Can Pelvic Tilt Cause Neck Pain
The Compensation Chain That Connects Your Hips To Your Headaches
You have tried everything for your neck pain. Massage. Stretching your upper traps. Ergonomic chairs. Cervical pillows. The neck pain keeps coming back because you are treating the end of the chain while the beginning remains unchanged.
The Compensation Chain From Pelvis To Neck
The Left AIC pattern rotates the pelvis left. The lumbar spine side-bends to compensate. The thoracic spine rotates right. The ribcage shifts. The right shoulder drops forward in the Right BC pattern. And the neck must counter-rotate left and side-bend right to keep your eyes level. Your brain will sacrifice everything below the neck to maintain level eyes and a level vestibular system. This chain is well documented in Postural Restoration Institute research by Ron Hruska.
Why Massage Provides Only Temporary Relief
Massage the right upper trap and it tightens within 24 hours because the shoulder is still forward. Stretch the left SCM and it shortens again because the neck is still rotated. Strengthen deep neck flexors and they fatigue quickly because they are fighting a structural position driven from below. Every intervention at the neck is temporary because the cause is not at the neck.
How Pelvic Rotation Creates Chronic Neck Tension
The right upper trap works overtime to stabilize the right shoulder that has drifted forward. The left SCM is shortened because the neck is rotated left. The right scalenes are overactive because they help side-bend the neck. The suboccipitals at the skull base are hypertonic making fine adjustments to keep eyes level.
The Connection Between Posture And Headaches
The suboccipital muscles, when chronically hypertonic, compress the greater occipital nerve. This creates headaches at the base of the skull, behind the eye, and across the forehead. TMJ dysfunction follows the same logic: the mandible shifts to compensate for cervical position, creating clicking, grinding, and jaw pain.
How Fixing The Pelvis Resolves The Neck
Reposition the pelvis and the thorax derotates. The cervical spine moves toward neutral. The upper traps relax. The SCM lengthens. The suboccipitals release. Headaches decrease. MOVECHECK does not have a separate neck stage because the patterns that drive neck dysfunction are assessed in every other stage. Address the chain from the bottom up and the neck follows.
See This In Your Own Body
Every concept in this article is tested in the MOVECHECK assessment. Find out which patterns apply to you.
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