Dear Friends,
Two of my earlier blogs had sought to bring to your attention that the direction of our habitual line of sight profoundly influences our physical posture (and thus our health and sense of well being) . I had also pointed out that the problem of posture in human beings is ancient.
www.posturalbias.blogspot.com (Dated: Nov 29, 2008)
www.posturalbias2.blogspot.com (Dated: Oct 6, 2009).
In this post we will attempt to achieve a better understanding of the problem. We will look at the issue from a fresh perspective, the perspective of proper balance of the head over the spine. There is reason to suspect that the balance of the head of adult humans is deeply wrong. The proposition we would like to make is that the balance of head of the child in this Norman Rockwell Painting, is correct ...
... whereas the usual balance of the head of adults where the head is held forward is incorrect. Do your own research, observe people around you; imagine a tangent to the two protrusions at the back - the buttocks and the shoulder hump, the surfaces that would come into contact with a bed - and study the relationship of the back of the head to this tangential surface. Observe how the position of the head varies dramatically with age, with the type of job a person is engaged in, etc; in all cases you will be hard put to find an adult who is holding his head well back. Have fun!
Proper balance of the human body is possible only when the head is held well back and the spine is free to flex backwards even as the upper torso along with the pelvis tilt forward at the thigh-hip joint (this movement will be accompanied by flexing at the knees).
Support for this proposition:
1. When we observe small children we find that their heads are held well back (the back of the head will be behind the 'line of the spine', when they lean forward); it is reasonable to assume that small children are probably getting it right; the movement of children is fluid, in sharp contrast to the arthritic way in which adults move their bodies. (Another example of a child with his head held well back).
2. The places where the spine can easily flex is at the neck and at the small of the back; at both these places the natural curvature of the spine is such as to encourage backward movement!
(I would have preferred to introduce this subject to you after two years, when I would be 99% certain about my hypothesis; I am taking a chance by introducing the subject to you now, when I am only 90% certain. But then, can we afford to sit on such an important issue forever? It is unfortunate that we have sat on this problem for a hundred years even after x rays made it clear that there were serious distortions in the human skeletal system. If my hypothesis is correct, it is very unlikely that more than a handful of adults whether rich or poor, citified or rural or tribal, athletic or non-athletic can be getting their posture any where near right.)
______________
If children hold their heads in the above manner, how do they typically hold their feet?
You can get some clue regarding this from these two exhibits (one of a child, other that of an adult):
Exhibit 1
Exhibit 2
Entry on: 17 Nov 2013
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'Toe to Heel' movement:
The nature of balance of the body when we move will be influenced by the way in which we use our feet. In this connection the following article on 'toe to heel' movement is of interest:
This obviously raises the question, should we be leading with the front of the feet when we walk and run? Will shoes impede this kind of movement?
Entry on: 3 Oct 2014
----------------------------------------------
Selvaraj.
P.S. With this position of the head a serious problem arises with regard to the use of pillows. I wouldn't advise anyone to suddenly give up his pillow, you may however read my views on the subject (I am afraid it is somewhat of a random rambling at present - needs to be properly structured).. http://useofpillows.blogspot.in/
If you are new to this subject please visit:
www.humanposture.com
www.humanposture.blogspot.com
-------------------
Two of my earlier blogs had sought to bring to your attention that the direction of our habitual line of sight profoundly influences our physical posture (and thus our health and sense of well being) . I had also pointed out that the problem of posture in human beings is ancient.
www.posturalbias.blogspot.com (Dated: Nov 29, 2008)
www.posturalbias2.blogspot.com (Dated: Oct 6, 2009).
In this post we will attempt to achieve a better understanding of the problem. We will look at the issue from a fresh perspective, the perspective of proper balance of the head over the spine. There is reason to suspect that the balance of the head of adult humans is deeply wrong. The proposition we would like to make is that the balance of head of the child in this Norman Rockwell Painting, is correct ...
... whereas the usual balance of the head of adults where the head is held forward is incorrect. Do your own research, observe people around you; imagine a tangent to the two protrusions at the back - the buttocks and the shoulder hump, the surfaces that would come into contact with a bed - and study the relationship of the back of the head to this tangential surface. Observe how the position of the head varies dramatically with age, with the type of job a person is engaged in, etc; in all cases you will be hard put to find an adult who is holding his head well back. Have fun!
Proper balance of the human body is possible only when the head is held well back and the spine is free to flex backwards even as the upper torso along with the pelvis tilt forward at the thigh-hip joint (this movement will be accompanied by flexing at the knees).
Support for this proposition:
1. When we observe small children we find that their heads are held well back (the back of the head will be behind the 'line of the spine', when they lean forward); it is reasonable to assume that small children are probably getting it right; the movement of children is fluid, in sharp contrast to the arthritic way in which adults move their bodies. (Another example of a child with his head held well back).
