fix your Neck Hump and poor posture
The Family Hump…?
“Neck humps just run in our family, we have dubbed it the Watson Hump because all the women in our family have the neck hump”
This is what my in-laws told me years ago over the dinner table when I told them I was studying to become a physical therapist. I wasn’t surprised that this was a dinner conversation topic (you get used to people revealing their ailments to you when you identify yourself as a PT), but as I looked around at their family, truly each woman in their family had developed a significant “Neck Hump”.
The medical term for a “Neck Hump” is called a Dowager’s hump and seeing this “familial deformity” made me question if this was an inherited genetic condition or if this was just some odd coincidence.
But as I began to keep my eyes open for this, I began to notice more and more people over 50 starting to “grow” this hump just behind their head.
This set me on the path to figure out what was causing what seemed like an epidemic of deformities and if it could be changed…or were my in-laws doomed to their humped backs forever.
So what exactly is a Neck Hump?
Normally, our spine is designed with curves that help absorb forces of gravity and while also allowing us to have healthy patterns of movement. This translates into the convex curve around our rib cage and concave curves at our low back and neck (see “normal spine” on left).
The Neck Hump, or Dowager’s Hump, we see behind people is an over-exaggeration of those natural curves that have become the person’s resting posture. So the hump we see is actually the curve of the Spine sticking out of their skin.
But how much of a curve is too much?
According to research, an angle of 40 degrees or more in the bend of the Thoracic Spine (a.k.a. kyphosis) is used to diagnose excessive kyphosis. But more often than not, people don’t need an angle measurement to see that they are growing a “hump” in the mirror.
In fact, studies have estimated that somewhere between 20-40% of people over the age of 55 have a Dowager’s Hump (1).
SO THIS IS HAPPENING A LOT…
But is this a big deal?
YES!
Good posture affects so many areas of your health
Muscle Function - Your muscles are most efficient and effective when working from a neutral and stable posture.
Decreases Load on Tissues - When your posture is aligned well this limits the amount of stress on your ligaments, joints, and muscles.
Prevent Deformities - Prolonged time in poor postures can cause lasting deformities in your bones that will make those poor postures permanent. When there is excess stress on your bones, your body takes that as a sign that it needs to protect itself. It then starts to add more bone to joints that are getting compressed and if this continues, it can lead to those joints fusing themselves and losing mobility in the poor posture positioning.
Mental Health - Studies have shown that your brain subconsciously takes into account the posture your body is in and this affects your ability to perceive your environment in a positive or negative way depending on your good or poor posture, respectively.2 Another study found that posture not only affects mood states but also your processing speed for tasks. (4)
Digestive Benefits - It’s not just your muscles that benefit from being in alignment, your digestive tract also has the room it needs to process the food and gas most effectively when in good postures. Slouching on the couch after a meal can be hindering your digestion and keeping you bloated. (3)
So how do people get a Neck Hump?
As discussed above, a Neck hump is a deformation of the upper spine from prolonged stresses on those tissues.
It turns out that this is NOT genetic…(sorry to my In-laws).
That stress actually occurs from the head being too far out in front of the body for too long…
Things like
sitting at a computer for 8 hours a day…
long drives with your head forward…
slouching on a couch to “relax” all day…
reading in bed with your head propped up…
staring down at a phone in your hands…
and many others…
And when that happens, the picture above becomes your reality.
This “X” is highlighting the muscles that start to get weak or tight that then make it harder to get out of the head forward position.
Once these tissues start to change, the muscles that normally pull you out of the bad posture are not strong enough to get you there, and the muscles that are keeping you in bad posture are too tight to let go.
Once this happens, it is not long before the bones of the mid back begin to have long lasting changes that create the neck hump. That excess compression causes the body to deposit more boney tissue in the joints creating pain, stiffness, and stealing mobility.
Exercises to Get Rid of Neck Hump
So you’ve got a neck hump…now what?
In order to start fixing the Neck Hump, we need to counter each of the aspects that caused the hump and are keeping it this way.
This means we need to:
Strengthen the weak muscles…
Stretch the tight muscles…
Get the stiff joints moving again…
As we take a multifaceted and consistent approach to posture, you will begin to see changes in your posture.
Below are the three exercises to start with that are going to do just that!
