[[{“value”:”Screens take up far more of the day after 60 than most people realize: a tablet with breakfast, the phone on and off all day, then a laptop or the TV in the evening. Plenty of my clients are surprised when they actually count it up. The aches that come with it tend to gather in the neck, shoulders, wrists, and hands, and those areas respond well to a handful of targeted exercises.
I’ve been a personal trainer for almost 40 years, and I’ve been director of TRAINFITNESS, the UK’s best fitness education company, for almost 30. These five exercises take just a few minutes, and they can help you undo years of screen time.
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The Most Common Screen Problems
The most common problem I see is a stiff neck that won’t turn far. It creeps up slowly, so people don’t notice until they’re struggling with a shoulder check when they’re driving, or they can’t look around properly when they’re backing up. Alongside that goes an ache across the top of the shoulders and the base of the neck, which carry the weight of the head for hours.
Tension headaches come with that, and I see a lot of them. So do aching thumbs and wrists, from holding and scrolling a phone or a tablet for long stretches. Stiff fingers and a weaker grip show up too, and people notice that one when opening jars or carrying groceries.
The other pattern is the head drifting forward and the upper back rounding, because the eyes drop to a screen that’s set too low. And most people stay in one position for hours at a time without getting up.
Before You Start
If you get numbness or tingling in your fingers, which can be carpal tunnel, pain spreading down your arm, weakness in your hand, or dizziness when you turn your head, have it checked by your doctor before you start any of this. And neck movements should always be slow and never forced.
On the eyes, exercise doesn’t fix eye strain. The habit I recommend is the one eye doctors give: every 20 minutes or so, look at something across the room or out of the window for about 20 seconds. If eye problems persist, see an eye doctor.
Why Yoga Alone Falls Short
Let me say first that I don’t knock yoga. It’s good for general flexibility and relaxation, and if you enjoy a class, that enjoyment counts for a lot. The trouble is that a typical yoga class spends very little time on the neck, wrists, hands, and fingers, and those are the areas screens hit hardest.
The other issue is that plenty of yoga positions put body weight through the wrists. Downward dog and plank are the obvious ones. If your wrists already ache from a keyboard and a phone, the last thing they want is your whole bodyweight through them.
Targeted exercises go straight to those areas instead. They take a few minutes, and you can do them at your desk or the kitchen table between screen sessions, which is when they help most.
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Side Neck Stretch
This eases the muscles across the top of the shoulders and the side of the neck. They tighten up from holding the head forward and the shoulders up while you’re looking at a screen, and they’re often involved in tension headaches.
How to Do It:
Sit tall on a chair.
Hold the edge of the seat with your right hand to keep that shoulder down.
Slowly tilt your left ear toward your left shoulder until you feel a stretch down the right side of your neck.
If you want a gentle extra stretch, rest your left hand lightly on your head, without pulling.
Hold for 20 to 30 seconds, breathing slowly.
Swap sides.
Avoid These Mistakes:
Don’t lift your shoulder up to meet your ear. It takes the stretch out of the move. Keep the shoulder down, anchored by the hand on the seat.
Don’t pull with the hand on your head. It only rests there.
Sets and Reps: Do 2 on each side, holding each for 20 to 30 seconds.
Form Tip: Breathe slowly throughout each hold.
Neck Turns
This restores the neck’s ability to rotate, which shrinks when the head is held still, facing a screen, for hours. It’s the one that directly helps with shoulder checks when you’re driving and backing up the car, and clients tell me that’s often what they notice first.
How to Do It:
Sit tall, chin level, shoulders still.
Slowly turn your head to look over your right shoulder, as far as is comfortable.
Hold for 3 seconds.
Return to center, then turn to the left.
If you want to go a little further, place your fingertips on your chin and give a very gentle nudge at the end of the turn.
Avoid These Mistakes:
Don’t let your chin drop or tip up as you turn. Keep it level.
Don’t turn your shoulders along with your head. Only the head moves.
Sets and Reps: Do 8 to 10 turns each way, holding each for 3 seconds.
Form Tip: Keep it slow and never force it.
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Wrist Stretches
These stretch the forearm muscles that work constantly when you’re typing, scrolling, and gripping a phone. Prayer and reverse prayer ease aching wrists and forearms, and you feel the difference right away if your hands are tired.
