neck position

This is Part 2 of a 3-post series on cycling with healthy posture by Gokhale Method teacher and longtime cyclist Tiffany Mann. Read Part 1 here!

Little Tiffany (circa 5 yrs old), a new bike rider, having such fun!

Neck and/or shoulder pain is a common ailment even experienced cyclists regularly encounter. It takes awareness and muscular engagement while cycling to not allow gravity to further pull the head forward and down and round or hunch the shoulders, a posture problem that is already prevalent in our modern culture.

This cyclist in Berlin is on a bike that is too small for him, leading to the pronounced rounding visible in his upper spine. A supportive fit helps prevent rounding. Original image courtesy Raquel García on Unsplash.

While it does take some effort, via muscular engagement and kinesthetic awareness, to maintain a healthy shoulder and head placement while bicycling, the payoff is worth it. You will be able to ride pain-free for longer, and you will also be patterning a healthy upper body position regardless of your activities and movements. You will also strengthen and develop baseline tone in stabilizing muscles, and they will become more accustomed to doing the job of maintaining shoulders back, back of the neck tall and straight, and head lined up over the body, as we teach for all posture stances — sitting, standing, hip-hinging (all of which cycling incorporates!).

Opening the shoulders and chest
Rolling open the shoulders and drawing the scapulae down and back onto your back where they belong allows your chest to stay open. This gives you a better breathing pattern and better circulation to and from your arms, both of which are especially important as you are using your arms to support yourself and guide the bicycle, and using your lungs to provide oxygen to your muscles and cells that are working hard during this exercise.

This cyclist in Lisbon, Portugal rides a well-fitting, front-suspension mountain bike. Her leg is externally rotated, with a slight bend in the knee. She demonstrates a J-spine with her torso and head stacked, and hinges at the hips. Finally, her shoulders are back and her grip on the handlebars is relaxed. Original image courtesy Justine Camacho on Unsplash.

Activating the inner corset as a shock absorber
Using the set of muscles deep in your abdomen and back that we call the “inner corset” helps protect the neck along with the lower back (that other pesky trouble spot for cyclists!). Inner corset engagement gives length to the whole spine, including the cervical discs, and creates more space between the vertebrae. You will better withstand any jarring sensation from uneven road surfaces, potholes, or gravel, with this brace of deep muscles engaged. This brace of muscles includes the longus colli — deep muscles in the neck, which, when engaged, keep the neck tall and straight, and as a bonus, allow your trapezius muscles, those “hunchy” shoulder muscles, to relax.

This cyclist in Manhattan uses his well-fitting bike skillfully. His pelvis is anteverted, his shoulders remain back, and he uses his eyes to lead his gaze, rather than compensating with an arched neck — even with a baseball hat on underneath his helmet. Original image courtesy Javier de la Maza on Unsplash.

Hands, arms, and handlebars
With your inner corset in place and holding your torso steady, your arms can be relaxed when they need to be and not doing more of the work than they need to. Your hands and arms want to be relaxed and not be squeezing or holding on too tightly to the grips and handlebars — that creates unnecessary tension and fatigue.

My family on a banana seat custom tandem: Skip, Willa (4 years old), and Coco (7 years old). Original image courtesy Ken Richardson.

Lengthening the neck and employing the gaze
Craning your neck is another unhealthy posture pattern that can both fatigue the superficial muscles in the neck and damage the delicate cervical discs. Instead of craning your neck to look around you, keep the back of your neck long and tilt the head on its axis, and use your eyes — they can see plenty well and will actually benefit from the exercise of looking out into the horizon and to the periphery. 

This cyclist in Vietnam demonstrates an open chest, relaxed shoulders, and healthy leg rotation while riding. Original image courtesy Minh Pham on Unsplash.

