BY DR. ARNAN SISSON

November 3, 2023

Technology can be a great thing. If you think about it, it’s pretty crazy; In about two seconds you can go to a Google search engine and get any answer your looking for. It might not be the correct one, but an answer none the less!

With that said, new technology can present us with new problems. The recent surge of new problems I’ve seen in my practice is awful wrist and neck pain that has come about from the use of smart phones. The amount of time that’s used on the phone this day in age takes a toll on the body. The stress builds up to the point to where the pain is so bad that you can no longer use the phone more than 5 minutes, are unable to write for any long period of time, or even tolerate driving short distances to work. It reaches a point where life is affected, and its hard to function let along enjoy everyday activities.

Because this problem is so common now a days, I’m going to cover two simple but very powerful strategies anyone can use to cut down on the wrist pain from smart phone usage, and get back to using their Facebook with zero problems!

As most of the readers know out there, I’m a back-pain specialist through and through. But the same strategies I use for the back can also be applied for many other joints, including the wrist!

One of the key principals I use to not only fix painful problems but keep them away is altering the stress. Most folks that see me in the practice to see me are frustrated, because they’ve already had 3 months of physical therapy, spent over $1,000 on adjustments, or even seen their physician that just gave them pills with no improvement!

That’s because any one treatment, be it massage, exercise, adjustments, pills, creams, etc. alone isn’t enough. It may reduce the pain short term, but like clock work it will come back. And usually with a vengeance!

To make pain go away for good you must treat the problem by going after the root cause. This is usually positioning or movements that we take up in everyday life. These things can cause a low-level stress that leads to pain, and if left unchecked will continue to cause problems for them long term.

So, in the case of pain from the smart phones we have to look at the underlining stress. Grab your phone and look at how your wrists are positioned. Their a little bit extended, aren’t they?

Any one position, and in the case of using the smart phone (extension) can lead to pain when held for too long. So, we have to have strategies that get us out of this extended stress.

We can do this two ways. The first is to seek to opposite position, which in this case is flexing the wrist. You would flex the wrist for 15 repetitions every 30 minutes while on the phone. Its important to go to the point of mild pain, hold 2 seconds, and then return.

The next strategy you can use is to switch up the dominate hand that’s holding the phone, and this will also alter the stress in a positive way. And even limiting the total time using the phone is a good broad strategy.

We could dig into this very deeply with more aggressive strategies (soft tissue mobilization with the positive stress, directional preference exercise, etc.), but the above approaches are a great place to start. And if you don’t have complete resolution within a week or two then please don’t hesitate to call the practice at (804) 493-0002 at you can get a free 15 minute phone consultation from myself. During the call I can learn a little more about your case, and brain storm more treatment strategies to get you back to using your phone again like you use to.

That’s it for today everyone, remember movement is medicine!

P.S. If you’re like me theirs one or two family members you have zero clue of what to get for Christmas. If so, we’ve got you covered! Shoot us a call at (804) 493-3256 to get a massage gift certificate. We have loads of fun options such as Swedish massage, deep therapeutic massage, and even hot stone for folks feeling adventurous. We only have a set number of these for this Christmas season, so call or stop by today at 17248 Kings Highway Montross, Va to pick yours up before they run out. Happy Holidays!