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So up until about a year ago, I was 6'1"...I now appear to be about 5'11". I'm putting this down to bad posture and spending far too long with a laptop on my lap and the top of my spine, just below my neck, has a curve forming.
What can I do to remove the curve and straighten my back out?
Obviously need to sit at a desk or use the stand up desk far more...
Take this with the pinch of salt it deserves, but I have shrunk a couple of cm in the last year, and when mentioning it to my barber he recommended hanging from a bar. In my case I have installed a pull-up bar above the stairs at home, and whenever I go downstairs I hang for as long as I can - I could only do a few seconds at first, but I’m up to 30 seconds after a couple of weeks. One day I might even manage a pull-up…
I'm sure I read somewhere once that hanging from your hands isn't much use. If you want to stretch yourself properly, you need to hang from your feet.
Could be nonsense
If you want to stretch yourself properly, you need to hang from your feet.
Or your neck.....
In the early 80’s an osteopath told me to hang from my armpits by creating a loop in a large towel and trapping it in the top of a door. I had surgery instead (hence part of my username)
We all shrink as we get older.
I'd have a chat with a physio - being hunched over screens, phones and handlebars aggravates a shoulder problem that causes me to hunch even more. Stretching my pecs, shoulders and upper back pulls me back upright.
Easiest one is to roll up a towel and lie on it with it along your spine. Gravity pulls things back down to tbe ground. Be wary of having the towel too thick when you first attempt this.
We all shrink as we age - its the discs in your back compressing IIRC. Most folk lose an inch or two.
With my job I spend 12.5.% of my life sat starting at 3 computers, and having to manage a pretty poor ergonomic situation.
Recent poorly lower back has been diagnosed with a lop-sided spine at the lumbar region. I've also lost about 2cm.
Exercises specified by a physio help, as long as I do them. But the loss in height is permanent. Mercifully, my job comes with Bupa, so was easy to get appointments arranged.
We all shrink as we age – its the discs in your back compressing IIRC. Most folk lose an inch or two.
Desiccating is more accurate, but yes. 2 inches in a year is fairly rapid though. I would be looking at whether you have changed to a head forward posture, and whether neck extensor strengthening and neck flexor lengthening exercises might help
Thanks for the tips, so I need to do upper body strengthening (I have none) and the towel idea...and I'll see if I can find that thread on getting my head back instead of forwards.
I'm not sure if deadhangs would do much to stretch your spine but it certainly helps with shoulder health. I aim for 3 minutes of total hangtime per day.
For my lower half I try to spend 3 minutes in a deep squat.
I'm hoping my mid-spine will take care of itself if I focus on the upper and lower parts 🙂
kneeler stools put your back in a better position when sitting at a desk. Might be worth a try?
Obviously need to sit at a desk or use the stand up desk far more…
I actually bought a decentish desk and chair when lock down started, sitting at the dining room table is ok for a couple of days a month, but not 5 days a week for 6-9-12 months...
Some of my colleagues still have laptops on their laps. And back problems.
I have a worsening stoop due to a condition called Ankylosing Spondilytis.
To help correct it the given advice is lie on your front for as long as you can.
I’d check that your quads aren’t pulling your pelvis forward. Stretching my quads and lower back made me taller
I don't stretch either and quads are tight so I'll do stretching as well...ta.