When you attempt to bring the back of your carseat to vertical, you may encounter a problem with your headrest. Many carseats are designed with the headrest angled forward, and if you adjust the back of the seat to vertical, it ends up pushing your head forward. This design may be intentional for safety reasons: in case of an accident, you want the headrest supporting the head to prevent whiplash. Most people have a habit of reclining the carseat, which, in order to see straight forward, causes our head to thrust forward from our torso. Also, many of us simply have some excessive curvature of the upper spine and a habit of letting the head fall forward in front of the shoulders, so that it’s hard to align the head vertically without stretching or straining the neck. Therefore, by design the headrests jut forward from the back of the chair to protect the heads (and the habits) of most people.

HOWEVER, if we are attempting to develop new postural habits, that headrest can get in the way. Some carseats don’t have the option to adjust the headrest in this way, but in case yours does, here’s what I suggest:

Remove the headrest, flip it around, and reinsert it backwards! This usually erases that forward jut of the headrest and allows you to practice your head ramping!

Audio Version