Screens and the phone · 2 min read

The head that drifts forward

Tight neck, burning shoulders, headaches by the afternoon? It is not the phone. It is where your body is while you are on it.

Most neck and shoulder pain from screens comes down to one fixable cause, and it is not the hours or the device. It is the head pulling forward and down, hour after hour, dragging the whole upper body along with it.

The setup

1. 1

   Bring the screen up to you

   Not your head down to the screen. Phone at chest height or higher, monitor raised until you are looking straight ahead rather than down at it.

2. 2

   Keep your elbows in close

   Holding a phone or a mouse out in front of you means your shoulders carry the weight of your arms all day. Tuck the elbows against your ribs and the load goes back where it belongs.

3. 3

   Keep your chin level with the ground

   Think of gently drawing it back rather than jutting it forward towards the screen. Level is the position your neck can hold without working.

The habit

1. 1

   Reset every twenty to thirty minutes

   Pause, chin back, shoulders down, one slow breath. That is the whole reset. Set a reminder on the phone if you need to, because no one holds a position for hours without drifting out of it.

2. 2

   Catch yourself, do not just fix the furniture

   A stand or a raised monitor fixes the angle, not the habit. You will still find yourself drifting down and forward towards the screen. Noticing it and resetting is the part that changes things.

If you get numbness, tingling, or pain down the arm that does not ease with breaks or a change of position, see a professional rather than pushing through it.

Written by Lee Albert, neuromuscular therapist, author, and creator of Integrated Positional Therapy.