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~*e two top vertebrae are different from the rest. The uppermost one is called the atlas - named after the r. j_nt Atlas in Greek mythology, who carried the heavens on his shoulders - and has no body and no spinous ~\:ess. The atlas supports the head (also called the occiput). The second vertebra is known as the axis, recause it provides an axis for turning the head; atlas and axis together give the head ample rangę of

-    vement in various directions. The axis has a spinous process which is easy to locate: it feels like a bump

-    :he hollow at the back of your neck (Fig 2).

Same of the neck exercises are described in terms of segments. A segment is a pair of adjacent vertebrae. •Ye describe them in pairs in order to make elear how they move relative to each other). The top segment > the head and the first vertebra; this segment is called 'occiput on atlas’. The next is the first and second ertebrae - 'atlas on axis’. Then comes the second and third vertebrae, ’axis on 3rd cervical vertebrae\ and ' on. The last segment of this part of the spine is ’7th cervical on 1 st thoracic vertebrae’ - where the neck —.eets the back proper.

The movements of the cervical spine are morę complicated than any other back movements. The - jrrounding tissues are relatively unprotected and they can be injured quite easily, even by minor accidents r careless movements.

The spine - how it should move

The spine is so intricately fitted together that you can’t bend it in a combined forward-sideways or -ackward-sideways motion withoul turning (rotating) it, too.

If you bend forwanl and to the right at the same time, the whole row of vertebrae tum (rotate) to the right

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