Neck pain

The complete guide

Discover the methods and techniques to remove your neck pain and remain pain free quickly and easily

By Mark Perren-Jones

Why does my neck hurt?

First of all I want you to know that neck and upper back pain are generally easy to fix. By learning why you are having pain in the first place we can then set about teaching you how to fix your pain and prevent it from happening in the future. Sound simple? It is.

The next time you have a look around an office building, a building site, a school, and a bus stop, on a train or wherever. You will see people slouching in their seats, slouching over their computers, lifting with bent backs and doing a wide range of daily tasks using bad posture.  These same people will also more than likely be suffering from back, neck and/or shoulder pain (or all three). They may have constant pain or suffer from ongoing bouts of recurrent pain.  They will probably then go to get treatment from a chiropractor, a physiotherapist or a masseur or if these don’t work perhaps an acupuncturist. They may try a yoga class, or the gym or Pilates and try to strengthen and stretch their muscles only to find that their pain comes back. How can this be they ask? The great mystery really is no mystery. As I have mentioned before, treating your own neck pain and making sure it does not come back is easy, you just need to know how. The vast majority of neck pain is from poor posture! If you continue to slouch at your chairs, or at the computer, or whilst you eat, or continue to lift poorly or stand poorly you will not have removed the cause of your pain and thus remain in pain. This is exactly why you can do your well intentioned exercise course but you still suffer from pain. This is why you can get treated by therapist after therapist only to see you pain return after awhile. you can see your chiropractor five times a week but if you then get back into your car from your treatment and slouch into your seat, go home and slouch in front of the television, then spend some time slouched in  front of your computer you will again experience pain. This simple piece of knowledge will save you thousands and thousands of dollars in therapist’s bills.

People will go to the gym and do 200 sit-ups but still have lower back pain because they spend the rest of the 8 hours exhibiting poor posture at their home or workplace. You must address the issue of posture in everything that you do.

This is the great secret to eradicating your pain!

If you have pain in your thumb because you continually hit it with a hammer all day, and then go to the physiotherapist to get ultrasound on it, but the next day you are back at work hitting your thumb with a hammer again-you will of course remain in pain. Your necks and backs are no different. Let’s have a look at exactly where the problem lies. It is simple body mechanics.

A Closer Look:

If you are sitting poorly, standing poorly or doing you daily activities using poor bio-mechanics you will be injuring your neck time and time again. When a person is sitting slouched with the chin jutting forwards they are continually straining the ligaments. The ligaments surround the joints and are responsible for supporting the discs that lay between the vertebrae. After prolonged poor postural habits the ligaments can actually tear. This can then cause pain and if the person continues to have poor posture the ligaments will not heal properly. If good posture is performed this give the ligaments a chance to heal. Think of cutting your elbow, if you continue to bend your elbow you continue to re-injure your cut and the elbow doesn’t heal. However, if you stop bending your elbow, the cut will have a chance to heal and will get better quickly. This is the same with your ligaments of your neck, stop slouching putting your neck into a forward position and your ligaments get a chance to heal finally- thus removing your pain. If you damage your ligaments further though, they can lose the ability to hold your disc in place and the disc may eventually bulge and can press on a spinal nerve causing pain or numbness or pins and needles in the shoulders, arms or hand. The good news is that this too can be helped using some specific exercises and adhering to good postural habits. The exercises will fast track your healing by re-aligning the disc.

Let’s look at the example of a person at a computer. You will see this all day every day, the person is sitting with their head protracted (pushed forwards). In other words, if you were to hang a plumb bob (piece of string with a weight on the end) from their chin it would hit the floor. Their head is too far forward. This then puts the lower neck into a position of flexion. From years of poor posture certain muscles will also chronically shorten causing more pain and dysfunction. This can cause more pain and headaches. Imagine you have a balloon between your hands with one hand above the other. Your hands represent the vertebrae and the balloon is your disc. If you put pressure through the heels of your hands, the balloon will be forced out through your fingertips. If you press through your fingertips the balloon will be forced back out the opposite way through your heels. This is what is happening when you are sitting with your head in a forward position. You are continually injuring your neck pushing your disc backwards. By reversing this, you allow your neck to heal, reposition the disc, and remove your pain.

