Text neck syndrome: what is dangerous and how to get rid of it

With the advent of gadgets in our lives, a lot has changed, including the load on the body. After all, sitting in front of a monitor or flipping through an Instagram feed while traveling on public transport, we put a heavy burden on our neck — constantly maintaining our head at a strong angle.

Because of this, most modern people develop the so-called "computer neck syndrome" (in English, "text-neck"). What kind of danger it poses to a person and how to deal with it, read the material below.

Working at the computer or watching the news on the phone, many people sit with their body leaning forward and their head pushed out strongly. This pose is often called "smartphone". Why? It is enough to ride a couple of times on public transport and you will understand everything yourself. It looks something like this:

Due to the prolonged load on the cervical spine, a person has a weakening of the muscles of the middle back, neck, shoulders, chest muscles and compression of the upper back muscles. All these physiological disorders are symptoms of the so-called "text neck syndrome". It has a negative effect on a person's posture, often leads to stooping and curvature of the spine, as well as to flabbiness of the neck skin and, consequently, the appearance of a second chin.

This is due to the fact that our body very quickly gets used to the position in which it is most of the time. Therefore, if a person looks at the smartphone screen for several hours a day, while stretching his head forward, there will be an imbalance of the neck and shoulder muscles. This phenomenon is called the medical term "forward head posture".

On average, the head of an adult weighs about 5 kg, but in an inclined position, the load on the neck can increase by 3, 5, or even more times! Just imagine: when you tilt your head to upload another photo to Instagram, an invisible 8-year-old child weighing 27 kg sits on your neck! We propose to consider this by an example: 

Quite often, modern people hold their head exactly as shown in the last picture, which is extremely dangerous for health.

Experts have found that such people develop hypermobility of the mid-neck spine, migraines and headaches, pain in the back and neck are more common.

Symptoms

To understand if you have the above-described syndrome, pay attention to the following symptoms:

We are sure that most of you will find these symptoms. And this is not surprising, because, according to the doctor of Medicine Kenneth Hansraj (Kenneth Hansraj), this problem has long acquired an epidemic character.

How to properly sit at the computer

To avoid all these unpleasant consequences, first of all you need to properly organize your workplace. To do this:

Yes, we know that it is quite difficult to adhere to all these rules and it is not always possible. Therefore, to avoid the development of this syndrome, you can additionally resort to preventive measures.

Prevention

The prevention of the "text neck" syndrome means daily exercise, as well as periodic refusal to use various gadgets, for example, on weekends. If you don't have time for constant physical activity and walking, just take a couple of minutes a day to do these simple exercises:

Basic exercises for warming up the arms and shoulder girdle like "scissors" and "hand swings"also help. In addition, for prevention purposes, you can do gymnastics for the eyes, and 2-3 times a week — exercises to strengthen the muscles of the neck and back.

Remember-text neck is just a bad habit. Get used to working properly, it's easy and will save you from a lot of problems in the future.