What many patients don’t realize when they start working on their posture is how bad it’s already gotten. You can look and see that your head is pushing forward, but do you know that the curve of your neck may now be going the wrong way?
Ideally you want the curve of your neck to look more like this on x-ray:
However, with bad posture, your neck may look more like this:
Chiropractic care can certainly help restrictions and improve alignment, but adjustments aren’t going to fix that curve on their own. You’ll need to implement stretches for the front of your neck, strengthening for the back of your neck, and you’ll need some additional help with neck curve improving devices like the neck wedge.
The neck wedge is an inexpensive and effective device to help improve your neck curve at home. Quite simply, it uses the weight of your head to gently traction the neck. If while using it you also perform some mild contractions, you will see some strengthening of the neck as well.
Here’s a video on how to use it:
We went into more detail with this video:
Patients will start with about 10 – 15 minutes each day and it’s a welcome relief from working on the computer all day. You’ll want to work up to about 30 minutes to feel better results. Chances are you’ll use it for awhile, feel better, and then totally forget about it.
Keep it near your desk at home, or set a reminder to keep using it. To spend 40 – 50 hours per week sitting in front of a computer and not do anything to try to undo those negative effects will eventually cause your neck to change in an increasingly permanent way. This is a simple habit you can adopt to help prevent future damage.
There are plenty of other neck traction devices on the market, but this one is very simple, comfortable, and reasonably priced.
You can pick up the same one we recommend to patients on Amazon – click here for more info.