Hot Tub to Fix “Text Neck”
February 3, 2015
The Neck’s Big Thing. Treat your “text neck” pains in the hot tub.
“Text neck” is the latest repetitive stress injury, joining tennis elbow, carpal tunnel and gamer’s thumb as an activity-induced damage. Text neck is threatening to become an epidemic that’s even bigger than the other repetitive stress injuries.
Why? Looking down at your cell phone at a 60-degree angle puts 60 pounds of stress on your neck muscles and nerves that were made to handle a head that weighs 10 to 12 pounds. Yowza. Over time that 60 lbs of stress can start to hurt and injure nerves. And, when you’re bent at that angle an average of 700 to 1,400 hours a year, you’re setting yourself up for pain and suffering and maybe even permanent damage.
“It’s a lot of load, an amazing amount of weight to be carrying around your neck,” says Dr. Kenneth Hansraj, chief of spine surgery at New York Spine Surgery &Rehabilitative Medicine.
The good news: home treatment, especially exercises in your Hot Spring Spa, works about as well as a chiropractic session and much better than medication to relieve text neck. A 12-week comparative study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, showed that about half the participants who performed home exercises or went to the chiropractor experienced at least 75 percent less pain, but only one-third of those who depended on medicine.
One effective exercise was called “the chicken,” but we can call it “the ducky” for hot tub use. Stick your neck out like the bird and pull it back slowly. For more relief, stretch your neck upwards while you tuck in your chin, bring your shoulder blades toward your spin, and pull in your lower stomach muscles for a natural curve in your lower back. The massage jets in your hot tub will help ease the pain, too.
Using your hot tub to alleviate ‘text neck” is far better than resorting to drugs or surgery!
Sanum per aqua said the Romans. Health through water.
More
Hot Tub To Cope With “Texting Tendinitis” and Blackberry Thumb. Tips for Prevention and Pain Relief
The Shocking Truth About Neck Pain: Simple Exercise Better Than Pain Drugs
