In between toggling through the different radio DJs and lip syncing to the familiar sounds of the current Top 40, take a few minutes to think about your posture and what that your commute is doing to fast track you towards complaining of neck or lower back pain. And that’s before you even get to your desk where you sit in front of that retina display computer screen for the next 8 hours.
Let’s begin with your head and it’s resting position on your neck (cervical spine). Place your palm around the back of your neck and cup it to feel the amount of curve in your neck. Play with the position of your chin and feel the difference in the curve of your neck when you simply tilt your chin up towards the sun visor and back down towards the dashboard. You may have noticed the curve increase as you tilted your chin up, and then straighten out as you brought it back down.
That simple tilt of the chin is the difference between sitting with your cervical spine in a compressed and extended position versus sitting in a neutral and efficient position. While sitting in your car, attempt to press the entire back of your head equally into the head rest maintaining a level chin (you should not be bending your head backwards). Hold the described position for approximately 10 seconds, then relax. Repeat 20 times.
Take the challenge to sit with a neutral neck and your next 8 hours of computer work will be 100x more enjoyable!
