Neck Posture and Tech Neck

Dr. Tony here with Essentials of life Chiropractic. I wanted to show you a very important stretch that can help correct something called forward head posture along with chiropractic care. So forward head posture is just like the name sounds, the head forward from where it should be.

Now this comes from, sometimes this gets the name tech neck, people on phones or tablets or on a computer all day long, and people walk around like this, and the problem isn't just that it looks really bad. The problem is that it's affecting a lot of stuff underneath everything, like the spine, the muscles, tendons, ligaments and, most importantly, the nervous system which travels through the spine and controls all the healing and function of your body and it adds extra stress onto that. In fact, we have a scanner here that can calculate how much extra stress is added to the spine.

It's called posture screen mobile. Here's a picture of it right here. And yet what it actually will measure is how much added stress you are putting on your neck and upper back just because of a forward head carriage. The general rule of thumb is for every inch forward, it adds an extra 10 pounds to your neck and shoulders.

Now here's the stretch. It's very simple. It's called a chin tuck exercise. You stand against the wall, tuck your chin, hold the head straight back, keep the arms relaxed. One way you'll know you're doing it right is if you see that double chin. You hold this for about 30 seconds. Do it two to three times a day. That's the chin tuck exercise to help correct for forward head posture.

Be Well

Dr. Tony