I wrote a post earlier this week for Spine-health, a great site for information about back pain and the spine, about forward head posture and the alignment of the pelvis.
Forward head posture is the most common postural misalignment that I see on a regular basis. What most people don’t realize is how much the placement of the pelvis affects the positioning of the head and neck.
The head is a heavy weight to balance on top of the rather thin spinal column. The average head weighs somewhere between 8 and 12 pounds if it is balanced happily atop the spine. But if the head moves forward to any degree, the weight the spine has to bear increases.
That extra weight can be a problem, because the human spine is a slender thing, held upright through the alignment of the bones and the tension of connective tissues such as muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia. Our spines determine the quality of our lives in a number of ways—protecting the spinal cord and central nervous system, and allowing us to stand and walk on two legs. One of my favorite phrases is “How the spine goes, you go.”
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