: Head forward / Head back postures

[sraj]

Dear All,

This is to bring to your attention that there is a world of difference between head forward position (occupied by practically all adults), and the head back position as suggested in my website http://headbalance.blogspot.com/ .

In the former basically the body is out of balance, and so it can take myriad forms and it will welcome interference to the musculoskeletal system such as belts tied around the waist, shoes etc. The later form of balance aims to engage every muscle in the body, making posture correction challenging (and rewarding).

If you happen to concur with the information provided in my website, I am afraid you will eventually have deal with any restrictions to the movement of muscles in the body imposed by shoes, belts, elastic of any kind, etc.

Owing to lifestyle issues if you are not able to fully engage the bottom half of the body, and deal with restrictions imposed on the body by shoes, belts, etc., you would be well advised not to attempt to balance your head as suggested in my website.

In case you experience any dizziness etc., remember to move into 'Present Space', sit down if possible and discontinue any posture correction.

In case of pain in the neck, shoulder etc., shift your attention to your stomach muscles and the lower half of the body.

If you are an elderly person perhaps it will be advisable to aim to keep the head slightly forward. Even for others it will be a long haul shifting the position of the head backward and it can only be done in stages.

(Issued in public interest :-)

Regards,
Selvaraj

P.S. After having put up the above website I have always been worried, could I be wrong? So far I find my body becoming increasingly flexible and strong, with much better and natural breathing. However, since in this posture you literally remove the blocks to the natural alignment of the muscles, the body will continue to seek better and better alignment.

[sraj]

Dear All,

The adventure continues. Got into some problem with my neck some time back - slight pain at the back of the neck. As I explained earlier, head forward position and head back are two entirely different things (like 'dog' is different from 'god' - although both use the same alphabets :-). After a lifetime of putting the head forward, making the necessary adjustments in the body is a tricky task. My spine seems to be getting adjusted in a way I did not anticipate. Feel my spine in the neck region to be much stronger than it used to be. What continues to surprise me is the enormous changes taking place in the region of my stomach muscles (Wearing belts and elastic over the stomach is not a good idea - my humble view). For two weeks I have also been suffering from some of my knuckles swelling (and paining a bit - is this how arthritis feels?), even as the muscles in my hands readjust. (Little swelling on one knuckle today, no pain).

As I tried to explain earlier, if we divide the body into a hundred parts, in business as usual, we are not attempting to connect these hundred parts. So it does not matter if your shoes put say five of these parts out of commission, or the belts and elastic put another ten out of commission. In balancing the body properly (as children do it), however, all the hundred parts are intimately connected. Conversely, if we are correcting posture, if a small change is made in one part, it will be necessary for the remaining 99 parts to reflect this change. This makes correction of posture challenging (and interesting).

... just to keep you informed. If I kick the bucket hacking through this Amazonian jungle, you will know what to avoid :-)

Regards,

Selvaraj

P.S. 1) If you have inadequate lower body flexibility - you cannot squat and cannot sit cross-legged - it will probably be unsafe to attempt to take your head back. 2) I have not talked much about the changes taking place in my facial muscles and scalp - quite a bit I must say. My eyeballs seem to be sitting more comfortably in their sockets now, and moving more freely. 3) I am also trying to figure out what ought to be the natural weight of the body (should we be gorilla like or skinny like a monkey:-). Some time back I used to think that I should be much heavier than I am now, now I am not too sure. My body weight which used to hover around 63 Kg, is now hovering around 61 Kg. This could be because I am studiously avoiding exercising my body, out of fear that I would end up strengthening the wrong  group of muscle. But is it possible that many people with higher BMI (in the acceptable range) are actually overweight? My BMI is 21.7  (Normal BMI - 18.5 to 24.9) http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ .

I am beginning to fear that many persons may be carrying excess weight, which does not contribute to the strength of the body. However plan to keep an open mind on this subject till I am sure. (Since BMI does not consciously address the issue of good-bad posture, and 99% of individuals have bad posture, quite clearly the figures quoted for BMI will have to be revised once the problem of posture is better understood).

