A lack of movement, sitting too much in the one position and not taking care of your neck can all contribute to neck pain.
This can cause muscular pain in and around your neck and shoulders as well as leading to pins and needles, numbness and weakness in your arms and hands.
The neck is responsible for a lot of things within the human body so we need to take care of it and understand what is going wrong when we are in pain.
In order to understand what could be causing neck pain we need to understand the anatomy of the neck. I’m not going to bore you with the details here but here’s the whistle stop tour. First the bones in our necks are called the vertebrae. These are round circular bones with little facets on either end and a spinous process which makes up the structure in the neck. In between these bones we have discs which give us the space to allow the nerves in our necks to reach out into our arms.
These bones and discs allow us to move our neck in all different kinds of ways. As humans we tend to neglect certain movements which can cause stiffness in our necks. This can then cause pain and then stop you from doing what you love or need to be doing. Moving your neck is definitely a good thing to be doing however if things are painful when doing it its best to consult us as All Out Physiotherapy to help you get to the bottom of your pain.
Another way in which our necks can feel stiffness is due to our muscles perceiving a threat within our tissues. This can cause the muscles to go into protective spasm and can definitely cause pain and restricted movement.
There are ways to help with neck stiffness and its by getting your neck moving.
First look up to the sky for 5 seconds
Then down to the floor for 5 seconds
Look as far to you left then over to your right for 5 seconds each
Tilt your head over to the left and then to the right for 5 seconds each time as well
This is just some beginner movements to help you getting your neck moving again however this ultimately does not solve the main issue of where the pain was coming from in the first place. Sometimes we feel good after stretching our necks and then go to bed only to wake up with the pain again or we can sit for too long and it comes back with a vengeance.
This is where we need to look into strengthening the supporting muscles round about the neck and shoulders and incorporating them into our day. This is where the experts at All Out Physiotherapy can help you.