Putting it all together
All of these pieces work together to help keep your ride sustainable and pain-free. Our founder Esther Gokhale, in her two-part series on cycling posture and choosing the right bike seat for good posture, goes into great detail about ways to prevent more types of cycling-related pain through the application of Gokhale Method techniques. As Esther explains, stacksitting and hip-hinging are both crucial for sustainable cycling posture. If you need an introduction to these or other Gokhale Method techniques, keep in mind that you can get familiar with them in Esther’s book, or even work online with several of our teachers, one-on-one! Some teachers are even available for one-on-one teaching in person, where permitted. Don’t hesitate to reach out!

For more information on Tiffany’s teaching in the Boston area, contact her here.

My passion for researching posture has taken me far and wide. I was in a village in Burkina Faso in western Africa when I first noticed how people there would track the conversation from speaker to speaker mainly by using their eyes, rather than by turning their heads. Along with their excellent body posture it contributed to a strikingly well-centered, dignified bearing.

This young man in Burkina Faso demonstrates the dignified bearing that comes with an appropriate amount of eye tracking.

Comparing what I saw in Burkina Faso with what I was used to seeing back home, I realized that in the US, and the wider industrialized world, we move our eyes a good deal less and our necks a good deal more. Why such a difference, I wondered, and what is its significance for our well-being?

In Paul Gauguin’s 1893 painting from one of his Tahiti trips, Woman Holding a Fruit, the unnamed subject shifts her gaze with her eyes, rather than by turning or twisting her neck. Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Babies and infants in all cultures track actively with their eyes, both when they are still, and when they turn or reach. One possibility why this changes for children of school age in the industrialized world is due to the amount of reading, writing, and screen time they experience. It seems we grow into a more restrictive, “ahead only” habit.

Infants in all cultures track very actively with their eyes, as my daughter Maya demonstrates here.

My son Nathan tracks with his eyes while reaching for a toy.

As adults, this trend can continue with desk jobs and other prolonged, forward-oriented activities, such as driving. Perhaps this is why, as we age, we develop a more fixed “tunnel vision,” which results in moving our necks rather than our eyes.

Computer and desk work are possible factors in reducing our range of eye movement. Original image courtesy Studio Republic on Unsplash.

Excessive dependence upon neck movement to reorient our visual field often contributes to soft tissue strain and wear and tear on the delicate discs and joints of the cervical vertebrae. Far better, then, to try to reduce this dependence and reintroduce eye tracking now and then.

Time spent in nature provides us a chance to practice our eye tracking. Follow that movement! Photo courtesy Nathan Anderson on Unsplash.

How can we reintroduce this ancient technique into our industrialized-world lives? I am a great advocate for getting out into nature whenever possible to literally expand our horizons. Time spent with young children, especially babies and toddlers, can give us an opportunity to mimic and mirror them — to their frequent delight!

This dancer in San Diego demonstrates beautiful eye tracking. Image courtesy Avnish Choudhary on Unsplash.

Many dance forms, including, but certainly not limited to, classical Indian Bharatnatyam and Kathak, also offer us ample opportunities to practice eye tracking, which lends our dance gestures and movements a depth of emotion. By allowing our eyes to track while on a walk or hike — perhaps while watching a darting squirrel or rabbit cross our path — or while watching a sports game from the stands, or while trying out a new dance style, we can provide ourselves a chance to relearn this method of respecting the neck and maintaining an especially dignified composure.

These elegant dancers in Trinidad and Tobago show the gravitas and depth that can come from skillfully-employed eye tracking. Image courtesy Isaiah McClean on Unsplash.

This famous bust of Nefertiti (c. 1370 – c. 1330 BC) exhibits a forward-protruded head. Original image courtesy Wikipedia user Philip Pikart under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

In my travels, I enjoy visiting museums. In a concentrated space and in a short few hours, I am able to travel back in time and over large distances, and compare people from different cultures. What a remarkable gift from the craftspeople of the past!  

Many museums have a well-developed Egyptian collection. The Egyptians’ expertise in preserving their dead as well as the dry Egyptian climate has yielded a bounty of specimens from the distant past. Egyptian artifacts are often spectacular and modern audiences are drawn to Egyptian mummies, pyramids, thrones, and temples. So we get to enjoy glimpses into ancient Egypt remarkably easily.

