Is “TEXT NECK” Really A Thing???
“Poor posture” can be the result of a combination of muscle imbalances and poor habits. In order to fix your posture, you need to chip away at these imbalances - and start MOVING more. Here’s one part of the puzzle.
Next time your in the car, check out the person next to you. How far is their head from the head rest? Or look at that person on their phone. How far in front of their shoulders is their head? If their earlobes aren’t directly over their shoulders and hips, this is what we call forward head posture, which is really just a less 🤓 way of saying lower cervical flexion and upper cervical extension.
When the lower cervical spine flexes, bringing your head forward on your torso, your upper cervical spine has to extend to keep your 👀 looking straight ahead. This position puts your suboccipital muscles (Attach from upper cervical vertebral segments to the base of the skull) in a shortened position, and the joint gets stuck this way.
Tight suboccipitals contribute to poor posture, but also can contribute to headaches🙉 If you don’t clean up this area (as well as work on improving upper back mobility and just moving more in general) you will never fix that 💩 posture.
We got you covered on some fixes.
1️⃣ 2 balls taped together (tennis, lacrosse, yoga tune-up, etc)
2️⃣ place at base of skull. One ball on each side.
3️⃣ Tuck chin down
4️⃣ Breathe and relax
5️⃣ Smile :)
Mechanics of head posture.
Your heard starts to move forward over its base of support. Gravity pulls it forward and down farther. You now need to look ⬆️ to see what’s in front of you. Your suubocciptial and sternocleidomastoid muscles shorten and your atlanto-occiptal joint gets stuck in extension. Your deep neck flexors lengthen and become neurologically inhibited.
WHAT TO DO NOW? First, fix how you are viewing your world. In other words, put your monitor up high enough, make sure your eyesight is on point, and switch to a standing desk.