There it is again. You bend your head down to look at your phone and an all-too-common pain zings through your neck.
It’s not great that you’re feeling pain in your neck every time you’re looking down at something. However, you’re taking the first step toward addressing your pain: seeking information about it. Read on to learn some issues that commonly cause neck pain when looking down and how physical therapists can help you treat it.
Why are you feeling neck pain every time you look down?
The answer to this question is a lot simpler than you might think. It’s long periods of looking down at something, usually a smartphone, tablet or laptop, that is the most likely source of your neck pain. True, looking down every now and then isn’t likely to trigger pain. But spending hours every day doing so is likely to.
The reason long hours spent looking down can cause an aching neck is that this position increases the pressure on your neck muscles. According to the University of Texas Southwestern’s Spine Center (UTSSC), the average adult head weighs between 10 and 12 pounds. But, bending your head forward increases that weight a lot. In fact, this angle increases the head’s weight to about 50 pounds. And the longer your head is in this position, the longer your muscles are working to hold it up.
To imagine what your neck muscles are going through, take a 5-pound hand weight and hold it out to your side at shoulder height. Hold it there as long as you can until your arm starts shaking. Didn’t take long, did it?
That’s the type of strain your neck muscles are under when your head is bent forward for a few minutes, let alone a few hours of watching Netflix on your phone. No wonder they’re painful! It’s also no wonder that a few days of such treatment would cause your neck to ache every time you look down, even for just a few minutes. And if you continue to look down for long periods, the pain can turn into a type of chronic neck pain that medical pros have named text neck or tech neck.
How can you treat your pain at home?
There are ways to treat a neck that’s in pain after you’ve been looking down for hours. Some of the ways you can treat your pain at home include:
- Taking over-the-counter pain medications to temporarily ease the aching.
- Using an ice bag or cold pack on your neck to ease inflamed muscles.
- Applying a heating pad to your neck to loosen your tight muscles.
- Doing some gentle stretching to soothe your tense neck muscles.
While these at-home treatment options can ease your pain temporarily, you may need expert help to treat the source of your neck pain. That’s where physical therapists come in.
How can physical therapists treat your neck pain?
Physical therapists are experts at treating the pain you feel in your neck from looking down. But they can help you find ways to avoid this type of pain in the future as well.
These specialists can build you a custom treatment plan that’s designed to meet these two exact goals. Some techniques they may use as part of your unique treatment plan include:
- Manual therapy — Think of this technique category as the PT version of laying on of hands. Manual therapy techniques involve physical therapists using their hands to apply pressure to soft tissue or to move your joints in various ways. For neck pain sufferers, these techniques can stretch aching neck muscles and help reduce pain.
- Therapeutic exercises — These aren’t the typical exercises you’ll find online. Your specialist will combine tested stretches and strengthening exercises into a plan that’s unique to your needs. Using such exercise plans allows you to ease pain in your PT sessions and at home. Your exercise plan can also help you build strength and improve your posture. And both of these are vital if you want to avoid neck pain in the future.
- Ergonomic education — Ergonomics is the practice of making everything in your daily environment as body-friendly as possible. Your physical therapist can teach you how to set up your home and workplace in ways that are more neck-friendly. By doing so, you’ll be much less likely to sit or stand with your head tilted forward putting stress on your neck. And that can truly help to reduce your risk of future neck pain.
Alliance PTP is ready to help you find top-notch PT for your aching neck
At Alliance Physical Therapy Partners, we’re proudly bringing together physical therapy practices across the country to help people get the high-quality PT they need.
Want to see a physical therapist in person? We can put you in touch with an Alliance PTP partner that’s close to you and that can help you address the neck pain you’re feeling when looking down.
Not keen on in-person PT sessions or not close to an Alliance PTP partner? No worries. We also offer effective and affordable virtual physical therapy through our Agile Virtual Physical Therapy platform.
Come find help for your neck pain today!
Get Help at a Location Near You