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We live in a digital world. We spend our days hunched over laptops and our evenings scrolling on smartphones. This has given rise to a modern epidemic: Tech Neck.
It starts as a dull ache at the base of the skull or a burning sensation across the shoulders (the “coat hanger” area). Over time, it evolves into chronic stiffness, tension headaches, and even jaw pain. You might find yourself constantly trying to crack your own neck or rub your upper traps, but the relief never lasts.
The standard advice is “sit up straight.” But you have probably tried that. You hold a perfect posture for two minutes, get distracted by an email, and five minutes later you are slumped again.
At Breakthrough Pain & Performance, we understand that posture is not a conscious choice; it is a reflex. Your brain decides your posture based on sensory information. If you want to fix Tech Neck permanently, you don’t need more willpower; you need to change the neurological signals that are pulling you forward.
Why do we jut our heads forward? Usually, it is to help the eyes.
The visual system is the dominant sense. If your eyes are straining to focus on a screen—perhaps due to a slight prescription error, convergence insufficiency, or simply screen fatigue—the brain will physically move the head closer to the target. This is the Visual-Postural Reflex.
For every inch your head moves forward, the effective weight of your head on your neck muscles doubles. A 5kg head becomes a 20kg load when you are looking at a phone. The muscles at the back of the neck (suboccipitals and upper traps) have to contract isometrically all day to stop your head from falling onto your chest. This causes the burning pain and fatigue.
We treat the neck by treating the eyes. We test your visual convergence and tracking. We give you simple eye drills to perform at your desk. By relaxing the visual system, we remove the drive to push the head forward. The neck muscles can finally switch off because the brain no longer requires them to hold up a 20kg load.
Check your breathing right now. Are you breathing into your belly, or are your shoulders rising?
Most people with Tech Neck are Apical Breathers. They breathe into the upper chest. This uses the “accessory muscles of respiration”—the Scalenes and the Sternocleidomastoid (SCM) in the neck, and the Upper Trapezius.
These muscles are designed for emergency breathing (running from a tiger). They are not designed for 20,000 breaths a day at a desk. If you use them for every breath, they become chronically tight and exhausted. They pull the head forward and compress the neck joints.
We retrain Diaphragmatic Breathing. We teach you how to expand the lower ribs and belly. This allows the neck muscles to rest. Often, chronic neck tightness disappears simply by changing how you breathe.
The neck (Cervical Spine) is the victim; the upper back (Thoracic Spine) is the criminal.
In Tech Neck, the upper back becomes rounded (Kyphosis) and stiff. It loses the ability to extend. To look up at a screen, you have to hinge excessively at the neck because the back won’t move. This creates a “hinge point” at C5/C6, leading to disc bulges and arthritis.
Treating the neck alone is useless if the thoracic spine remains a concrete block. We focus heavily on Thoracic Mobilisation. We use P-DTR and manual therapy to unlock the ribcage and spine. Once the upper back can extend, the head naturally floats back over the shoulders without effort.
Tech Neck creates a specific pattern of imbalance known as Upper Crossed Syndrome.
1. Tight: Upper Traps, Levator Scapulae, Pectorals.
2. Weak/Inhibited: Deep Neck Flexors (front of neck), Lower Traps, Serratus Anterior.
Most people stretch the tight muscles but ignore the weak ones. This is temporary. You must wake up the inhibited muscles to hold the correction.
We focus on the Deep Neck Flexors. These are the core muscles of the neck. When they are strong, they tuck the chin in and support the curve of the spine. We use precise, low-load activation drills to bring them back online.
There is a direct link between the forward head posture and the jaw. When the head slides forward, it pulls on the muscles under the chin (hyoid muscles), which drags the jaw open. To keep your mouth closed, you have to over-work the jaw closing muscles (Masseter/Temporalis).
This leads to jaw clenching, teeth grinding (bruxism), and headaches. We check the TMJ in all neck pain patients. By fixing the head position, we often resolve chronic jaw tension simultaneously.
We don’t just treat you; we equip you for the office.
1. The Reset: We use manual therapy to release the “coat hanger” tension immediately.
2. The Retrain: We give you 3-minute “micro-break” drills to perform every hour. These reset your eyes, your breath, and your posture.
3. The Setup: We advise on screen height and ergonomics, but more importantly, on how to interact with your setup dynamically.
4. The Strength: We build the posterior chain (back muscles) to act as a natural counter-balance to the forward pull of gravity.
This clinic is for you if:
We help you stand tall and pain-free.
