What Muscle Retracts the Neck?

Off Topic
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[quote]honest_lifter wrote:
Just find out what muscles extend and flex your cervical spine and that is your answer. Can you protract and retract your thoracic spine?

Keeping your head level throughout extension and flexion of the cervical spine gives the appearance of protraction and retraction, that is all. [/quote]

It’s not “appearance” of the head retracting, it is an actuality.

Flexion does put the chin down and extension does put the chin up.

I don’t know whether above you are meaning that you say extension is the same as retraction (I suppose that is what you mean) or that flexion is, but no, these are different movements.

However, your suggestion caused me to see what the above site says are the muscles involved in neck extension and their list was exactly the same…

But the motion is in fact different and I can feel that the muscles I’m activating are different, so now I’m having to guess that that site just made a guess and did not know themselves. Back to the drawing board… or hopefully someone here will know.

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I don’t know. But, I do like turtles!

DB

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Using the improved search terms, the answer could probably be found here if I wanted to spend $25 for the full article: http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=JBENDY000129000001000066000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes&ref=no

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[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:

[quote]rkline2 wrote:
Scalene? Longus capitus? Longus Coli? Rectus Capitis Anterior? I would assume one of this muscles would be involved in the movement.
[/quote]
Thank you!

Using the search terms:

neck (longus OR capitis) retraction

yielded the answer:

splenius, semispinalis capitus, semispinalis cervicis, longissimus capitis, longissimus cervicis, and upper trapezius.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/23320051/Health-Center-Practicum-Lab-Notes

which page does not turn up on searches simply for: neck retraction splenius, or at least not in the first 10 pages of hits.

Much appreciated![/quote]

Also, the retraction (chicken tuck) seems to stabilize the hypoid bone when I do it. (sternohyoid, omohyoid, thyrohyoid, mylohyoid, diagastric)

25

Hi,

different parts of the “deep back muscles” or “erector spinae” are involved in extension (looking up motion) of the neck. if you really mean the neck you could talk about intraspinalis, intertransversius etc. but all those muscles play a rather minor role in active motion but a rather stabilizers, I do believe what you are look for is the:

M. sternocleidomastoideus

Which although situated at the sites and front of the neck STILL pulls it back and is the stronges head extensor (looking-up-muscle). If you look at the mastoid (where this muscle is attached) you will notice that it is behind the articulatory axis, this explains why a muscle situated in front pulls the head acutaly back.

Hope this is helpfull.

26

[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:

[quote]honest_lifter wrote:
Just find out what muscles extend and flex your cervical spine and that is your answer. Can you protract and retract your thoracic spine?

Keeping your head level throughout extension and flexion of the cervical spine gives the appearance of protraction and retraction, that is all. [/quote]

It’s not “appearance” of the head retracting, it is an actuality.

Flexion does put the chin down and extension does put the chin up.

I don’t know whether above you are meaning that you say extension is the same as retraction (I suppose that is what you mean) or that flexion is, but no, these are different movements.

However, your suggestion caused me to see what the above site says are the muscles involved in neck extension and their list was exactly the same…

But the motion is in fact different and I can feel that the muscles I’m activating are different, so now I’m having to guess that that site just made a guess and did not know themselves. Back to the drawing board… or hopefully someone here will know.[/quote]

Oh, your initial question was what retracted the neck , not the head.

If you are putting the neck through extension and flexion, and desire the head to stay still, or neutral, then I suppose any muscles that flex the head would be used for neck extension, and any muscles that extend the head back would be used for neck flexion. Assuming movement under tension.

It think the anatomy terms of movement are confusing here. cool question though!

27

[quote]PederLustzo wrote:
Hi,

different parts of the “deep back muscles” or “erector spinae” are involved in extension (looking up motion) of the neck. if you really mean the neck you could talk about intraspinalis, intertransversius etc. but all those muscles play a rather minor role in active motion but a rather stabilizers, I do believe what you are look for is the:

M. sternocleidomastoideus

Which although situated at the sites and front of the neck STILL pulls it back and is the stronges head extensor (looking-up-muscle). If you look at the mastoid (where this muscle is attached) you will notice that it is behind the articulatory axis, this explains why a muscle situated in front pulls the head acutaly back.

Hope this is helpfull.[/quote]

As for what is retracted, the top of the neck and the head are retracted together. I have seen the motion referred to as neck retraction, as head retraction, and as cervical retraction.

Yes, I’m not asking about extension (looking up.)

My chiropractor also said the SCM was involved (his overall answer was really not very specific but basically came down to saying that it was a complicated interplay which he didn’t specify but mostly of stabilizers.)

It doesn’t feel like the SCM when I’m doing it though there may be some stabilization from it. However, I don’t take that as proving it’s not the case.

I’ve always seen it listed as a neck flexor.

Again, your post provided better search terms.

While I had a problem with the scalenes doing it based on that what I feel as my “scalenes” obviously are not involved, I think that what I call my scalenes are only the anterior scalenes. The posterior scalenes seemed like a great choice but I found a source saying they caused flexion.

However, now with the better search terms I find the statement:

"The major muscles of neck retraction are the scalenes, but others are likely to be involved.

… After that, I use a combination of movement actions combined into a single action with a unified purpose: to contract, not just the scalenes, but other parts of the body in a way that gives a feel for how to control the act of retraction. Specificity is necessary, as without it, your client is likely to by-pass the scalenes, over which he has little control, and substitute the sterno-cleido-mastoid or other muscles, over which he has better control."

28

While I’m not totally sure what muscle it is, I do know that my wife gives it a workout quite often.

