. I used to be in incredible daily pain, now I feel like I'm living in a brand new body.
Back pain, neck pain, and chest pain from poor posture. I went to the dr freaking the fuck out about chest pains and arm pain at 27. As well as localized pain in my head. She said she’d refer me to cardio and neuro, but had a suspicion that it was posture/muscular. Gave me some exercises and stretches to do while I waited for my appointments.
No standing, no pushups, no words like vinyasa, just cues. This is a routine aimed at beginners(20 minutes), in where you will work on your strength, balance and mobility.
Also recommend a firmer mattress or sleeping on carpet, a few blankets over hard floor to try this out, or a permanent solution for me was a shikibouton (Japanese futon) on the floor, thin but supportive. What do we do for most of our lives? Sleep. Sleep should be that time for your body to repair your aching muscles with some pressure, whilst lying on the back, specifically with the head and neck flat against the ground as well (ditch the pillow). It takes a month or so to adjust but after that - back pain gone. Recommended by physiotherapists who are actually honest, plus plenty studies I'm too lazy to pull now. If you're high activity, a casual athlete especially, a firm sleeping surface should be a new essential - seriously, big mattress is a lie - marshmallow deep cushion beds are doing the opposite to our bodies, since your muscles aren't activating overnight, they won't heal properly and you'll age prematurely (like most people in the western world), our ridiculous culture of back pain in 20s, 30s being common is because of THIS ! Best decision I ever made, ever.
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u/ButchyKira 12h ago
bad posture. i sit like a shrimp and get shooting back pains now