How to Do It:
Prayer stretch:
Press your palms together in front of your chest, fingers pointing up.
Slowly lower your hands toward your waist, keeping the palms together.
Stop when you feel a stretch under your forearms, and hold for 20 seconds.
Reverse prayer:
Press the backs of your hands together, fingers pointing down.
Gently lift your elbows until you feel a stretch along the top of your forearms.
Hold for 20 seconds.
Avoid These Mistakes:
Don’t force either stretch into pain. It should be a comfortable stretch, nothing sharper.
Don’t let your palms separate as your hands come down.
Sets and Reps: Do 2 to 3 rounds of both, holding each stretch for 20 seconds.
Form Tip: If either position brings on tingling, stop and do it more gently.
Rubber Band Finger and Thumb Opens
Hours of holding a phone keep the fingers and thumb curled and gripping. This strengthens the small muscles that open the hand, which balances out all that gripping and eases stiff, aching fingers and thumbs.
How to Do It:
Place a rubber band, or a hair tie, around the fingers and thumb of one hand, near the tips.
Slowly spread your fingers and thumb wide against the band.
Hold for 2 seconds.
Close slowly.
For a thumb version:
Put the band around your thumb and index finger.
Move your thumb away from your hand and back.
Avoid These Mistakes:
Don’t snap your fingers open and shut quickly.
Don’t use a band that’s too strong. If you can’t open fully against it, it’s too tight, so find a lighter one.
Sets and Reps: Do 12 to 15 reps on each hand, 2 sets. For the thumb version, do 10 reps.
Form Tip: Spread slowly, hold, then close slowly.
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Wall Push-Up Plus
This strengthens the muscle along the side of the ribs that holds your shoulder blade flat against your ribcage, along with the chest and arms, which do very little during screen time. Strong shoulder-blade muscles help your shoulders sit comfortably instead of hunching up.
How to Do It:
Stand facing a wall, hands on it at shoulder height and shoulder-width apart.
Step your feet back so your body leans in a straight line.
Bend your elbows to bring your chest toward the wall.
Push back until your arms are straight.
Now add the plus: keeping your arms straight, push the wall a little further away so your upper back rounds slightly and your shoulder blades slide apart.
Hold for 2 seconds, then relax back. That’s one rep.
Avoid These Mistakes:
Don’t shrug your shoulders toward your ears on the plus.
Don’t bend your elbows during the plus. Keep your arms straight throughout.
Sets and Reps: Do 10 to 12 reps, 2 sets.
Form Tip: Keep the movement small and let it come from your shoulder blades.
How Often to Do This
Exercises 1 to 4 take a few minutes altogether, and they work best spread through the day rather than done once. I’d say a quick round every hour or so of screen time, or at the very least morning and evening. Daily is the goal.
The wall push-up plus is different, because it’s strength work. Three times a week works well, and you build it up by adding reps over time. When 12 starts to feel easy, move to a lower surface such as the kitchen counter, which makes it harder.
Habits matter as much as the exercises:
Get the screen up to eye level.
Hold your phone higher.
Alternate hands when you’re scrolling.
Use a stand for the tablet.
Look away from the screen every 20 minutes or so, as I said earlier.
Get up out of the chair every 30 to 45 minutes.
RELATED: 5 Exercises That Undo 10 Years of Sitting Better Than Walking After 65
Keep Doing Yoga
Yes, keep doing yoga if you enjoy it, because it works well alongside these exercises. If your wrists are sore, use your fists or forearms instead of flat hands in positions like downward dog, or ask the teacher for an alternative. Any decent teacher will have one.
What to Expect
Right away, the neck and wrists feel easier after each round. Over the first 1 to 2 weeks, the neck turns further, and many people find they get fewer tension headaches. Wrists and thumbs ache less at the end of the day, which is usually when people notice them most.
By 4 to 6 weeks, most people find their grip feels stronger and their fingers are less stiff in the morning. The shoulders feel less tight across the top as well, especially if you’ve been doing the wall push-up plus.
Exercise eases these aches, but it doesn’t undo arthritis in the thumb or finger joints, and it won’t fix eye strain. Cutting back on screen time, and breaking it up, does a lot of the work too. And if the screen habits stay the same and the exercises stop, the symptoms come back.
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