We finish looking at the forward head posture concept by looking at the strange exercises that are used to combat it. Then I present Jeando Masoero’s model for the optimal orientation and relative position of the neck and head. I offer lessons in the Initial Alexander Technique, which are conducted one-on-one with a teacher over Zoom. They are designed to help you gain conscious control over how you move your body. Most people have no idea what they’re doing with their body, and as they misuse their body, they end up with discomfort, pain, and other issues that they may not even realize are caused by what they’re doing to themselves. But how do you figure out what you’re doing wrong? And how do you change what you're doing and overcome lifelong habits? In an Initial Alexander Technique lesson, you will record yourself through Zoom, so you will be able to see and understand what you are doing when you stand, sit, walk, and perform other simple gestures. With the assistance of your teacher, you will come to understand how you are misusing the mechanisms of your body, and you will gain the ability to choose to use yourself in a more sensible way. You can learn how to use your body without pain. You can break free from long held habits. All you need is a system that works. For more information or to book a lesson, please visit my website: mechanicsofpoise.com/ You can contact me at: DelsarteAlexanderMasoeroYou@protonmail.com "During this harmful "sniffing" act [to take a breath] it will be seen that... [t]he head is thrown too far back, and the neck unduly tensed and shortened at a time when it should be perfectly free from strain." F.M. Alexander
Unbelievable content man. Its shocking how this view on posture is somehow underground and esoteric. How on earth has mainstream physiotherapy got it so wrong. I had my doubts about the alexander technique but your torso/pelvis basics and solved a crippling 10 year battle with Anterior Pelvic Tilt. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. My core is back and my glutes are online for the first time in my life. There is no denying the message in the video. Anyone can McKenzie chin tuck and either. 1. Look in the mirror and intuitively know your chin/jaw should not be that recessed and 2. Try to swallow and feel how hard it is. Meanwhile advancing the head forward creates a long chin/proud jaw and you can actually swallow.
If you do a chin tuck and your jaw is recessed and it is hard to swallow, then you are doing the chin tuck exercise. The chin tuck exercise is meant to be an exaggerated position, and it's purpose is to stretch the muscles on the back of the neck and strengthen the muscles on the front of the neck. It isn't meant to be seen as proper posture. People recommend chin tucks too much, but they do have a specific purpose. Also, mainstream physiotherapy is focused on a person's relaxed posture. This AT posture is more of an active posture or a position of mechanical advantage. I think the mainstream approach is valuable but is commonly misunderstood (the misunderstanding of chin tucks for example). Social media and most posture videos on YT have increased this misunderstanding.
Ahh that clears that up. I took on the mckenzie chin tuck as a posture quite some years ago. Boy do I feel stupid. It seems I have to act in opposition to the videos advice and rotate my head backwards.@@samclark5546
Thanks for your comment! It’s quite strange how easy it was for us to collectively misunderstand the basic shape our bodies. That peculiar feeling when you realize you have muscles that you’ve neglected for so long that simply activating them at all is a surprise is really something special. It’s quite a thing to discover more of yourself. As Delsarte said, nothing is more unfamiliar to man than himself.
@@samclark5546 I appreciate your comment. The chin tuck is certainly not put forward as correct posture. I agree that one purpose is to stretch the muscles at the back of the neck, and that is the only beneficial aspect of it that I see. However, strengthening the muscles of the front of the neck by shortening them and retracting the head more than usual is not a good idea in my opinion. And as I said in the video, training yourself to associate lengthening the back of the neck with doing an unnatural chin tuck (that’s not even meant to be sustainable) make little to no sense. Wouldn’t it be better to lengthen the muscles at the back of the neck and the front of the neck at the same time? Why wouldn’t you want to learn how to lengthen the back of your neck while keeping your head in a desirable relative position? Then, eventually, you could keep your neck extended instead of habitually shortening it all day and then trying to stretch it out a couple times to cope. The idea that physiotherapy is focused on a relaxed person’s posture is an interesting claim, but it has a questionable built-in assumption. What is this relaxed posture? I don’t see anyone in a relaxed posture, even those who are slumped over. They will have many muscles that are released and practically inactive, but they will also necessarily have other muscles that are massively shortened and overused. It may appear from the outside to be “relaxed” in comparison to a more upright posture, but it’s often anything but. How often have we all sat up from sitting in a relaxed posture for a while, only to find that our back or butt hurts, or our foot has fallen asleep? The movements that people make when you tell them to do their idea of “relaxing” will almost always be movements of shortening and narrowing - they are essentially contortions and distortions of the body. That is not relaxed in my view. People do find their habitual posture comfortable, it’s what they’re used to, but it’s not relaxed in any positive real sense, and it usually will ultimately lead to breathing problems, joint problems, and often pain.
Appreciate the reply. And thank you so much for making this material accessible. I could not imagine the time it would of taken me to research it myself.@@delsartealexandermasoeroyo9147
Hey dude. Before I found your videos if I wanted to lean forward I would use my upper torso as a pivot to lean forward. But now this is my posture, how can I now pivot forward if my upper torso is already forward as I feel I can no longer move this part forward? What part of the body would I use as a pivot? Would it be at the hip joint? This seems like the obvious answer but would like to make sure. I've noticed if I pull down at my sacrum area my body automatically straightens if I do catch myself leaning. Is pulling down around the sacrum area a good direction to straighten the body to stop you from leaning would you say? Thanks.
If you’re standing, you want to move the hips back and rotate around the hip joints. Pulling down the sacrum can be useful, but to be clear, the sacrum as a whole should not go down, it’s a downward rotation that will lift the iliacs and lift the entire pelvis really.
@delsartealexandermasoeroyo9147 Thanks, I'm just trying to figure out how to pull down my latissimus dorsi without pulling my sacrum down as a whole. And for it to rotate my illiacs the correct way (I understand the frontal rotation side of it). What part of the sacrum can we bring down? Is it just the lower sacrum we are trying to not move down and back and we are trying to avoid? I've noticed when pulling the sacrum area down and back when I pull the illiacs/ribs up and back I feel more of a stretch as if the sacrum is the anchor pulling the other way.
@@Matty-H The pelvis is a little tricky because it’s not fully described by one movement. There is the rotation: which is iliacs back and up, upper sacrum back and down. But I think you can imagine that that will either move the entire pelvis back and up, or you could over do it and push the whole pelvis back and down (which would typically cause lumbar three to go back and down too). So while the sacrum is going down in the rotational movement, the sacrum as a whole is not going down in space, because the pelvis is going up not down in space.
First and foremost you need to address your torso. If your torso is not lengthened and widened, your thoracolumbar fascia is slack and not taut. Without the support of your fascia, your head must either fall forward into what’s called “forward head posture,” or you will pull your head back, which will restrict your airway. There are more procedures aimed directly at the head later in this series, which will help you coordinate movement of the head with the torso. But without the support of your torso, your head will not stay in its correct place (and neither will the maxilla). The head is not the place to start.
I’m a little confused by the question, can you clarify? Why do you want to sleep on your back to fix the problem? In my opinion what you do while you’re awake is much more important. I would say, if you want to sleep on your back in a way that will help you with this problem, you want to stack blankets under your upper torso and head. They do this in hospitals with patients who need help breathing. Having the head forward of the sternum opens the airway. Forward would mean up when you’re lying on your back - so your ears should be in line with your sternum when lying down on your back. If you lied on your back with nothing under your head, your ears would be well below (relatively behind) the sternum.
@@delsartealexandermasoeroyo9147 buteyko showed that supine sleep increases mortality due to heavier breathnig. Supine sleep is not reccommended. Sleeping on the side and on your belly is prefered or even sleeping sitting. The heavier the breating of a person the nearer she is to death.
We finish looking at the forward head posture concept by looking at the strange exercises that are used to combat it. Then I present Jeando Masoero’s model for the optimal orientation and relative position of the neck and head.
I offer lessons in the Initial Alexander Technique, which are conducted one-on-one with a teacher over Zoom. They are designed to help you gain conscious control over how you move your body. Most people have no idea what they’re doing with their body, and as they misuse their body, they end up with discomfort, pain, and other issues that they may not even realize are caused by what they’re doing to themselves. But how do you figure out what you’re doing wrong? And how do you change what you're doing and overcome lifelong habits?
In an Initial Alexander Technique lesson, you will record yourself through Zoom, so you will be able to see and understand what you are doing when you stand, sit, walk, and perform other simple gestures. With the assistance of your teacher, you will come to understand how you are misusing the mechanisms of your body, and you will gain the ability to choose to use yourself in a more sensible way. You can learn how to use your body without pain. You can break free from long held habits. All you need is a system that works.
For more information or to book a lesson, please visit my website: mechanicsofpoise.com/
You can contact me at: DelsarteAlexanderMasoeroYou@protonmail.com
"During this harmful "sniffing" act [to take a breath] it will be seen that... [t]he head is thrown too far back, and the neck unduly tensed and shortened at a time when it should be perfectly free from strain."
F.M. Alexander
You are producing such fantastic content. Thank you!
Thank you for your kind words, and thank you for watching!
Unbelievable content man. Its shocking how this view on posture is somehow underground and esoteric. How on earth has mainstream physiotherapy got it so wrong.
I had my doubts about the alexander technique but your torso/pelvis basics and solved a crippling 10 year battle with Anterior Pelvic Tilt. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. My core is back and my glutes are online for the first time in my life.
There is no denying the message in the video. Anyone can McKenzie chin tuck and either.
1. Look in the mirror and intuitively know your chin/jaw should not be that recessed and
2. Try to swallow and feel how hard it is.
Meanwhile advancing the head forward creates a long chin/proud jaw and you can actually swallow.
If you do a chin tuck and your jaw is recessed and it is hard to swallow, then you are doing the chin tuck exercise. The chin tuck exercise is meant to be an exaggerated position, and it's purpose is to stretch the muscles on the back of the neck and strengthen the muscles on the front of the neck. It isn't meant to be seen as proper posture. People recommend chin tucks too much, but they do have a specific purpose.
Also, mainstream physiotherapy is focused on a person's relaxed posture. This AT posture is more of an active posture or a position of mechanical advantage. I think the mainstream approach is valuable but is commonly misunderstood (the misunderstanding of chin tucks for example). Social media and most posture videos on YT have increased this misunderstanding.
Ahh that clears that up. I took on the mckenzie chin tuck as a posture quite some years ago. Boy do I feel stupid. It seems I have to act in opposition to the videos advice and rotate my head backwards.@@samclark5546
Thanks for your comment! It’s quite strange how easy it was for us to collectively misunderstand the basic shape our bodies. That peculiar feeling when you realize you have muscles that you’ve neglected for so long that simply activating them at all is a surprise is really something special. It’s quite a thing to discover more of yourself. As Delsarte said, nothing is more unfamiliar to man than himself.
@@samclark5546 I appreciate your comment. The chin tuck is certainly not put forward as correct posture. I agree that one purpose is to stretch the muscles at the back of the neck, and that is the only beneficial aspect of it that I see. However, strengthening the muscles of the front of the neck by shortening them and retracting the head more than usual is not a good idea in my opinion. And as I said in the video, training yourself to associate lengthening the back of the neck with doing an unnatural chin tuck (that’s not even meant to be sustainable) make little to no sense.
Wouldn’t it be better to lengthen the muscles at the back of the neck and the front of the neck at the same time? Why wouldn’t you want to learn how to lengthen the back of your neck while keeping your head in a desirable relative position? Then, eventually, you could keep your neck extended instead of habitually shortening it all day and then trying to stretch it out a couple times to cope.
The idea that physiotherapy is focused on a relaxed person’s posture is an interesting claim, but it has a questionable built-in assumption. What is this relaxed posture? I don’t see anyone in a relaxed posture, even those who are slumped over. They will have many muscles that are released and practically inactive, but they will also necessarily have other muscles that are massively shortened and overused. It may appear from the outside to be “relaxed” in comparison to a more upright posture, but it’s often anything but. How often have we all sat up from sitting in a relaxed posture for a while, only to find that our back or butt hurts, or our foot has fallen asleep?
The movements that people make when you tell them to do their idea of “relaxing” will almost always be movements of shortening and narrowing - they are essentially contortions and distortions of the body. That is not relaxed in my view. People do find their habitual posture comfortable, it’s what they’re used to, but it’s not relaxed in any positive real sense, and it usually will ultimately lead to breathing problems, joint problems, and often pain.
Appreciate the reply. And thank you so much for making this material accessible. I could not imagine the time it would of taken me to research it myself.@@delsartealexandermasoeroyo9147
Hey dude. Before I found your videos if I wanted to lean forward I would use my upper torso as a pivot to lean forward. But now this is my posture, how can I now pivot forward if my upper torso is already forward as I feel I can no longer move this part forward? What part of the body would I use as a pivot? Would it be at the hip joint? This seems like the obvious answer but would like to make sure. I've noticed if I pull down at my sacrum area my body automatically straightens if I do catch myself leaning. Is pulling down around the sacrum area a good direction to straighten the body to stop you from leaning would you say?
Thanks.
If you’re standing, you want to move the hips back and rotate around the hip joints. Pulling down the sacrum can be useful, but to be clear, the sacrum as a whole should not go down, it’s a downward rotation that will lift the iliacs and lift the entire pelvis really.
@delsartealexandermasoeroyo9147 Thanks, I'm just trying to figure out how to pull down my latissimus dorsi without pulling my sacrum down as a whole. And for it to rotate my illiacs the correct way (I understand the frontal rotation side of it). What part of the sacrum can we bring down? Is it just the lower sacrum we are trying to not move down and back and we are trying to avoid? I've noticed when pulling the sacrum area down and back when I pull the illiacs/ribs up and back I feel more of a stretch as if the sacrum is the anchor pulling the other way.
@@Matty-H The pelvis is a little tricky because it’s not fully described by one movement. There is the rotation: which is iliacs back and up, upper sacrum back and down. But I think you can imagine that that will either move the entire pelvis back and up, or you could over do it and push the whole pelvis back and down (which would typically cause lumbar three to go back and down too). So while the sacrum is going down in the rotational movement, the sacrum as a whole is not going down in space, because the pelvis is going up not down in space.
Is it possible to bring our upper sternum too far forward? I know it can go forward and down, but i mean can it go too far forward?
I actually dont understand then how do i fix forward head posture and make my maxilla in the right place ?
First and foremost you need to address your torso. If your torso is not lengthened and widened, your thoracolumbar fascia is slack and not taut. Without the support of your fascia, your head must either fall forward into what’s called “forward head posture,” or you will pull your head back, which will restrict your airway. There are more procedures aimed directly at the head later in this series, which will help you coordinate movement of the head with the torso. But without the support of your torso, your head will not stay in its correct place (and neither will the maxilla). The head is not the place to start.
I want to sleep on my back to fix it how should i do it i hope you answer me ?
I’m a little confused by the question, can you clarify?
Why do you want to sleep on your back to fix the problem? In my opinion what you do while you’re awake is much more important.
I would say, if you want to sleep on your back in a way that will help you with this problem, you want to stack blankets under your upper torso and head. They do this in hospitals with patients who need help breathing. Having the head forward of the sternum opens the airway. Forward would mean up when you’re lying on your back - so your ears should be in line with your sternum when lying down on your back. If you lied on your back with nothing under your head, your ears would be well below (relatively behind) the sternum.
@@delsartealexandermasoeroyo9147 buteyko showed that supine sleep increases mortality due to heavier breathnig. Supine sleep is not reccommended. Sleeping on the side and on your belly is prefered or even sleeping sitting. The heavier the breating of a person the nearer she is to death.