Neck pain is a very common musculoskeletal complaint that seems to be growing as computer and phone use has expanded. In fact, up to 80% of the population in the United States has complained of neck pain within the past year. There are a large number of other factors that are related to neck pain including ergonomics, body type, level of exercise, and even psychosocial factors!
It’s important to understand that there are several sources when it comes to having neck pain. However, through my years of practice, I’ve found that there are several very common themes that are found in many of my patients who are suffering from neck pain. This is likely because a lot of them are desk workers and suffer from something called “upper crossed syndrome”.
Upper Crossed Syndrome is commonly associated with a pattern of certain anterior neck muscles being weak and lengthened while the posterior neck muscles are short and stiff. Also, the pecs tend to be short and stiff, while the mid back muscles are too weak and lengthened as well. I’m going to go over a few exercises to help you change your posture and get rid of that neck pain!
- Cervical Retractions: To perform a cervical retraction correctly, think about sitting tall, then bringing your head backwards (without looking down or up). You’re kind of aiming to give yourself a double chin while still looking forward.
- Foam Roll Your Thoracic Spine: You’ll want to place your foam roller (36 inches long) on the floor. Lie down on the foam roller length wise (so it’s parallel from your head to your hips) with your head and hips supported. Start performing snow angel like motions with your arms, slowly, keeping the back of your hands to the floor as much as possible.
- Rowing: It doesn’t matter if you’re doing rows with the machine at the gym, bent over rows with a dumbbell, barbell rows… any of these are good for lower – mid trap strengthening when done properly. The basic concept is to squeeze your shoulder blades down and back while you move your elbows back against resistance. Try your best to maintain the squeezed down and back shoulder blades throughout the entire movement; these are stability muscles and not prime movers anyway.
Remember, often we try to rely on mashing our neck and shoulders with massages. If that truly worked, we wouldn’t have to keep doing it and our pain wouldn’t keep coming back! Often, we just need some specific strengthening and stretching to make sure our muscles and joints are in balance and not heavily weighted towards one side; once that balance is achieved, we fix the source of the issue.
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