Text Neck, Forward Head , Computer Syndrome: Whatever you call it, it's a problem for your spine
- Union Osteopathy
- Jun 19, 2020
- 5 min read
It's a problem that has many names, is difficult to solve, and one that is not going away anytime soon.
Text neck, forward head posture (FHP), anterior head carriage, computer syndrome. All of them mean the same thing. They are all names used to describe a condition of the cervical spine and head that involves an anterior (forward) movement of the head and upper neck relative to the rest of the spine. Simply put, your head appears to jut out farther than the rest of your body.
It's likely you all know of someone with this kind of posture in sitting or standing:
It's not hard to imagine how this kind of posture could prove problematic for your spine. It has been stated the for every inch that your head moves forward, an extra 10 pounds of weight is added to the load on the cervical spine. This increased load puts stress on the ligaments, muscles, discs and fascia that help make up the structural support system of the body.
It's possible that the effects of this forward head position reach areas away from the spine as well. Research from Dr. Rene Cailliet of the University of Southern California has found that additional problems arise due to this posture:
Forward head posture can result in up to a 30% loss of vital lung capacity
The GI system can experience slowed function
Disruption of the movement of the ribs during inhalation and exhalation
Sounds like pretty serious stuff right? I'm trying not to throw too many scientific references and studies in here as I want to keep this blog a light read, but there are a number of other studies that reference the effects of forward head posture. If you want to read more into it, I'll include the articles at the end of this post.
The major takeaways from these other studies is that FHP can possibly contribute to balance issues, chronic neck pain, upper-crossed syndrome, and autonomic nervous system dysfunction. In short, it can put your body under a whole lot of pressure and impacts it's ability to function optimally!
Enough of that doom and gloom, let's move on to how this happens and what we can do about it!
Your Cell Phone and Laptop are teaming up on you
While it's not always the case, I'm willing to bet that the majority of people with FHP spend large volumes of time looking at their phone or sitting down at their computer. It's difficult to avoid as we depend on our cell phones to communicate, and our computers to do our jobs. The problem here is twofold:
We tend to find the most energy efficient ways to perform tasks
2. When we begin to really focus on something with our eyes, we tend to lean our head and bodies in closer to what we're focusing on.
The first point mainly relates to how we use our phone. Stop reading for a second and take note of how you're holding your phone. Are you using your arm to hold it up in front of you? Or are looking down with your phone held directly below your head? I'm willing to bet that 99% of you are looking down at your phone with a relaxed arm and hanging head. We do this because it requires the least amount of work for our body. It's more challenging for our arms to extend out in front of us and hold an object than it is to let our arm hang loosely at our side. So rather than keep our head in a neutral position on top of our spine, we let it fall forward and down in order to look at our phones.
The second point mainly relates to computers, but can apply to cellphones as well. Even when we start our day sitting at our desks with perfect posture, the things appearing on the screen in front of us can cause us to fall into poor posture. It could be a difficult math problem or confusing piece of text if you're a student or if you're an office worker, it could be a perplexing problem that could determine the future of the company (that may be a tad dramatic but you get my point). In both cases, the problems require you're full attention and focus. When this happens, we feel a need to lean in closer to our object of focus, as if we're really locking in to solve the problem. This is a habit that is difficult to break, and one that contributes significantly to forward head posture.
So why is this such as problem? When you fall into this position, your putting your cervical extensor muscles (on the back of your neck) into excessive stretch while simultaneously inhibiting (shutting off) your deep neck flexors. If these flexor muscles can't activate properly, they soon become weak. With your head so far forward, your extensors muscles are overworked as they try to fight against the force of gravity while having to contract in a sub-optimal position. So essentially we get muscles in the front that need to be strengthened, and muscles in the back that need to be released or stretched.
While fixing the issues with the neck is our main concern, we also need to address the upper back. Your body tends to follow your head so a forward movement of the head will result in a rounding of the thoracic (upper) spine. So we need to strengthen the muscles of the upper back that help contribute to good posture, while also stretching or releasing the muscles of the chest as they tend to become tight when the spine adopts a hunched and rounded position.
Luckily for the majority of people this a functional dysfunction that can be addressed with a combination of manual therapy, strengthening and stretching exercises. You can also help yourself by being aware of when you start to drift forward towards your computer, and trying to avoid spending long periods of time staring down at your phone.
Like I said above, I'll list the resources I used for this blog so you can look into FHP more if you're interested. Stay tuned to our Instagram and Facebook pages for videos of the stretches and strengthening exercises we use to help fix forward head posture!
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