The Quiet Muscles Holding Your Head Up (And Why They Matter More Than You Think)

My Dear Reader,

If your head feels heavy by the end of the day, if your neck is always “on,” if your jaw clenches without you noticing, or if your shoulders slowly creep forward as the hours pass — this post is for you.

In my daily work at JANMI Soft Tissue Therapy in Marylebone, one group of muscles keeps appearing in the background of modern postural pain patterns. They are rarely tight. Rarely painful themselves. And almost always overlooked.

They are the deep neck flexors.

What are the deep neck flexors?

Anatomically, these are small but essential muscles that sit deep at the front of the cervical spine, close to the vertebrae.The main ones are longus colli and longus capitis.

Their job is not to move the neck dramatically.Their job is to hold the head quietly, efficiently, and close to the spine.

They act like the internal suspension system of the head.

When they work well:

• The head feels lighter

• The neck muscles don’t have to grip

• The jaw can relax

• The shoulders don’t need to creep up

When they go quiet… other tissues step in to help.

Why do they “fall asleep” in modern life?

Modern posture is not cruel — it’s repetitive.

Screens pull the head forward.Stress increases jaw and neck tone.Chairs remove the need for subtle postural control.Breathing shifts higher into the chest.

Over time, the body adapts.

The deep neck flexors underperform, while:

• Suboccipitals

• SCM

• Upper trapezius

• Jaw muscles

begin doing work they were never designed to do full-time.

This is a classic JANMI pattern:sleeping stabilisers + overworking guards = postural pain

Where this shows up clinically

In clinic, inhibited deep neck flexors often sit quietly behind:

• Forward head posture / tech neck

• Rounded shoulders

• Chronic neck tension

• Jaw clenching and TMJ-neck patterns

• Headaches linked to posture

• “Busy” neck that never switches off

The danger is not damage — it’s load mismanagement.

When deep stabilisers don’t contribute, the body compensates.And compensation is expensive.

The JANMI approach

At JANMI, we don’t try to “strengthen everything”.We focus on waking what should be working.

Deep neck flexors are one of the first muscle groups we assess and re-educate — gently, patiently, and with respect for the nervous system.

We research sleeping muscles not to create complicated routines, but to find:

• the minimum effective input

• the clearest sensory cues

• the shortest routines that actually stick

Most people don’t need more effort.They need better organisation.

A note on exercises

Yes, there are effective bodyweight exercises to reactivate deep neck flexors — usually slow, subtle, and boring-looking (which is why they work).

But they must be:

• pain-free

• well-timed with breathing

• done without jaw or shoulder tension

That’s why at JANMI we introduce them after releasing overworking tissues, not before.

A quiet reminder

You don’t need perfect posture.You don’t need to “sit up straight” all day.

You need the right muscles doing their quiet job again.

Warmly,Paulius Jurasius

JANMI Soft Tissue Therapy, Marylebone