Smart-Phone Syndrome, Text Neck Syndrome, Forward-Head Posture…

The next time you are out in public, take a look around and observe how many people around you are on their phones looking down. I would be willing to bet that more than 75% of the people you are next to have their eyes glued to the screen.

People are spending a lot of times looking down at their phones, iPads, devices most of their days, and that repetitive stress to the neck and shoulders gives birth to the modern epidemic of “Smart-Phone Syndrome,” and “Text Neck.” With the constant need to check up on social media and recent trending games like Pokemon GO, you can expect peoples posture to deteriorate faster and faster.

Forward Head Carriage

The average human head weighs about 10-12 pounds, and you can expect the amount of weight your shoulder has to carry increases the more angled your head is to look down. 0° = 12 lb, 15° = 27, 30° = 40lb, 45° = 49lb, 60° = 60lb

Normally, the cheek bone is in the same plane as the sternal notch (where collar bone meets). For every inch that the head is forward, that adds an additional amount of weight to the shoulder, back of the neck. 0 inch =  12 lb, 1 inch = 24 lb, 2 inch = 36 lb, 3 inch = 48 lb

Headaches are a common side effect from all that tension!

But headaches aren’t the ONLY problem…

The body is connected through the fascia, so as the head collapses forward, your entire body has to compensate.

This means you may experience:

• Respiratory issues
• Carpal Tunnel Symptoms
• TMJ issues
• Thoracic Outlet Syndrome
• Spinal pathology of Cervical, Thoracic, or Lumbar
• Gut problems
• Head falling off the body 😉

The first step to Correcting…

The most important thing is to be aware of your own posture throughout the day. You can start by lifting your phone up higher, to eye level so you aren’t looking down and compressing your neck excessively. More on ergonomics here

Balancing your Text Neck

There are many approaches to correcting the imbalances. At Full Circle we begin by first educating you on proper posture so you are more aware. The problem for most people is that they are unaware throughout the day. We then start with hands on manual therapy to lubricate the cervical spine, corrective exercises to re-engage your inhibited muscles such as the deep cervical flexors, then corrective stretches to relax the overly engaged muscles, such as the sub-occipitals, upper traps. Lastly, we finish up with ELDOA, aka spinal decompressive exercises.

Learn more by contacting us at info@fchlc.com or 510-292-177