Balancing Your Atlas and Axis
Since 2002 I have taught hundreds of Massage Therapists (and one or two Physical Therapists) how to balance other people's atlas and axis. I have written numerous teaching curriculae for Therapists. This article will be the first I have offered to the general public on the atlas and axis. In the past I assumed the ideas were just too complex for everyday people. But things have changed. For one, after teaching the courses so many times I can now explain the concepts in simpler terms than I used to. More importantly, people now embrace deeper and subtler concepts than they used to. In the six years I have been teaching atlas and axis massage, I have found that students "get it" quicker and quicker. I trust that now, everyone who owns a neck is ready to embrace their atlas and axis.
This introductory article provides a home-exercise to balance your atlas and axis. I am not a doctor so I can't diagnose or prognose that you will be cured. But in my experience, increased awareness to the AA joint facilitates
healing old whiplash
pain relief
balance of hearing with being heard
better expression and vocalization
clearer thought and brain function
improved range of motion
better athletic and yoga performance
more range to look for oncoming traffic while driving
neck joints that glide rather than catch
releasing the "weight of the world" or "weight off your shoulders"
facility to nod, "yes," and shake your head, "no."
freer breathing and swallowing
head rests more naturally upon the spine
The Home Remedy: Looking Left And Right
First I will describe a home-movement you can do that will begin a friendship with your atlanto-axial, "AA" joint. It is very simple and yet very profound in effect. Then I will give modifications how you could use it in different applications.
The way to balance your atlas upon its axis is to look slowly left and right.
How Far?
Stop at the first hint of resistance, and from that point return toward neutral (looking straight ahead). If you reach 45 ° with no pain or resistance, stop there and return toward neutral. Below I will describe how to gage degrees so you know what is 45°.
How Fast?
Slow! Slower still. Count four seconds to get from neutral to the left. Hang out there for a second or two. Four seconds to return to neutral. Four seconds to go out to the right. Hang out there a second or two. Four seconds to return to neutral. So a cycle requires about twenty seconds. Once you have done this a few times, do a few cycles at half speed.
Transitions
Slow gradually before you come to a stop. From a stop, speed up very gradually. This way your movement matches a sine wave, like the tides coming in and out twice a day, like the seasons changing twice a year.
How Long?
Even one minute will have an influence. Five minutes is great. As long as you are not pushing past your resistance, transitioning the other direction at the first hint of resistance, there is no upper limit. Twenty minutes would not be too much.
How Often?
Once every other day will have an influence. Several times a day is not too much, as long as you are stopping short and never passing the guarded range.
How Far Is Forty Five Degrees?
Sit in a comfortable position in the middle of a room, facing one corner. Turn your head until your face is flat with one wall, this is 45 degrees. If you feel resistance or pain before you reach 45, do not force it but stop short of that range.
The Measurer
It is not necessary to measure, as long as you are transitioning before you reach the first hint of guarding. But for those who enjoy charting progress and measure things, here is your chance. Have a pencil and pad in your lap. Sit in the corner and close your eyes. Turn left and right a few times until you have a good internal sense of where the first hint of guarding occurs. Then open your eyes and estimate how many degrees you have turned--the corner being zero and flat with the wall being 45. Jot down a measurement for left rotation and one for right rotation. Forty Five degrees is considered normal for people with average flexibility. A man with higher or lower overall ligament and joint flexibility will find his normal AA rotation to be about five degrees more or less than average.
How Often To Measure?
Just as when "losing weight," don't check too often. Recheck once a week or once a month, at the same time of day, so that you are measuring overall trends rather than normal ups and downs.
Variations:
The Athlete
As you are jogging or hiking outdoors, or doing "cardio" machines indoors, rotate left and right every twenty to forty seconds. For increased body awareness, you can count how many steps or breaths you take for each cycle of rotation.
The Zen Master
Sit in the Seven Gestures or Lotus Position. Close your eyes while rotating left and right.
Adding Eye Therapy
The Atlanto-Axial joint is often guarded in partnership with eye strain. You may add in eye movements left and right. Allow the eyes to lead the neck. With eyes closed, make your eyeballs look left, then allow the head to follow, until you feel the first sign of resistance or pain. From here, turn your eyes to look right, then allow your head to follow.
Speed Racer
Not only is driving a good time to practice your neck movement, but it is safer, because you'll gather more information about the cars around you. While driving, do not time your rotation to twenty seconds but just allow yourself to turn naturally several times per minute as you check mirrors and, if you can, looking over your shoulders for oncoming traffic. Of course, to head-check for oncoming traffic over your shoulders requires you rotate up to 90 degrees, which many people cannot do yet. Ninety degrees requires full function of the AA joint as well as full function of the five facet joints of the neck below. Just turn as far as feels natural without pain, never force it.
Always transition the movement BEFORE the pain, don't pass into the guarded range. Why? For one, you may get a twinge of pain if you pass the boundary. Also, stopping short of the boundary is the key to change. If you try to move past the guarding boundary that your brain has determined as its safety zone, your brain will guard all the more. Our hope is that the brain will feel safe and gradually let the safe zone be greater and greater. For the brain to feel safe, it must know that its boundaries are being respected.
This is the first in a series of articles I will offer about the atlas and axis. Future Ezine Articles will describe the functions of the bones, symbolic significance of the names "Atlas," and "Axis," the jobs of the muscles, how to find and massage your own obliquus capitis inferior and superior muscles. Information that was once only for specialists, now easily flows to whomever wants and needs it.
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