The neck pain exercises

Ok, here we go. You should already know by now that to be pain free it is imperative that you sit, stand and do your daily activities with proper posture. That is, not pushing your chin/head forward. In other words sitting up straight and standing tall whenever you are standing. Also, during your daily activities whether it be reaching above you to grab something from the cupboard, drinking from a glass or even just reading a paper make sure  that your head is slightly retracted so that your chin does not jut out. So to become and remain pain free, the first and most important step is to check your posture is excellent at all times. This means that your ear is above your shoulder from a side on view, and not forward of it. Also, when you are sitting you must be sitting erect instead of slouching. It is impossible to put your head into a good postural position if your lower back is not in good postural position. Therefore, make sure you are sitting tall which makes your muscles of your back work rather than slouching which rests on the ligaments and pushes the discs backwards. You may like to use a rolled up towel, a cushion, or even buy a lumbar roll to help you maintain good lower back posture when you sit. Place it just above your beltline where the small of the back is. This will help keep the natural inward (lordotic) curve for your lower back.

Now that your lower back is in good position, make sure that your head is in good position. You may like to try the wall test (see wall test in exercises) to get an understanding of what is proper posture for standing.

Now that you have helped your neck (and lower back) with good posture you also want to be doing these neck exercises during the day to help counteract the amount of forward bending the head does throughout the day:

The double chin-the good, the bad and the ugly

The good…

• Draw your head backwards without your chin lifting up. Keep your chin tucked in and down you may need to look into a mirror a first to do this. Draw it back as far as you can comfortably. You want to repeat this 12 times. Draw it back as far as you can, hold for a second or two and release.
• If you have to look down a lot, for example a person who is sewing or working on a laptop then do this every hour or so, if not do it 5-6 times per day. But remember, if you do have to look down to do your tasks, keep your chin comfortably tucked in rather than jutted out straining your ligaments.
• Remember to breathe, relax and enjoy

…the bad and the ugly

• Lifting your chin up
• Forgetting to breathe, relax and enjoy

Tennis in the sky-the good, the bad and the ugly

The good…

• Now that you have done the double chin, you need to follow up with “tennis in the sky”. Please note that if your pain is still too severe, just stick with the double chin until your can progress to this one.
• Start by doing the double chin and then look toward the sky without letting the chin jut forwards. Look up as far as possible and then look to the left and right as if you were watching a tennis match. Don’t do it too slowly nor too quickly, it should be about the pace of watching a tennis match in a baseline rally and only allow the head to move a little way each side (you nose moves about an inch to the left and right).
• As you do this, try to extend your head further and further back as far as you can you are trying to look further and further behind you on the ceiling.
• Look upwards and to the sides 6 times and then return your head to the starting position.
• Repeat this 12 times
• Remember to breathe , relax and enjoy

…the bad and the ugly

• Allowing your head to jut forward when you extend. This is a common mistake, you must retract your head backwards first (creating the double chin) and then look upwards.
• Not extending you head back as far as possible( as pain permits)
• Forgetting to breathe, relax and enjoy

No more Neck pain acupressure point

Here’s another little gem to help your neck pain. It’s an acupuncture point that you can press to help your pain as well. Use your finger or thumb to use firm pressure on the area between the top of your knuckles on your first and second fingers. Rub and press firmly whilst rotating your head from side to side up to the point of pain or restriction. Rotate your head to the left and right 10 times whilst firmly pressing and rubbing into the point on your hand. If your pain is more one-sided, for example you have pain more on the left hand side rather than centrally on the spine; just rotate your head to the left hand side and not the right. To make that clear, if your pain is not in the centre but more on one side of your neck/back rotate your head TOWARDS the painful side. Then do the same thing pressing on the other hand. Do this several times a day-it can have miraculous results!

In summary:

1. correct your posture for everything that you do
2. do the double chin and tennis in the sky several times a day, more if you look down a lot for your work
3. stimulate the acupoint on your hand

When you are out of pain, continue to do numbers 1 and 2 and also during the day do the lunge stretch, the pectoral stretch and the great neck/back combo stretch. Here they are!

