How to Fix Tech Neck
with Megan Looney
Have you been troubled by Tech Neck? It refers to the pain and wrinkles that tormented your neck and chest which is caused by spending too much time holding your head flexed and forward while looking down at your smartphone or computer. Yup, it certainly takes a toll on our posture!
Well, guess what? We can fix that! Thanks to Megan Looney, a Specialist in Fitness Nutrition and Corrective Exercise, for sharing these 5 moves to prevent Tech Neck where you can fix your forward head fast. Let’s get started, shall we?
Stretch Sides & Back Of Neck – Place your fingers behind your head, tuck the chin and gently let your hands pull your chin towards your chest. Hold each of this for about 20-30secs. Make sure that you’re not yanking and pulling on your head. We want to let gravity do most of the job here and then you can gently move your chin side to side. After this, grab your right hand and put it on the left side of your head and then drop the right ear to the right shoulder. Let gravity pull the head down gently. Hold it for about 20-30secs. We can also let the chin down drift down towards the shoulder that will help stretch your neck a little bit. Then repeat on the other side.
YTWL – You can either do this by leaning into an inclined bench but if you don’t have that you can just slightly bend your knees and hinge forward. Make sure that you’re not rounding up the spine, you anchor your belly button in keeping a nice flat spine and chest lifted. While in this position, make the letters Y, T, W, and L with your arms. Start with letter Y, raise your arms up both hands thumbs pointing to ceiling, forming a letter Y then slowly pulling and pointing the thumbs back for 10x. Next is letter T, then again pointing the thumbs behind you for 10x, like a bird flapping its wings. After that, form a letter W, same thing, pull thumbs back for 10x. Lastly, letter L, but with each arm. Forming a 90degrees angle. Pulling thumbs pack for 10x.
Pec Stretch – Find a wall, doorframe or anything that you can prop your forearm up against. Keep the elbow around 90degrees, place the palm on the wall or the surface that you found. Gently twist and rotate the chest away. While doing this, you should instantly feel a stretch through your arm. Stay in that position for about 30 secs. Then, go to the other side and repeat.
Chin Tucks (“Double Chins”) Against Wall – Get your back up against the wall. If you can get your heels on the wall while maintaining contact with your glutes, upper back and the back of your head, that’s ideal. If your head is super forward, you might have to walk your feet out in front of you in order to get the back of your head on the wall. The goal is that the back of the head is touching the wall without letting the chin lift. Pull the head back, showing your double chins, and then relax the head forward back to its resting position. Do this repeatedly for 15x. Try to keep your chin parallel to the ground while performing this exercise.
Wall Slide – Go all the way back up against the wall again. Same thing applies, feet may have to come forward but if you can, try to get your heels, butt, upper back and back of your head on the wall without craning your chin up. If you find that you can’t get the back of your head on the wall, you can place a towel or a pillow behind you. Raise your arms up into a V shape overhead, keeping your fingertips and the knuckle on the wall as we trace the hands down, squeezing your shoulder blades together as hard as you can holding it for 3 secs. Then slowly release your fingertips back up. Repeat this for 10x.
You can do these exercises daily or at least weekly to prevent headaches, neck pain, a hunchback and spinal misalignment. Now, you can fix your forward head fast and easy!
Once complete, check in with us over on Instagram! We want to hear from you. You can let us know you’re done by tagging #SSFsweatsquad and/or @supersisterfitness
