Last week I paid a visit to La Taquiza, my favorite Mexican restaurant in Napa. Their fish tacos and shrimp burritos remind me of eating fresh sea food by the beach in San Diego. After a successful work week and a days’ worth of playing pickleball for 6 hours, I felt I could celebrate by venturing out to one of my favorite restaurants.
As I waited in line outside the restaurant in respects to the social distancing guidelines the restaurant enforced, I noticed a gentleman sitting down at the tables just outside the neighboring Starbucks. He was enjoying a frosty coffee milkshake beverage and watching a video on his phone with the audio turned up loud enough to hear from my location about 15 yards away. He sat slouched in his chair, head peering down to the phone in his lap. His body slumped in the chair resembling a long piece of flimsy PVC pipe leaning against a wall at a 45-degree angle. His feet projected out in front of him, knees extended, with his hips positioned right before the edge of the chair. If his hips slid down any further, his butt would slide right off the chair forcing him to plummet to the ground. The way he was sitting allowed his shoulders to slide down the backrest of the chair. As his shoulders drooped down, his head was flexed forward at the neck about 45 degrees. His body reminded me of the shape of a candy cane.
Optimal posture for a healthy functioning human requires our neck, spine, hips, knees, and ankles to be in proper alignment. We recommend a cue to our personal training clients to help ensure the spine is aligned by visualizing the body from a side profile. Draw a straight line downward bisecting the ears, arm pit, through the ribs, to the hips, then down to the knees, and finally ending at the ankles. Maintaining this line that bisects these critical reference points while standing will put an emphasis on upright, strong, and reinforced spinal alignment. Reminding ourselves to stand up straight will decrease the likelihood of injury, back pain, and hindered mobility.
What happens when we deviate from adequate posture and bend our bodies in a candy cane-like shape while peering downward at our phones for hours? The neck stays flexed forward for prolonged periods, putting compressive forces on the bones of the neck as the cervical vertebrae scrunch together. The seated position of the hips slouching forward while the knees are extended puts stress on the lower back near the lumbar and sacral vertebral junction point. This suboptimal posture underutilizes the stabilizing muscles responsible for keeping the spine rigid and vertical.
A simple solution is to visualize the body from a side profile and line your neck, armpits, ribs, hips, knees, and ankles in a straight line. Instead of peering down at your phone in a seated position, look at the phone while standing. Additionally, use your arms to bring the phone up to eye level to prevent your neck from bending forward. This horizontal line of vision from your eyes to your cell phone screen helps avoid factors that can lead to neck, shoulder blade, and low back pain. Applying this simple tactic can save your neck and reinforce your posture to keep your spine from getting injured.
Not only is it important to remind ourselves to view our phones in an ergonomically correct body position, but it’s also noteworthy to notice the time we spend on the phone. Do we need to look at our phones all the time? There was a time where we only used phones for talking. Now, we can’t go anywhere without brandishing our fancy phones from our pockets and looking at them. Granted, they do offer us important advantages to our daily activities. However, if we’re outside, put the phone down and enjoy the outdoors. It will always be in your pocket or purse ready for you to interact with in your down time. In the meantime, when you’re out and about outdoors, practice optimal posture by looking forward while standing up to reinforce your spine.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
