The Text Neck Epidemic Part IV: 3 Exercises to Combat It
- Dr. Vanessa Ng
- Dec 14, 2018
- 4 min read
As per the last blog, stretches are easy to do here and there to help relieve the tension of tight muscles, but how can we actively work against them tightening in the first place? Proper posture and reducing muscular imbalances. One of the major culprits with text neck is the disproportionate use of muscles when comparing the front and back neck muscles as well as the chest, upper and mid back muscles. As a result we have regions of lengthened, and inhibited muscles, while other regions are overactive and tightened. So let's talk about what exercises we can do to balance things out.
1. Chin Tuck and Nod
What muscles are involved?
This exercise focuses on lengthening the shortened muscles of the anterior neck flexors (such as the sternocleidomastoid, and three scalene muscles) and strengthening the weak and lengthened posterior neck muscles (such as the semispinalis capitis/cervicis and levator scapulae) that come about due to prolonged forward neck posture.
How to do it:
Sit up straight with your shoulders down and back, keep your head in neutral position facing forwards
Pull your head directly backwards as if sliding a drawer on a single plane (aka. make a double chin). You should not feel your head tipping up or down as your head moves back.
Double check you're doing it correctly by focusing your eyes on one spot in front of you and making sure your head and eyes remain at the same level throughout the motion.
Hold for 7s then slowly move back to starting position.
The second part of this exercise is to add small chin nods once your head is fully retracted (chin is completely tucked). In this position, you will try to nod up and down, keeping the axis of rotation (pretend there is a hinge) at the very top of your neck. When nodding, make sure you don't release that chin tuck! It should feel a little tough and possibly shaky, as you're using the muscles that sit at the base of your skull. If it's too easy and your chin is dropping down to your chest or you're able to look completely upwards, you're extending your neck too much and not holding the chin tuck in enough.
2. Wall Angel
What muscles are involved?
Similar to Bruegger's stretch, this exercise is the more active version of it. This position creates activation of your mid back muscles such as the mid and lower trapezius, rhomboids, along with the posterior neck muscles (Levator scapulae and semispinalis capitis/cervicis).
How to do it:
Set your feet shoulder width apart and a few inches from a wall
Lean your entire back against the wall and bring both arms up at your sides to shoulder height with elbows bent at 90°
Bring your head directly back so the back of your head is touching the wall like explained in the chin tucks (see above)
Keeping your shoulders and arms as flat against the wall as possible, try touching the back of your wrists and hands to the wall and note how much your chest pops forwards
Now activate the back muscles to keep the mid and upper back completely flat against the wall. This is where you should start feeling your mid back muscles really fire up.
Slowly bring both of your arms up and down, while continuing to keep the back of your wrists, mid back and head touching the wall.
A good way to test how well you're doing with this, is to place a thin book between your mid back and wall and hold it there throughout the exercise. As you get better at this, try using a magazine, then a piece of paper. Adding to this, you can also work on keeping the low back against the wall as well, training up the low back muscles for a good posterior pelvic tilt.
If you find the initial starting position is already too difficult, you can also do the same exercise with arms straightened out at your sides, and very slowly bring both arms up and down (like making a snow angel).
3. Lower Trapezius "Y" Exercise
What muscles are involved?
Typically our mid and lower back regions are weak, leaving all the work up to the upper trapezius muscles to hold your head in forward head posture. This exercise works specifically on the lower trapezius muscles, which are responsible for holding your shoulder blades inwards and downwards, thereby taking the stress/strain off of the upper trapezius muscle.
How to do it:
Stand facing the wall with feet shoulder width apart a few inches away from the wall
Bring your straightened arms up above your head pointing diagonally up, such that you are standing in a Y shape.
Keep your hands flat towards the wall or turn your hands inwards so your thumbs are pointing behind you
Keeping your shoulders down and spine neutral (do not over arch or stick your head forwards), slowly bring your straightened arms backwards (away from the wall)
Hold for
Bring the arms back down and then repeat
Consider it a gift to your fatigued muscles by giving yourself a few minutes a day by doing these simple exercises. Try incorporating them into your daily routine for at least a week, taking care to do them correctly, and notice what a big difference it makes in how you feel by the end of the day.
This concludes our 4 part series dealing with text neck. So far, we've covered identifying day to day poor postures and situations, come up with simple do it yourself changes to implement, learned a few stretches and finally gone through some exercises to help combat this epidemic. Hopefully you've been able to learn something new, and create some positive change in your life, and help protect one of the most underappreciated but important parts of the body, your neck!
