How to Deal with a Major Pain in the Neck

“Did you know the human head weighs 8 pounds?”

OK, name that movie and you’re new my new best friend…

In fact name the little kid in it and we can be Best Friends Forever, I Love that movie.

It really does by the way, your head weighs between 8 & 12 pounds,

that’s if it’s sitting where it should on the top of your spine though – all muscles in balance.

There’s a good chance your head is slightly forward of where it should be (& I should have brushed my hair in this pic…)

or that you overly lift your chin & chest to correct your posture causing your neck to cramp up

And if that’s true for you, get this…

Every inch of forward head posture increases the weight of the head on the spine by 10 pounds

Gasp… yes that’s right and a lot of weight to carry on your shoulders.

It’s no surprise, by the way, that so many of us are now suffering with these issues with the way our environment is changing.

They’ve even named it now, they call it text neck I think…

Despite the mountain of exercise and activity I take part in and promote daily, I still fall fowl to these ailments what with staring at my phone daily for texting, instagramming, facebooking…

In fact I’m currently suffering a real pain in the neck,
no not my husbands floordrobe habit (although seriously…someone tell him WE DO OWN hangers..!)

No, I have somehow trapped something in my shoulder or at least things are not where they should be & it’s causing that horrid nerve type pain all the way down my right hand side…

So I’m working on it & trying to incorporate a few things into my life to help maintain a healthy neck and spine…join me if you like?

I’m looking at ways to use the phone less or differently, to sit differently when I sit at my computer, make Sundays tech free & dedicate some days screen free…

If you can’t be tech free today, seeing as it’s a work day how about trying this quick exercise?

Actually, first up let’s stop lifting our chins and chests to improve our posture as I said above

& let’s start to:

Slide our heads back as if moving it back to the wall behind us
In doing so, increasing the height of our head slightly
Stretching the small muscles in our head, neck & upper back
&
Stretching apart our neck vertebrae a little.

Feel & look a little better?
smiling is optional
&
note to self, turn light on for photos next time…