Stop Loading Up Your Backpack
This lifestyle fix is particularly relevant to students, who these days, tend to be bogged down with some very heavy books in their backpacks. One alternative to heavy text books may be to rent the digital version for the semester. Lugging computers around can be difficult as well.
Stop Wearing a Shoulder Bag Over One Shoulder
Alternate the shoulder that supports your bag regularly to affect your posture and muscles as equally as possible. Otherwise, you’re likely to create a lot of extra tension in your trapezius muscle on the side you wear the accessory the most. Favoring one shoulder over the other in this way may also affect your spinal alignment—and not for the better.
Stop Cradling Your Phone With Your Shoulder
Using a one-ear phone hold is another way to create uneven tension in your neck and shoulder muscles. This, in turn, may make your stiff neck worse, or set the stage for a new one.