Stretches you should and shouldn’t do for the computer

Here are the most important stretches you should be doing if you use a computer and the ones you should completely avoid! We all spend way too much time on computers these days so it’s important to know what stretches to do to ease neck tension and back pain. I will teach you what are the essential stretches and proper ergonomics at your work station.

Ok, first of all it’s absolutely vital to have proper posture or you can do all the stretching in the world and it won’t make a lick of difference. This is one of the major mistakes many people make.  There are so many people that go to the gym, yoga, Pilates, do stretches, and do hundreds of sit-ups or ball exercises only to find themselves still suffering from back pain. If you are one of these people and want to know more read my article why does my neck hurt to find out why you may still suffer, to understand the causes and know how to fix them.

We all know that we should be taking regular breaks and normally we don’t so obviously trying to do this will be of great benefit not only for your body but also to refresh your mind.

When you are at a computer in a sitting position the hip flexors (the front of your hips) become chronically shortened so it’s a must to stretch these out. If you don’t, not only can you suffer from back pain at your workstation but also it may then hurt when you have to stand for extended periods of time. If these hip flexors are chronically shortened enough it can also be painful for people to sleep on their backs or on their stomachs. Also, we need to address stretching out the neck, back and chest. This is because many people tend to slouch and the pectoral (chest) muscles also become chronically shortened and pull the shoulders forwards. This can then lead to shoulder problems. You may never have thought your shoulder problems could come from having tight chest muscles but it’s very common and very commonly overlooked. And finally we have the neck muscles to stretch. We need to stretch out the trapezius muscles. However, once you have stretched out these muscles its imperative that you go back to your workstation and resume good posture.

You want to do these stretches hour or so. It’s important to be able to take these breaks for body and mind. You don’t want to be doing neck stretches like putting your chin to your chest because these muscles are generally already overstretched from poor posture ( chin jutting forwards-for more on this see ‘why does my neck hurt?’) and also you don’t need to be bringing knees to you chest, touching your toes, curling up into a ball or other stretches like these because they all put too much pressure on your lower discs and don’t stretch the muscles that are tightest-they don’t get to the muscles that need to be stretched! Also, don’t stretch your arm across your body as these stretch the backs of your shoulders which don’t normally need to be stretched because you are already over stretched at the back of the shoulders.

I will explain more about this in another post but for now here are the stretches you need to be doing.

The hips-the good, the bad and the ugly

The good…

• From a standing position place one foot back behind you in a comfortably wide stance. Make sure you keep the back foot facing forward, do not let it turn out. You may have to look at the back foot to check because it can feel like its straight when its not.
• Bend your front knee so that your front shin is vertical, this will put your weight through your ankle and protect your knee.
• Bend both knees a little and allow the back heel to come off the ground.
• Make sure your hips are facing forwards
• Ensure that your back is upright and not leaning forwards
• Your weight should be placed evenly between both feet
• You MUST tuck your backside underneath you by using your abdominals to lift your beltline up. ( a pelvic tilt)This decreases the arch in your lower back which will then give you a stretch through the front of your back thigh.
• Hold for 15 seconds and change sides
• Relax, breathe, smile and enjoy
• Do this several times per day to stretch out the front hip especially if you are sitting a lot ( who doesn’t these days)

…the bad and the ugly

• bending the front knee too much which stresses the front knee
• turning the back foot out
• arching the lower back
• leaning the body forwards over the front leg instead of being vertical
• allowing the front knee to fall inwards, keep your shin vertical
• forgetting to relax, breathe, smile and enjoy

The chest-the good the bad and the ugly

The good…

• Stand facing a wall and place your hand on the wall with your elbow about shoulder height
• Now turn your body and feet away from the wall feeling a stretch through the front of your chest, not the back of the shoulder
• Make sure your shoulder is relaxed and down
• Keep your chin in and your hip tucked under so that you don’t overarch your back
• Hold for 15 seconds and change sides
• Remember to breathe, relax, smile and enjoy

…The bad and the ugly

• Letting your shoulder pinch at the back rather than feel the stretch at the front
• Hunching your shoulders up
• Jutting your head forwards and over arching your lower back
• Leaning your upper back backwards-(keep back vertical using your abdominals)
• Forgetting to breathe, relax, smile and enjoy

