When you spend hours scrolling on your digital device on a couch, you are likely holding your head forward and down. It is a position that the neck can manage for a while, but if you do it too long and repeatedly, the brain and body may protest with pain.
Physical therapists call this posture tech neck: the term for a repetitive strain injury to the neck’s ligaments and muscles caused by spending long periods looking down at a digital device with the head tilted forward.
“Your head is essentially supposed to be between your shoulders,” says Los Angeles physical therapist Sarah Court, who is also cohost of the podcast Movement Logic. “Every time you bring it forward, your neck is rounding, and while that position in itself isn’t a problem, it can become one.”
