Your shoulder blades should “glide and float” on your ribcage. If you have a stooped posture, your shoulder blades can’t sit or glide normally on the ribs, causing pain in your upper back and shoulders.
If you’ve been doing the original “Open the Newspaper” exercise, now it’s time to strengthen your upper back and the rhomboid muscles between your shoulder blades using a resistance band. You’ll get all the great range-of-motion benefits for your shoulder blades, plus you’ll be working on stabilizing them, too. All you need is a full-size (36-inch) foam roller and a medium-weight band.
Watch my video below to learn how to add a resistance band to the “Open the Newspaper” exercise on the foam roller:
Here are the instructions to adding a resistance band to the “Open the Newspaper” Foam Roller Exercise:
- Start by lying face up on the foam roller so it is aligned with your spine. Be sure that both your head and tailbone are supported fully.
- If your head is tilting backward to reach the roller, support your head with a pillow. Pretend to hold a softball under your chin.
- Bend your knees and relax your back and shoulders on the roller.
- Once you’re balanced and comfortable, slowly outstretch your arms to the side. If you feel any discomfort or pain, only go as far as your body will let you.
- To start this exercise, lift your arms over your chest and place the resistance band in your hands with a fairly narrow grip.
- Next, think of opening a newspaper as you extend your arms out to the side in a “T,” stretching the band across your chest.
- Exhale and slowly return your arms over your chest as if you’re closing a giant newspaper.
- Inhale and open your outstretched arms to the floor, as if to open the newspaper. Keep repeating this exercise until you’ve completed 10 repetitions.
You can add this daily to your other foam roller exercises. Check out the other videos in my foam roller exercise series below:
- Try This Easy Way To Get On a Foam Roller if You Have Parkinson’s
- Do This Shoulder Blade Protraction-Retraction Exercise To Improve Parkinson’s Stooped Posture
- Do This Scissor Exercise To Improve Parkinson’s Stooped Posture and Back Pain
- If You Want to Correct Parkinson’s Stooped Posture, Open the Newspaper!
💜 Coach Kimberly
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