Does your neck hurt?

Even if it doesn’t I invite you to explore this message: 

Where do you carry your tension? You may have a consistent nagging or even acute pain in that area. You've tried massage, Physical Therapy, acupuncture, stretching, and those can all be useful, but do you feel like you’re never solving the problem? You may have resigned to the belief that “there’s nothing I can do.”

Let me invite you to an observational experiment. 

1. Watch people as they workout or engage in recreational activities. 

2. Then try to observe which body part is leading their movement. 

3. Then, can you make an assumption of what their posture looks like during the rest of the day? 

4. Finally, take a guess where they hold most of their tension (and maybe experience pain). 

This is not to criticize or judge but simply to think about the mechanics of our bodies. 

For so many of us, the answer to “what part are we leading with” is our head and necks! 

Why? 

Because in modern life, almost everything we do comes with the easy tendency to let the neck and head fall or reach forward in front of our bodies. 

Think of when you’re trying to read small print and you bring your head forward to see better. To some extent you’re likely also doing that when you eat, drive, watch a show, write, type, and especially when you look at your phone. There’s even a term now called “tech-neck” which describes the head dropped forward position of the neck when we look at our technology. This replaces the older term “dowager’s hump” that was common amongst older women who sewed, knitted, etc… so this condition is nothing new. What is new is that this condition has become common in younger and younger populations. 

Why does this matter? 

Well, let’s go back to the observation experiment: 

Watch people exercising, or doing healthy activities. Part of the reason we do these activities is to “offset” our sedentary time and our tech time. The problem is, the body doesn’t really “reset” that way.  

“Our bodies adapt not to our best intentions, but to what we do most often” - Katy Bowman

And so even though you can see people going for a run or a walk, or doing yoga, their necks and heads are still holding the tension and position of leading forward with “tech-neck” (which again is also “eating neck” and “reading neck” and “driving neck” and “lounging on the couch neck”). 

When this position becomes your default, it compresses the cervical spine, and creates an excessive load (weight) that the muscles of the upper back and neck have to work extra hard to carry. Overtime, this becomes a cause of so much tension and chronic pain. (Not to mention a bunch of other problems like excessive curve of the upper spine, breathing and eating problems, headaches, balance issues, etc.) 

The problem is not that exercise, acupuncture, massage, etc aren’t good for you. It’s that you’re not addressing the cause of the issue in the first place. 

What you need is a comprehensive approach that: 

• restores the balance of muscle length and strength needed to keep your neck and head in a more optimal alignment with the torso. 

• develops better muscular coordination with your body so that you no longer default into the tech neck position 

• Helps you cultivate new lifestyle habits that encourage your body to stay mobile throughout the day, and… 

• Helps to reorganize your living environment to make moving more and practicing better posture something that’s easy and automatic. 

This is what I help clients do in my foundations program: The Roots of Moving Freely. 

Imagine that tension melting away, feeling more energized, and being able to move your body with ease. 

Imagine having developed a lifestyle that makes your whole body feel good and not having to work so hard at exercising and therapies to “offset” your daily life. 

When you work with me in The Roots of Moving Freely program, you’ll be on your way toward experiencing better, pain-free movement in 90 days.

To talk with me about whether this program can help you, I invite you to schedule a free consultation with me to discuss your current physical issues and your goals. 

If the Foundations program is a good fit for you, I’ll let you know and you can ask me any questions about it in order to decide whether you’d like to join.