What is the Meric Chart?

Chiropractors can therefore use the relationship of the vertebrae and organ to know which vertebrae they should be focusing on given somatic patient symptoms.  In addition, any discomfort in a specific segment could indicate current or future problems in the organ related to that vertebra.

This chart is one of the fundamental theories that chiropractic is based off of, but is very controversial in the medical world and even in the chiropractic industry.  There are many who report positive results when using this chart, and it does explain how chiropractic can help so many people that do not only have musculoskeletal issues.  Such examples include why adjusting C1 and the occiput has great results in lowering blood pressure and why many people have their T1 vertebrae subluxated, which is related to the heart.

Visceral problems? See where you're probably subluxated!

What is Anterior Head Carriage?

Anterior head carriage, also known as forward head carriage, is a postural fault or tendency that the body exhibits because of upper cross syndrome.  Simply put, it’s when the head is held in a much more forward position than it is supposed to be. 

How to Self Diagnose Anterior Head Carriage

Even Drew Barrymore has anterior head carriage!

The easiest way to tell if someone has anterior head carriage is to have them stand normally while you look at them from the side.  Draw an imaginary line from the top of their head down through the middle point of their ankles.  If it is easier, you can have a weighted string hang from the ceiling and have an actual line.  This is called a “plumb line.”  If the person has a proper standing posture, the line should go through the middle of their ear and the middle of their shoulder.  If their ear is in front of their shoulder, they have anterior head carriage.

Have some fun and go analyze people.  You’ll realize that especially given the normal American lifestyle sitting infront of computers, that many, if not most people have anterior head carriage!

Problems with Anterior Head Carriage

Because it is an abnormal body position, anterior head carriage can bring several mishaps to the individual including headaches, tight muscles or muscles aches, and decreased range of motion to say the least.  All of these symptoms also come with upper cross syndrome.  Aside from poor posture, anterior carriage can also caused by subluxations in the neck.  If subluxated, flexing the neck forward decreases pressure where the nerves leave the spine, which could be an unconscious attempt for the body to alleviate symptoms or pain.  The increased flexion only causes more work on the muscles in the back of the neck, increasing the symptoms associated with anterior head carriage and upper cross syndrome.  Of course it is not known if the subluxations are caused due to poor posture or if the poor posture is caused by subluxations.  They could also both cause each other, nevertheless, correcting poor posture definitely helps reducing and preventing  subluxations.

How to Correct Anterior Head Carriage

Correcting anterior head carriage is not going to be accomplished overnight.  It takes a long time for the body to adapt to a new posture and correcting your own posture is very difficult!  One of the first steps would be to see a chiropractor to relieve your neck from subluxations.  This will provide temporary relief in symptoms (if any) and will vary from person to person.  However this is only temporary because without a change in posture, the body will go right back to its previous position creating the problem again.

What is Lower Crossed Syndrome?

Just like in upper crossed syndrome, lower crossed syndrome is a muscular abnormalities of the body brought on by one’s posture.  Common patterns of lower crossed syndrome include tight lower back muscles, potentially with lower back pain.  The individual might also have sore knees due to tight leg adductor muscles (muscles that move your legs towards the center of your body.

Lower crossed syndrome can develop from someone who sits for long periods of time, leaning in a slightly flexed position.  This causes the lower back muscles or erector spinae to continually contract to hold the body’s weight upright while the constantly flexed position shortens the muscle length of the iliopsoas and rectus femoris muscles.  Through continued concentric contraction or in a shortened position, the muscles adapt and shorten in length leading to muscle tightness.

However, since the body acts like a series of pulleys and levers, when one muscle gets shortened, it usually means that another muscle gets lengthened.  This phenomenon is known as reciprocal inhibition.  How it works is that when a muscle is contracting, the muscle opposite of its function, or antagonist muscle, is turned off so that they aren’t both contracting at once.  Your brain can of course override this, but the purpose of reciprocal inhibition is to make the body more efficient and to avoid injury.  While inhibited though, the antagonist muscle is not only prevented from contracting, but in many cases is actually stretched or lengthened.  If you think of your quads (front thigh muscles) versus your hamstrings (back thigh muscles), if you flex one, you’ll usually feel the other stretch when you maximally stretch (I really feel this if I’m sitting down).  In the end, the shortened tight muscles cause the stretching and lengthening of their antagonist muscles.  This ultimately leads to the weakening of those muscles.

Due to the tightened and lengthened muscles, one with lower crossed syndrome will typically present with anterior pelvic tilt.  This could look like someone is hunching over forward since their feet are more than likely planted on the ground.  They might also have an increased lumbar lordotic curve, or increased lower back arch, which contributes to the anterior pelvic tilt.  Both of these conditions help to further enforce the lower crossed syndrome, resulting in one of the many reasons for lower back pain.

You can see the anterior pelvic tilt in this example

Muscles commonly tight or shortened in lower crossed syndrome include:

• Iliopsoas
• Rectus femoris
• Erector spinae
• Piriformis
• Tensor fascia latae (TFL)
• Leg adductors

The weakened or lengthened muscles include:

• Abdominal group
• Gluteal group

How to treat lower crossed syndrome
What is upper crossed syndrome?

What is Upper Crossed Syndrome?

Tight vs weak muscles in upper crossed syndrome

Upper crossed syndrome, also known as “student syndrome” or “corporate syndrome”, is a pattern of tight and weak muscles the body develops based off of one’s postural tendencies just like lower crossed syndrome.  The most common trait for someone with upper crossed syndrome is tight upper traps (a muscle in between the edge of your shoulder and your neck) and sometimes right at the back posterior base of your skull.  This is a very common occurrence in today’s population.  In fact, there is a good chance that even YOU have it!

The people this effects the most are those that sit all day, usually in front of a computer or at a desk.  This is why it’s called student or corporate syndrome!  Due to poor ergonomics, most people in these situations either find themselves leaning over a desk to read, or hunched at a computer typing all day.  If you don’t believe me, stroll down  your work aisle or school library and take a look.  In order to maintain this unnatural position, the body has to continually contract certain muscles.  If you think about a muscle’s length when it is (concentrically) contracting, it gets shorter.  If you hold that contracted position for long enough, the muscle will actually remain shorter, resulting in tight muscles. 

This isn’t all though…think about the other muscles that you are NOT using in holding these positions.  The musculature of the human body is an amazing example of balance.  When one muscle is working, the opposite muscle is generally not.  This is called reciprocal inhibition.  In many cases, the opposite muscle is actually stretching.  Think about your biceps for example.  If you are lifting something really heavy such as a dumb bell for example, your biceps has to contract to lift it.  Your triceps, the antagonist or opposite muscle, does not work when lifting the dumb bell and you may actually feel it getting stretched at the very end of your biceps curl.  With the continual stretching and overall lack of use, the muscles opposite to the ones doing all of the work will eventually stretch out and get weak.  This can lead to a whole new swing of body aches and make it harder to attain proper posture.

Notice the anterior head carriage on the right: the ear is supposed to be directly above the shoulder

This is why people with upper crossed syndrome have tight shoulders and base skull muscles.  Given the tightness of these muscles, these people will also tend to have anterior head carriage, also known as forward head carriage, a position where the center of their head is far more in front of their body then the center of their body.  The muscles most likely to be tight on a person with upper crossed syndrome include:

• Upper trapezius
• Sub occipital
• Deep neck extensors
• Pectoralis major
• Levator scapuli

The muscles that tend to be weak or lengthened include:

• Rhomboids
• Middle and lower trapezius
• Deep neck flexors

How to treat upper crossed syndrome
What is lower crossed syndrome?