9 Strategies to Fix Rounded Shoulders and Feel Less Achy
Is "improve posture" on your to-do list? These tips can help.
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We live in an era when it’s never been easier to have bad posture. Slouching at your desk, hunching over your phone, and lounging on your couch may be your default positions, but long-term poor posture habits can lead to some painful issues, like rounded shoulders, which in turn can cause upper back, neck, and shoulder stiffness (plus that dreaded neck hump), or text/tech neck from staring down at your phone too much.
If you notice that you’re hunching forward when you stand or that your shoulders cave inward, don’t fret—but it might be time to work on it. Rounded shoulders can be reversed with a little time, patience, stretching, and postural reset. Here’s what two physical therapists and an orthopedic doctor have to say about rounded shoulders and how to get rid of them.
Related: 5 Simple Exercises That Can Help Improve Your Posture—No Equipment Needed
What Causes Rounded Shoulders?
This refers to having shoulders that “fall forward” or a resting shoulder position that strays from your body’s natural alignment. Also known as kyphosis, or rounding of the spine, rounded shoulders have a myriad of causes that include poor posture habits, structural changes in the bones and muscles, and genetics, explains Kellie K. Middleton, MD, MPH, an orthopedic surgeon in Atlanta.
“The most common cause of rounded shoulders is muscle imbalances around the shoulder joint, or tightness in certain chest muscles paired with weakened back muscles that cause the spine to hunch forward,” she says. Many of these imbalances are due to poor posture, work-related tasks, and rigorous sports training or exercise.
Text neck, or tech neck, from constantly looking down at your phone, is another culprit behind rounded shoulders. “Things like ‘text neck’ are now part of our lexicon in healthcare,” says Denise Smith, PT, CMPT, certified physical therapist. “More students and office workers are presenting clinically with a forward head and rounded shoulders.”
This problem, Smith says, grew exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic as people worked or learned from home. “We saw record-high cases of neck and shoulder pain from people working from home in less-than-ideal makeshift offices,” she explains. “The amount of sitting that’s occurring is detrimental to our spinal health.”
Related: 7 Great Stretches for Your Mid-Back
How to Undo Rounded Shoulders
While heredity does play some part in rounded shoulders, Smith says most experts look at environmental factors (like phone overuse and daily sitting posture) as both the leading causes and biggest opportunities for prevention.
“Muscle groups like your upper traps, levator scapulae, pectoralis muscles, and latissimus dorsi are key support groups that become tight due to prolonged electronic time,” she explains, adding the good news: “These muscles can be stretched out, and headaches, jaw pain, shoulder pain, and back pain can be decreased.”
The “best way to ‘unround’ your shoulders is through stretching and strengthening exercises, and postural correction strategies,” Middleton agrees. Here are our experts' top tips, exercises, and stretches to try if rounded shoulders are causing you pain, discomfort, or posture problems.
Keep that head up.
For starters, Smith has one simple piece of advice: “Look up.” This means avoiding staring down at your phone, computer or other electronic devices for extended periods of time, and instead making an effort to keep any devices at eye level whenever possible. “To reverse the stress of looking down, look up for five seconds for five reps every 30 minutes,” she says. If practiced enough, Smith believes this can become a lasting habit you can do in short increments throughout the work or school day.
Practice good posture.
Good posture is more than a matter of standing up straight, which might improve the position of the spine but doesn't actually affect your shoulders, says Mallory Behenna, PT, DPT, doctor of physical therapy at Brooks Rehabilitation in Jacksonville, Florida. "To truly correct rounded shoulders, we need to change the position of the shoulder blades on the rib cage," she says. "The best way to do this is to gently roll the shoulders up, back, and down, squeezing the bottom angles of the shoulder blades lightly together without lifting the chest or breastbone." This will move the shoulder blades from the sides of the rib cage to lying flush on the ribs and engages the muscles intended to hold them in place.
"Once we get the shoulder blades positioned down and back, we now have to work to keep them there," Behenna says. "This requires a multi-faceted approach, including not only stretching and strengthening, but retraining the brain."
Retrain your brain to assume the correct position.
"Repositioning the shoulder blades on the rib cage will feel abnormal at first," Behenna says. "But the brain is amazing and can be retrained to rest in the more efficient 'normal' position. The more you do it, the easier it will feel." Behenna advises her patients to set their phone to alert them once an hour while they are working at their desks. That serves as a reminder to correct the shoulder blades and resume working, holding that more efficient position.
