Five Neck Saving Tips

Life can be a pain in the neck. The number of people with neck pain must have skyrocketed when the computer was invented. Just look at the way you are sitting at your computer right now. Is your head careened forward like a turtle? Are your shoulders rounded forward? Is your mid-back slouched like a “C” shaped curve? This posture sustained for a period of time can lead to neck pain or a pain between the shoulder blades. What can you do to save yourself from a pain in the neck?

1. Invest in a good pillow: Especially for those folks who sleep on their sides, a supportive, thick pillow can keep the head from reaching for the pillow. If the head reaches for the pillow because the pillow does not fill the gap between the tip of the shoulder and the ear, then the neck spends all night misaligned. That’s when you will wake up with a pain in the neck.

2. Stretch the Pec’s: Those big muscles under your breasts are called the Pectoralis muscles. Over time, these muscles shorten because everything you do is in front of you and the arms rarely reach behind the back. Well, you need to reach behind the back once and a while to rebalance these shoulder muscles and realign the neck.

3. Avoid heavy weight on the top of the shoulders: Heavy purses, backpacks, bras, and suspenders; all of these heavy weights pull the shoulders down and overload the sensitive neck muscles. Find alternatives; try to be smarter than the neck pain by unloading the purse, finding a backpack with rollers, trying a camisole, or giving up the suspenders. Stop dragging your neck down.

4. Keep your chin tucked: The chin really should not drift more than 5 finger breadths away from the chest. As the chin drifts upwards, the back of the neck starts to pinch. Those sensitive joints and nerves in the neck will cry out in pain if the chin is held too high, too long.

5. Keep the chest out: You may not be in the military, but the shoulders back, chest out posture is ideal for proper neck alignment. Rounded shoulders with a caved-in chest lead to an abnormally arched posture (increased lordosis). Use a mirror to guide you as you try to save your neck. Overtime, with proper diligence, a good posture can relieve neck pain.

You might have noticed that I have mentioned the shoulders quite a few times in this discussion about saving your neck. Because the shoulders provide the base of support for your neck, shoulder posture and activity heavily influences the neck mechanics. Ninety percent of the time, neck pain is easily predicted just by looking at a person’s shoulders. This leads our conversation back to the observation of your posture as you sit at your computer. As you sit at your computer typing and clicking, check your shoulders often because they will drift forward before you can say “Neck Pain”. The shoulders should rest behind the hallow of your neck where the collar bone connects to the chest bone. Check with a professional if you are not sure where to rest your shoulders. Body posture awareness is not as easy as it sounds, but worth the trouble to learn. Your neck is worth some extra effort. And with these tips, you can save yourself from a pain in the neck.

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Back and Neck by drlasich