Most people from the past, as evidenced by ancient art and sculpture, had excellent posture and musculoskeletal health. The pharaohs and upper crust of ancient Egypt, however, stand out as exceptions. Sitting on their thrones or standing in special ceremonies, they almost always have tucked pelvises and forward-protruding heads. Nefertiti (as seen above) is an example of an Egyptian royal who has her head “parked” extremely forward. Correspondingly, examinations of the mummified remains of pharaohs report advanced arthritis in the joints — much like what we find in modern populations.
 

Renenutet (shown here) and her husband Runy were part of Egyptian nobility in the reign of Seti I (1294 - 1279 BC). They served in local temples. Notice her tucked pelvis and protruded head and shoulders that are similar to problematic modern posture.

This relief from the 18th dynasty (c. 1335 BC) shows a royal couple (possibly Akhenaten and Nefertiti) in a garden. Notice their posture shows similar distortions to those we see in modern times: tucked pelvis, locked knees, lack of abdominal tone, and forward-protruded head. Original image courtesy Andreas Praefcke on Wikipedia.

By contrast, carvings and sculptures of Egyptian laborers — carrying palanquins, rowing ceremonial boats, and doing other manual work — have beautiful and healthy posture. They model an anteverted pelvis, erect spine, and vertical neck similar to those seen in non-industrial cultures the world over.

This funerary offering bearer (c. 1980 BC) shows excellent posture: a J-spine with anteverted pelvis and elongated spine, and posterior shoulders.

This close-up of the funerary offering bearer above shows her feet pointed slightly outwards and the placement of her behind behind her.

The workers on this funeral boat show excellent posture as they transport coffins in Ancient Egypt (c. 1980 BC).

This ancient Egyptian worker exhibits a perfect hip-hinge with shoulders remaining back.

What are we observing here? What made the pharaohs suffer the same poor musculoskeletal health we do? Was it affluence? Was it a departure from a working-class lifestyle? Was it a sedentary lifestyle? Was it fashion? 

If you live in a large city, you almost certainly have access to a collection of Egyptian art. The next time you visit the collection, please tell us about your observations. Or take a few photos and post or send them to us so we can comment on them.

Note the forward head and neck placement of both these High Street pedestrians. This usually results from tucking the pelvis (see the man (right)), but can also become a habit independent of pelvic position (see woman (left)).

Here our Bristol teacher Clare Chapman has digitally edited the photo to demonstrate how different healthier posture can look. Compare these subjects’ edited neck placement and spinal curvature with that in the original picture.

Metaphors can be powerful tools for learning new kinesthetic pathways. A metaphor packages a picture (which, we all know, can be worth 1000 words!) as well as some helpful verbiage. The Gokhale Method uses metaphors liberally, and it often takes a metaphor to help a student understand, execute, and remember a desired action.

A new metaphor for cueing the neck
Our Bristol teacher Clare Chapman recently introduced a useful metaphor to direct students in improving their neck architecture. Visualize the head as a car that is parked in the driveway (protruded forward) or even out on the street (very protruded forward). Now, while keeping the neck long, back your “car” into its “garage.” That is, you want to glide your head gently and smoothly back into its place. 

This seated Bamana male figure from Mali shows an ideal neck alignment.

I've begun using this metaphor in my teaching and see students smiling — perhaps because it's funny to think of the head as a car parked out in the driveway or on the street, or because backing a car into a garage is a comfortingly familiar process, or perhaps because it's pleasant to understand what's being taught! Whatever the reason, I see my students learning faster and better.

My husband, Brian, with an elephant in Thailand. This particular elephant’s primary job was transporting logs as well as people in the forest. There are not enough tourists in this area to have tourism be the elephants' main activity. The Karen tribal people have a very intimate (and seemingly joyous) relationship with their elephants, riding them bare-backed, swimming with them, and also using them in a similar way to how draft horses might be used.

