Having the upper neck strength to keep your skull in its neutral position on C1 against push and pull loads is critical for returning back to fitness level conditioning after a neck injury.  It also is important for treating any shoulder or low back pain condition long-term.

The Level 7 workout within the Healthy Posture System™ adds the Head Nod series to your daily workout to prepare you for upper body conditioning.  The head nod series asks you to suspend your chin off the floor while laying on your stomach with the pro-roller arch under your forehead.  As with all exercises within the Healthy Posture System™, we start easy and progress as tolerated.  Level 1 head nod series asks you to perform 4 alternating arm lifts with your hands by your side.  When you can perform 8 repetitions, progress to bilateral lifts (both hands together).

1. Pro-roller arch

Position your pro-roller arch under your forehead

1. Get into Neutral Spine Alignment

The check off for getting into neutral spine always consists of the following;

• Slide your shoulder blades down until your sternum lifts (chest lift)
• Rock your skull back into its neutral position on C1 (head nod)
• Rock your pelvis underneath the rib cage into its neutral position (pelvic curl)
• Internally rotated your hips so that they resume their neutral position within the hip joint (inward spiral)

1. The counterforce

Push your forehead into the pro-roller arch sufficiently enough to rock the skull back into its neutral position on C1.  Keep this amount of pressure throughout each lift.

1. The lift

Lift your arms off the floor without losing neutral skull, rib cage or pelvis positioning.  Start with alternating arm lifts; then progress to bilateral arm lifts where you lift both arms together.  Perform every arm lift with a 1, 2, 3 tempo of control.  This is the tempo of healthy controlled movement in the human musculoskeletal system.

If your chin must stay suspended off the floor as much as possible with each lift!

You know you are performing this exercise properly when you feel the muscles under your base of the skull working during each arm lift.

Summary:

Strengthening the muscles to keep your skull in its neutral position on C1 is critical for long-term injury management and prevention of any neck pain condition.  The Head Nod series adds anti-gravity isometric strengthening of your neck stabilizers to your daily workout to prepare you to enter the upper body conditioning workout program.

Levels of Progression:

• 4 bilateral (both arms together) with you arms by your side (level 7)
• 4 bilateral with your arms in goal post position (level 8)
• 4 alternating arm lifts with your arms in overhead Y position (Level 9)
• 4 alternating opposite arm and leg lifts from overhead Y position (Level 10)
• 4 bilateral arm lifts from overhead Y position (Level 11)
• 4 bilateral arm and leg lifts from overhead Y position (Level 12)

Don’t forget to use the SafeProgress feature within the PostureIQ dashboard to let us confirm you are doing your exercises properly.