Option 2:

The Stick Up-the good, the bad and the ugly

The good…

• Stand in a doorway and place both forearms on either side, elbows at shoulder height( like in a stick-up position)
• Place one foot in front of the other
• Keep your chin in and your hip tucked under using your abdominals so that your don’t overarch your back
• Move your weight forward to feel a stretch through the front of your chest
• Keep your shoulders down and relaxed
• Hold for 15 seconds
• Remember to breathe, relax, smile and enjoy

…the bad and the ugly

• Allowing your shoulders to pinch at the backs
• Jutting your chin forward
• Overarching your back rather than tucking the hip under by using your abdominals
• Hunching your shoulders
• Forgetting to breathe, relax, smile and enjoy

Option 3:

Hands behind head-the good, the bad and the ugly

…the good

• Place your hands behind your head
• Pull your elbows back to get a stretch through the front of your chest
• Keep your chin in and your hip tucked under using your abdominals so that your don’t overarch your back
• Keep your shoulders down and relaxed
• Hold for 15 seconds
• Remember to breathe, relax, smile and enjoy

…the bad and the ugly

• Allowing your shoulders to pinch at the backs
• Jutting your chin forward
• Overarching your back rather than tucking the hip under by using your abdominals
• Hunching your shoulders
• Forgetting to breathe, relax, smile and enjoy

The neck

• stand upright and put your right hand behind your back trying to touch your left buttock
• Tilt your head to the left trying to touch your left ear to your left shoulder. keep your head straight( you may want to do this in front to a mirror first to see that you are doing it correctly)
• slide your left hand down the side of your left leg
• Do not lean forward or back and don’t let your head come forward.
• If you want to enhance this stretch, cross your right foot over your left foot and gently push your hips to the right. this will stretch you from your lower back all the way to your neck
• Remember, with all stretches you only want to feel a gentle stretch not ‘no pain, no gain’. Hold for 20 seconds.
• Be careful as this is also an exercise in achieving good balance with your legs crossed over.
• Enjoy!

The ‘I dunno’ exercise for neck pain and upper back tension

Here’s  a quick and effective little exercise that relieves upper back tension for those tight shoulders  and neck from being at the computer, driving the car or from good old everyday stress.

So many of us have tight and painful upper backs and necks and It generally takes years of accumulated bad posture and  physical and mental stresses to get this but the good news is that quite often it can be fixed quickly and easily. One of my clients said to me many years ago that she wears her shoulders as earrings. I didn’t immediately know what she was talking about so she explained to me that all day every day she would find herself so tense her shoulders would not be relaxed and they would creep higher and higher until it felt like they were attached to her ears. I am sure many of you drive your cars like this or work at the computers like this. Your shoulders are not down and relaxed, you continually have to tell yourself to relax them instead of holding them tightly. It gets worse the more stress that you have around you. It you do this for long enough these muscles get painful from hours of contracting them. Imagine if I was to ask you to bend your elbow and flex hard your bicep muscle to contract it hard-as if you were to show me how big your arm muscles were. And imagine if asked you to hold that for one hour in the same position. Well, you probably wouldn’t last for very long and even if you did, your arm would be very sore from contracting it. This is exactly what is happening when you are holding your upper back and shoulders ‘like earrings’. It’s little wonder they are sore at the end of the day!

One of the most difficult things to do is be aware that you are doing this. So many people are so used to it, when I tell them to relax their shoulders they tell me they are relaxed. I try to wiggle their upper back and shoulders and they are locked hard. The client generally is quite surprised because they think that they were completely relaxed. Unfortunately, after years of tensing their upper backs and necks they have literally forgotten how it feels to feel relaxed. This is where this exercise comes in.