Chin Tucks - 3 x 10 Daily
1. Begin with your head in a relaxed neutral position
2. Move your head backwards as if you were trying to give yourself a double chin and hold for 1-2 seconds
3. Relax back to neutral position and repeat
*Note: Your chin should not tuck into your chest!
Scapula Squeezes - 3 x 10 daily
1. Start standing or sitting with your elbows bent to 90 degrees forward (Left image)
2. Then pinch your shoulder blades back together as if you were trying to squeeze a pencil between them (Right image)
3. Hold for 1-2 seconds and then return to neutral.
4. Repeat.
Chair Back Bends - 3 x 10 daily
1. Start sitting in a chair with a back that stops about halfway up your back.
2. Place your hands behind your neck and bend backwards over the top of the chair back (Right Image) and hold for 1-2 seconds
3. Return back to sitting upright then repeat.
*Note: You can scoot forward or backwards in the chair if you want to focus on higher or lower areas of your back when you bend backwards
Now these exercises are targeting specifically the areas that lead to Neck Humps. However, to get the best results they should also be combined with regular strength training 3x/week to also ensure the rest of your body is working through its full ranges of motion and building strength for longevity. If you are interested in reading more about this, check out our Strength Training for Seniors blog.
Paula’s Story
Paula* is one of my patients who came in and was frustrated with her posture. She had become more sedentary in recent years and her back pain had also been limiting her from standing for longer than 15 minutes. Paula even described that her head would just feel so heavy on her neck. She also had young grandkids that she wanted to be able to stay active with and she did not want to have her posture continue to worsen.
The one thing Paula had going for her was her motivation to make a change in her life. She was diligent with the exercises above that I gave her and was determined to make sure her retirement years weren’t spent in her easy chair.
1st Visit After 6 weeks
And as you can see in these pictures, in just 6 weeks, Paula and I had already made significant progress in improving her neck hump. And if you look closely you can also see that her shoulders are further back and her head is sitting more upright on her shoulders, all signs that her postural muscles are getting stronger and holding her in a more natural position decreasing her risk of injury and boosting her quality of life.
But what isn’t pictured here is the overwhelming joy that she had when she was able to walk her granddaughter to school without back pain. And the motivation that she got from seeing this much progress has kept her striving towards making more positive changes to her health.
Paula’s story is not an outlier.
A neck hump is not something that you just have to live with once you see it in the mirror…
You just have to be ready to make a change in your life.
In it for the long haul…
When you first entered elementary school, you probably weren’t thinking about getting your diploma, getting into the workforce, or even getting smarter, but there were habits and topics covered in class that you were slowly learning about. And even as you got into middle school and high school, there is never one day that you can look back on a say “THAT’S the moment that I became smarter”. But comparing yourself at graduation to the elementary schooler, you can see the vast difference in experience, intelligence, and career opportunities.
The same is true with posture, for better and for worse.
Looking back on your life, barring a traumatic accident, there is never a day from one to the next where you notice your posture getting that much worse…but comparing pictures of your old self to what you see in the mirror might show some stark differences.
In the same way, moving towards better posture is going to be like working towards your high school diploma. There might not be a specific day where you notice huge improvement, but over time you will see the fruits of your labor.
So I encourage you to be in this for the long haul and have a long term mindset. Taking steps to be consistent with these exercises over a long period of time is the best way to make the changes you want to see in your posture!
Katzman WB, Wanek L, Shepherd JA, Sellmeyer DE. Age-related hyperkyphosis: its causes, consequences, and management. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2010 Jun; 40(6):352-60. doi: 10.2519/jospt.2010.3099. PMID: 20511692; PMCID: PMC2907357.
Erik Peper, I-Mei Lin, Richard Harvey; Posture and Mood: Implications and Applications to Therapy. Biofeedback, 1 April 2017; 45(2): 42–48. doi: https://doi.org/10.5298 /1081-5937-45.2.03
Dainese R, Serra J, Azpiroz F, et al, Influence of body posture on intestinal transit of gas, Gut, 2003; 52: 971-974.
Sarah Awad, Tobias Debatin, Albert Ziegler, Embodiment: I sat, I felt, I performed – Posture effects on mood and cognitive performance, Acta Psychologica. 2021; 2:18, 103353, ISSN 0001-6918, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103353.
*Names of patients have been changed.
