Avoid Neck Injury – Smell your Armpit!

Consider the amount of time we spend on our cell phones and then consider the many bad habits that come along with it – the bad posture where we try and cradle the phone between the ear and the shoulder; or shoulders coming forward with the neck craned towards the screen; texting, tweeting and so on!

And then consider what these bad habits and postures do to your neck muscles – an imbalance occurs in the neck muscles which may result in chronic injury.

There could be a shortening of one side of the shoulder and a lengthening of the other due to the way that we hold the cell phone to your ears and this could cause headaches and even migraines. This could help –

  • Using a headset
  • Switching sides each time that you take a call
  • Performing these two stretches – smell your armpit (yes really) hold for 15 seconds and then repeat on the opposite side. Also assume a position as though you were listening to your armpit, hold for 15 seconds and then do the same on the other side.

You may find that you have to find a private place to do this since it may earn you some odd looks, but the stretches may be well worth the effort.