Health & Fitness The Newsletter About Achieving and Maintaining Optimal Well-Being
June 2020
ARE YOU GETTING THERE HEAD FIRST? In the last newsletter, you were led through an explanation of how important it is to have the head centered on the neck. You learned what happens to the muscles of the neck, and the chronic pain and headaches this situation may cause. You were introduced to the weight of the head being between 11 and 14 pounds (the weight of a bowling ball), and how the eyes need to be level with the horizon for us to see what is ahead of us.
My special interest is in head, neck, and facial pain. What does posture have to do with facial pain? As the head moves forward on the neck and upper back, the structures in the front of the neck get stretched, while the tissue in the back of the neck gets shortened. There are primarily four muscles that get activated in this forward head position which will affect the face. All four often develop trigger points that refer to a classic ram’s horn pattern headache around the head and over the eyes. Two of these muscles may refer pain to the upper or lower posterior teeth. This may be so severe that you feel like you need a root canal or have the tooth pulled. Unfortunately, that would not change the pain at all. Two muscles may also refer to the ear with ear pain and or tinnitus (ringing or roaring) in the ear. This head position also pulls the jaw back. This changes the position of the jaw in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). It increases the stress on the joint by changing its mechanics of the movement. The jaw position also causes a change in the way your upper and lower teeth come in contact. By the way, have you experienced shoulder pain? The head forward posture is not just about the head and neck. It affects the upper back and the shoulder blade position which then affects the shoulder joint. It decreases the movement you have in raising your arm overhead and eventually creates pain in the shoulder joint called impingement syndrome. This means every time you reach up for something you pinch the sensitive tissue like the rotator cuff and the bursa between the bones. This creates inflammation and pain. Eventually, deterioration of the joint and the soft tissue may occur.
Let’s explore this a little further. This position of the head and neck is called a head forward posture. It is so common in our society that I had a friend who specializes in head, neck, and facial pain tell me he started having it printed on his evaluation form because everyone has it anyway. This posture occurs because we “lose the fight against gravity”. It is particularly common as we age, but we are seeing it more and more in younger people. Increasing screen time and decreasing physical activity probably play an active role in this. The analogy I like to use to explain this is a bowling ball on a fence post. If the bowling ball (head) sits in the center of the post (neck) you can hold it centered with one finger. If the ball is on the front edge of the post, you need to hang on tightly to keep it from rolling off. Your body will pay a price for working that hard all the time. What is normal posture? Normal is defined as usual or natural. So the posture you are in today is your “normal”. I would like to introduce the term “balanced posture”. This is the position your body is in that requires the least amount of energy to maintain. It places the least amount of stress on your muscles, ligaments, and joints. We would like to help you achieve a “new normal”.
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