If sitting is the new smoking, text neck is the new tetanus.
Or not, I know that doesn’t even make sense.
But sitting too much is bad.
And so is hanging your head off of your cervical vertebrae.
“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.”- Lindsey Bever
And it’s painful and if you do it enough.
“As you stretch the tissue for a long period of time, it gets sore, it gets inflamed,” he said. It can also cause muscle strain, pinched nerves, herniated disks and, over time, it can even remove the neck’s natural curve.” -Bever
Eventually you’ll end up with your “head in the middle of your chest” <—Joe Rogan says that about Bernie Sanders , its funny and true.
Text Neck wasn’t even a thing when I started training people 15 years ago.
Back then everyone had knee and low back pain.
Now its neck and shoulder pain across the board.
How’d This Happen?
#1: Overall, We’re Weak as Sh@t.
Just plain generally weak.
Lets face it kids most males out there probably can’t perform a pullup.
Like an actual, start from a dead hang, full range to the bar, PULLUP.
Not one.
And I’m seriously thinking pushups are not far behind anymore.
We don’t have NEARLY enough general back and “core” strength.
#2: We Do Sit too Much
That said, sitting will not kill you.
I can prove it.
Did you drive to work today?
Have you flown on a plane?
Did you binge watch Game of Thrones at any point ever?
*if you answer yes to binge watching anything, you’re off the team.
You sat, you didn’t die.
It’s not that sitting is so bad when its for a LITLLE BIT.
In fact, we do it when we’re tired.
BUT if you’re sitting 14-18 waking hours….you have an activity/ movement issue and that’s the problem.
What’s this Vicious Cycle Lead To?
You’re weak so you “hang” off the skeleton.
You sit and get tired, lose posture (extension) and end up in a flexed forward, kyphotic posture so you can “hang off” the thoracic spine instead of using the muscles of the upper and mid back to help keep you upright.
And that’s how you’ll end up if you keep doing this:
Sooo, don’t do that.
Unless, you REALLY want to accelerate the damage.
Then You Should Add In A Cell Phone:
Yes this is normal end range flexion of your neck (cervical spine).
No, you’re not supposed to hang out there for HOURS a day.
Everyday..
Forever..
You should get there and then, GET THE HELL BACK INTO NEUTRAL.
So We All Have Text Neck
But we don’t have to.
Look, we’re all going to use our phones.
We’re all going to drop our heads and look down too much.
But doing something, some of the time, is going to fight the scourge of text neck more than doing nothing none of the time.
Use a Better Movement Strategy, Get a Better Outcome.
There are some “postures” you can adopt to help mitigate the stress on the cervical spine while you’re on your phone.
#1: Elbows On the Ribcage:
#2: Deep Squatter:
#3: On Your Back.
Notice how in each of these postures the cervical (and thoracic for that matter) spine is in a fairly neutral position?
One where the head can sit atop the spine and load the cervical joints appropriately.
Reality Check:
We’re all going to adopt craptastic postures from time to time.
Usually, that’s ok, it’s actually beneficial sometimes.
Those postures are usually called the end range of motion and if they’re not excessively loaded or held for too long, you’ll maintain the ability to get into end range.
Ain’t nothing wrong with that.
The trouble is hanging out in those end ranges excessively and its especially troublesome when we get into those end ranges and stay there forever with those joints loaded. <–even bodyweight is load
Spare your neck, you wont get it right all the time, but when you can, use postures and strategies that keep your head up and neck in neutral.
I mean, seriously who the hell wants their head to sit in the middle of their chest?
About Roy:
