What does upper cross syndrome feel like?

You may have heard of something called Upper Crossed Syndrome, and even if you haven’t heard of it you’re probably aware of it. Upper Crossed Syndrome is when the front of your torso and your shoulders become tight and rounded and your head starts to come forward. The reason it’s called Upper Crossed is because the muscles on the back and front of your shoulders are supposed to be equal in tension so that your body can stand in an upright position.

When those areas get really tight it instead creates issues with the shoulder and neck, and can speed up degeneration along your cervical spine. It can leave you very prone to shoulder injuries, or you can get repetitive stress in your shoulders and your upper neck much easier. This technique can help release this along with your regularly prescribed adjustments. The tools you will need are a tennis ball, a heating pad, and your cervical traction that you’ve been assigned here at HealthWorks.

Can upper crossed syndrome be cured?

The first part of getting Upper Crossed Syndrome to release is to use the cervical traction and send heat across the front of your chest every single day. First you are going to get on the traction pillow. When you’re at home doing this you can either lay on the floor or on the bed, whichever you can routinely do. You get a better stretch in your neck if you are on a hard surface like the floor, but it doesn’t make that much of a difference if you’re not doing it every day. Our recommendation is to do it when you are waking up or going to sleep at night because you’re already laying down so it’s not that much of a stretch to add in the routine of doing your traction for 15 minutes.

Once you lay down either on the floor or bed, go ahead and put the traction pillow in the proper placement right on the skin and as close to the shoulders as possible. Once it’s placed, you’re going to want to use your hands and tuck it back towards your shoulders. You can tell that you have done it correctly because you will feel that your head is draped over the pillow. Your head can be at a slant or just be parallel to the floor, but make sure the pillow isn’t too far out and pushing your head up. This will actually cause damage, so make sure the pillow is properly placed. Once the traction pillow is correctly placed you’re going to put heat across your chest. Use a heating pad and lay it across your chest at a comfortable temperature. It shouldn’t be so hot that you can’t stand it. This will help to start releasing some of the really tight pec muscles that are drawing your shoulders forward.

If it’s comfortable for you to have the heating pad on there for the full 15 minutes that’s great, or you can start with 5 or 10 minutes. The idea is that you’re rehabilitating your cervical spine to bring your head back and relaxing your shoulders and the tight muscles.

To watch the full video, click here.