2. The places where the spine can easily flex is at the neck and at the small of the back; at both these places the natural curvature of the spine is such as to encourage backward movement!
(I would have preferred to introduce this subject to you after two years, when I would be 99% certain about my hypothesis; I am taking a chance by introducing the subject to you now, when I am only 90% certain. But then, can we afford to sit on such an important issue forever? It is unfortunate that we have sat on this problem for a hundred years even after x rays made it clear that there were serious distortions in the human skeletal system. If my hypothesis is correct, it is very unlikely that more than a handful of adults whether rich or poor, citified or rural or tribal, athletic or non-athletic can be getting their posture any where near right.)
______________
If children hold their heads in the above manner, how do they typically hold their feet?
You can get some clue regarding this from these two exhibits (one of a child, other that of an adult):
Exhibit 1
Exhibit 2
Entry on: 17 Nov 2013
----------------------------------
'Toe to Heel' movement:
The nature of balance of the body when we move will be influenced by the way in which we use our feet. In this connection the following article on 'toe to heel' movement is of interest:
This obviously raises the question, should we be leading with the front of the feet when we walk and run? Will shoes impede this kind of movement?
Entry on: 3 Oct 2014
----------------------------------------------
Selvaraj.
P.S. With this position of the head a serious problem arises with regard to the use of pillows. I wouldn't advise anyone to suddenly give up his pillow, you may however read my views on the subject (I am afraid it is somewhat of a random rambling at present - needs to be properly structured).. http://useofpillows.blogspot.in/
If you are new to this subject please visit:
www.humanposture.com
www.humanposture.blogspot.com
-------------------
Hello Selvaraj, thanks for elaborating your thoughts on balancing the head.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I felt a bit like being send on an impossible mission. If most adults don't balance their head properly, how I can determine whether I observe someone with good balance?
What evidence/motivation do you have for the claim that mankind suffers from bad balance for 10,000 years?
When I hold my head 'well back', I need to shift it behind the optimal point of balance. This (slightly) restricts the movement of the cervical spine, yet still allowing to bend this part of the spine backwards.
Bending the cervical spine backwards doesn't need compensatory movement of the pelvis. The spinal column is a functional unity with more than one curve, the cervical spine provides all-directional head mobility, rather than a backward preference.
Besides the difficulty in defining where 'well held back' is, a specific position of the head contradicts the flexibility of the cervical spine. 'Correcting posture' isn't risky, yet we have to develop the right tools to bring us back into balance.
Our proprioception provides us only with information how different parts of the body relate to each other. Many people incorporate parts of the startle pattern in their ways of moving, their head is already 'held back' from the point of balance habitually.
Without knowing for sure where the middle position is, any change as of where we think our head to be most likely worsen any effortful posture.
I think a concept of human posture without including the role of proprioception draws an incomplete picture. The way we move through life depends on the interpretation of the sensory feedback around us, and this interpretation happens idiosyncratic, and not in absolute, objective ways.
The child in the picture seems to read the certificate on the wall, its head position being unnecessary to pull the pants down in a forward bend. Our structure allows us to navigate very diverse terrains, yet the comforts of modern life transformed many environmental stimuli into 'no-brainers'. The mobility of the musculo-skeletal system emerges from its environmental interactions. That implies as long we live in environments detrimental for individual mobility only individual attention to 'postural maturity' can alleviate the problem.
Greets,
Lutz
Hi Lutz,
ReplyDeleteThanks for leaving a comment in my blog http://headbalance.blogspot.com/. My reply to your queries:
1) .. First of all, I felt a bit like being send on an impossible mission. If most adults don't balance their head properly, how I can determine whether I observe someone with good balance? ..
I didn’t understand this question. Does not posture correction of any type involve positioning the head?
2) .. What evidence/motivation do you have for the claim that mankind suffers from bad balance for 10,000 years? ..
I have tried to explain this issue in my blog http://posturalbias2.blogspot.com/ , where I have brought out a concept of Type 1 and Type 2 visual space, with respect to line of sight. Once humans started to strain to look down, very slowly but surely, I theorise, humans - with good balance of the head as children, to start with - would have shifted the natural position of their heads downwards. Indeed we see this happening before us today.
3) .. Bending the cervical spine backwards doesn't need compensatory movement of the pelvis. The spinal column is a functional unity with more than one curve, the cervical spine provides all-directional head mobility, rather than a backward preference….
True, but that’s what I would define as bad posture. Good posture involves harmonising and synchronising the movement of the top and bottom half of the body.
