Top 3 Questions About Tech Neck

Okay, so Question #1 - Is Tech Neck a real thing?

Tech Neck .. kind of catchy and fun to say, commonly called “Text Neck”, or my favorite “Wrecked Neck” but it’s definitely not fun to have. If you're experiencing symptoms like headache, pain in your neck, shoulder pain, vision issues, Vertigo, anxiety, zinging down the arms, TMJ, you may be suffering from classic Tech Neck.

You see, when we spend our days leaning over our computers,and phones, it puts a tremendous strain on our upper bodies. The head is heavy! An average human head weighs about 11 pounds. You are most at risk if you have a career that involves using the computer and phone all day. According to the NCBI neck pain is the fourth leading cause of disability in the US. And every 10 seconds somebody visits the ER with neck pain.

I see these symptoms all the time. The other day I had a young man tell me that before he sought help from me, that the pain got so bad he ended up in the ER. After a whole day of testing, they sent him home with some pain meds. He was so pissed because he said “I don’t want to spend my days taking crappy drugs, I just want my neck better!”

So the thing is, I could throw you some more stats but there are hundreds of articles on this. My guess is that if you are reading this you do know that Tech Neck is real because you're feeling it.Okay, so question number two.

Question #2 - Do I have Tech Neck because of my “bad posture”?

Posture? Oh my gosh, that word is so loaded with shame and misinformation.

I can almost feel y’all squeezing your scapulas together.. just even mentioning the word posture. (This will make you way worse by the way, and never correct anything).

Okay, so here's the deal. Posture is just a snapshot of where your chronically contracted muscles are… in that moment.

Don't be ashamed.. as I say all the time you earned it honestly.

Posture:
We don’t “hold” a posture.. it just happens over time.
It is not “bad or “good.”
It is temporary.

Tech Neck causes classic forward head posture because the muscles in the upper back contract over time to support that heavy head as you are staring down at your devices.This develops the “Neck Hump.” Yes, I said it, “the hump.” Tech neck leads to getting the hump.

The next generation is going to appear shorter, have a lot of suffering, and many, many neck humps if we don’t have some quick intervention!!

Question #3 - Do conditions and symptoms like: headaches, pressure behind the eyes, blinky eyes, migraines, anxiety, vertigo, and TMJ get worse because of Tech Neck?

The short answer is yes. Let me explain.

I want you to imagine your head is leaning forward from your body. As you read my words here just put your head in the position it would be if you were looking down at your phone, or trying to see some small print on the computer screen. Ok hold it right there. Do you feel the muscles in your upper back, and shoulders contract? They are helping you support that 11 pound (more or less) head as it leans out in front of your shoulders.

Ok so rest back and make yourself more comfortable. I want you now to focus on your spine in your upper back between your shoulder blades. Picture how the nerves come out of that spine.

Each nerve is designated to innervate, or give energy to different parts of your body. Now imagine the nerves traveling through the muscles on their journey to let’s say the eyes. What if those muscles instead of being supple and loose, are tight and contracted? Can you picture how the nerve would have difficulty gliding through those fibers?

What happens then? Well the nerve signal doesn’t get fully to where it is going. It is like a water hose getting stomped on.. and then the water out of the nozzle is just a trickle. That is the starting point of a problem, syndrome, dis-ease, or symptom.

Do you want to hear something incredibly interesting? The nerves pathway that travels through your upper back muscles are on its way to your eyes and head. Hmmmm, so if those muscles are busy contracting holding up the head, what do you think happens when they get to your eyes?? Yes.. less signal. Which causes issues, problems, conditions of all kinds.

So if you believe you have Tech Neck, and you think it is causing some of your problems what should you do??

Quit your job. Throw your cell phone out the window. No, I'm just kidding. I did a quick online search and there was a popular recommendation that sounded promising, which is take a break every 15 minutes, which could work…. because you'll be well, out of work.

Other recommendations include stretching, strengthening pummeling, icing, rolling, getting a posture coach, taking CBD, using a standing desk, meditation, wearing a crossing guard vest, and of course, taking drugs.

I'm sure you've tried many of these. Some give temporary relief, others make you worse, but none solve the underlying problem. They just treat the symptoms. So it seems like you gotta get the right combo of activities everyday just to get through the day, which is kind of like being cast in the movie, “Groundhog Day,” which was an excellent movie, however, you certainly don't want to live like that.

I don’t know anyone who can live without the tech in their lives, that is not the answer. I believe the real solution is a combination of making your world support your body as much as possible - the right chair, bed, pillow, driving habits etc. and getting the muscles back to optimal tone like utilizing the Hunter Method. The truth is our relationship with technology is here to stay, and learning new ways to treat the muscles to get them untight, and taking the time to learn what is the right support is an approach that can lead to a pain-free wonderful life.