29

As others have said, there are a multitude of muscles that extend the head, begining with the sternocleidomastoid. The splenius capitis among others would pull the head slightly backward but mostly upward.

From a training standpoint however, aside from neck harnesses and the 4-way neck machines (Hammer’s is decent) there is little in the way of direct neck flexion you can do. And really that shit is tendious and not something I’m going to waste my time on. Football player who gets his head smashed for a living - sure, good call.

The uppermost portion (the one you can see looking at the front of me) of the upper traps I have found to be a MAJOR reason for “poke neck” symptoms. The only exercise I ever found overly effective at correcting this was dumbbell behind the butt shrugs (with slight bicep pull above glutes) to a 3-5 second hold for sets of 3-5, reps of 8-12. I do this whenever I feel too much uppermost upper trap tension (especially works for migraine/stress basket sufferers) and only for 3 week periods a few times a year to stay balanced. Between that and stretching pec minor on a stability ball frequently my shoulders have gone from severe internal rotation to a more neutral balance (as neutral as it’s going to get for a side sleeper).

Give it a try. Not need to go stupid heavy. I can DB (regular) shrug 120’s for 12 with 3 second holds. I generally only use 50-60’s on the behind the butt variation. With each rep find more fibers to squeeze the shit out of without the head deviating from neutral.

AT

30

I only just yesterday decided to train neck retraction.

I used the (the crowd gasps in horror) Smith machine and a bench. Fortuitously, one of the stops was at the exact correct height.

For the first effort I used just the empty counterweighted bar, which gives a net weight of about 25 lb, and got 14 and 18 reps respectively for 2 sets.

Obviously this is far below neck extension strength, and it seems really pitiful.

After doing it the neck and upper back area felt great though: much better. At least in my own personal case, something good was being done. (I have some degree of forward head-carry and am working to correct this.)

I’ll give the behind-back shrugs a try.

31

[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:

[quote]HK24719 wrote:
Maybe it’s just me, but this seems like an early April Fools Day prank.[/quote]

What part of pulling your head straight back in the horizontal plane without tilting the head is difficult to understand or seems to you like an April Fool’s Day prank?[/quote]

It wasn’t the question itself, more the way you posed it, and likely the fact it was posed by you.

I kept expecting you to post the punchline!

32

Oh!

Nope, it was not knowing and not being able to find the answer.

It’s strange: it seems like this should be considered a fundamental anatomical motion, but it is neglected in virtually everything I’ve found.

The sea turtle thing probably is what made it seem like perhaps a joke. It would have been clearer had I not included it. It was there simply because that was the only thing I had been able to find at that point: and on further thought once there were some replies, I realized that that had probably not been referencing the same anatomical motion, but rather the one of the turtle pulling its head into its shell. Which is totally different.

So it would have been better if I’d said I’d found absolutely nothing. But as I had a given concept of retraction in mind (the one applying to humans) I mistakenly pictured the turtle reference as referring to the turtle lifting its head without rotation. A mistake.

We still don’t have a really solid answer on the question. We know what the author of the quote thinks, and what he says makes sense to me, but we don’t know it’s a fact that the prime movers for retraction of the neck (or head) are the posterior scalenes, with undoubtedly other muscles stabilizing.

It’s still certainly possible that someone here will have a better answer.

33

[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:

I realized that that had probably not been referencing the same anatomical motion, but rather the one of the turtle pulling its head into its shell. Which is totally different.

But as I had a given concept of retraction in mind (the one applying to humans) I mistakenly pictured the turtle reference as referring to the turtle lifting its head without rotation. A mistake.
[/quote]

Being a visual person I had to search for an image.
Is the above neck movement the anatomical motion you had in mind?

34

I know what you are talking about, we used to make people peform a cervical retraction stretch at my old job, but I can’t really remember the muscles involved in the motion. I might check in my anatomy books tommorow, since you’ve made me curious.

Alpha F, Imagine a human imitating a chicken moving its head forward and back.

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"Trapezius Muscle

…the upper part, acting alone, elevates the shoulder and braces the shoulder girdle when a weight is carried. The lower part draws the scapula downward. When both of these muscles act together, the scapula can be brought toward the body and the head can drawn directly backward."

The term “posterior head translation” is sometimes also used to describe the motion you are talking about (retraction).

36

BLOBISPLEASURUS

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[quote]metal.head wrote:
"Trapezius Muscle

…the upper part, acting alone, elevates the shoulder and braces the shoulder girdle when a weight is carried. The lower part draws the scapula downward. When both of these muscles act together, the scapula can be brought toward the body and the head can drawn directly backward."

The term “posterior head translation” is sometimes also used to describe the motion you are talking about (retraction).
[/quote]

THANK YOU.

That makes a ton of sense. I had an intuition the traps were involved but I could not figure how. Your explanation makes it clear how this can work.

So perhaps the best answer thus far is posterior scalenes plus this combined trapezius activity you describe, plus undoubtedly stabilization from various other muscles.

[EDIT: I’m now really questioning the posterior scalenes theory.]

38

[quote]Alpha F wrote:
Being a visual person I had to search for an image.
Is the above neck movement the anatomical motion you had in mind? [/quote]

That looks like a motion involving both rotation and extension (a “looking up” sort of movement.)

To illustrate the motion, the above picture is the fully protracted position of the head. Getting from the normal position of the head to this position is protraction.

(Retraction will follow, next post.)

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Full retraction.

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[quote]AttackOfTheChris wrote:

Alpha F, Imagine a human imitating a chicken moving its head forward and back. [/quote]

YES

I got it!

Thanks.