How Thoracic Kyphosis Warps Your Body (and How to Fix It)
- Timothy Agnew
- Jul 11
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 12
When I travel, I often enjoy watching people at airports. If I’m not sketching them, I’m observing their postures, how they walk, or how they stand, and even how they speak.
Are they on their phones? Most people hunch over their phones while awaiting flights.
I make notes on how I would help their postures, making treatment plans that include specific muscles and therapy protocol.
While I don’t practice anymore, my kinesiology brain still assembles, trying to diagnose and “treat” the people I’m secretly observing. The other reason, of course, is refining my writing by observation, so my hobby is a scientific-creative amalgam.
Kyphotic postures (KP) are one of the most common issues I see. The telltale signs are always the same — forward head, rounded shoulders, perhaps a prominent Dowager’s hump (I’ll explain this in a bit).
I saw a lot of these postures in the people I treated — bodybuilders, tennis players, accountants — and I saw it more with teenagers that were gamers or constantly on their phones.
From a distance, I see it in famous people as well — Michael Phelps is one of the most coveted Olympian swimmers of all time, yet even as a top-level athlete, Phelps shows signs of forward head posture and a rounded upper back in everyday photos.
It’s not surprising with an Olympic swimmer whose specialty was the butterfly stroke, which places enormous workload on the pectorals major and front-line flexors.
In today’s endless tech-scrolling and video gaming world, poor posture seems to be a plague, especially in teenagers and college students.
Kyphotic postures wreck your body, but correcting it is easy with simple changes and specific exercises.
A Closed Body (Thoracic Kyphosis)
In kyphotic postures, the pectoral and cervical fascia become shortened and thickened, pulling the shoulders and head forward. The extensors on the posterior side lengthen, often creating winged scapula from muscle weakness.
In martial arts and yoga, many katas (postures) are either open body or closed body. What’s the difference? Closed body postures (kyphosis) cave the chest in. The cervical angle changes so that the neck appears at a 40-degree angle instead of up and down.
In closed body postures that are habitual, everything on the anterior body compresses, including organs and the fascia that surrounds them. The humerus rotates internally.
It’s a dangerous condition to walk around in as it taxes the organs and puts stress on the anterior body. Breathing becomes hindered from pressure on the diaphragm.
Teens display closed body postures often and this might exist because of anxiety and poor tech habits like video gaming. If you approach someone and they have their arms folded on their chest, they are displaying a closed body posture (they don’t want to be hugged).
An open body, in contrast, is a healthy, welcoming body. The cervical aligns with the shoulders and hips, and the scapulae tuck into the spine. This posture is ideal.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali discuss open body postures (in yoga terms), and great martial arts masters like Li Shuwen and Morihei Ueshiba demonstrated them.
Open body postures in everyday movements are desirable and help the body function efficiently and help us have better health.
Dowager’s Hump
A Dowager’s hump (DH) is often present in kyphotic postures. I mention it separately here because this hump often forms as part of kyphosis.
Medically known as hyperkyphosis, DH is an abnormal forward curve of the thoracic vertebrae (upper spine). Historically, this rounded, cluttered mass near the base of the neck and upper back was once associated with older women (hence, dowager).
This is a misnomer. DH affects all ages and genders and always did, but today’s tech lifestyles exacerbate the condition.
Wedging of the vertebral (T1–T12) causes clumping as the bones push together to form a mass, much like a tree burl (ironically, tree burls form from trauma to the tree).
Calcification forms between the bone in this burl and manual thoracic extension with a belt over T-8 helps release this clump. You can do the same exercise yourself (mentioned below).
Habits That Cause Kyphotic Postures
Tech-induced habits, such as looking at a phone for hours, excessive screens, and video gaming for hours, all contribute to kyphosis. Looking down at a phone instead of using it at eye level causes the shoulders to rotate internally and the cervical spine to hyperflex.
Gamers face more brutality as they stay in a seated, hunched position for hours (I treated teens who gamed for twelve hours straight and one that suffered a stroke).
Movement, exercise, or sport habits also contribute to KP. Repetitive movements that focus on anterior flexors weaken the posterior extensor muscles — especially if a training protocol does not include extra extensor strengthening.
Michael Phelps, for example, specialized in the butterfly stroke, a movement that uses the powerful flexors of the body. As a result, Phelp’s posture adapted to a rounded appearance with internally rotated humerus.
How to Help Correct Kyphotic Posture
Correcting KP is easy with this formula in mind:
strengthening the posterior fascial line extensors (muscle) = restored posture.
Eliminating poor habits helps. Slouching in chairs, collapsing the rib cage, or caving in the chest when standing or walking reinforces closed-body posture.
Become cognizant of your posture in your daily habits. Is your head forward? Are you sitting straight with your shoulders back?
A solid rule to remember during any activity is to always pull up from the back of the head (occipital) as though by a string, keeping the scapula in toward the spine. Your head weighs 10–12 lbs., and every forward inch adds ten extra pounds of force on your neck.
Exercises that help strengthen the weakened extensor group and stretch the anterior flexors of the body also help (see my stretching video here for detailed exercises).
During your day, spend some time standing with your arms behind you. Bring the scapula in towards the spine by squeezing them together. Repeat this at least ten times.
Thoracic extension is a valuable exercise. Lying on the floor on your stomach, rest your arms behind you on your lower back. Squeeze the shoulder blades together and lift your torso off the floor as you look up, lifting your head as well. Repeat 3X10 times.
Working the cervical muscles helps bring your head back in line with your spine. Hang your head off a bed and tuck your chin. Lift the head up as your eyes look at the ceiling, repeat 3X10 times.
Side-lying positions also work the cervical spine in rotation. This works the cervical rotators. Flex the head toward the floor and rotate your head from lower to higher.
Summary
KP develops from poor habits and tight/overactive muscles — pectoralis major/minor, suboccipital, upper trapezius, and SCM (sternocleidomastoid). Adhesive fibrosis (thickening) in neck muscles and fascia can also limit movement. This is common in closed body postures that have existed for long periods of time.
Pectoral and cervical fascia along the anterior line becomes shortened, pulling the shoulders and head forward. After long periods of this posture, your body adjusts to the new position. At first, changing it will feel incongruous (it’s why kids hated “sit up straight!” cajoling).
When you become aware of where your body is in space (proprioception) and can recognize when your head is forward and shoulders rounded, you will eventually self-correct.
Kinesiology Tricks
Strengthen weak muscles like scapular retractors (rhomboids, mid-lower traps). Using the previous exercises, strengthen the deep neck extensors off a bed.
Stretch the anterior flexors — pectoralis and front line fascia (yoga poses are helpful).
Perform thoracic extension exercises daily.
Retrain movement patterns and poor tech habits.
Alternate between sitting and standing at your workstation.
KP is avoidable. In our tech-savvy world, it’s easier to develop poor habits and neglect our body. My mantra?
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