Sitting hunched over cellphones is causing an epidemic of what orthopaedists are calling text neck.
Text neck is defined as pain in the neck and shoulders that comes from staring at our smartphones for long, uninterrupted periods of time. The preventive strategy is simple: take regular breaks and keep the muscles limber.
Relaxation exercises against text neck look like this: move your head slowly from left to right, lower your ear to your shoulder, or stretch your head up while pulling your shoulders down.
These three exercises stretch the neck and shoulder muscles, helping alleviate tension in the area.
Another suggestion is to keep your head still while looking at your smartphone, moving your eyes as opposed to your entire head.
Also good: hold your phone up at eye level, say experts at the German Society of Orthopaedics and Trauma. That might make your arms sore at first, but they will get stronger in time.
dpa
