These days an enormous amount of people own devices such as smartphones, tablets, computers and more, with the majority of these being used during both our working and personal lives. In the USA the average person spends roughly four and a half hours a day looking at a smartphone screen and reports suggest that during the pandemic these screen times have become even longer as we seek connection from a distance, entertain ourselves, or even doom-scroll our way through the day and night. Further to this, many of us are working from home much more and may be using makeshift home offices set up in our kitchens, living rooms, or even folded up on a couch or bed for hours at a time.
While keeping up with the news and staying connected to our social groups can provide a sense of stability and help with our mental health, our tendency to hunch over and look down at our phones or spend lengthy screen time in a poorly set up office can start to cause problems for our physical health. Enter Tech-Neck!
Sometimes also known as ‘Text-Neck’, ‘Tech-Neck’ is a common phenomena, especially for computer programmers or people who work in offices, which arises primarily from poor postures when we hunch forward, and hold our shoulder girdle and head in unnatural positions, typically to use various screens whether in the office or simply using our phones.
Our heads tend to be roughly the weight of a bowling ball - about 10-12 pounds on average, and they are typically well balanced on top the neck and shoulders, however, with every inch our head moves forward and out of alignment the weight of the head essentially doubles, putting enormous strain on the neck, shoulders, and even low back as these structures try to account for this new posture. This can over time cause repetitive strain injuries in the neck as the tendons, ligaments, and muscles work much harder to hold the head up causing a whole host of symptoms such as pain, headaches, numbness and/or tingling in the arms and hands, etc., and can range from constant nagging discomfort to sharp stabbing intense pain.
This unnatural forward posture tends to lead to tight, overstretched, and fatigued muscles in the back of the neck and upper back as the shoulders round out or hunch. It is, however, of equal importance to take note of our anterior muscles, such as those of the chest and front of neck. These opposing muscles that pull us forward when using a screen can become shortened and tight from being left in slackened positions for long periods of time, compounding the tech-neck posture as the body attempts to adapt to our new position and the muscles begin ‘forgetting’ their original purpose of keeping us well balanced.
Through massage, we can relieve the muscle tissues of tension, reducing the effects of tight, contracted muscles pinching or compressing the nerves of the neck and upper back which can be the cause of several symptoms such as headaches, pain and numbness, and reinvigorating them through better blood, oxygen, and lymph circulation. Also, as we release the tight muscles of the anterior neck, chest, and shoulders, we reduce the pulling forward effect of those muscle groups, encouraging the body to find it’s natural balanced posture once more and reducing the strain on the cervical spine, and ultimately reducing the effect of tech-neck.
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