Showing posts with label forward neck posture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forward neck posture. Show all posts

6/22/2010

Could Your Cell Phone Be The Cause Of Your Neck Pain?

It might seem crazy, but as technology grows, so does the chance to injure yourself. More and more new gadgets are coming out each month, whether it’s the new smart phone, an ipad, portable video games like Nintendo DS, or e-readers like the Kindle. As the world gets more connected, we have to take a look at what the downside of all this progress in technology has on our bodies.

While using this variety of new hand-held technologies, take a look at your body’s position. For example, imagine the last time you were texting someone on your cell phone. Your head was bent forward to look at the screen, and naturally your shoulders rolled forward as well. Rolled shoulders can lead to a concave chest or pelvic tuck, which can contribute to pain over time.

So next time you use your cell phone, or watching a movie on your ipad, or are reading your Kindle, or playing on a Nintendo DS- try to remember your posture! By repeating this forward head posture day after day you can cause serious problems. So sit up straight, keep your shoulders back, and if at all possible hold your phone or other hand-held device closer to eye-level to avoid putting that strain on your neck.


Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Add to Technorati Favorites Delicious Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

4/28/2010

Five Simple Steps to Help with your Health Goal: End Neck Pain!

For many of us, it is easy to create our to-do lists of all the things we’d like to accomplish, but it is much more difficult to actually take those lists and stick to them until the goal is reached. With such busy day-to-day lives, it is easy to push aside our long-term goals in order to deal with our current situations.

However, there are a few easy steps to follow that can help you make your goals a higher priority in your daily life. By sticking with these steps, you’ll finally be able to start checking some of those items off your goals list:

1. First of all, you need to set a specific goal. The more specific, the better. If you keep it vague, for example “I want to get rid of my neck pain,” it is difficult to keep track of progress or even know when the goal has been met. However, stating “I want to work on improving my neck pain by improving my neck posture over the next six months” is much easier to plan for and achieve.

2. Secondly, you must be realistic with yourself when setting goals. Setting a goal to lose twenty pounds in two weeks is neither realistic nor safe. If you set a goal too high, or set too many for yourself at one time, it can be overwhelming and discouraging. By setting attainable goals, it will be easier to reach and you’ll get a great feeling of accomplishment when you do.

3. Next, you need to plan for your goal. Setting an attainable goal is a great first step, but the next thing you must do is break it down further so you know each smaller step needed in order to reach that higher goal. Start off with small enough steps that you can begin today. Another great idea is to make a timeline; without dates to keep you on track it is much less likely that your goal will be accomplished.

4. Now you’ll need to make sure you keep record of your progress. If your goal involves losing weight, write down everything you eat and drink for a week. If your goal is to improve your neck posture, write down every time your posture slumps and things that bring on forward head posture for a week. By writing things down, you become more aware of your habits. By becoming aware, it is easier to take control and change those habits. Recording your overall progress is also a great way to stay motivated as you see all the things you have accomplished so far.

5. Finally, you’ll want to take a look at your progress with a critical eye. If you’re trying to lose weight by running every day, but you hate to run, it’s likely your goal will not stick for the long-term. However, if you love to swim, then that would be a better fit for you to help you stick to your goal.

It’s great to have goals to strive towards, but it can quickly become overwhelming if you are not prepared. By setting a specific and attainable goal, planning, making timelines, and keeping records of your progress, suddenly that seemingly impossible goal is under your control and you’re on your way to achieving it!


Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Add to Technorati Favorites Delicious Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

3/07/2010

Looking At My Posture: Advanced.

Looking At My Posture: Advanced.


A great way to analyze your posture is take a picture with a digital camera. It’s easy to look at your anterior-posterior posture in the mirror. Your lateral posture is more difficult to visualize. A picture with a camera works great. A standing x-ray is even better because it will show exactly what your spine looks like. If spine is shifted your posture will be shifted.

Another method is to look at picture already taken. Break out those family photos from last Christmas and look at your posture, you’ll learn a lot.

A tip to get your actual posture is to close your eyes, march in place a couple times, then relax and open your eyes while looking in the mirror or have someone take your picture. With your eyes open looking at your posture you will try to correct yourself without even knowing it. Another option is to just close your eyes and shake out your body. Basically, what I mean is to jiggle around, loosening up, and then stop where you think is straight.


Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief.

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2/27/2010

How To Check Your Own Neck Posture

From the front your posture should be straight up and down- to see this in the mirror your shoulders and the tops of your hips should be even. You can look at points in your mid-body also to see if there are any shifts in your spine. For example, your shoulders may look even but when you try to line up the point midline to your eyes to your to the middle of your chin to your Adam’s apple things don’t line up.

Looking at your whole body, a straight line should be able to be drawn from the point between your eyes to your Adam’s apple, to your groin (the point of the “V” where your legs meet, to a point midline between your ankle bones).

Looking at your posture from the side, the ear should line up with the shoulder, and further down to the hip, and to the ankle bone.

The most common postural shifts we see are a forward head- the ear will be much more forward than the shoulder. Keep in mind a lot of us also have shoulders that roll forward, so picture them where they should be.

Other variables that may throw off your analysis besides forward shoulders, might be a crooked nose, ears that are different, or a jaw that is shifted. Keep this in mind when you are viewing your neck posture.


Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief.

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10/10/2009

The Scary Truth About The Nerves In Our Neck: THEY DON’T ALL DETECT PAIN!

This can be very scary because there can be problems going on and you don’t know it. Then on day you may awake with pain and wonder; “What happened, how and why do I have this, I’ve been pain free for years”.

What’s been happening is that you’ve had pressure on nerves that don’t necessarily relay pain. Often I’ve come across people who seem pain free and “healthy” but they get an x-ray that reveals horrible degeneration for example. Degeneration is arthritis and it takes years to accumulate. And once you get to a certain level I can guarantee you will get pain.

If we leave pressure on a nerve it will break down itself and once we affect enough different nerve fibers you will irritate one that relays pain. The good news is we can spot some of these thing ahead of time. The main way is by looking at posture. Posture is a doorway into your spinal alignment. You always hear me talk about forward neck posture (that’s the most common shift of our neck spine). Someone with forward neck or head has that going on in their spine, or even a military neck or maybe a cervical khyphosis. Is this bad – Yep. Can this lead to pain or some other unwanted symptom like muscle irritation, loss of ranges of motion, or headaches, or worse – You bet!


Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief.

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