[sraj]

I faced swelling problems with my 2nd (or minor knuckles)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuckle

(The problem has now more or less resolved itself).

Selvaraj

[Julio Maidanik]

Hi Selvaraj,

As for the thread's title,  head forward / head backward: I believe it is misleading.
The blog contents is about head alignement with the spine, that is a diferent story.

As for alignement,  alignement is good. No question about  that.
The questions however are:
a) what causes misalignment
b) how should it be corrected

On those  answers, I believe we will disagree.

Regards,
Julio

[sraj]

Hi Julio,

I agree with you, that my title head forward / head backward could be misleading. 

The issue is actually more of balance, have we brought the head to a position where it can balance effectively and aid in the balance of the rest of the body.

Head forward / head backward only refers to the fact that most adults are allowing their heads to fall forward, well away from the position where the head can be balanced properly.

Regards,

Selvaraj

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[sraj]

Dear All,

Hit some kind of a traffic jam for two weeks, have got out of it now. My present focus seems to center around my eyes and facial muscles and adjustments in the back portion of my scalp, which probably determine the facility with which major muscles attached to the skull operate. Adjusting my stomach muscles  continues to be an ongoing operation. 

Overall feel much more relaxed, with much improved breathing.

Would like to bring to the attention of this group, something I wrote in my book (published in 2005)....

In the 1960s, Sir Alastair Pilkington (Fig 8.11) invented the float method of producing glass. Before his invention the only way to produce high quality glass was to cast it and then to polish it, a very tedious and expensive process. With Pilkington’s invention it became possible to produce high quality plate glass in large quantities. The process uses molten tin, which maintains a perfectly flat surface due to gravity, on which molten glass in poured and allowed to settle (Fig 8.12). The process takes advantage of a natural phenomenon. Similarly, we have to figure out obvious and logical ways to correct posture rather than get bogged down by trying to artificially sort out the complexity at each and every joint in the body. 

Regards,

Selvaraj

P.S. My website www.humanposture.com is not operational at the moment, as I seem to have exceeded my allotted memory space of 10 MB (presently it appears that I am using 20 MB). This must be because usage information (which is of no interest to me is getting recorded). Does anyone in this group know how I can delete the unwanted information. (If you try to access my website you will be taken to the 'plask' page which will tell you that 'there is no website at this address'.) Unfortunately I am dependent of others to maintain this site.

For those of you who may be interested in accessing this web page, this is to let you know that a copy of the same is available in www.humanposture.blogspot.com

[sraj]

Dear All,

Making fine progress with my posture correction. Presently in the stage of trying to fully link the sinusoidal motions that link movement head to toe. This movement will be completely different for head forward / head backward positions. This is a tough job as you have to get the spine to work differently - the basic walking gait will also be different. 

Patrick Macdonald in this video appears to attempting to teach his pupils this difference in movement. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDuKWWo8EnU

Unfortunately lower body flexibility will be compromised when we wear shoes routinely and restrict the functioning of the stomach muscles by tying anything over it. This loss of flexibility will prevent the head from going to its natural well balanced position. 

This is a fact that is going to be difficult for most people to digest. Alas!

Regards,

Selvaraj

[sraj]

Dear All,

I am astonished, and continue to be surprised, that my belated realization that the head should be balanced well back, can lead to profound improvements in our postural balance. A tortuous journey nevertheless, in that we will be attempting to reverse a deliberate, societal enforced alteration of our posture from the day we are born!!

Fortunately for this phase of my posture  correction I appear to have a fairly accurate time line based on my postings in my posture related blogs:

Nov 29, 2008 - Postural Bias - The Eyes: http://www.posturalbias.blogspot.in/

Oct 6, 2009 - Postural Bias - The Eyes (2): http://www.posturalbias2.blogspot.com/

Feb 1, 2010 - Use of Pillows: http://www.useofpillows.blogspot.in/

MARCH 29, 2011 - BALANCE OF THE HEAD: http://headbalance.blogspot.in/

4.5 years from the first post, 2 years from the last (to date).

