Does Your Neck Hurt? Do You Text A Lot?
The human head weighs about a dozen pounds. But as the neck bends forward and down, the weight on the cervical spine begins to increase. At a 15-degree angle, this weight is about 27 pounds, at 30 degrees it’s 40 pounds, at 45 degrees it’s 49 pounds, and at 60 degrees it’s 60 pounds.
Can’t grasp the significance of 60 pounds? Imagine carrying an 8-year-old around your neck several hours per day. Smartphone users spend an average of two to four hours per day hunched over, reading e-mails, sending texts or checking social media sites. That’s 700 to 1,400 hours per year people are putting stress on their spines, according to the research. And high-schoolers might be the worst. They could conceivably spend an additional 5,000 hours in this position,
Some Simple Exercises To Help
- You don’t have to necessarily bring your device up to eye level.. Your eyes have a range of motion, which allows you to look down at your phone without tilting your head.
- To keep the joints in your neck limber, move your head from left to right several times and touch your ear to your shoulder on both sides.
- Place your hands on your head to provide some resistance as you push your head forward, and do the same as your push your head back. This strengthens the ligaments and muscles that support your neck.
- While standing in a doorway, extend your arms and push your chest forward. This stretches and strengthens “the muscles of good posture."