I have a whole series of articles that talk about the various parts of the body people wonder if a recliner is bad for. And like I always say, a recliner would only hurt a body part of yours when you do not use it correctly.
A recliner’s primary function is to ease and relieve your stress and provide optimum comfort to users. However, we cannot entirely displace the concerns who genuinely think that a recliner chair is the cause of their neck pain.
In this article, we would look at some of the possible ways where this could be true and recliners do hurt users’ neck. We would also look at all the reasons why and ways to prevent this from happening.
Recliners and neck pain
Science tells us that the head of an average human weighs about 12lbs but when we lean forward even slightly to an angle of 45 degrees, the weight of the head increases to about 50lbs. this is a lot of weight for the head to support and inevitably leads to neck pain.
This is mostly an issue with workers or people who sit for long hours at a 90-degree angle sitting position and probably have to lean your head forward to work or stare at your computer.
This is a lot to support for an estimated 8 hours per day, every day because the whole process of working on your computer or simply just looking up and down the screen is a lot of support provided by the neck.
If you use a recliner and you experience neck pains, the most probable answer is that the recliner is not the reason for your neck pain. This is not to say that a recliner could not be responsible in one fundamental way.
The only way a recliner could be responsible for your neck pain is if your recliner is not well aligned to support your neck. This scenario can be quickly and easily changed by adjusting the chair to align with and support your neck.
If this doesn’t ease your neck pain, then a recliner is not the reason for your neck pain. Recliners are not bad for your neck and I cannot stress this enough. Another instance where the recliner could be responsible is when the recliner is not the right fit for your body type.
On average, a recliner is built to fit an average man. What this means is that if you are taller than 6 feet or smaller than 5.5 feet then you might want to get your recliner properly aligned to your unique body type.
There are numerous ergonomic chairs to invest in that are designed primarily to ease neck pain but a recliner also offers neck support and there are some steps to take to achieve this.
Ways to use recliners to ease neck pain
If you use recliners for a long time at a stretch and you are prone to neck pains or discomfort, these steps may prove to be very useful to you.
- Adjust the chair to be fitted to your size or body type; some chairs would conform perfectly to your neck, others may even come with a neck cushion in the structure design. However, there are users who these design features would not align to their neck and they would need to get the chair fitted to their body size.
- Use a neck roll or pillow; a neck roll or pillow is an added extra cushion and support for the neck region. The roll or pillow can be adjusted or moved around until you’ve achieved maximum comfort. A neck roll can be fashioned from a small towel and held together with a band.
- Ice packs; you can always fall back to the use of ice packs to ease and relieve the pain around your neck if all else fails.
- Neck exercises; daily neck exercises can quickly help you adjust to your daily routine and also ease the pain and discomfort around your neck. The neck exercise can be done between 1 to 3 times every day when you begin to feel the discomfort and this routine would help you maintain adaptability and flexibility.
Conclusion
This should answer your question if recliners are bad for your neck, no, they are not. Recliners can be used for easing pains in certain body parts as I mentioned before like the lower back, neck, and hip region.
They are easy, convenient, and offer amazing comfort and stress relief. The only disadvantage is that it may not be well suited for every body type and this is general to every chair. There is no one size fits all chair. This can also be easily remedied by fitting the chair to your body type. People also seek extra comfort by using added cushions.