Text Neck

Text neck, ipad hand, gamer's thumb - are you and your family at risk?

Are you reading this on your smartphone now? What is your posture like? We see our families continually crunched over small gadgets developing poor postures that can last for long periods of time.

Is your head tilted down? Is your phone causing you neck or arm pain? Is your hand or thumb aching?

The neck posture we adopt whilst texting and using our smart devices is causing a surge in TEXT NECK. Tilting your head downwards to text can create excessive stress to your neck leading to pain and tightness. We are using smart phones more and more from a younger and younger age often up to 4 hours a day, this can greatly affect our posture and cause pain and stress to our neck and shoulders.

Symptoms of text neck can include: upper back or neck pain, shoulder tightness, muscle spasms, headaches, sharp pains into the arm, numbness and cramp into the hands.

The key to Text Neck is prevention - our top 5 tips are:

-Take regular breaks

-Keep your phone or screen at eye level

-Make phone calls instead of texts

-Regular exercises to strengthen your neck and core muscles

-Change your position regularly

-Text neck physiotherapy rehabilitation and treatment can include:

Strengthening your core to support your neck and upper body it is very important to have a strong core to support your head posture. Pilates is an excellent way to develop your posture and core control.

You also need to have a strong flexible neck we can advise on strengthening exercises and assist with muscle tightness.

Rehabilitation includes assessing your posture and pattern of muscle balance and recruitment, we may treat with a variety of manual techniques including: mobilisations, massage, acupuncture, stretches and taping to improve your posture and pattern of movement.

To stem bad habits advice and corrective exercise management is essential to minimise ongoing or developing symptoms.

Try to be aware of bad habits and poor posture that can rapidly escalate into neck and upper limb pain.

For more information or an appointment at any of our centres contact the White House Physiotherapy Clinic.