Hi Lutz,
ReplyDeleteThanks for leaving a comment in my blog http://headbalance.blogspot.com/. My reply to your queries:
4) … Besides the difficulty in defining where 'well held back' is, a specific position of the head contradicts the flexibility of the cervical spine. 'Correcting posture' isn't risky, yet we have to develop the right tools to bring us back into balance…
True, Better to seek out the correct position of the body thinking in terms of balance. Also we can try to get a feel for what this balance could be like by observing small children and animals. Adult humans are bad subjects to learn from. Considering the mess up in the skeletal system we observe in Fig …. of my website www.humanposture.com, I would suggest that correcting posture is not going to be all that easy.
5) … Our proprioception provides us only with information how different parts of the body relate to each other…
Surely our proprioception must be corrupted, since we do have postural problems!
6) … Without knowing for sure where the middle position is, any change as of where we think our head to be most likely worsen any effortful posture…
I have put forward my ideas on where the correct position of the head should be, based on my own trial and error process. I would definitely not recommend that any one should try to forcefully shift his head to the position I have recommended. I am convinced that it is not possible to naturally achieve the head position I have recommended without coordinating movements in the upper and bottom half of the body; this is easier said than done, since the muscular system will be seriously distorted in most adults. (This is also the reason why I have sounded a note of caution).
Hi Lutz,
ReplyDeleteThanks for leaving a comment in my blog http://headbalance.blogspot.com/. My reply to your queries:
7) … I think a concept of human posture without including the role of proprioception draws an incomplete picture. …
True. But for proprioception to take place the proprioceptors should be working properly, which most probably will not be the case when we misuse the body over long periods of time. The remedy is to think in terms of balance so that slowly the flaws in the proprioceptors themselves can be rectified.
(proprioceptor: A sensory receptor, found chiefly in muscles, tendons, joints, and the inner ear, that detects the motion or position of the body or a limb by responding to stimuli arising within the organism.)
8) … The child in the picture seems to read the certificate on the wall, its head position being unnecessary to pull the pants down in a forward bend…
This is a painting by the great American painter Norman Rockwell. I thought this a nice opportunity to highlight the point I was making regarding the position of the head and to share with you my admiration for this American painter. I have a big book in my house with a number of paintings by this remarkable painter. However we need not depend on this painter to show us the correct head position (admittedly there is some artistic exaggeration here), all we need to do is to observe young children around us.
9) .. Our structure allows us to navigate very diverse terrains, yet the comforts of modern life transformed many environmental stimuli into 'no-brainers'. The mobility of the musculo-skeletal system emerges from its environmental interactions. That implies as long we live in environments detrimental for individual mobility only individual attention to 'postural maturity' can alleviate the problem….
I beg to differ. For good posture we need to control the environment we live in. The head balance I refer to in this blog is all but impossible unless we alter our immediate environment. 1) Our clothing, footwear etc. so that the muscles in the body can act freely 2) Some serious redesign of our immediate environment so that we can keep our eyes level when doing tasks relating to Type 1 visual space – a simple example; we can eat more comfortably holding the plate in one hand, rather than the usual Western or Eastern setting.
Regards,
Selvaraj
Investigate the Alexander Technique if you haven't already. F. Matthius Alexander referred to the Primary Control - the relationship of the head to the neck and spine in his findings about posture. The Technique has been studied worldwide for at least 100 years.
ReplyDeleteclea
All I can do is comment from my own experience. I nearly broke my fool neck when I was about 14, by diving into the local swimming hole and jamming my head up between my shoulderblades by hitting the bottom headfirst...HARD. Being a kid, I suffered through a week of not being able to move around and then forgot all about it. Starting at about age 24, and becoming increasingly worse with time, I found myself suffering with chronic headaches, and shoulder and upper back pain and stiffness. I finally broke down and visited a chiropractor, who fixed me up over the course of a few weeks. He showed me on my xrays that my neck, rather than having a backward curve to it which in most people would act as a shock absorber of sorts, mine extended straight up at about a 30 degreee forward tilt. This as a result of the diving incident. Apparently I had pretty much totally squashed two discs, and as a result my neck lost its' spring action. The forward tilt placed constant strain on both trapezius muscles, which connect up to the base of the skull and stretch diagonally across the back as your major high tension support cables. So, any way, the result was a massive build-up of fatigue toxins in the muscles that for all intents and purposes immobilized me. The chiropractor systematically released that tension, and got me working again, and told me that I'd have a problem with it for as long as i live, and to counteract it by regular neck / back massage, and continuous gentle stretching exercises for the neck. Also, I tend to lie with my head ACROSS my pillow, not ON it. I use the pillow to provide gentle support and FORM for my neck, placing the back of my skull over the top of the pillow, so that the pillow is supporting the curvature of my neck. The hardest part was training myself to sleep on my back. I also sleep with a pillow under my knees to take pressure off the low back.
ReplyDelete