Head and neck, cervical, placement in Pilates

Most of us have done crunches or sit ups or at least attempted to at some point in our lives. Many of us out there have experienced tension and strain in our neck and shoulders while doing crunches or sit ups. This pain in the neck is usually due to using the muscles in the neck and shoulders to pull the head and shoulders up rather than using the abdominal muscles to flex the spine. The natural curve of the cervical spine is said to be anterior convex. If you run your hand on the back of someone’s neck, from the base of their neck to the base of their skull, there should be a nice curve inwards then back out to the base of the skull. The various movements that can be performed by the cervical spine are, flexion (nodding your chin forward), extension (lifting your chin upwards), lateral flexion (tilting your ear towards your shoulder) rotation (rotating your head in one direction or the other). The movement we are particularly interested in is flexion of the cervical spine and in particular of the first two cervical vertebrae. I like to think of this small movement, slight flexion of the cervical spine, as a preparatory movement or position for the neck before actually flexing the spine which in turn raises the head and shoulders up off the mat. This preparatory movement is called craniovertebral flexion but is also more commonly known as a head nod. How is the head nod performed?

Step 1: Lying down, face up on a mat. Knees bent and feet sit bones apart, arms by your sides on the mat. Looking straight up at the ceiling, pretend you are looking at the red light on a traffic light.

Step 2: Inhale and nod your head looking down at the green light, feeling a slight lengthening of your neck or cervical spine.

Step 3: Exhale and look back up at the red light. Repeat Step 2.

The head nod is performed in step 2. Why is the head nod performed? The head nod is performed to position your cervical spine in a flexed position so that when you perform a movement or exercise where your head and shoulders are raised off the mat, the focus is on your abdominals contracting and flexing your spine which in turn will raise your head and shoulders off the mat rather than using your neck and shoulders to pull your head and shoulders off the mat. Let’s try this.

Step 1: Lying down, face up on a mat. Knees bent and feet sit bones apart, arms by your sides on the mat. Looking straight up at the ceiling, pretend you are looking at the red light on a traffic light.

Step 2: Inhale and nod your head looking down at the green light, feeling a slight lengthening of your neck or cervical spine.

Step 3: Exhale, contract your abdominals until your feel your spine flex, raising your head and shoulders off the mat, bringing your arms to hover off the mat as well.

Step 4: Inhale, holding this flexed spinal position and head, shoulders and arms off the mat.

Step 5: Exhale, lengthening your abdominals and slowly bring your spine back to a neutral position, lowering your arms, shoulders, neck and head onto the mat.

Repeat steps 2-5 until you feel very little tension in your neck and shoulders and until you feel your abdominals working to flex your spine.