How to "fix" Upper Cross Syndrome (the common sense way).

Either through YouTube, Google or a well-meaning personal trainer, you’ve been “diagnosed” with this Upper Crossed Syndrome thing.

I put diagnosed in parentheses above not to belittle this condition or to be facetious. This kind of posture sucks. It’s uncomfortable, painful and annoying.

It’s even worse when someone tries to convince you that your problem is not real. Or that it’s all in your head.

This type of posture is very real and, in this article, I will explain what you can do to get out of it.

The reason I put diagnosed in parentheses is the same reason I put fix in parentheses in the title of this article. It is because upper cross syndrome is not a disease or medical condition and there is nothing that needs to be fixed. 

It is a common type of posture. A way your body fights gravity because of weakness. This is a meaningful distinction because when you look at it this way it has less power. And you’re more likely to be convinced that you can do something about it.

With this in mind, let’s explore how you can begin making changes to your posture.

Fix Upper Crossed Syndrome by Reframing it

The classic example of upper cross syndrome is rounded shoulders, a flexed upper back and a head that is protruding forward.

It’s important to note that there are many other labels, conditions and names for this type of posture. Some refer to it simply as hunchback posture, forward head posture or rounded shoulders.

Nothing in the body works in isolation. If the upper back is excessively flexed, the shoulders will round, and the head will move forward.

If the head is forward, the upper back will flex, and the shoulders will round.

This is why so many of these labels and diagnoses for posture are not helpful. There is too much focus on the area that is theoretically out of balance.

The assumption then is if you address this part of the body then everything will be resolved.

But the body does not work in this way. One joint affects another joint which affects another joint. If the neck is out of balance, then the shoulders, spine and hip will follow.

If one major muscle group is super weak, this will affect all the other muscles in the body.

The way to finally fix upper crossed syndrome is to reframe it as a movement and weakness problem. Not as some diagnoses that requires some specialized medical attention.

Another outdated label for an upper crossed type of posture is Dowager’s Hump. This terminology makes this posture sound even more serious, probably because it’s something most people have never heard of.

I heard it for the first time this year when a reader emailed me asking my thoughts about it. This prompted me to write the above hyperlinked article on the diagnosis where I provide similar advice that I share below.

Regardless of what it’s called, it’s reversible and the less scary the label, the better.

Upper Cross Syndrome Exercises (Correctives)

The first step in changing your posture is building better body awareness. You can’t fix what you don’t understand.

This is where corrective exercise can be so useful. It teaches your brain and body what a better posture feels like. Once you build this awareness, you integrate it into foundational strength exercises to build more strength in that better posture.

There are many corrective exercises that can work to accomplish this goal, and I will provide just a few examples in this article. It’s not so much the exercise you choose but the way in which you do it.

Like the Wall Stand for example. You can easily perform this exercise and do it without the attention it deserves. If you don’t take the utmost effort to ensure your entire back is on the wall then you won't get much value out of the exercise. 

As I say in the video, walk your feet as far from the wall as you need to. What’s important is not how well you can do the exercise. What’s the point of having your feet super close to the wall if you miss the entire purpose of the exercise?

You’ll just be wasting your time and reinforcing the posture we’re trying to change. Done right, the Wall Stand is one of my favorite exercises to teach beginners how to access a healthier posture.

Another exercise to try is the Wall Clock above. This one is harder, but it uses the wall as feedback in a similar way. The wall provides feedback to ensure your body is fighting for good posture.

Working on both of these exercises together is a good way to challenge the body from different positions. With the Wall Stand, you are challenging the body with the back getting feedback and with the wall clock, you are getting the feedback from the front.

Experiment with them and see what works best for you. Once you start getting more confident in what a better posture feels like, the next step is to build some strength.

Strength Exercises for Upper Crossed Syndrome

Just like there is no perfect corrective exercise to fix upper cross syndrome, there is similarly no perfect strength exercise to do it either.

There are some that believe you just need to strengthen your back to fix this posture. You are free to try this but in my experience, this is a small piece of the puzzle.

Strengthening your posterior chain is important, no question. But if you do it with the same upper-crossed type posture that you usually live in, you’re just reinforcing this type of posture once again.

I recommend thinking about strength exercise differently when you do it for the purposes of improving posture. Don’t think about getting a “pump” in a certain muscle group like a body builder. Instead think about maintaining the best possible posture you can while performing the exercise.

Let’s use the bodyweight row as our first example. The beauty of this exercise is that it provides you the perfect opportunity to practice the postural cues you learned with the correctives in the prior section. 

Make this exercise easy in the beginning. Reduce the angle as much as needed to make the position easy enough that you don't lose good posture. Once you got the posture down, then you can increase the angle and/or increase the amount of reps.

Another great strength movement to practice optimal posture is hip hinging. Some would argue that you should do heavy deadlifts to fix your posture. You probably know what I’m about to say...

This is even more misguided for hinging type movements because there is no guarantee that you have enough hamstring flexibility to pull weight from the floor with a neutral spine. So you’ll just be flexing your back to perform the movement which is the exact thing we’re trying to fix!

Just as with the bodyweight row, keep the intensity low the first few times you perform this exercise. This means low weights and high reps. Get the posture down first, then focus on strength. 

Closing Thoughts

You can’t do it all at once. The way to improve anything in your brain and body is by giving it the proper dose and then stepping away for a little while.

Every time you come back to the practice, you get a little bit better. Your nervous system builds new neural pathways and things that felt awkward before start to feel smooth.

This is the art of building effortless and graceful movement. If you want to stand with better posture unconsciously throughout the day, it will take some dedicated but patient practice.

If you rush the process and jump right into lifting heavy weights before your body understands what a healthy position feels like you will do more harm than good.

Trust me, I get it. You want to feel better now. You want to stop slouching now. But better movement does not happen overnight. You can’t just take your body to a mechanic for a tune-up.

The slow and methodical way you perform the exercise is the antidote. It is in these mindful moments that epiphanies happen and forever change the way you move your body.