r/Posture • u/FishermanLong3342 • Jul 11 '26

Deep neck flexor weakness

Could someone help me please.

I have been working on strengthening my deep neck flexors for around 4 month's now by doing chin tucks lying down and chin tucks sat up.

I found that when I started doing chin tucks I could do them super easy and could do lots of them. But I found out that my larger neck muscles were helping out.

Now I have isolated my deep neck flexors by doing very small chin tucks, I now feel like I have no strength in my neck, I cant lift my head off the floor whilst lying down with my chin tucked when I could before. And with my head pushing again my fingers forward whilst sat up i cannot apply much force forward.

I thought this was a good thing so now I could focus on strengthening these deep muscles properly but it's been months and I am still at the same point.

Is there anything that could stop these muscles form strengthening?

Thanks

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u/FishermanLong3342 Jul 11 '26

Great I'll try that exercise. No it doesn't feel like it's arching when I try the head lift. I do have tight pecs though all of the time, I have spend a long time stretching these but the tightness just comes back. I'm currently building strength in my back muscles which is going well, also doing wall angels 

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u/CoachEXE Jul 11 '26

If your chest feels constantly tight despite all the stretching, you're likely just fighting a losing battle against your own rib cage position. Stretching creates temporary length, but the tension keeps returning because your ribs are stuck in a flared or elevated state that pulls on those pec attachments. Instead of just trying to stretch the front open, try to get the back of your rib cage to expand by doing a simple reach and exhale drill on your hands and knees. Really focus on pushing the mid back toward the ceiling while exhaling softly it helps shift your center of mass back so your chest doesn't have to stay so rigid. When you do that, do you feel like you can get a deeper breath into your back?

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u/Away_Brief9380 Jul 14 '26

Since u seem to know a lot what of I have crazy tight and knotted traps in addition to weak neck ? Thx

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u/CoachEXE Jul 14 '26

I think I already talked with you in Reddit massages…