Once you understand what can be possibly causing your neck pain, you’ll start to see that overcoming your pain cycles can be simply changing a few things.
The problem ism we are so busy in our lives and quite often don’t see what is plain as day in front of us. We may know what is causing our neck pain, but not willing to do anything about it eg. being on the phone for long durations or we may not realise its something so easy to amend, but we never thought it could be that simple.
In this post we explore some of the causes that can be that pain in the neck quite literally!
1. Bad ergonomics, Screens, desk etc
The posture we take on when we are looking down at our phone can be a cause of neck pain. We over stretch the muscles at the back of our neck, and at the same time, shorten the muscles at the front of the neck. Doing this ( or anything bad for our posture ) for long periods re train the muscle memory, they do what we tell them to do. Our bodies are amazing, in that it trued to correct itself, but can’t because we are constantly putting ourselves on the undesired positions.
What we can do about this? Limit your screen time if you are on your phone or tablet for hours. take a break every 10 minutes by lifting your head up to look ahead, and do some simply range of motions, such as turning your head from side to side. You could also bring the phone up to your eye level. There are many great gadgets out now that can hold the phone for you at the right level, which is great if you are on the couch or in bed.
Checking your desk set up can assist to abate neck pain. Make sure your screens are at eye level. If you can, have your main screen directly in front of you, rather then off to the side. Make sure your chair is the right fit for you. What works for John Smith at the desk next to you, may not work for you.
A sit stand desk can take the pressure off the back and neck, giving your body some much needed relief from sustaining a seated position all day.
Take a walk around the office every hour if you can.
2. Cold weather
The chill in the air can be felt for some during the night, and the poor old neck has number one exposure to this. Blood vessels can constrict when under pressure from the cold and therefore much needed oxygen to the muscle fibres are reduced, and as a result, muscular tension occurs.
How to help this is to wear skivvies to bed, or ensure your bed covers reach up and over your neck area. When heading outside in the cold, pop a warm scarf on.
3.Handbags / shoulder bags
I have seen so many clients come through over the years that have neck injuries resulting from the over use of wearing a heavy shoulder bag. The downwards pressure pulls you out of alignment, affecting your neck tremendously. Find a backpack instead, and become used to distributing the weight across both shoulders. There are amazing backpacks out these days, fashionable and ergonomically suited.
4.Talking on the phone
Now, I love a good yack on the phone as much as the next girl, but sustaining holding your phone to your ear for a long period can cause havoc on the neck. The longer you hold your phone there, the more tired we become, and bingo, our old friend ‘poor posture’ will come and say hello.
Do yourself some self love, and invest in a good hands free that promotes good posture.
5. Sports bras
I know I know, the sports bra is now under investigation. Why? Because it pulls on crucial side of the neck muscles, called levator scapular and the scalenes. When these guys become tight, it can pull the neck out of alignment. Just like wearing Yoga pants for yoga ( I know, thats a challenge lol ), wear your sports bras for sports, change out of it when you’re finished, and give those beautiful muscle groups a break from being dragged down, give them the fighting chance of doing what they are designed to do
6.
Lack of hydration and sleep
I think in general, I am just going to find a way to pop drinking more water and getting more sleep in every blog post, because its really, really, really, really, realllly important. So many of us are dehydrated, and we don’t even know it. By the time we desire that glass of water, we are dehydrated. Being dehydrated can lead to headaches and tiredness. And what happens when we are tired? We slouch, and poor posture is the star of the show, which of course does not exclude the neck and how its holding your head up.
Lack of sleep doesn’t help anyone, and when we are running on fumes, holding ourselves in good posture isn’t high up on the priority list. Aim for at least 8 glasses of water a day, and equally, 8 hours of sleep every night.
7.Posture generally out of alignment – hips? Legs? Feet?
Lets say you are drinking plenty of water, getting enough sleep; you have a great set up at your desk, and wear sports bras for the right reason, have been cleared for arthritis, and you are still experiencing neck pain. Sometimes, more often than not, you are out of alignment elsewhere in the body. If your feet aren’t happy, eg, from flat feet, plantar fasciitis, or leg length discrepancy, then the flow on affect in the body will be evident. Good shoes, recommended by a podiatrist, are so important, and may be all it takes to correct your posture. You might need orthotics, or you may need a simple yet powerful exercise rehab routine to build strength in the feet and calves.
Talk to your health professional about this if your posture being out of alignment could be the cause of your neck pain. If they can’t help you, they will refer you on to the appropriate practitioner.
It’s worth seeing a health care practitioner that specialises in alignment of the body, such as your myotherapist, a chiropractor, an osteopath or physiotherapist. They all have unique approaches to assessing and treating your posture, so it’s important to go with who you feel comfortable seeing. Better still, you don’t have to just see one type, a balanced approach from a variety of practitioners is a holistic and thorough way forward to a better posture.