Regards,

Selvaraj

Note: I can only urge extreme caution if you are attempting to use the information provided by me. The above information is based on the assumption that all parts of the body are FULLY free and are not constrained by improper footwear or clothing. Also. sitting cross-legged is a much safer way to sit; it has the ability make changes in the pelvic region, which may not be possible to make by sitting in a chair the usual way. 

[Ee Aa]

Hello Sraj,

 

I have also found that keeping my neck back; i.e., cervical spine aligned as much as possible with the thoracic spine, and head balanced forward on top is key. It makes a difference in my movement and my emotional equilibrium. In fact, my first direction is not head forward but neck back.

 

Jack

P.S. My website http://www.humanposture.com/ is not operational at the moment, as I seem to have exceeded my allotted memory space of 10 MB (presently it appears that I am using 20 MB). This must be because usage information (which is of no interest to me is getting recorded). Does anyone in this group know how I can delete the unwanted information. (If you try to access my website you will be taken to the 'plask' page which will tell you that 'there is no website at this address'.) Unfortunately I am dependent of others to maintain this site.

For those of you who may be interested in accessing this web page, this is to let you know that a copy of the same is available in http://www.humanposture.blogspot.com/

[sraj]

Hello Jack,

This indeed is a crucial question. In which direction should we direct the head/neck? 

In so far as my posture correction is concerned, I have decided to take the 'head balance' adopted by children as my primary reference - adults seem to have their heads way too forward, and rotated in a different way. I add to this my own engineering idea that when posture is good, the body will be in a state of flux (balance), clearly visible in children with very good posture, it will be strong, poised, fast and unhurried. 

(If we feel that our posture has improved every month in the last one year, we are probably heading in the right direction, otherwise we should try out something different.)

Regards,

Selvaraj

[sraj]

Hello Jack,

I would like to add a small but important point to my earlier post. 

Even though I am trying my best to get my head back (especially when I lie down without a pillow, on my side), in reality there is no danger of the head going too far back, what is really happening in my case is that the rest of the spine is getting realigned. Since the C.G. of the body will pass through the heels, there is not much scope to shift the overall C.G. much further back. 

When I look in the mirror, it looks that the back of my head is well back (in relation to the back). When I checked my alignment against a wall however, I find that my head is not touching the wall, even as my back touches the wall. (I think in an earlier post I had stated that my head was touching first). Evidently my postural balance is changing.. So far as I can make out at the moment, for the better.

Regards,

Selvaraj

[sraj]

Dear All,

My experiment continues. With good results so far. I find major changes taking place in the muscles around my eyes, my scalp and my facial muscles. I recognize that eventually the eyes must move very freely if posture is to be good. I have also found myself realigning my neck with respect to the head. 

I am trying to discover (with good success), the natural alignment of the body reaching down to my feet, 'without muscular bracing'.

To quote Michael:

"how" you are doing it. (for instance, are you doing it with additional muscular bracing?). That's the lesson from Alexander Technique.

My running experiment has been put on temporary hold, till I improve my posture a little more. I have also to figure out what to do with my running shoes. When I ran last I had only one problem, I had a burning sensation in the soles of my feet for a few days. My guess is that this  was due to the soles of my running shoes. The running shoes that I am using presently is a new pair I purchased from the Bata shoe company. It is a simple canvas pair costing eight dollars. When I went to purchase a pair of shoes I was looking forward to purchasing cheaper shoes which used to be available earlier, which had very thin and firm insoles. The pair I was forced to purchase (the other one not being available), has foamy insoles of 4 mm thickness - in my view a bad idea. The advantage with this pair however is that the soles are very flat - maybe that's the reason why the manufacturers were forced to introduce foamy insoles. When I removed the foamy insole from one shoe and did simulation running in my house, I found a side of the shoe pinching my little toe .... ?? 

Regards,

Selvaraj 

On 7 May 2013 20:55, sraj <sra...@gmail.com> wrote: