Reducing Head-Forward Posture

Dr Dane — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:56:46 +0000

Check it Out
Your head is balanced on your neck and back if your ears are aligned above your shoulders (looking from the side). Another way to check this is to stand with your back against a wall, so that your heels, buttocks and shoulder blades are touching the wall.

Now reach up with one hand and feel how far the back of your head is from the wall. No cheating by tilting your head back! Ideally, it’s less than an inch away. This tends to get worse as you get older, so the best time to work with it is when you’re younger (when you think you’re invincible and don’t have enough brains to take on a practice like this).

Many folks have their heads well forward of their neutral balance point. This places a lot of stress on the joints and muscles in the back of your neck and upper back.

Try This Experiment
Try this experiment to see how it works. Hold a gallon of water right next to your chest. This will actually work much better if you have something to put it in first! Any other object of similar weight can be used. This is roughly equal to the weight of your head.

Now, slowly move it further away from your body, and notice how it gets more difficult to hold it up. The weight is multiplied by the distance from your body. Try to hold it several inches away for 5 or ten minutes and when your arms get tired, bring it back next to your body to feel the difference.

If you have a “head-forward” posture, this is what your joints and muscles have to do whenever you’re sitting or standing, which is often all day long! But this must be your lucky day, because here’s a cool little exercise to help your brain and body learn to do things a little differently:

Click Here to view the exercise: