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protruding head and blockades in thoracical spine

Raaamil
Raaamil's picture
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Last seen:
6 months 3 weeks ago
Joined:
08/13/2020 - 9:13am
protruding head and blockades in thoracical spine

Hello dear community!

Lately I started to ask a lot questions. I am a little stuck with my progress and start to get increasingly desperate. I hope this is not a problem.

I have a very strongly protruded head and a stiff upper thoracial spine. Rotation of the thoracial spine is somewhat limited to both sides. Breathing in a little bit more forcefully usually makes this area crack. I also feel a lot of tension in this area, sometimes even some dull pain which often reaches to the tip of my fingers.

I have visited a Foundations Course in September and have been actively practicing since then. I am very confident about my progress in the lower back - I think my pelvis is getting into an increasingly better default position, but I cannot feel, nor can I see any progress in my upper back. I would go even further and say that I do not even know whether my neck positon would improve the way I am practicing right now.

As far as I understood, the method adresses the neck/head position mainly through "lengthening the neck" - while seated, standing or lying. If I perform this movement while sitting or standing I can hold the position for some time before it gets uncomfortable. Also, often when I stretch my neck in this manner I start to feel some very subtle pain going down my arms to the fingers. Overall it is not a very comfortable exercise for me. The rest of the time, with my head dropped forward, a lot of tension in the upper back builds up - making it impossible to sit for a longer period of time without ending up fidgeting around trying to find a comfortable sitting position in vain. To get a better grip of the tension in my upper back I bought a roller and started working on my thoracical spine. But it does not feel like a few minutes a day can make up the tension which is building for the remaining hours of the day.

My questions are:

1. How is the neck position supposed to be corrected according to the method? Is it really just "lengthening the neck" or am I missing something? Or is there maybe something I can do additionally to that.

2. What is the recommended time I should spend using the roller?

I understand that I should be patient with the progress. And I am with the lower back and the pelvic anteversion. The difference is that I can cleary feel that it is going into the right direction. Regarding my upper back I want the same feeling. But so far everything I tried seems to be in vain.

Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate it.

Kind regards

Ramil

 

Teacher
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Last seen:
7 hours 35 min ago
Joined:
06/26/2016 - 10:33am

Greetings Ramil,

Each person is unique in their health conditions, age, history, etc. Many people have had "forward neck" for years, if not decades. The neck needs to be repositioned in 3 ways: gliding back, rotating, and lengthening. The pelvis must be anteverted to align the spinal vertebral column properly.

 

Nothing that we teach in the Gokhale Method should cause pain or increase one's exisiting pain. Radiation of pain to the extemities shoudl be evaluated by a health care provider, as nerve compression can be a serious condiditon.

 

Once you have learned how to use correctly and determined that you do not have any adverse preexisting conditions, a roller can be used for many minutes, twice daily.

 

An Initial Consultation or Consultation with a Gokhale Method Teacher is very beneficial. Your postural photos and health summary will be evaluated, and you will receive individualized coaching.

 

All the best,

Kathleen O'Donohue

Gokhale Method Teacher 

 

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