Head posture can make or break your workout. When the head posture is correct in and out of training, you'll recruit deeper muscle activation in your routines and take a lot of pressure off your back.
The balance between sitting, posture, and fitness!
The Do's and Don'ts.
Head posture position is something a lot of people get wrong in and out of their fitness routines. It's important to take a look at both your natural resting head posture and head position during workouts. When addressed from both angles it can help relieve discomfort and proper head placement in workouts will allow you to fire up a WHOLE CHAIN of muscles much deeper than we can imagine.
This takes practice in your life and fitness routines.
In this blog, I will review:
Anatomy of the neck and upper body.
Awareness of posture during your daily activities.
And some of the exercises I see being affected by head posture the most.
By the time you're done with this blog, it will click.
You cannot exercise bad head posture...
Now let me remind you... there is no technical workout for your neck. No prop or chin crunches.
It is simply awareness and constant repositioning until it becomes natural and the deep neck flexors are stabilized through posture. This takes major effort and not that much time if you are consistent with the correction of repositioning the head.
Awareness starts with an understanding of the human body.
-Anatomy of the neck and upper body.
Let's take a look at the neck.
With the brain, teeth, eyes, muscles, and skull, the adult head weighs in at 8 to 12 pounds (3.62 to 5.44 kg).
This is pretty heavy when you think about it, especially when it has to balance atop A review spine.
Let's take a look at the muscles that support the head.
The neck muscles have a lot of work to do if the head posture shifts forward, it only makes sense that keeping proper placement of the head position is key to keeping the neck healthy in terms of posture and exercise.
Chest and upper back muscles are also affected.
Chest, shoulders, and upper back muscles usually take a big load when the head posture is forward putting pressure force forward! Review of anatomy is refreshing; it helps to have a visual of the interconnectedness of the upper body and neck muscles.
Rounded front shoulders usually go hand in hand with forward head posture.
Check out Upper-Crossed Syndrome!
Let's talk pressure...
This explains neck pain very clearly. Don't lose hope you can still reverse-engineer this.
It takes practice...
-Daily Posture.
This leads us into the day-to-day stuff.
Especially... THE PHONE!
As mentioned, above the phone is a big one but also your sitting posture is important.
Holding correct posture helps minimize discomfort in the neck and upper back.
This is not a fancy setup of a desk, but it is fancy posture, and it doesn't matter where you sit the posture remains the same.
Application of head posture awareness in exercise.
Exercise and mobilize.
Mobilize
Stretch the neck, chest, and upper back a few times a day especially if you sit for prolonged periods. Say if you work 8 hours seated, stretch 3x a day for 5-10 minutes each round.
Exercise
Here is a quick video to pinpoint some exercises I've seen done incorrectly with poor head posture which puts a lot of stress on the neck and spine when load (weight) is added.
Why do you want to address it...
You want to strengthen and build in good alignment.
You want to address and improve your posture which will help minimize pain, tightness, stiffness, and discomfort of the neck due to poor posture and improper training.
Doing these exercises incorrectly can take away from your workout. Chin tuck and head posture connect the frontal line of the body which involves the deep core.
Age with better posture.
Avoid spinal conditions.
Tips:
Practicing your posture throughout the day is the most important step.
Make sure your workstation is posture-friendly.
Be aware of how you hold your phone.
Stretch your neck and shoulders before your workout especially if it's shoulder day.
Try to keep your head steady during your workouts.
This covers a great deal! Now it's time to put it into practice, the sooner you start the sooner you'll see results. You'll feel good and look good also!
Do you need to address your posture immediately? Pain interfering with your workout or life routines?
BOOK A VIRTUAL ONE-ON-ONE SESSION AND RECEIVE A FREE POSTURE ANALYSIS!
Finally a teacher with real knowledge and proven results! #thankyou