Kids these days experience injuries from all kinds of things – hand pain from using the computer, back pain from bad sitting posture, and “text neck” from looking down to text their friends ALL DAY! With school starting back up it’s time for a short reminder about how to protect your spine while in school.
First off, stop slouching! Whenever the word “posture” is heard it is fun to see everyone automatically sit up straight and bring their shoulders back. It’s because we all KNOW what good posture is, but tend to kind of forget while going throughout our day. I like to remind students to sit with their tailbone all the way back in the chair so it will cause a bit of a curve in the low back and prevent that bad slumping posture.
When using a computer, think of playing the piano. If you don’t play the piano and have no idea what I’m talking about, see this post. The idea is to keep straight or “neutral” wrists. This avoids putting too much pressure on the wrists and causing irritation like carpal tunnel syndrome.
Text neck. Do I need to really say anything? Isn’t it obvious how to fix this? Ok, I’ll give a few details just in case it might help the one stray child that just doesn’t get it. Holding your phone against your body and bending your neck straight down to look at it…is bad. It hurts your neck, and pulls at all the muscles going down your back. They have to work extra hard to keep your head from falling off. So here’s the easy 2-step exercise to save your neck from years of pains in the future.
1) Use your phone less!
2) Hold the phone up at eye level so your neck doesn’t have to bend forward to look down.
I know what you’re thinking: your arms will get tired doing this and you’ll look stupid. Well, when your arms get tired then take a break from your phone. Crazy idea, I know. And as far as looking stupid, would you rather look silly or have neck pain? It’s up to you.
Believe it or not, the little things really do matter. Using our bodies in the wrong way over and over will eventually cause some kind of problem. It’s best to do something now to stop it. If it’s already happening, then try these tips above first. Then after a couple weeks if the pain is still there, come to our clinic and get chiropractic treatment. It works like magic for these kinds of injuries, and will help you get better and stay better long term.