I’ll admit it, I walked face first into a street sign. Go ahead and laugh; I certainly did!
Why did it happen? I’ve got a hunch–I wasn’t looking up. I watched my toddler’s feet as we navigated a set of stairs, I scanned the ground for dropped objects, I protectively eyed the top of my four month old’s head peeking out of the Baby Bjorn, but my eyes never raised above the horizon. It took a smack from a STOP sign to make me realize I hadn’t lifted my head in hours.
As parents, we spend our days looking down. We assume the Parent Hunch; our foreheads angle downward, our necks hang in front of our torsos, and our hips curl forward to compensate for the change. By doing so, we add significant stress to our spines and possibly even our emotional state.
Try a little experiment. Walk up to a friend or your partner and pretend you’re going to punch them in the stomach. What happens? Immediately, their body reacts with a protective posture–like an armadillo curling into a ball, they tuck their chins, bring their arms forward, and curve their sacrum forward. Look familiar? Now apologize and thank them for being part of your experiment.
Parents don’t really slouch, we hunch over to protect our children. But continually engaging this head-and-hips forward protective stance can send false signals to our brain that we’re under threat, says Dr. Danny Knowles, founder of Network Family Wellness Center, a network chiropractic facility in Boulder, Colo. In addition to physical maladies ranging from herniated discs to chronic lower back pain, parents may also encourage emotional irritability, anger disturbances and depression, all caused by their posture.
Fortunately, those abdominal exercises you’ve been doing to regain your pre-pregnancy figure also help support your spine. And, like it or not, those little people will soon grow up to look us straight in the eye. Until then, here’s one extra exercise every parent can do to help counteract the Parent Hunch. It’s the basic backbend used yoga’s sun salutation series, but I call it Divine Intervention:
- From a standing or seated position, inhale and lift your arms into the air.
- Bring your shoulder blades together and move them down your spine.
- Exhale and look up to the sky.
- Keeping your face and neck muscles relaxed, inhale and pull your arms and head further back.
- Exhale and hold here for a moment longer.
- Inhale back up–you’re done!
Repeat a few times a day and I’ve got a hunch you’ll thank me!
Ron S. Doyle is a freelance writer in Denver, CO. Click here for more backbend poses, courtesy of Yoga Journal!