Brian enjoying a moment with the family cats (not pictured).

It's very striking how an apt metaphor can change the learning curve dramatically. Does this metaphor work for you? Are there other metaphors that help you align your neck?

Is there a relationship between your eyeglasses/sunglasses and your posture? In the years I have been teaching people to restore their primal posture, I have discovered that glasses can hurt – or help - your posture, especially your neck posture. Here are some Gokhale Method guidelines to help you maintain, and even improve, your structure as you aid your vision.

1. Fit your glasses to you rather than fit yourself to your glasses. Begin by choosing the best posture you know, and then fit the glasses to your face. Is there enough glass to cover all the directions in which you are likely to look? Often glasses do not extend enough above the level of the eye, thus encouraging you to raise your chin just so you can see through your glasses. The problem with raising your chin for long periods is this compresses the tissues in your neck including your discs, nerves, edges of the vertebrae and blood vessels. It also sets an unhealthy baseline of shortened neck muscles and can lead to chronic neck pain and discomfort. Instead, by selecting your frame carefully, you could use your glasses like a training device.  Even if you have some postural distortion and compression in your neck, a carefully chosen pair of glasses could augment not only your vision, but also your posture.

2. Remember that your ophthalmologist, the frame manufacturers, and the vision testing setup are subject to the modern distorted posture paradigm.  Don’t count on optimal feedback on this aspect of your fitting. Go in to your appointment with a clear understanding of how you would like your neck aligned and hold your ground on this. The structure used to stabilize your head to do your vision testing usually forces you to crane your neck uncomfortably. Do your best to maintain good posture during this and all other parts of your eye exam, not only for the sake of your neck, but also because it’s a normal line of vision that you will give the most relevant readings.

3. Choose glasses that have a reasonably secure fit. A loose fit might tempt you to lift your chin to keep your glasses balanced on the bridge of your nose.

4. Choose lightweight frames. Heavy frames have more of a tendency to slide off your nose in actions like hiphinging and could induce you to raise your chin.

5. Choose a larger, thinner frame to allow for more peripheral vision.  Wearing glasses and sunglasses inevitably reduces peripheral vision somewhat, but you want to minimize this and keep your eyes mobile and your eye muscles working. Our hunter gatherer ancestors had to have excellent peripheral vision to survive. In modern times, we don’t usually need peripheral vision to survive, but cultivating peripheral vision is known to help with myopia and calm the parasympathetic system. It also relieves overusing the neck. Most people in modern society underuse their eye muscles and over use their neck muscles. Minimize how much your glasses feed into this pattern. If you are in the market for sunglasses, consider a ‘wrap around’ style.  

6. Invest in a second pair of reading glasses. If you wear glasses with progressive lenses then you can probably read pretty well for short periods by looking down through the bottom third or so of your lens. This works well if you can look downward at the text –to read a product label in the supermarket, browse a magazine on your lap, or work with a tablet on your kitchen work surface. However, looking at a desktop or laptop computer screen will oblige you to lift your chin up and look down your nose to get the text in focus through that bottom, near vision part of the progressive lens. For this reason I strongly recommend investing in a second pair of glasses specifically for reading and/or screen work.

7. Learn to turn your head well. Negotiating the world through lenses, you may notice that you can see most accurately straight ahead, and that distortion increases towards the edges. This is especially true of progressive lenses, although higher quality modern lenses do reduce this effect, and to some extent the brain does learn to compensate for it. Nevertheless, if you wear glasses you are more likely to turn your head frequently to keep looking through the central ‘sweet spot’.  You may also need to catch something peripheral that would otherwise be obscured by the frames. This makes it doubly important to know how to position and turn your head well, with the neck back, tall and long, so that your head and neck vertebrae can pivot smoothly around your spinal cord.

As a reminder of how best to position your neck, here is a recap from 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back:

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