The Neck – The Master of Counterbalance.

James Drewe
Jan 7, 2018
2 min read

Updated: Jan 30

Your neck controls your future comfort

It’s never too late to do something about your posture, although it’s probably true to say that the earlier you start, the more comfortable your later years will be.

The ‘Seesaw Law’

In some respects, your spine works like a seesaw; if you do something to one end, there will be a reaction not only at the other end, but across the entire length of the seesaw. In other words, if you position your neck incorrectly on your body, you are automatically setting up a series of detrimental chain reactions.

An adult head weighs something in the region of 11-12lbs (5-5½Kgs). When balanced correctly on your body, the line of gravity passes straight through the middle of the body to the supporting feet. So, when you incorrectly position it forward of that line, the neck is forced to take extra strain as the head moves further forwards.

Diagram showing dangers of forward head posture with two skeletons. Includes steps on center of gravity, body alignment, and associated problems.

The musculature in the body doesn’t like this, and will automatically try to find the most comfortable position. Therefore, following the Seesaw Law, it will make a number of ‘better-than-doing-nothing’ adjustments; in other words, it sets up a series of counter-balances, the objective being to try to make the situation as comfortable as possible.

With these in place, you might not be 100% comfortable, but at least you can function as long as you don’t do anything extreme with your body.

Side view of 5 human skeletons showing neck angles from 0 to 60 degrees while looking at phones. Text shows weight pressure on spine.

The 21st Century Person

One of our main activities which encourages both back & neck problems, and helps us to develop a permanently poor posture is the way that most of us use our mobile phones. This can easily become a ‘habit’.

A few pictures say it all:

The ideal phone posture to save your neck

The ideal position of the head when using amobile phone

This photo is one way of demonstrating the best position to hold the mobile phone. You have to lift the phone high enough to look over the other person’s shoulder, and the body is upright. (It doesn’t take into account a font that is too small, which makes us tighten the neck, perhaps pulling it forward also).

Unfortunately, one of the downsides of using the phone whilst draped around someone else is that walking becomes slightly impractical…

James Drewe teaches Tai Chi and Qigong in both London and in Kent and online.

Details of weekly classes both live and online can be found on the website, and there are classes for 2-person Tai Chi on one Saturday a month.