In the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Maria, the family matriarch, gives her daughter Toula some advice: “The men may be the head of the house, but the women are the neck and they can turn the head any way they want.”
So today is all about why your neck is so important – and why it needs to MOVE.
Experiment with me: Look in a mirror, and tip your right ear towards your right shoulder. Look at how close they are – or how far apart.
No cheating! No lifting your shoulder up to MEET your ear!
Now tilt your left ear towards your left shoulder. Is that side easier? Tighter?
If you’re having trouble moving your neck in those directions – take note.
Unless you’ve had a recent injury to your neck and you can’t move it – any chronic or long-lasting neck motion problem will become a greater problem in the future.
Joints that don’t move, calcify.
Let me repeat that.
JOINTS THAT DON’T MOVE, CALCIFY.
And the fancy name for that? Arthritis.
If the only neck motion you make is looking down at your phone or your keyboard or your plate and then looking back up again – and you don’t turn to look over your shoulder when you’re driving because you can’t – that’s a problem.
And it’s not going to get better unless you start moving it.
As chiropractors, we work on creating movement in the joints of the neck and spine every day.
But you can’t get one adjustment and then go back to a sedentary lifestyle with your head jutted forward and expect lasting changes from that adjustment.
Keeping good motion in your neck and your spine needs to be part of your daily routine.
Unless you want to end up all hunched over?
So instead, here’s what I want you to start doing – every day. FOREVER!
You’re already good at moving your head up and down, so I want you to work on the other 2 motions. And since I value your time, I’m going to condense them into 1 exercise, because I REALLY am serious – I want you to do this exercise every day for the rest of your life.
Every time you use your right hand to pick up your phone, (which might be many times a day!), stretch your arm straight out in front of you, then reach up and over your right shoulder, turning your head to look at your phone. Then switch your phone to your left hand, straighten your arm, and reach over your left shoulder, turning your head to the left to look at your phone. Repeat often during the day.
If you do this every day for a week, go back to your mirror and repeat the ear-to-shoulder exercise we did at the beginning. I guarantee that you’ll notice some good changes to your neck muscle tension and most likely a decrease in tension headaches, if you get them.
Remember – better posture, better brain, better life!
Angela Hall
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