8.Stress
Some of us carry stress in the body. I commonly hear in the clinic “ I carry my stress in my shoulders and neck”. As we move into stress mode, our breathing changes to what is called accessory breathing, that is, it becomes shallow. When we move into shallow breathing, we aren’t using our diaphragm to breathe. Instead, we use muscles at the top of our rib cages more. These muscles aren’t designed to sustain shallow breathing actions for long periods. Over time, they ‘learn’ to hold themselves where you tell them to be, and when you are ready to stop being stressed, your poor old body is stuck in the stress holding mode.
How can you help this? Take some time out to breathe deeply. This helps retrain the body to come out of the stress loop. If you are in stress or anxiety mode most of the time, and your breathing is shallow to reflect this, you need to amp up the other style of breathing to bring your body back to balance. Try this classic yoga breathing technique. Its called the 4-7-8. First, exhale completely. Then breath in for 4 seconds. Hold your breath for 7 seconds, then take a longer breath out for 8 seconds. Do this for 2- 3 minutes, and twice a day.
This style of breathing will activate your parasympathetic nervous system, this brings you back into balance. Also, by doing this deep style of breathing, you’re training your diaphragm to do the breath work, taking the load of the upper back and neck muscles.
9.Lack of strength / stretching
Its a classic use it or loose it. You might say but I am using my neck alllll the time, so thats silly. I say you are right, but its about using the right muscles at the right time. If one muscle isnt working well enough, other muscles pitch in to take the load, creating decreased movement, tired, sore muscles as they become passively over worked.
Most of the time, I find some range of motion movements is all that is needed to release the hypertension causing the neck pain.
10.Sleeping in awkward positions ( Pillows / Mattress / falling asleep on the couch or at the table )
This is seen in the clinic time and time again. Patients ring up wanting treatment ASAP as they ‘slept funny’. I would grow up watching my Dad sit down at the table for his afternoon cuppa and he would fall asleep at the table, claiming he was ’resting his eyes’. Even before learning about the body I could see that this was bad for his neck. But there was no telling him to move to his bed or recliner (stubbornness of an Italian for sure), and he would awake with shocking neck pain. Light bulb much. He valued having a massage therapist in the home, let me tell you!!
Check your pillow, it may be too high of too low for you. As a rule of thumb, its a good idea to change your pillow every two years.
If your mattress is too hard or too soft for you ( its about finding what works best for you here ), this can cause you to sleep awkwardly and as such cause neck pain. I know its a big expense to replace your mattress, but look at it as an investment into your health and well being.
11.Arthritis
Arthritis found in the neck can cause ongoing neck pain. For a client to know this is one of their causes, they usually would have had their scans, had seen specialists and come full circle back to us as their practitioner. It then becomes a case of pain management, where with regular treatment along with other specialist care experts, we can keep the pain cycles in check. These may include a naturopath, rheumatologist, your GP etc
12.Whiplash
The sudden movement of your head being jolted back can cause what is called whiplash. The overextending of your neck muscles causes a reactionary contraction to counterbalance the movement. This can cause an inflammatory response, this pain cycles are felt.
If you experience whiplash, and as long as you have had scans and they show no serious damage, the first 72 hours is considered acute. Its during this time its important to do a combination of rest and very gentle movement to move your recovery along. Heat is a powerful tool to manage the pain, but you also might want to ice the neck initially for 10 minutes at a time every two hours.
After 72 hours, as you move out of the acute phase, it can be a good idea to see a practitioner ( or a team of them for a variety of treatment ) to assist your body to come back to an equilibrium. This may take more than one session to get you there, with more than one type of practitioner
13.Grinding your teeth
“No area works in isolation of another” I love this saying, as its so very true when it comes to the body. When we grind our teeth, we are over using our masseter muscle, it needs the support of the surrounding muscles for it to be activated. In this means your scalenes and SCM muscles pitch in to help, but when these muscles are activated, your other neck muscles switch on to help them out, such as your suboccipitals ( those beauties found right under the skull ), of which when these are switched on, your upper trapezius, levator scap, splenius capitis and cervicis all help out these guys – do you see where I going here? There is a domino affect here.
If you grind your teeth / clench your jaw, I’ll bet you’re running on stress. Which means you will benefit from moments during the day to do some deep breathwork. One really cool thing I prescribe to my clients here is this…When you need to take a deep breath on purpose, instead of breathing through your nose, breathe through your mouth. I know I know, this doesn’t sound right, but here me out… if fact better yet, try it right now. Take a deep breath into your belly through your mouth. Notice how you can’t clench your jaw when doing this? Doing this several time during the day may help to create new habits regarding the clenching.
14.Lack of treatment
You have read the above causes of possible neck pain, and you not only can see that you relate to one of these, but you can relate to several. Scans have been had, you have set up the right ergonomics, you do mindfulness daily, but your neck pain still bothers you.
This is where regulars myotherapy / remedial massage consultations fir in nicely to assist you to stay ahead of your pain cycles.
Not only will regular treatment help you, but being guided to safely do self treatment is what your myotherapist will do for you.
