As myotherapists, we often treat neck and shoulder pain related to compromised posture.
For sometime now extensive use of computers has been a major culprit. Times are changing and now more than ever, when we are not sitting (or standing) at our computer screens we are staring down at our phones… and I mean way down. Enter the most modern neck injury – text neck.
What is ‘text neck’?
Text neck describes the posture we adopt while looking down at our phones. Our heads are down, causing our necks to slant forward so that our heads are in front of our shoulders, creating what we call forward head posture. Those who have forward head posture also tend to have slumped shoulders, and apart from looking bad, it places pressure on our spine.
How does it effect me?
On average, the human head weighs about 5kg. However, when the neck is bent forward, the weight on the cervical spine can be as much as 27kg, depending on how far forward the neck is tilted. It takes our necks only a 15-degree tilted angle for the weight on the cervical spine to more than double to 12kg. That’s a fair dead lift for your neck to sustain for hours every day!
Initially, this posture can cause headaches and pain in the upper back, neck, and shoulders. Over time, text neck can lead to early wear and tear on the spine, which could result in muscle spasm, pinched nerves, degenerated discs and increased curvature in the spine.
What can I do?
Don’t worry, flushing your smartphone down the loo is not the answer! Here are some tips to improve your posture long term:
Hold your phone higher to be more at eye level. This will allow your head to sit back in line with your shoulders.
Move your eyes and tuck your chin. Your eyes can look down without your head and neck following suit. Tucking your chin in realigns your spine and pops your head back where it needs to be.
Stretching your neck and chest will help lengthen tight and straining muscles caused by a ‘text neck’ forward posture.
Squeeze your shoulder blades together without raising shoulders to your ears. This is possibly more important than the stretches! Two sets of 10-12 repetitions will activate and strengthen the upper back, correcting rounded shoulders.