ARE VIDEO GAMES GIVING YOU BAD POSTURE?
If you know anything about gamers, you know that they are seriously die hard about their games! Generally speaking, most kids and teens these days are playing video games on their phones, tablets, or gaming consoles. In the united states, the average gamer spends anywhere from 5 to 20 hours a week playing games. When you consider that kids and teens already spend anywhere from 6 to 7 or even 8 hours, five days a week hunched over doing schoolwork, this all adds up to a lot of screen time! Being stationary in less than optimal posture nourishing positions for nearly 10 hours a day, everyday will most certainly have a significant impact on the body over time.
Let’s face it, when kids are playing video games they’re paying attention to the game, and definitely not their posture. So they are most likely sitting slumped and or hunched over, at the edge of their seat in a way that is straining the thoracic spine aka your upper back. Ouch! Over time this will begin to affect the the neck as well, causing pain in the both the neck and the spine simultaneously. Young bodies are resilient but also impressionable, so if this physical posture goes unaddressed for long enough neck and spine issues will follow them into adulthood.
An unhealthy, untreated spine and neck often leads to bigger symptoms like headaches, migraines, numbness, blurred vision, and tingling down the arms and possibly even the legs. There are definitely ways to ensure that this does not happen though! Here are 5 tips that can help with prevention:
Get your gamer a posture noodle! Yes, it may be a little annoying for them at first. But every few minutes they can put this on in a snap to remind the muscles to hold themselves up.
Put one of our wobble discs on their desk chair. Another quick exercise that can literally be on while they’re gaming. Loosening up the hips and juice-ifying spinal disks will prevent any compression of the spine.
Blue light blockers can be worn to decrease the strain on eyes, which could potentially protect your gamer from blurred vision, headaches, and strained eyes. There are also settings on most tablets and phones to turn off blue light display. Studies have shown that minimizing exposure to blue light significantly improves eye health and sleep.
Use a posture pillow when finished gaming! This will give the body to move some energy around and get circulation moving to all the limbs in the body.
Get regular adjustments! Of course, this comes as our most highly suggested means of tending to your physical health. Getting adjusted regularly will almost always prevent spinal degeneration. Keeping painful and uncomfortable symptoms from ever showing up in the first place.
