Tech neck exercises you can do at your desk.

What tech neck is

When you lean toward a laptop or look down at a phone, your head moves forward and tips down. The further it goes, the harder the muscles at the back of your neck and upper back work to hold it there. Do that for hours a day and it becomes the position your body defaults to: chin forward, shoulders rounded, a stiff neck by the afternoon.

The fix has two parts. Short movements that take the neck and shoulders the other way, and a way to notice the slouch while it is happening instead of at the end of the day.

Before you start

• Go slowly and gently. A stretch should feel like a stretch, never like pain.
• Breathe normally. Holding your breath tenses the same muscles you are trying to relax.
• Stop if anything hurts, or if you feel numbness or tingling. This is everyday desk care, not treatment.

Eight resets, each under a minute

1. Chin tuck · 20 secondsSit tall with your eyes level. Pull your head straight back, as if making a double chin, without tipping it down. Hold for 5 seconds, release, and repeat slowly. This is the most direct counter to the forward head.
2. Shoulder blade squeeze · 30 secondsPull your shoulder blades together and down, as if sliding them into your back pockets. Hold for 5 seconds, release, repeat. Good for rounded shoulders.
3. Chest opener · 30 secondsHands behind your head, elbows wide. Open your chest and breathe slowly. It stretches the front of the shoulders, which a day of typing pulls forward.
4. Neck side stretch · 45 secondsTilt your right ear toward your right shoulder and hold, keeping the left shoulder relaxed and low. Breathe. Switch sides.
5. Upper back rotation · 30 secondsCross your arms over your chest. Rotate slowly to the left, then to the right, turning from the middle of your back rather than the neck.
6. Shoulder rolls · 20 secondsRoll your shoulders back and down in slow, deliberate circles.
7. Eye and posture reset · 30 secondsLook at something about 20 feet (6 metres) away for 20 seconds, and sit tall while you do. It is the 20-20-20 rule eye doctors suggest for screen time, with posture added.
8. Box breath and sit tall · 60 secondsBreathe in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4. Lengthen your spine a little on each inhale.

A two-minute routine

If you only remember one thing from this page, make it this sequence:

That is just over two minutes, sitting down. Do it mid-morning and mid-afternoon, and use the chin tuck on its own whenever you notice your head has crept forward.

The hard part is remembering

Nobody forgets how to do a chin tuck. People forget to do it, because the slouch builds slowly and you don't feel it until your neck is already stiff. Timers help a little, but they go off when you are sitting well and stay quiet when you aren't.

That is the gap AirPosture fills. It reads your head angle from your AirPods and speaks up only when your head has drifted forward and stayed there, with a calm line like “Lift your chin.” The resets on this page are built into the app as 30-second fixes, so the reminder and the reset are one tap apart. It works on iPhone, with the phone locked, and on a Mac.

Make the desk pull you less

• Raise the screen. The top of the screen at about eye level means less reason to look down.
• Lift the laptop. A stand plus an external keyboard turns a laptop into a screen you can look at straight on.
• Sit close. Pull the chair in so you aren't reaching for the keyboard, with your back against the chair.
• Hold the phone higher. Bring it up toward eye level instead of dropping your head to it.