This 3-Minute Exercise Will Actually Fix Your Posture
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1) He claims that computer/phone induced postural changes are responsible for the forward stoop which occurs with age - the 'dowager's hump' - yet this phenomenon has been known about for centuries and there is no evidence that it has increased in prevalence or severity
2) He claims this technique comes from a 'chiropractor'
3) The concept of 'stimulating the C5 nerve' (which isn't even a nerve, its a nerve root) is pretty meaningless
4) The resultant sensation of temporarily improved posture that one gets after performing this exercise is very brief, and there is no evidence it persists
Indeed one can create a similar effect in the arms: Cross your arms at the wrists and touch the backs of your hands together. Pull your hands apart so that there is pressure applied to the backs of the hands and maintain this pressure for about thirty seconds. Then hold your hands in front of you, and you will notice they tend to move apart. I imagine that a similar process occurs following this exercise. However you will notice that both the separation of your hands, and the sensation of your head being pulled back following the exercise in the video, is not at all permanent.
Stretching your pecks two times per day improves posture much faster than this exercise.
Not only are there more muscle groups associated with these problems, but if you try to correct these problems improperly you can develop a muscle imbalance which can exacerbate all these issues. You need the right balance of muscle supporting other parts of your body for everything to function safely.
So before you tell people just to stretch their pecs, please consult a physical therapist to evaluate you and give you specific exercises tailored to your physicality. There is no 'one weird trick' to improving your body.
Recently I came across Phenibut. The first time I tired it, something happened that had never before: all my muscles were relaxed. Suddenly it felt natural and so easy to stand straight up with zero mental awareness at the time. And in a few days, I "learnt" what my problem was. I was tensing my chest and ab muscles all my life! That was a major beneficial side effect of Phenibut for me. Might work for others too.
Can anyone vouch for this or explain if / how it might work??
This may not correct any serious deformity caused by hunching over a computer for extended periods. For that you need to go to a physical therapist. But for people with just a little tightness or that have difficulty keeping correct posture, it can certainly help. But so can a lot of other things.
But I can see why this would work. What the exercise is doing is enforcing good posture while simulating a variety of tasks in your forward workspace. The good posture position that he describes (heal, back and head on the wall with chin tuck) is a standard description of good posture.
The person in the video likes to talk about specific nerves - I think its silly to think that way.
What's going on is that your reminding your body/brain about what it feels like to 'do work' in front of you while maintaining good posture. Like most physiotherapy (or really any physical skill), you begin with a conscious effort, preferably while providing immediate feedback about the quality of your performance (in this case, it would probably be how well you can maintain your chin tuck and head contact). The goal is that as you drill this more and more, the motor patterns involved become ingrained and eventually active subconsciously.
A progression might be that when you begin, that you have to go up against the wall to reset your posture. Then as you go on, you can start resetting your posture at your seat when you notice it. Then the frequency of you having to do it will drop off, and eventually, you'll be able to consistently have good posture with minimal conscious effort.
This site is obnoxious with its plethora of external metrics/adware hits. Even after the page is fully loaded, it hits them again every 5 seconds. I'm blacklisting makeuseof.com from any future use.