Dear LPG,

I want to talk about something that I have always noticed, and that is the way that as many people get older our shoulders become a little rounder and we often look a little hunched.  I have always striven to have good posture so I was sure that it would never happen to me, but I was shown a picture of a few of the older members of my family that was taken at a birthday party recently, and I did notice that I was not as upright as I used to be although I am one of the lucky ones because I am not experiencing much back pain so far and I know that it is not the same for everyone.

I decided to take a look online and see if, now that I have noticed what is happening, there is anything I can do to reverse the situation, and I found some interesting information there. 

As usual, all the video tips I found are showing exercises which are performed by younger people but I have decided to try some of them in a very gentle way so that I can nip the shoulder hunch in the bud and I thought it may be good to share some possible solutions for anyone else noticing the writing on this particular wall.

I am sure that I am not the only person who, as a child was always being reminded to sit up straight by parents, teachers and any other adult who knew me.  I know the advice rubbed off onto me because I remember giving my children and their contemporaries the same lecture whenever I noticed the need to do so.  However, I notice that my children don’t do the same so readily which is why I would remind the older readers of this website to try their best to instil the advice to the younger ones.

It occurs to me that if I am right about the intergenerational lapse in the reminders that the young ones get these days, and take note of all that has been mentioned about all the things that they are required to do which force them to hunch (using computers and mobile phones etc.), when they start seeing the signs of the problem it is going to be worse than what I see in myself, after what I thought was a lifetime of adopting a good posture.  Perhaps we older ones need to protect our youngsters from being more hunched than we are by keeping up the pressure with the continued nagging about posture that we were used to when we were young. 

HW, Catford

HW has shared some guidance and exercises that may be of help and interest.  As ever LPG would recommend that you check with your GP before trying the more strenuous ones…

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