Hello. Welcome to Max Strength Fitness Willoughby. My name is Cassie, and I’m the team leader here in Willoughby. Last week, Dominic introduced the mastery series and our first topic, posture. He showed us two basic get set positions we often use, the posterior and anterior pelvic tilt.
Today, we’ll examine another crucial aspect of posture, especially during training, maintaining a neutral head and neck position. Neutral head position takes advantage of the collective strength of the neck muscles by better distributing the weight of the head across a larger area. While this may sound like a simple task, we are biologically hardwired with some instinctual avoidance reflexes that can send us right out of that head and neck position, making the exercise less effective and create a risk for injury. Maintaining a neutral head and neck, as Stacy is demonstrating here, refers to a posture where the head is aligned with the spine in a natural, relaxed position without excessive forward, backward, or sideways tilt. And the gaze is straight ahead.
Basically, a fist width between chin and chest. I have Stacy here to demonstrate some of the most common avoidance reflexes we see during a set. First is the throwing forward or lunging forward of the head and neck. Another common avoidance reflex we see is the excessive throwing back of the head, which can also look like a looking up towards the ceiling. As your trainer is instructing, it’s important to think of your trainer as just a speaker on the wall.
No need to look at them. Just listen and react. So, the next time your trainer asks you to bring your chin a fist width distance from your chest to fix your gaze or simply to keep your head still, remember that it increases the effectiveness of the exercise and it keeps you safe.
