8-minute daily routine to fix protracted shoulders
Protracted shoulders means your shoulder blades sit pulled forward and spread apart from your spine, instead of resting flat against your upper back — the rounded-shoulder look most desk workers develop over years of reaching forward to a keyboard. It's driven by a specific, predictable imbalance: tight chest muscles pulling your shoulders forward, and weak mid-back muscles that aren't strong enough to pull them back.
What causes it
- Hours of forward reach. Typing, using a mouse, and holding a phone all keep your arms and shoulders rotated forward for most of the day.
- A desk setup that encourages it. A keyboard too far away, or a monitor too low, pulls your shoulders and head forward to compensate.
- Tight chest muscles. The pectoral muscles shorten from spending all day in a forward position, and short muscles pull harder.
- Weak rhomboids and mid-trapezius. These are the muscles that pull your shoulder blades back — they go almost entirely unused while you sit and type.
Signs to watch for
Look at yourself from the side in a mirror, arms relaxed: if your shoulders sit visibly in front of the midline of your body rather than stacked over your hips, that's protraction. Other signs include a hunched look even when you consciously try to sit up straight, tightness across the front of the chest, and neck or upper-back tension by the end of the day — protracted shoulders and forward head posture almost always travel together.
The 8-minute daily routine
- Doorway chest stretch — 60 seconds each side. Forearm against a door frame, step forward gently until you feel a stretch across the chest.
- Wall slides — 10 reps. Back against a wall, arms in a goalpost shape, slide them up and down while keeping contact with the wall.
- Prone Y-raises — 12 reps. Lying face down, arms out in a Y shape, lift them slightly off the floor and squeeze your shoulder blades together.
- Band pull-aparts — 15 reps. Arms extended in front holding a resistance band, pull it apart by squeezing your shoulder blades.
- Scapular squeezes — 10 reps, hold 5 seconds. Sitting or standing, squeeze your shoulder blades together and hold before releasing.
- Cat-cow — 60 seconds. On hands and knees, alternate arching and rounding your spine slowly to mobilize the whole upper back.
- Thoracic extension over a chair — 60 seconds. Sitting, hands behind your head, gently arch backward over the chair's backrest.
- Posture reset breathing — 60 seconds. Stand tall, shoulders back and down, and take slow breaths while holding the position — this is about teaching the position to your nervous system, not just your muscles.
Ergonomic adjustments that stop it coming back
No routine outruns a desk setup that's actively pulling you back into the same position for eight hours a day. Keep your keyboard close enough that your elbows stay near your sides rather than reaching forward, set armrests so your shoulders can stay relaxed instead of shrugged, and get your screen to eye level so you're not leaning forward to see it — see our full chair and desk setup guide for the specifics.
When to see a physiotherapist
If you have persistent pain, numbness or tingling down an arm, or no improvement after a few weeks of consistent stretching and strengthening, that's worth a physiotherapist's assessment rather than continuing to self-treat — this routine is for the common, habit- driven version of the problem, not a diagnosis.
How SitStraight reinforces the habit
The routine above retrains the muscles; the habit of actually holding the position through a workday is the other half of the problem. SitStraight's real-time posture alerts catch the moment your shoulders and head drift forward again during the day, which is exactly the pattern this routine is working against, and its weekly reports show whether that drift is becoming less frequent over time — useful for seeing whether the 8 minutes a day are actually translating into a change the rest of the day.