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

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.