Forward Head Posture
I have noticed recently the number of clients I see with bad forward head posture. This is sometimes referred to as Dowager Hump or Buffalo Hump and it affects the space around the 6th and 7th cervical vertebra. I invariably ask my client whether they are spending large blocks of time in front of a computer peering forward and looking down? This is more than just an intelligent guess because so many of us are guilty of doing that.
For many our livelihoods depend on our use of computers. Other slight variations of the cause might include looking down at our mobile devices, knitting something or perhaps something benign such as gazing fondly downwards at our grandchildren. Recently I have noticed that I too have forward head carriage, which I suspect comes from looking downwards when doing massage therapy and also from my use of computers.
Every muscle or muscle group has a group of muscles that has the opposite (antagonistic) action. For example, the biceps has the opposite action to the triceps. The biceps flexes the arm and the triceps extends the arm. So, with the neck and shoulders, one muscle group gets lengthened and the opposite one gets shortened.
When I was a kid, I remember my mother telling me that if I made silly faces, I might get stuck that way. With the wisdom of age, I know that that does not happen. However, with forward head carriage, you definitely don’t want to suffer the long term effects resulting which can lead to restricted range of motion, neurological issues, long term neck pain, compensating low back pain, numbness, headache, balance problems and restricted breathing patterns.
It is important to nip the problem in the bud before the issue becomes more complicated and possibly irreversible. The head weighs an average of more than 10 lbs. With every inch that someone sticks out their neck, that adds another 10 pounds of torque. So with the neck poking forward two inches, that can be adding up to 30 lbs. Do that for more than 8 hours a day and I think you can understand the accumulated stress and damage.
When I first notice a forward head position problem with a client I will often initiate the conversation by inviting them to “stargaze” or look upward, thereby starting to use a different set of muscles than the ones that are causing them to stick their neck out forward.
The devices that I have photographed for this blog are probably not going to fix the problem. The blue piece of plastic might give some temporary relief by putting the neck into extension. The “ecclesiastical” collar, while you are wearing it, will make you more mindful and make it more difficult to adopt bad posture. It is more difficult to look down. However, you need to follow a regime of corrective exercises.
Recently I googled Forward Head Position and found a YouTube video that I like by chiropractor, David Oliver. He has a set of exercises to help correct the problem. He teaches a chin tuck exercise that is easy to do. Of course, it is not surprising that although head carriage is a neck problem, the shoulder is also involved so there are also simple exercises for this area. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C-wfV27bzI
Key to any exercise that I recommend is to remember if the exercise causes more pain, then don’t do it. I can always modify the exercise the next time that I see you.