The ‘I dunno’ exercise:

We need to re program your muscles to start to realise where and what relaxed is again. The ‘I dunno’ exercise will do this for you. I want you to do this several times day especially if you find yourself going back into bad habits by tensing those shoulders. Shrug both shoulders up towards your ears as if you were doing that classic ‘I dunno’ position. Hold for 3 seconds and the gently let them drop back to a relaxed position. Let them relax for 5 seconds. Now push them in the opposite direction towards the floor, the opposite to a shoulder shrug, for 3 seconds. Then relax them in neutral again. Repeat this sequence 5 times of raising, relaxing, pushing down and then relaxing. This will give you a much better understanding of where relaxed is and when you are tensing your muscles. It will also have the advantage of fatiguing these muscles which will make them less reactive to going back to being worn as earrings. The more you do this the more aware you will become and the less pain and tension you will have.

Remember, always have good posture when you are sitting and standing otherwise you will have limited results. As I have said many times before, that it’s imperative to remove the causes to your pain. Bad posture with your head in a forward protracted position is the main cause of neck pain!

Below is a classic example of a person looking into the computer rather than looking at it. Notice how her ears are way in front of her shoulders. If she were sitting upright her ears would be above her shoulders not it front of them. Remember hat the head should sit on the neck like a golf ball sits on a tee.  If you were to drop a pebble from her chin it would most definitely hit the ground and not her chest-it should hit her chest if she is in good postural position.  Also with this slouched position you can see how her lower back is rounded, she has lost the lower back inward arch-it is now flexed. So you can bet she is probably suffering from both neck pain and lower back pain, and if she isn’t now she will be soon. The lower back inward arch must be present to have good neck posture, it must start from the lower back! Think-sit tall at all times. Imagine that a thread is pulling you from the top of your head towards the ceiling. When you do this you will feel and be taller and lighter. Your neck and lower back will be in proper position and your shoulders will be in better position as well. You will be able to breathe more easily because you are not compressing your internal organs by slouching and you will feel better within! Your body posture is also an important factor to your emotional wellbeing. Look at people who are depressed and you will see that they have their shoulders and heads forward, their backs arched into a flexed position and their chest are sunken. You cant possibly feel confident and healthy when you are standing and sitting in these postures all day. Furthermore, these people’s postures then cause them pain and so they become more depressed because they are suffering physically as well. They are on a downward spiral.Stand tall, sit tall, gently lift up through your chest and breathe from the base of your lungs. I guarantee you that just from doing this you will feel better

Here

Pillow Talk.

Which  should I buy?

There are an enormous variety of pillows available on the market today with all sorts of shapes, sizes and fillings. There are pillows that give your neck traction, duck feathers, goose feathers, moulded cervical pillows, memory foam, tempur, even the pillows they use on the space shuttle! Trying to choose the right one could be a nightmare especially when you consider that one third of your life is spent sleeping. Unless of course you have a one year old baby like me.

Now, whilst we are at it lets test your pillow that you are currently using as well. So grab a tennis shoe and your pillow and let’s go! Yes you heard me right a tennis shoe.
It may sound strange or even hard to believe but it’s actually possible to traumatize your neck while you are asleep – and the problem may be your pillow. Although most of us move around from time to time in our sleep, many of us tend to lie in the same position for long periods of time. If your neck and shoulders are poorly supported by your pillow, this can place considerable strain on the surrounding muscles, ligaments and cervical spine.

The first type of pillow we shall look at is the foam variety. It is fairly dense, firm and resilient and has very little ‘give’. With this type of pillow, tight or tired neck muscles may find it difficult to relax and it can be hard to get comfortable quickly. Similarly, on waking, the neck may feel stiff from being held so firmly in one place during sleep.

There are also the feather filled varieties which are pretty expensive and are a whole world softer than the foam ones. The major problems with these pillows are that your head can sink down too far into them which can put a stretch on the neck, which may lead to pain and stiffness on waking.

Then we have the ol’ favorite polyester/wool-filled pillow. This is by far the most common on the market and is favored by people who suffer from allergies because the filling is hypoallergenic. The main drawback with these types of pillows is that the fibers become compressed in a few short months and then you are in the problem territory of the feather pillows where your head sinks too far down again.

Now the biggest problem with all of these three pillows is that they generally only come in one height. This is a major drawback as us humans come in many different heights, weights and thicknesses.  We have different shapes, we move from lying on our sides to our backs and maybe even onto our stomachs. This alters our neck and head height considerably and puts strain on our ligaments, joints and tendons. Generally speaking, when you sleep on your side, your shoulder props you up higher than when you are on your back so you need a higher pillow when lying on your side to support your neck. So what’s the answer?

