Phones : What Your Phone Is Doing to Your Body, and How to Fix It

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"What Your Phone Is Doing to Your Body, and How to Fix It

Sharing a snippet from an article by Katy Bowman

Take a quick look around and you’ll see bodies everywhere—in most venues, across all ages—staring fixedly at a smartphone (to notice this, you might need to stop looking at your own phone for a minute). Not only are people’s eyes fixed on the screen, it’s like their entire body is being bent and pulled down towards these tiny black holes we call our “phones” (but which are more often used as multimedia entertainment devices).

When it comes to our device-shape, what’s mostly at play here is mindlessness plus gravity. We’ve got these new devices with an endless stream of captivating content, and when we dive online (which is often), we’re not only logging on with our eyeballs, we’re also logging on with our bodies.

Your Phone Is Moving Your Head and Neck
Remember back in the olden days (fifteen years ago) when if you wanted to talk on the phone “hands-free,” you had to crane your head to one side and hold the phone between your shoulder and ear? Phones have always been a pain in the neck.

Today’s smartphone movements look different, but they still often involve the head and neck moving in extreme positions for long periods of time. Fortunately, our devices don’t require that we get into specific “device-shape” for them to work; we’re just not thinking about positioning ourselves in a sustainable way. We have options when it comes to our position—yes, even when using the smartphone.

Head ramping
Instead of letting your head dangle forward when you’ve logged on, put some strength in your swipe and use a little muscle in your upper back to hold your head and spine up.

Your Phone Is Moving Your Eyes
There’s a ring of muscles in each of your eyeballs called your ciliary muscles. When you focus on something close to your face, like a smartphone or a book, this muscular ring shortens and constricts. You need to focus on something far away—at least a quarter mile—to allow these muscles to lengthen and loosen their ring.

Your Phone Is Moving Your Lungs
To be precise, prolonged periods of sitting and using the phone with your upper back rounded forward can prevent your lungs from moving well. This isn’t really the phones’ fault; it’s more about how we use them. Lots of stillness (which already keeps the lungs pretty sedentary) plus lots of kyphosis (the forward curve of the upper spine) affects the way the lungs move. Sitting up straighter and doing exercises that decrease excessive upper back curvature and shoulder tension can all help.

Your Phone Is Moving Your Hands
Raise your hand if you’re on your phone more than ever before. Is your raised hand gripping a phone? Then there are stretches you can do that will get your hands moving more and moving differently from the phone death-grip, and index-finger swipe your upper body has grown accustomed to!

Your Phone Is Messing with Your Walk
Smartphones can similarly mess with your gait when you’re on them while you walk. As more people struggle to put their phones down, more people are also using their phones even when they’re on the move. Walking becomes less stable, and you’re much more likely to miss important visual information around you."

The above is just a snippet from the original article, which also gives details of the exercises mentioned above, and relevant research links, please read more here

Related Posts You May Like To Read

Are You Addicted to Your Phone? - see here

Computer or Phone - Tips to protect your eyes when staring at a screen - see here

Why You Should Never Use Your Phone After 6:00 PM - see here

Please note that articles within this blog are provided for general information only and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional. If you have any concerns about your general health, you should contact your local health care provider.

All the best Jan