Have you ever heard of text neck? You’re probably wondering whether it has anything to do with your use of smartphone, and you are right. With the introduction of smartphone technology, studies show that 73% of teens in the United States own one with 24% of them using the internet on their phone constantly. Unfortunately, the constant hunching or leaning forward to read the contents of your phone can cause text neck which is triggered because of the forward head posture that you do whenever you use your phone. This is one of the reasons why you feel aches and pain on your neck, shoulders, and even your upper back.

With teens paying more attention to their phones, it is not impossible that they will end up with a text neck which can affect their spine’s curvature and even muscle imbalance hence the constant pain that they are feeling. How then will you be able to prevent this in the first place?

Go into a neutral position

Although having a smartphone is convenient, because you can get information quickly from it, having to lean forward and bending your neck just to see the display screen can put your neck in an unnatural position. Staying in this position for long periods of time can cause a crick on your neck too. One way to alleviate the problem is to use your phone in a neutral position which means that you will be raising your phone at eye level at least.

Take breaks

If you are using your smartphone to run your business, or using it for research, make sure that you take breaks in between. It is important that you allow your neck to take a breather from time to time to avoid causing pain between your shoulders, neck, and upper back. Raise your head and you can turn it slowly from left to right to help loosen up the tight muscles there.

Look down with your eyes

Another trick to preventing text neck from happening in the first place is to let your eyes go down instead the whole head. You don’t really have to bend your neck for your eyes to follow your phone. You will find that this is considerably better than having to bow your head whenever you are using your device.

Strengthen your neck muscles

What else can you do to help prevent text neck from happening? Well, strengthening your neck muscles is one way to keep the pain away. The good news is that there are specific exercises that you can do to help strengthen your neck muscles so you won’t be prone to tight muscles in this area. For example, you can move your head from side to side by tipping your head to the left, as if you are bringing your left ear close to your left shoulder. Do the same with the other side.

Avoid hunching over for hours

Let’s face it, hunching over your device for hours on end is not really helping you one bit. Not only is your posture out of its natural alignment, but you are also increasing your chances of muscle tension which can lead to further problems such as headaches, migraines, and the like. If you want to avoid all these and more, make it a point to avoid using your gadget for hours.

Text neck is a serious problem if you let it go out of hand. Keep in mind that it’s not just the teens who are prone to this condition because adults too can be dealing with this issue the more they use their device.