What Should I Avoid If I Have Neck Pain?

Neck pain has some clear similarities to back pain when it comes to the most common errors that people make and why these common errors are so easy to make. It all comes down, like in the lower back, to the anatomy of the neck, how it works, and how it fails.

The neck should have a normal backward bending curve to it offering strength and a good degree of shock absorption. When we injure our neck it is often that we become stuck, rigid and move our chin to our chest top try and find some sort of relieving position. This is due to the fact that inflammation and/or disc material occupies the spaces where the nerves leave the spinal column. This creates increased pressure in the neck and can created sharp pain or sensations of a “trapped nerve”.

In an effort to provide relief and ease the pressure, and resultant muscle tension we often are instructed to tuck our chin to our chest to “open out” the exit foramina. This has the desired result of creating more space, but at what cost?

It is so frequent that the structures that maintain the lordosis are injured and stretched. In their effort to try and heal (shorten again back to normal) the act of flexing and stretching these areas out only serves to disrupt the healing process, and create pockets of instability.

The most difficult part of all of this is the fact that these stretches – tucking the chin to the chest, are often immediately relieving. The issue is that this relief is short lived, often only so long as they’re done, and perhaps minutes afterwards.

So what can you do?

Try the two exercises in this video and let us know how you get on. They are focused on putting your neck in the best possible position supporting the way your neck wants to be!

Become A Member

Related Articles

Responses

Comments are closed.

Get The FREE Podcast Notification

Every Sunday we release an episode & deep-dive article to help you get your Back In Shape and keep it that way!
PLUS 2 SPECIAL BONUS’ TODAY!

Visit The Homepage