Your head weighs the same amount as a bowling ball. This might come as a surprise. After all – it doesn’t feel like it weighs that much, but indeed it does.
What’s muffling that weight is your neck and the wonderful 43 degree arc that nature designed into it. The natural curve of your neck acts as a shock absorber so that as we move, the neck absorbs the bouncing around of the bowling ball (sorry – head!), without stressing the spine.
Sadly however, our life-styles reduce or even reverse that natural curve, and the result can be neck pain, headaches, and even reduced breathing capacity.
The condition is called Forward Head Posture, or FHP. All the time that we spend sitting at desks, texting on phones, and even reading can make us jut our heads further forward and as we do that we increase the stress on our necks and spines.
Try this experiment. Take a bowling ball sized weight. Or indeed – if you have one to hand…. a bowling ball. Hold it close to your body and spend a moment assessing how heavy it feels. Now take that weight, and hold it progressively further away from your body. You’ll notice how every inch of distance seems to make it feel so much heavier.
Exactly the same thing is happening to your neck and spine as you move your head forward – the weight-stress is increasing.
The best thing that you can do to avoid this is to check your posture. Your head should be squarely placed onto your neck, and not jutting forwards. Check how your desk is arranged. Are you able to sit in a good posture?
The next thing to try is chiropractic. By working to realign your head posture we can help you to slow down the damage, and then through stretches and exercises to stop it from getting any worse.
So – stop what you’re doing, and right now, as you read this article, check your posture. Time to check where you left your head!
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