How to Safely Use a Foam Roller for Parkinson’s Stooped Posture

“Kimberly, what can I do to straighten up? I feel like my posture is getting worse!” This is a very common question and concern for people with Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s disease causes your chest muscles to tighten, creating a flexed-forward posture. This creates a host of problems, including back pain. You can use a foam roller to facilitate some great extension in your muscles, improving pain and your posture. I’ll show you how to use a bath towel to keep the roller in place.

Watch my video below on how you can safely use a foam roller to help with Parkinson’s poor posture:

For this upper back extension exercise, you can use either the full-size (36-inch) or half-size (15-inch) roller. Most people like a medium-firm roller. MELT rollers are great if they don’t squish down too much. I like a sturdier roller myself. This exercise will help stretch out the chest and back muscles, relieve muscular tension in your upper and lower back, improve shoulder range of motion, and really improve your posture.

• Start by placing the foam roller crossways in relation to your body.
• Place a bath towel over the roller to keep it from rolling away.

• Lie down on your back with the roller under your lower ribs. Bend your knees and keep your hips and feet on the ground.

• Bend your elbows and cradle your head by placing your hands behind your ears. Avoid lacing your fingers because this could create a pulling action on your head and neck. Keep your elbows facing forward.

• Inhale to prepare and, as you exhale, extend your back gently over the roller, keeping your head and neck in a neutral and supported position.

• Relax your spine over the roller to get extension in the vertebral joints of the upper back. If you’re just rolling forward and backward, you will never actually get mobility in your thoracic spine. Be sure to slowly extend in a controlled manner with a big exhale.
• Stay in this position for several seconds and breathe!
• Come back to the starting position, move the roller down to the next vertebra, and exhale while extending over the roller again. The key is relaxing your spine over the roller in several different segments along the thoracic spine.

** Caution! Do not roll out your lumbar spine (lower back). The ribs, muscles, and shoulder blades of your upper back protect your spine. If you roll your lower back, the body will sense danger and all the spinal muscles will contract to protect the spine. Once you reach the end of the rib cage, STOP!

You can do this exercise every day to counteract Parkinson’s forward stooping. Let me know how it’s going!

💜 Coach Kimberly