Introducing the semi-customized orthopedic pillow!
These pillows vary in shape and have a central depression to cradle the head but, for this to work; the head needs to stay in the ‘hollow’ – which is difficult as most people change position while sleeping. To address this, these pillows are made with a raised area that lies under the neck at the lower edge of the pillow. This will support the neck no matter where the head rests.

It’s all well and good in theory but do these actually help our necks? I am glad you asked because there has been a bucket load of research done on these pillows to answer that very same question.
There was one study done using x-ray imaging to compare the curve of the cervical vertebra in the ‘roll-shaped’ pillows and the other ‘normal’ pillows. The researchers found that the roll shaped ones actually restored the optimal curve of the neck and also decreased the amount of neck pain! (Jackson R, The Cervical Syndrome, 4th edn, Charles C. Thomas, 1987).

Another interesting study was done with nearly one hundred fibromyalgia patients and 60 other patients who had only recently been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. All of the patients suffered with neck pain. They checked 18 months later and discovered that with these pillows, 63% and 84% respectively has significantly improved! (J Rheumatol, 1994; 21: 8).

And in another study, they compared three types of pillows in terms of the intensity of pain, relief of pain, if the person slept more soundly, disability and overall satisfaction in people with mild neck pain. They discovered that with the correct pillow you can reduce neck pain considerably and get a better night sleep. (Arch Phys Med Rehab, 1997; 78: 193-8).

And finally there was a study done to see if people who did not suffer from neck pain would have any adverse effects from using one of these pillows. The answer came back a resounding NO. Not only did they feel any neck pain from using them but 83% also said that their quality of sleep was also greatly improved! (J Can Chiropr Assoc, 1998; 42: 156-62).

Another thing to consider:

Normally you should replace your pillow every 6 months to 2 years depending on the filling.

Now its time to grab your pillow and your tennis shoe. This is to test your synthetic or feather down pillows.

• Put your pillow on a reasonably flat surface and fold it in half.
• Put your tennis shoe on top.
• If the shoe flies off as your pillow bounces back into its original shape, your pillow is doing just fine.
• If the shoe stays there or the pillow doesn’t spring back into shape, I suggest you put it in the dog kennel and go shopping for a new one.

So there it is in a nutshell. No need to lose any more sleep over the issue of pillows and neck pain. Sweet dreams. And the n you will be sleeping like a baby.

Need To Sneeze? Just Say Cucumber

(And other essential sneeze facts)

You probably hadn’t given it much thought but a sneeze is actually very interesting.

For example:

It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open and it’s also physically impossible to sneeze whilst you are asleep (due to certain sneeze receptors which it seems also go to sleep and do not send the required message to the brain).But there’s more…

• The myth that your heart stops beating when you sneeze is exactly that-just a myth however, your rhythm and blood flow do change.
• We say ‘bless you’ because of the belief we were expelling demons each time we sneezed.
• A sneeze comes out at 100 mph and the saliva can travel up to 6 feet.
• Plucking your eyebrows can stimulate certain nasal nerves that make you sneeze and you should not ‘hold’ a sneeze by suppressing it as some doctors consider this to be dangerous.
• Britain’s Donna Griffiths sneezed every minute for 978 days of her life
• And saying ‘lamp’ or ‘cucumber’ repeatedly when you know you are about to sneeze can stop you from sneezing.
• Also, it’s a darn good idea to always carry a hanky just in case you may need it.

Sneezing and back pain

I decided to write this article because I had a client in the clinic last week who had ‘put his back out’ the last two times when he was sitting on the toilet. He said that he was sitting there and had the urge to sneeze and as he sneezed he felt a searing pain in his lower back which put him in agony for many days.

I told him that firstly his back was probably rounded or slouched as he sat on the toilet which already strains the ligaments and puts a backwards force on the discs. It’s the same as what happens with the neck vertebra and discs when in bad posture. So his ligaments were already straining, his discs were already under strain as well and then he sneezed which put enormous intra abdominal force against the back as well and ‘bang’, his back could take no more.

