Are you a career driven mom who works with her phone or computer!?
Because of the pandemic we all began bringing our work home with us and spending more time on our phones scrolling Instagram or TikTok. It’s not talked about enough, but this has a HUGE effect on how we sleep (which I know is precious for moms of all ages!). It’s not just the blue light, the way our head and neck crank when looking at our phone or laptop for too long can create tension that is a great gatekeeper of stress and anxiety that we hold. Many chiropractors call this ‘text neck’.
I noticed a few years ago that I wasn’t sleeping well.
I would toss and turn, worrying about the next day and all that needed to get done. I was bringing in a lucrative income for my family just by working from my phone but I knew something had to give and some self care was needed. I decided to head to my local chiropractor here in Florida, Dr. Cory, to see what was going on.
Dr Cory did some X-rays on me and to my surprise said that they resembled those of someone in their 50’s *GULP*. He asked about my sleep as if he had a crystal ball knowing what I was already struggling with and I told him it had been a struggle. He gave me adjustments and some simple exercises to do.
Within a few sessions I felt 100x better and now, years later, I am sleeping better than I ever have. I feel more productive and less stressed than before and it all started with giving myself that priority in self care. This is my permission slip for you to do the same, mama.
But maybe you don’t have access to a doctor as amazing as Dr Cory, so I want to give you some simple exercises to help out ‘text neck’ and reduce your stress and help you sleep better.
Let’s get started:
Use this video as a guide to the movements below. The bands on my wrists are the viral Bala Bands which I am completely in LOVE with.
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To warm up:
Slow arm circles, overhead reaching up. I always recommend that you should play your favorite song and get into the groove. I recommend for beginners 30 seconds for each move and for advanced a minute or as long as you see fit! Repeat 2-3x.
1) Open Arm Pulls
Start standing with your core engaged, reach your arms straight out in front of you so they are parallel to the floor. As you pull your elbows back squeeze your scapula, then reaching your arms straight out again open up again like you are extending your arms to a T, squeezing your scapula.
2) Goal post arms
Starting with your arms parallel to the floor, elbows bent in line with your shoulders, rotate your shoulders so your hands face the sky and place them back down. This exercise is called a goal post, because it mimics a traditional American football goal post shape. Not only does this work your shoulders it helps keep your back strong as you were rotating the rotator cuff.
3) Scapular pulse
Reaching your arms out parallel to the floor, opening up your chest arms, going out into a T squeezing and pulsing your scapula down chess stays lifted three times bring them back together to the center.
4) Hinge tricep extension
Starting with your feet below your hips knees, slightly bent hinging from your hips keeping your core engaged, belly button into the spine back nice and flat hinging from your hips pull your arms in brushing along your rib cage extending your lower part of your arm, squeeze your tricep muscle.
5) Hinge row
Hinging from your hips, just like the exercise above, extending your arms to the floor as you pull the elbows in towards the rib cage, squeeze the scapula, engage the core, extend the arms back out.
How did that feel?
Try doing this in the AM & the PM after a long days work where your neck could be misaligned. I know that by restoring those muscles that your stress will melt away and your sleep will be a dream!
