Upper Cross Syndrome

justinjazz

New member
Anyone ever deal with this and fix it? I've been diagnosed with it a few months back. Start getting symptoms of super tight traps and neck muscles/SCM... also diagnosed with forward head posture and straight neck (hypolordosis of the cervical spine) suffered from daily cervical vertigo, neck tightness and cracking when I then my neck on thh horizontal axis. Had X Rays 3 months ago.. then last month and my lordosis returned a lot... and symptoms decreased.... but still suffering with upper crossed syndrome and feel like symptoms have been returning the past few days... just took 17 days off from my usual WO routine due to bronchitis. Going to be getting back at it soon..

Any advice? Anyone deal with something like this before?
 
I am dealing with this. The SCM is short from Forward Head posture. Your traps are tight because the opposing muscles are weak. Most likely you have should clunking, inflammation in the joint, and super tendor rotator cuff muscles as well.

Things you should buy:;

A peanut - or two lacrosse balls taped together with athletic tape
A foam roller
Theracane
A 12 inch softball (hard)

So upper cross syndrome is a dysfunction of muscles. The biggest mistake you can make when attacking this is to waste time trying to treat everything that if tight at once. I found once you get certain hypertonic muscles to calm down - it makes the other ones much easier to change.

Use the theracane on your Levator Scapula and upper traps. The LS is the muscle that gets angriest when it has to struggle to stabilize the forward head posture. If you look at a diagram of the location of it you can see it runs directly into your skull. This could be the cause of your headaches.

Use the softball to lean into your pec minor which is probably shortened pulling your shoulders forward and making your head posture worse.

Next roll the t spine on the roller. Stop at each vertebrae and while bracing your core so as to not round the lower back, try to rock back and restore some movement in your spine. Do this all the way up to just above the shoulder blades.

Take the peanut or two lacrosse balls tapes together and just as you rolled out on the foam roller do the same thing with the peanut that you did with the roller. You might have to do a bridge to get the leverage to create movement. WARNING THIS WILL BE PAINFUL. the tissues in this area are tight because they are stopping your head from pulling too far forward.

Next go lay on your bed with you head slightly handing off the edge. Lay there breathing deeply for 1-2 mins. Try to gradually lay with your head hanging further over the bed. This will stretch the front neck muscles that have become shortened from the decreases distance between their insertion points on your chest and the neck )because your head is forward and help restore movement in the top of your TSpsine. Do this every day.

Also change your lifting program. Because your head is forward your form is screwed up - meaning when you do a row, you are not working the correct muscles. Make your back day consist of horizontal scapular retractions as opposed to full movements. Go high reps. You are training a muscle that is weak from not being used and need to gain the mind muscle connection retracting your shoulder properly for these movements.

Also drop anything that involves upper traps. Instead focus on variations of shrugs that hit the mid and lower fibers and prone low trap raises. This will help strengthen the muscles that are being pulled tight by your head hanging forward and help bring it back to midline.

This is some of what I am currently doing and it has been working well. I thought some of it might be applicable to your situation.
 
Hey man thanks so much for all of the info. I bought everything and started your advice a few days ago. I have a feeling it's going to take a long time to get this under control, but I'm glad to be on the right road. Cheers again!
 
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