
Once you have this motion down, you can vary your chin tuck exercises and further challenge your intrinsic neck muscles. If you’re doing it right, you may even feel a stretch along the suboccipital muscles on the back of your head when your chin is tucked. The muscles you’re targeting aren’t large themselves, and by minimizing the movement, you’ll better engage the smaller flexor muscles in your neck.įinally, scapular retraction helps set the stage for proper chin tuck technique by bringing your head into neutral spine. Grated, it’s not a big movement-but it needn’t be. Your goal is to nod your head so that it spins along the rod-inwardly and downwardly.

If those little muscles are stronger, you’ll be less likely to slump your head forward and slink back into kyphosis. Most importantly, a steady routine of chin tucks will help strengthen the neck’s intrinsic flexor muscles. Tucking the chin helps reverse kyphosis by putting the upper cervical vertebrae into flexion and the lower cervical vertebrae into extension. Prolonged poor posture-often characterized by a forward head and rounded shoulders-can lead to neck pain, a neck hump, and postural kyphosis, an abnormally curved spine. However, this small movement is powerfully effective at posture rehabilitation, which is why it’s so often recommended. Why Perform Chin Tucks?īy appearances, the chin tuck is a fairly underwhelming exercise with a self-explanatory name: to perform a chin tuck, you simply tuck your chin, over and over.

By performing chin tucks regularly and correctly, you can improve your posture with less pain and more precision. But without a Physical Therapist at home, how can you be sure you’re doing them properly? In this article I’ll walk you through the dos and don’ts of chin tuck technique. One of the best ways to eliminate neck pain and improve posture is to practice chin tucks.
