Today’s guest post is brought to you by Katy Bowman, biomechanist and bestselling author Move your DNA. Her recent book, Reconsider your position examines how we should not only ‘move more’ in our predominantly sedentary culture. We need to move better – and sit, lie, work and rest – in positions that give us the varied and targeted movements our bodies need to thrive. I’m happy to welcome a good friend back to Mark’s Daily Apple to talk about this topic.
If you take a quick look around, you’ll see bodies everywhere – in most locations and of all ages – staring at a smartphone (to notice this you might have to stop looking at your own phone for a moment). Not only are people’s eyes glued to the screen, it’s as if their entire bodies are being bent and pulled down toward these little black holes we call our “phones.” (but which are more commonly used as a multimedia entertainment device).
When it comes to the shape of our device, mindlessness and gravity are mainly at play here. We have these new devices with an endless stream of engaging content, and When we dive online (which is often the case), we log in not only with our eyes, but also with our bodies.
Discussions about phone posture focus primarily on the forward head/technical neck, but being on the phone is a full-body sport with effects on the entire body… from your eyeballs to your feet.
Your phone moves your head and neck
Remember when you used to (fifteen years ago) 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 extended periods of time. Fortunately, our devices don’t require us to adopt a specific “device form” to make them work; we just don’t think about positioning ourselves in a sustainable way. We have options when it comes to our position – yes, even when we use the smartphone.
Head spinning
Instead of letting your head dangle forward when you’re logged in, you can put some force into your swipe and use a little muscle in your upper back to keep your head and spine up.
Keep your gaze on the horizon and without lifting your chin or chest, simultaneously lift and slide your head toward the wall behind you and the ceiling above. This simple adjustment will instantly decompress the vertebrae in your neck, stretch the small muscles in the head, neck and upper back and help you grow taller. You can look at your phone with your eyes; you don’t have to look down with your entire spine.
I’m also an advocate of adjusting your environment to make movement more reflexive. Add a sticker to your phones or tablets or a ‘WHERE IS YOUR HEAD?’ a post-it note on the corner of your computer screen can be a constant reminder to adjust your position.
Your phone moves your eyes
There is a ring of muscles in each of your eyeballs called your ciliary muscles. When you focus on something close to your face, such as a smartphone or a book, this muscular ring becomes shorter and narrower. You need to focus on something far away – at least a quarter of a mile – to give these muscles a chance to lengthen and loosen their ring.
We can keep our eye muscles healthy, like the muscles in our hips and shoulders, by allowing them to use their full range of motion many times a day. Instead, our large amounts of screen and indoor time cause us to use our eye muscles (also like those of the hips and shoulders) over a very small and repetitive range of motion.
Turn your face away from that screen
You’ve already learned the main incline exercise above. Turns out, not only is it great for the mid and upper spine curves, it’s also a great way to change the distance between your eyeballs and their point of focus.
Set a timer on your device that reminds you to regularly move your eyeballs from the screen to the world literally adjacent to the screen. If you’re indoors, go to a window and focus on something in the distance for a minute or two. Step away from your devices a little (or completely) in a whole-body sense. Replace watching one of the cool animal videos on YouTube with watching the real birds, insects and nature around you, no matter where you live.
Look for more non-online solutions or ways to connect. If you can’t tear yourself away from your device yet, find ways to listen on your phone instead of just watching. Just because we can video call doesn’t mean we must. Voice-only chats free up our eyes and bodies to do other things.
Your phone moves your lungs
To be precise, sitting and talking on the phone for long periods of time with your upper back bent forward can prevent your lungs from moving properly. This isn’t really the phones’ fault; it’s more about how we use them. Lots of stillness (which already keeps the lungs quite sedentary) plus lots of kyphosis (the forward curvature of the upper spine) affects the way the lungs move. Sitting straighter (see “Head Tilt”), trading scroll time for movement time, and doing exercises that reduce excessive upper back curvature and shoulder tension can all help.
Start with this move:
Stretch your shoulders and upper back
Place your hands on a counter, desk or wall at counter height. Then walk your feet back to bring your hips away from your hands, and lower your chest toward the floor to stretch out that phone feeling.
Your phone moves your hands
Raise your hand if you’re on your phone more than ever. Is your raised hand holding a phone? Then these stretches are for you.
Here are three moves that will get your hands moving more and differently than the phone death grip, the index finger motion your upper body has become accustomed to. Bonus: You have to put your phone down to do them. Find more stretches like this in Reconsider your position (Propriometrics Press, May 2023).
Stretch your thumbs
Whether it’s the curl of one thumb to hold your phone or the quick peck of two contracted texting thumbs, these numbers are an integral part of smartphone usage. To keep them from clawing forever, try this stretch: Make a loose fist with your right hand, with the thumb pointing up. Grasp the thumb as low as possible with your left hand and move it as if it were an old-fashioned Atari joystick. Move it slowly toward you and from side to side at different angles (“PEW PEW” sounds are not required).
Stretch your wrists
Keeping your shoulders down and relaxed, touch the backs of your hands, including the thumbs, then lower them to hip level. Hold them there or slowly move them up and down, or from right to left, in front of your torso. Keep those thumbs together!
Stretch your nerves
That’s right, nerves need to move through their range of motion too! Extend your hands out to the sides from your shoulders, making a T with your arms and a “STOP” motion with your hands. Spread your fingers apart and slowly work your fingertips toward your head. Keep your middle fingers pointed upward, your thumbs forward, and your elbows slightly bent toward the floor. Remember to reach the upper arm bones away from you as you move your fingers back toward the midline of your body.
Your phone is messing with your walk
Why have so many people ditched shoes with stiff soles and narrow toes for minimal footwear? Because conventional shoes prevent parts of the feet from moving properly. Certain characteristics can even disrupt the course of events, such as stride length, walking speed and which muscles are used. Well, guess what? Smartphones can similarly affect your gait if you sit on them while walking.
As more people struggle to put their phones down, more and more people are also using their phones when they’re on the go. Simply talking or listening to the phone while walking takes up some of the attention you would normally devote to visual processing information, but it’s the texting or scrolling while walking that really bothers you. When walking becomes a task secondary to “being on the phone,” it slows you down, shortens your stride length, and affects your walking rhythm. Walking becomes less stable and you are much more likely to miss important visual information around you.
There’s no exercise that will fix the way scrolling affects your walking – just a little exercise in self-control, especially when you’re on the street. Swap the video for audio if possible and stop walking if you have to scroll, especially if you’re already at risk for falling.
Use your phone to be an influencer
Belonging to a culture means that we all influence each other. While it may be hard to imagine going somewhere or getting anything done without your smartphone, these devices are actually a brand new technology that has only been with us for barely a decade. We have very little insight into how our bodies and minds will respond to such ubiquitous use in the long term.
Until we do, create your own good usage practices and maintain your body mobility and strength (and other smartphone-influenced) skills – and pass this intention on to your friends and family, too. Share some steps you are taking to use your smartphone more consciously. Be an influencer! Not by selling anything through smartphone technology, but by modeling more sustainable phone usage positions and the ability to get the best out of this new technology without the large dose of ill effects.
Bestselling author, speaker and movement leader, biomechanist Katy Bowman changes the way we move and think about our need for movement. Bowman teaches exercise worldwide and has written nine previous books on the importance of a varied exercise diet, including: Move your DNA, Dynamic agingAnd Grow wildly. Her latest book, Reconsider your positionis a much-needed guide to how our bodies move, why we need to move more, and the intentional steps one can take to feel, move, and even think better—one part at a time. Find her NutritiousMovement.com, @nutritiousmovementand on the Move your DNA podcast.
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