Correct Forward Head Posture with 3 Things - Dr. Berg

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i’d like to show you something very helpful uh to help correct this forward posture situation where you’re it’s not the whole body going forward but your neck is going past this midline right here let me let me show you something on this spine right here you can see this right here so whether you’re sitting at your desk all day creating this postural problem or if it came from an old injury which i’m going to talk about your head is anywhere between 12 and 15 to 17 pounds it’s like a bowling ball and it’s resting on this little spine so every inch it goes forward it adds a tremendous amount of tension in the back part through here now we have this connection between the back of your skull called the occiput and the first bone right here called the atlas okay and there’s these really strong ligaments and tendons and you have nerves back here you also have the brain stem that is right in this location and that is the location of the parasympathetic nervous system okay another name for the parasympathetic nervous system is rest in digest so having a problem in this upper part of the neck can create problems with insomnia it can create problems with dizziness okay or even pots which is a condition where you’re standing up and you’re getting dizzy and you have to lay down you’re not able to handle the adaptation from lying down to standing a lot of stiffness a lot of constant tension in the upper neck okay now when i was in practice i would always ask people have you ever had any compression injuries to your head whether something falling on your head or you falling from some place landing on your head i remember when i was five years old swinging on a swing set and i slipped off and i fell about three foot right on my head okay creating a compression injury right through this area that was the start of my neck problems and the reason i eventually went to see a chiropractor you also have tailbone injuries okay so where you’re falling on your butt really hard the force will travel all the way up the spine and actually gets stuck right here in the occiput okay so if you had a history of a tailbone injury okay chances are you have a lot of tension and stiffness in guarding in the top part of your neck which will pull you forward eventually then you have whiplash whether you’re driving a car and get hit from behind okay and your neck goes back this way and forward which you end up creating trauma on the front part of the neck right here because it’s going to over stretch or a front end collision where your head goes forward first and you’re creating micro trauma in the back part or even from the side someone hits you from the side and your head goes this way so there’s all sorts of traumatic things that can happen to your neck that tend to haunt you later in life or you spend eight 10 12 hours behind a desk behind your computer and your head just naturally kind of gravitates forward okay so the question is what can be done for this next situation well there are three things that i would recommend you focus on the first would be a very very simple stretch okay now if you think about what’s happening if the head goes forward the muscles on the front part of your neck and the upper chest are pulling you forward okay they’re too tight compared to the back muscles because we always have this balance between the front part of the muscles and the back part now logically you would think if the neck is going forward we just have to stretch it backwards but that’s not how these muscles work a better solution would be to stretch the back part of the muscles through here okay going down this way because what’s going to happen when you stretch all these back muscles all through here going forward what happens is you send a communication to the front part of the muscles okay and the communication is relaxed so anytime you stretch a muscle the opposing muscles will automatically relax so we’re sending relaxed signals to the front part okay when you stretch the back part so there is this first stretch that i’m going to recommend called the jefferson curl okay now this jefferson curl is usually done kind of a gradual approach from very very light without weights to adding weights and a lot of athletes do this gymnasts weight lifters etc but what i’m going to recommend is to do it without weights with not standing in a platform but basically what you’re going to do is you’re going to curl your head forward as much as possible and then curl your mid-back forward and start to touch your toes bending your lower back so your upper body is completely going forward and what this is going to do it’s going to stretch the entire posterior or back part of your spine and your neck sending signals to the front part allowing for all these muscles on the front part to be really really loose so when you come out of this jefferson curl you’re going to be able to stand up taller and it’s going to feel really relaxing now of course over time when you’re more flexible you can start adding weight and really stretch not just your hamstrings but it’s a great exercise to add flexibility and strength to your entire spine now the second thing i’m going to recommend is cervical traction okay you can actually purchase a traction device an expensive one online maybe 50 75 maybe a hundred dollars that will give you so much relief to your neck and help you with your posture so much especially if you had a compression injury or even a tailbone injury in the past and what you basically do is you hook up this device to your head and you’re either laying on your back and you’re putting this elastic bungee cord type thing on the other side of the door handle as you close the door and you can control how much traction is on your neck you can also do this on the top of your door pulling your head upward this way creating uh this separation between your occiput and your c1 through here realize that the ligaments through here are super super strong and you can actually put a lot of pressure on your neck to create this attractioning effect between the occiput and in the first cervical vertebra but the reason i did cervical traction in practice for 30 years because it gave people so much relief not just with their neck but improving their sleep okay because you’re stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system remember rest and digest you’re going to allow this person to finally get into this relaxed state and a lot of people carry so much tension right through in here now there is my device that you can get that’s not necessarily a traction device it’s more for pressure points that you can put in the back of your neck and i have videos on it it’s a very very relaxing but if you’ve had a compression injury or a tailbone injury you need to get a cervical traction device that can literally reverse the injury over time and i’d recommend doing this towards the end of the day maybe a half hour before bed for about five maybe ten minutes and you’re going to find that your whole body not just your neck but your mid back and then your lower back are going to get into this relaxed state and it’s going to really improve your sleep because try to sleep if your neck has constant tension you also notice the range of motion the neck pain and maybe even your headaches will go away as well now the third thing i would recommend after the stretching and the traction would be neck strengthening exercises and you would get on all fours and you’re going to start to do extension type exercises as well as on your back doing flexion type exercises and i did put some links down below of how to do this because a lot of times people go to the gym and they’re working their entire body but they don’t actually strengthen the neck and if you’re behind the computer a lot you can actually lose this normal curve that you should have