November 2026

My Low Back Hurts, So Why Are You Adjusting My Neck?

You come in because your low back hurts. You lie down on the table, and instead of working on your lower spine, we check the very top of your neck. If you've ever wondered what's going on, you're in good company. It's one of the most common questions we get in our office.

The short answer is that your neck and your low back are on the same team. When one is out of position, the other often picks up the slack. Let me explain how that works.

Your Body Has a Built-In "Stay Upright" Reflex

Your body is constantly working to keep you upright and balanced, even when you're not thinking about it. One of the ways it does this is through something called the righting reflex.

The righting reflex is your body's automatic way of correcting its position when it gets pulled out of a normal upright posture. It starts in your vestibular system, the balance center in your inner ear. That system senses when your head is tilted or your body is out of line, and then it signals your head and the rest of your body to move back into position.

Think about the last time you tripped on a curb. Before you had time to think, your body shifted to keep your head level and your eyes on the horizon. That's the righting reflex at work.

The key point is this: your body puts a very high priority on keeping your head level. It will rearrange a lot of other things to make that happen.

How a Shift Up Top Can Show Up Down Below

The top two bones in your neck, the atlas and axis, hold up your head. This area is the most mobile and least stable part of your whole spine, and it can shift from even minor bumps, falls, or strains. Many people never feel it when it happens.

If your atlas shifts, your head may tilt slightly off center. Your balance system notices and works to bring your head back to level. But your body can't simply undo the shift at the top, so it often compensates further down. That can look like:

One shoulder sitting higher than the other
A subtle curve or lean through the mid back
A pelvis that tips or rotates to one side
Extra tension and uneven loading in the low back muscles and joints

In other words, your low back may be working overtime to keep your head level. This is what we commonly see in practice: the neck and low back compensating for each other. The low back is often where you feel it, even though the shift may have started up top.

This is also why the upper neck matters so much for your nervous system as a whole. It sits right next to the brain stem and is packed with tiny sensors that tell your brain where your body is in space. If you want to dig deeper into that, I wrote more about it in The Hidden Connection: How Your Spine Shapes the Way Your Nervous System Works.

Why We Start at the Top

If the low back is compensating for a problem higher up, working only on the low back may bring short-term relief, but the body may keep pulling itself back into that same compensation pattern.

Our approach is to look for the source. When we gently and specifically correct the upper neck, the body has a chance to let go of some of those compensations on its own. As the head becomes more balanced, the low back may not need to work so hard.

That said, not every low back problem starts in the neck, and every person responds differently. That's why we don't guess. Before we adjust anything, we do a thorough assessment, including:

A digital posture scan to see how your body is carrying itself
Thermal and surface EMG scans to look at how your nervous system and muscles are working
Heart rate variability testing
X-rays when needed, because to see is to know; not to see is to guess

You can read more about that last one in Why We Take X-Rays: Seeing Is Knowing When It Comes to Your Spine. Then, at your Report of Findings, we walk you through exactly what we found and why we're recommending what we are.

One of our patients shared this about their experience:

"I came in with chronic back and neck pain, and now I barely have any pain at all. The treatment I received was thorough, specific to me and my needs, and communicated thoroughly. If you're looking for a Chiropractor, they are the best of the best!" — Cabell Haneberg

Every body is different, and results vary. But that word "specific" is exactly what we aim for with every person who walks through our door.

What You Can Do at Home Between Visits

Upper cervical adjustments are designed to hold, and what you do between visits can help your body settle into its new position. My main advice for low back patients is simple:

Stay active, but don't push to the point of straining.

Movement helps your muscles and joints adapt, and it keeps your body from stiffening up while it's making changes. At the same time, this isn't the week to set a new personal record or tackle a huge yard project. A few gentle ideas:

Keep up with easy, everyday movement like walking
Take breaks from long stretches of sitting
Ease back into heavier activities gradually
Listen to your body and back off if something feels like a strain

If your low back pain comes with numbness in the groin or inner thighs, changes in bladder or bowel control, new weakness in your legs, fever, or follows a major fall or accident, please see a medical doctor right away. Those symptoms need prompt attention.

The Bottom Line

Your body is one connected system. When the top of your neck shifts, your balance reflexes can ask your low back to compensate, sometimes for years. Checking your upper neck isn't ignoring your back pain. It's looking for where it may have started.