Text neck was one of the topics of this years “Spinal Health Week” from the Chiropractors Association of Australia.
According to a 2017 survey, 88% of Australians now own a smart phone, and we are pretty dependant on them with 35% checking their phone within 5 mins of waking up in the morning, and on average, checking them 35 times per day![1]
The position you see a lot of people in these days, phone held low, hunched over and staring at it, can cause some tension or discomfort in the lower neck, which is now being referred to as “Text Neck”. An article from the Australian Spinal Research Foundation spoke about how the average weight of a human head is 4.5-5.5 kilograms[2]. When we put our necks into that classic text neck position of bent forward 45 degrees, the forces that the neck and shoulders have to hold up weigh in around 22.3 kilograms! Thats a dramatic increase in the potential for muscle soreness or even injuy.
When researching this article, I wanted to find out how long on average Australians were on their phone per day, and found a number of answers ranging between 2.5 hours[3] to 10 hours and 24 minutes per day![4]. You can imagine even on the lower end of this spectrum, that if that time is spent in poor posture, it could lead to some ongoing aches and pains, especially over a few years.
Posture is important for Text Neck
We chiropractors like to talk about posture a lot, because it is the little habits and postures that you do throughout the day that can contribute to ongoing muscle imbalances and injuries down the line. A 2013 study found that office workers who had a posture of head and shoulders forward were more likely to have neck and shoulder pain, and that people who worked on computers had a higher chance to have this posture[5]. The posture of working at a computer and the classic “text neck” posture are not identical, but there are many similarities that could indicate that the findings may apply here too.
So, what can we do about Text Neck?
First and foremost, raise your phone up a little bit! If you bring your head up to 15 degrees forward tilt, it pulls the weight on those neck and shoulder muscles down to an average of 12 kilograms (almost half of the weight at a 45 degree tilt). If you raise it higher that weight continues to decrease. Bring the phone to you by raising your arms rather than moving your neck and shoulders to hunch over your phone. The less time you spend in that hunched posture, the better it is for your body.
How can TPM Chiropractic assist you Today?
References
[1] Mobile Consumer Survey 2017: The Australian Cut, Deloitte, https://www2.deloitte.com/au/mobile-consumer-survey
[2]Forward Head Posture – It’s Effects On The Young And The Aging, Published by Australian Spinal Research Foundation at October 31, 2017
[3]Smartphone Survey: The fascinating differences in the way we use our phones. By Kylie Andrews Updated 13 October 2017 at 4:18 pm. ABC Science.
[4] https://chiropractors.asn.au/blog/is-your-phone-being-a-pain-in-the-neck/
[5] Nejati P, Loftian S, Moezy A and Nejati M (2013), “The relationship of forward head posture and rounded shoulders with neck pain in Iranian office workers,” Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Vol. 28,26. 3 May 2014