Another retraining exercise Behenna recommends: Perform the shoulder blade repositioning movement repeatedly, doing the gentle shrug up, back, and down and holding that position for 5 seconds. To increase muscle activation in this position, bend the elbows, keeping them by the sides, palms up, then move the hands apart until you feel the lower part of the shoulder blades squeezing together. Do 2 sets of 30 with a 3- to 5-second hold.
"Over time, as the body continues to feel this more neutral position, and feels decreased stress in other areas as a result, this position will become more normal," Behenna says. "Eventually you will find yourself sitting in this neutral posture without having to think about it."
Engage your shoulder blade muscles (often!).
When your shoulders curve forward, it often signals (or worsens) weakness and/or underuse of the upper back and posterior shoulder muscles—in other words, your body mechanics are out of balance. You can start to reverse this by activating and strengthening the small muscles in the upper back with very subtle exercises (including I’s, T’s, W’s, and Y’s (here’s more on that specific routine).
Middleton shares her two favorite ways to activate the shoulder blades and offset rounded shoulders.
Wall angels. "Stand [with your back] against a wall with feet hip-distance apart and your head, upper back, and tailbone touching the wall,” she says. “Raise your arms up to shoulder height [like you’re making a snow angel] keeping your elbows and wrists in line with your shoulders. Squeeze your shoulder blades together [without puffing out your chest] as you bring your arms down the wall until they’re at hip level. Repeat 15 times.” Remember to keep your head, upper back, and tailbone points touching the wall the entire time.
Shoulder-blade squeeze. “Stand upright with feet hip-distance apart. Elongate through the spine and then [without arching the chest forward or splaying the ribcage out] draw your shoulder blades close together, squeezing them downward and inward, as if you were trying to make them touch,” Middleton says. “Hold for five seconds, then release. Repeat 10 times.”
Try a doorway chest-opening stretch.
Any doorway can help you practice this daily stretch, recommended by Behenna: Stand in a doorway and place your forearms on the doorframe at a 90-degree angle from the body, keeping the hands flat. Slowly step through the doorway until you feel a comfortable pull across the front of the chest. Hold for 10-15 seconds, repeating 10 times. You can do both arms simultaneously, or one arm at a time.
Strengthen your core.
Developing good core strength can significantly reverse the curse of rounded shoulders, but Smith says it’s important to understand exactly what and where your core is. “Your core is not just your abs. It’s any muscle between your shoulders and knees,” she explains. “If you're not strong in these supportive muscles, your head and shoulders won’t have a foundation to hold them up.” The result? You may become more prone to rounded shoulders.
To alleviate this risk, exercises like planks, squats, lunges, and push-ups are excellent, multi-muscle strengthening moves that build up your core. The best part about these exercises, Smith says, is that you don’t need equipment or a gym membership to try them.
Create an ergonomic desk set-up.
Your desk or work set-up can create an easy trap for developing rounded shoulders. Adding a little ergonomics to the mix, however, can help prevent and ease pain, Smith says. First, make sure that your computer or monitor is just about eye level, or that your gaze falls 2 to 3 inches below the top of the screen. Your monitor/device should be an arm’s length away, with your elbows bent at about a 90-degree angle. Your knees, thighs, and feet should have plenty of space below your desk (and these joints should be at roughly 90-degree angles too), and your feet rest flat on the floor or on a footrest.
To prevent or reverse rounded shoulders even further, Smith recommends incorporating some movement in your work area. “This can be standing while working, or using an exercise ball,” she says. “Exercise balls force your hips and shoulders into a better position, and they’re fun to sit on.”
Or do these upper-back and neck stretches throughout the day to loosen up and relieve tension.
Sleep on a contoured pillow.
Our posture doesn't affect us only while we’re awake, but throughout the night too. If rounded shoulders are a concern, Smith recommends sleeping on a contoured pillow that promotes healthy neck curvature. “These pillows typically have one to two humps that support your neck to restore its natural reverse-C shape,” she says. Here's how to choose the right pillow for you.
Use a foam roller.
Foam rollers are loved by athletes and the general public alike, thanks to their tension-relieving benefits. If you’re plagued by rounded shoulders, Smith advises getting yourself a foam roller and using it regularly to massage and mobilize your mid- and upper-back areas. “This not only feels good on your shoulders, neck, chest, and low back, but it helps reverse the effects of sitting,” she says.
Related: How to Give Yourself the Best Foot Massage With Just a Lacrosse Ball
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