Here’s the secret:

When you have to cough or sneeze-adopt good posture (an inward arch in the lower back) and sneeze or cough upwards. This will take the pressure off the discs and you will save your back.

Sit ups and back pain-STOP RIGHT NOW!

Stop doing sit ups, curls, and ab crunches, pulling your navel to your spine and the like because YOU ARE DAMAGING YOUR BACK!

Yes you heard me right. And no, this is not because the other day I was walking down the beach and saw a person with 6 pack abs and became jealous and thought ‘right that’s it, if I don’t have a 6 pack then I will make sure no-one else will’. No sir.

It’s because it’s actually bad for your backs!

If I was at a party and a person came up to me and said that they were going to watch a VHS video I would probably have a little polite snigger to myself. VHS? Videos? No-one watches those anymore. And then the next person came to me and says that they are going home to listen to their record player I would have a little giggle to myself and think RECORD PLAYER? Who listens to records anymore? (actually, truth be told I would probably not giggle because I would think how very retro, how very cool that this person still has a record player and a collection of vinyl records- but this does not fit in with my point that I am trying to make so I will carry on) and then the third person comes to me and says ‘I do 200 sit ups a day!’  And I would not only snigger and giggle but I would also chortle, chuckle and perhaps even laugh in a very uncaring and unprofessional manner. Yes folks, sit ups and crunches are very outdated but not because they are old hat, it’s because they have discovered that they can actually be damaging for your back.

It all started back in the mid-nineties in Queensland Australia where a group of researchers discovered that people who were suffering from lower back pain and were asked to raise and lower their arms. They noticed that there was very little firing of their deepest abdominal muscle called the transverses abdominus compared to people with no lower back pain. The transverses abdominus was thought to have braced the spine to protect it from wobbling all around when the person moved about; thus protecting the back. And from this research, an abdominal revolution spread. All throughout the world, people were doing Pilates sucking in their belly buttons, doing crunches on Swiss balls pushing their backs into the floor and doing stomach ‘zip up and hollow sit up exercises’ to strengthen the dreaded deep abdominals. And millions of people are still doing them!

If you are doing crunches. Stop. Stop doing them.

Last year in the British journal of sports medicine they wrote an article about the research that was done in Australia in that first study found that many of the key findings may have actually have been wrong. There has also been research done where it has shown when you do bring your belly button to your spine on crunches your back can actually resist less load without getting injured. Sucking your navel in towards your spine makes your back more vulnerable to injury not less!

The whole problem arising from core training exercises is that the majority of people think the core are the deep abdominals and that’s all. Also by continually bending your back doing crunches puts enormous forces on your lower discs. Imagine a tent pole to be your spine and the ropes that hold it up from each side are your core muscles. If you pull one side to tight it will pull the tent pole to one side and imbalance the whole structure. Plus the other ropes from the other side will have to lengthen. This is what happens when you do core crunches, and don’t balance the other core muscles. Haven’t you ever wondered why people can do 500 sit-ups a day but have ruined backs? Especially since supposedly strengthening your stomach muscles is meant to protect your back. Well now you know why.

You must strengthen all of your core muscles to balance and protect your spine. Firstly, what we need to do is find out which muscles are weaker or stronger. This is done through a very simple system of muscle testing. After all, maybe your abdominals are twice as strong as your other core muscles. This needs to be checked first. There are safe ways to strengthen your abs and have that 6 pack if you want without damaging your back.

Neck pain- the 4 fastest ways to get it.

Yes folks, here are some very easy ways to give yourself neck pain. I am sure many of you do these all day every day so let’s take a look at the first one.

All day you are Phone wedging:

This really is a fabulous way to get neck pain and is seen everywhere, especially now with the advent of cell phones. Everyone has a phone and it seems that we are using them practically all of the time. But also the office phone and the house phone are great contributors to neck pain as well. How many of you are guilty of talking on the phone whilst wedging the phone between your ear and shoulder. How often are you talking on the phone whilst leaving your two hands free to continue typing on the computer? This is a sure-fire way to continually contract those muscles and eventually give you neck pain. Then you will have muscle imbalances, perhaps trigger points in the muscles which cause pain and dysfunction and you will be well on your way to chronic neck pain.

