Imagine using your mobile during a WhatsApp conversation. You will probably be with your neck tilted forward. If you stay for a long time, you have many numbers to end the sore neck area. And if you maintain this bad habit in a sustained manner over time, you risk having tech neck, an ailment that is becoming more and more widespread in the population.
The tech neck (technological neck) is a chronification of muscle pain in the cervical area. It causes an elongation of the trapezius and a withdrawal of the pectorals, as a result of poor posture, explains Dr. Conxita Closa, president of the Catalan Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia.
Closa clarifies that the tech neck is like any other bad position. "If you stay in the same position for a long time, in the end it will hurt your neck, in the same way as when you fall asleep on the train. This is something accepted and proven, but it does not mean that it happens to everyone: it depends of each individual and the characteristics of their musculature", he explains.
The doctor makes it clear that what has the most impact is when we adopt the same position often, repeatedly, because then the muscles are loaded. "This constant poor posture, in the end, is sure to cause pain," she says. "If I do an intense day of many hours of WhatsApp, I will have a discomfort, but it will eventually pass. But if it is every day, it will get complicated, like any bad habit."
The specialist compares it with the pain that students can have when they prepare for exams and complain that their necks hurt, "or like those who spend eight hours a day on the computer, who get closer and closer to the screen, arch neck and after a few days they suffer pain," he adds.
No. Not at all. When we have tech neck, the muscles of the neck —the trapezius— are stretched and weakened by disuse. A massage that affects muscle pain, what it will do is stretch them even more and aggravate the problem. "A defective posture, the first thing that causes is a muscular imbalance. Apart from the elongated trapezius, the pectoral muscles lose mobility", he adds. "This, in the long run, can affect joint and bone structures."
Over the years -many years-, like all bad postures, it can become chronic and even, after a certain age, it can lead to bone deformities and joint pain.
"When you notice that you are forcing some muscles, what you have to do is rebalance them. I have to strengthen the weak muscle and I must stretch the retracted muscle. This is the first thing to do," explains Closa.
In terms of prevention, it would be necessary to seek the neutral position of the head to rest the muscles, and perform stretching exercises, stretching the shoulders back and touching the chin to the chest. "You can write WhatsApp, but from time to time exercise your neck muscles," says the doctor. "If you don't, after a week you will have muscular neck pain: the tech neck."
To start with, if it hurts, reduce the pain by taking a pain reliever or an anti-inflammatory. But that is not enough. "You have to attack the source of the pain, because if you don't, when the drug wears off it will continue to hurt you," he warns. "You can go to the physical therapist but not to treat you with massages, but to recommend a rehabilitation exercise program to relieve tightness and strengthen muscles."
The specialist also recommends self-massage on the neck, making a smooth movement as if we were holding a cat by the skin of the neck —without stretching the skin. This helps, because it warms up and helps relax the muscle. And, above all, he tries not to perpetuate that flawed posture with the mobile, because then all these therapeutic actions would not have much effect.
This article was originally published on the RAC1 website.
