Size 10 font in that email from your client. The complicated formula in cell G12 of your spreadsheet. Funny monkeys in an Instagram reel on your smartphone. Whether we’re at work or at leisure, our technological world ceaselessly invites us to crane our necks forward and downward. The average American spends over 7 hours each day looking at screens, and during that time, this American’s neck adopts a position conducive to consuming screen media. Not a position conducive to maintaining spine health, retaining pain-free mobility, or generally looking like a healthy and confident individual. If you spend an entire work day (or more) in these positions, the habit will begin to follow you into non-screen-gazing hours, and moreover, the muscles responsible for holding the proper spinal position could begin to atrophy.

“Kyphosis” is an abnormal rounding of the upper back, the most common cause for which (in otherwise healthy individuals, at least) is leaning/craning the neck to see something like a screen. I’ll be honest, I had only ever called this phenomenon “nerd neck” until I began “researching” this article. For the record, I don’t consider “nerd neck” to be an offensive term, firstly because I’m almost always using the term self-referentially, and secondly because it’s totally cool to be a nerd. What’s not cool is kyphosis. It could lead to permanent postural struggles or chronic pain, and makes you look (perhaps even feel) like a less confident person than you could be, strutting around with your head held high.

So how do we avoid it?

One of the most important steps to avoiding nerd neck is becoming aware that it’s happening; many people have the ability to stand up straight, and simply aren’t. One option for assessment would be to have someone take a picture of you from the side as you sit/stand in your natural posture. Your ears should be roughly centered over your shoulders from this view. If you find yourself short a friend at the moment, another means of assessment would be to stand against a wall with your head, shoulder blades and butt touching the wall. If it feels more natural for your head to come forward off the wall, or if the muscles of your upper back quickly begin to tire from holding this position, you may have a little work to do on your neck posture.

Now that you know how it feels to hold your head in proper posture, create a work environment that allows you to keep it that way. Although I wouldn’t recommend moving your computer screen closer to your face (sacrificing your eyes for the sake of your spine), try to position your monitor slightly above eye level to discourage downward head-tilting. Zooming in on text could help reduce both neck pain and eye strain, and if you have the luxury of upgrading to a larger monitor, that investment would pair nicely with your newly enlarged text. When you’re looking at your phone screen, try to bring the screen up in front of your face instead of burying your face down into the screen. Sure, passersby will think you’re taking pictures of them because nobody operates their phones like this. But if I have to make a few strangers uncomfortable to keep my neck comfortable, well, that’s a tradeoff I am willing to make.

How do we fix it if it’s already happening?

If you’ve taken some of the measures above and still catch yourself slouching at the neck, you may need to strengthen the muscles of the upper back. First of all, keep correcting your posture as often as you become aware of it, because standing with proper posture is the best exercise for getting better at standing with proper posture! But to supplement that practice, we’ll add wall sliders.

To begin, sit on the ground (or a knee-height box) with your lower back, shoulder blades and head touching a wall. Place the backs of your hands against the wall near your shoulders, ensuring your wrists and knuckles stay in contact with the wall. Without taking any of these contact points off the wall, slide your hands as far overhead as you can, and then back down the wall to between head and shoulder level. That’s a wall slider. The first few may feel easy, but be patient and these will start to burn, helping to build strength and endurance in the muscles that keep nerd neck at bay.

Until next time, keep that chin up!