All day you are chin jutting:

This is another super way to give you neck pain. It’s not only the most common but also the fastest way. I have written at great length in my other posts on neck pain and posture and exactly what the mechanisms are which produce this type of neck pain but it’s basically being in a head- forward posture. You should have your head slightly retracted not pushed forward. Think of your daily activities, at the computer, driving the car, eating and drinking. By far the most common of these is the dreaded computer. How many of you peering into the screen with your head protracted-here is a reminder. If you were to hang a string from your chin, it should fall onto your chest not straight down onto the floor. If it goes to the floor you’re probably with a head forward posture straining your ligaments and well on your way to neck pain(if you don’t already have it), shoulder impingement problems, pinched nerves radiating pain, numbness and/or tingling into the arms, a tense upper back and shoulders just to name a few.

All day you are slouching:

Number three on the list is slouching. I am not just talking about work at the computer which I am sure many of you do. Remember, if your lower back is not in good position; meaning that you are sitting upright with the small inward arch in your lower back, your neck has no chance whatsoever. How many of you finish a day of strenuous slouching only to go home and sit in your favourite chairs in the lounge room to continue slouching. If your back is in a big C shape you are doing a great job to not only give yourself neck pain but also get the daily double and have lower back pain as well. If you don’t sit with your lower back in good position you are well on your way to disc bulges, herniations, prolapses, buttock pain and sciatica. I have also written about these in much more depth in my previous posts.

At the end of a hard days slouching and wedging its time to read in bed:

And now its time to peel yourself out of the low sofa, grunt and groan, lie back in bed, take it easy, prop 3 pillows behind your head and do some reading. What a wonderful way to really hurt both your neck and back at the same time. Not only is your lower back without its inward arch straining the ligaments again, but also your head is pushed forward into the chin jutting position. A much better way to do this is put the pillows behind your lower back and sit upright with your head slightly retracted and interchange this position with lying on your stomach reading. In fact, when you watch TV, get down on the floor at intervals instead of spending hours slouching in your chair and spend some time lying on your stomach like you did when you were a child. Lay on your stomach propped on your forearms to give your back some well deserved extension-by god it needs it. And the more you get used to t, the better it will feel and you will want to do this regularly. To read more about why this is, read my section on lower back pain and exercises to fix sciatica.

So, correct your posture at all times, stop wedging the phone between your head and shoulder-buy a headset if need be and stop reading in bed with your head pushed forward and lower back slouched. You will be pain free; will not need to see your chiropractor, physiotherapist, acupuncturist or masseur anywhere near as often and you will not need to be popping down ibuprofen like candy.

Sweet dreams.

What to do each day for a healthy neck:

• Have good posture all day every day
• Sit, eat, drink, drive without your head in a forward protracted position
• Do the neck exercises 2-3 times a day(double chin and tennis in the sky) especially if you are looking down a lot(like sewing)
• Do the chest, lunge and neck/back combo stretches throughout the day
• If you are tight through your neck and shoulders do the ‘I dunno’ exercise throughout the day
• Look at your computer not into it.
• Make sure your computer screen is high enough and if using a laptop either get a remote keyboard or remote screen especially if your typing is poor and you need to look at the keys a lot
• If you use a computer a lot learn to touch type so that you can avoid looking down at your keyboard
• Do not slouch
• Don’t read in bed with many pillows behind your head pushing it forward
• Don’t sleep with a pillow or pillows that push your head forward, up or down
• Think of your head on your shoulders like a golf ball that sits on top of a tee
• Good posture means sitting and standing tall but remember to do this comfortably and in a relaxed manner. You don’t want to look like a robot.
• Make sure that your workstation is such that you are not turning all day in one direction(like having your computer screen off to the left or right)
• Don’t wedge the phone between your ear and shoulder-buy a headset if you have to be on the phone a lot

If you do the above your neck will not only feel much better but it will remain much better. Your upper back will feel less tense and your shoulders problems may magically disappear. You may also have less headaches and more energy (pain is draining). You will feel better emotionally, be happier and have a much better quality of life. An enormous weight will be lifted off your shoulders-that weight used to be your head!

Filed under: Neck Pain, essentials