My new DVD on how to Fix your Own Neck Pain

So why is your Neck always so stiff and Painful?

Neck pain and especially stiff necks are not difficult to treat once you know how ( ie.remove the major causes of your neck pain and stiffness.)

I am about to show you how simple it is to treat your  neck pain and stiffness both quickly and easily.

One of the biggest problems with the overwhelming majority of neck pain  and stiffness is that the causes of your problem are never completely removed. You continue to aggravate your neck each and every day and your neck is never given the chance to settle down.

If you had a sore thumb because you kept hitting it constantly with a hammer every day would you see a chiropractor to help it?

Would you go and get prolotherapy treatments? Massage? Acupuncture?

Would you see the doctor to get some painkillers or muscle relaxants?

Buy a special contoured pillow for it? A new mattress maybe?

Of course not.

You know that it is only when you stop causing your pain by hitting your thumb with a hammer that you can ever hope to be pain free. Once you have removed the cause (hitting your thumb with a hammer) will your thumb get better.

You would feel like an absolute fool if you went to get treatments for your thumb to try to stop the pain and spend thousands of dollars in therapy, wouldn’t you?

Your neck is no different. You Must Remove The Causes of Your Neck Pain.

Not until you stop causing your pain in your neck will your neck get a chance to become pain free. And until you remove the major cause of neck pain you are spending your hard earned money on trying to fix your pain whilst still hitting it with a hammer so to speak.

And this ladies and gentlemen is why the majority of people have chronic neck pain and stiffness and/or continually suffer from recurrent bouts of neck pain.

Here is a quick Neck and Upper back Pain tip:

To avoid getting that aching pain between your shoulder blades from using the mouse make sure that your mouse is not too far away from you. Your upper arm should be hanging vertically from the shoulder joint, resting alongside your ribcage, then you stop using your muscles in your upper back and shoulder blades-and voila! The pain that you have been suffering for so long (those knots that become so painful behind your shoulder blade) will no longer be there because the constant stress and contraction needed from them will have vanished.

But Now let’s take a look at

Your Aching Neck and Upper back Pain and a visit to the Doctor

When it comes to neck pain or any pain for that matter and you go to see your doctor  he will most probably give you some nice relaxing massage for about forty minutes, put on some heat packs to ease muscular tension, talk to you about your posture and the effect it has on neck pain, show you how to do some self myofacial release techniques to ease neck pain and give you a whole host of other wonderful information about how you can remove the causes of your neck pain to help you become Pain free.

Yeah right.

If you are reading this and have seen a doctor for your neck pain this is probably more akin to how your visit went:

You walked in and waited for what seemed like eternity, you finally finish waiting and get out of the ‘waiting room’ because its now your chance to see the doctor. Sure, its now 30 minutes later than your scheduled appointment but that’s what is considered normal when seeing a doctor. You have to wait.

Then you see the doctor, he may press around your neck somewhat for a few moments, tell you that you have lots of tension and you are given a long list of drugs to take, muscle relaxants, pain killers and anti inflammatories.

You are told to ‘see how that goes’ and if you are no better you will be then prescribed stronger pain killers, perhaps now steroidal ones and maybe even some new ‘nerve healing’ drugs.

Have any of the drugs addressed a cause to your pain?”

No. It has been a hit and hope attempt at removing the symptoms.

But never mind, because your now off to the Specialist!

If the drugs don’t work, then you will probably be recommended to see an orthopaedic surgeon or specialist who will ask for an xray or, if you have good insurance or you can afford it, schedule an MRI to see what’s going on.

What’s the problem with getting an MRI?

The problem with getting an MRI or an xray is that it can show degenerative changes and/or disc bulges but this too does not necessarily mean that your pain is coming from these structures.

You could have a MRI and it shows disc bulges at C6-7(for example) and he recommends that you have surgery when the pain may be coming from several trigger points in your sub occipital muscles (for example)- This is where knowing the secrets to helping your neck and upper back pain comes in.

In fact, 85% of people over the age of 60 have degenerative changes in their necks to some degree. It’s simply wear and tear which may or may not be causing you pain-and more often than not is not causing your pain. When you look at the major cause of neck pain on any website you will see consistently that the major cause is postural.

But Let’s take a closer look at the use of painkillers

Let us take a look at what you are doing when you take painkillers to help your pain.

If you have pain coming from poor posture(the most common cause) which is straining your ligaments, pushing your discs against nerves and causing chronic muscular pain and tension then what is a pain killer doing to help this?

Nothing.

Is a pain killer getting to the cause of your problems?

No.

In fact, it’s allowing you to get away with your bad habits which is making your problems worse in the long run. The same goes for those of you who suffer from lower back pain. If your lower back pain is caused from sitting badly in your chair at the computer and/or lifting badly then taking a pain killer is just allowing you to mask the bad habits and is most probably setting you up for a big injury sometime pretty soon.

Pain is your warning system that something is wrong!

And what are you doing to your body’s natural warning system that is there to help you?

Deadening it.

I don’t know about you but I think this is just a little bit daft!!!!

By Learning my common sense approach to having a pain free neck you will finally be off the rollercoaster of recurrent bouts of neck pain for good!

Think about this for a moment:

You are driving along in your nice Mercedes car and your oil light comes on whilst you are driving. You know that the oil light coming on is your cars way of telling you that the engine has a problem-it’s the cars warning system so that you don’t do major damage to your engine which will cost you thousands more if you don’t do something about it. So what do you do?

Of course you go to a mechanic to see what is wrong. However, your mechanic says he will tape some masking tape over the oil light on the dash board so that you can no longer see the light anymore. He tells you to come back in two weeks if you still have a problem.

Now, you may not know much about mechanics and cars but you do know that putting masking tape over the oil light so that you can no longer see the light has not fixed the problem and that you will still have this problem in two weeks. You also know that if it doesn’t get fixed properly( by fixing the cause) you will do some major damage to your engine. This will then cost you thousands!

Hmmm..

Anyone see a pattern emerging here?

“But my car is worth thousands of dollars and I wouldn’t put it at risk. It cost me a lot of money”, I hear you say, and I wouldn’t be that stupid I hear you tell me.

Hmm..

Ever wondered just how much you have spent on your body over the years? Food, clothing, education, health-shall I go on?

Your body is the most sophisticated, most expensive thing you own. And you are happy to just tape over your body’s oil light time and time again by taking pain killers and hoping that the pain will go away.

There is a much better way.

Remove the causes of your pain. Fix the problem rather than masking the symptoms…..

For this you need to know what is causing your pain first and foremost rather than guessing and hoping right? Right.

As I said before;Neck pain is commonly misunderstood, but I am going to show you just how easy it is to fix neck pain without having to get numerous treatments, without hours of stretching, without lots of exercises and without pain killers or surgery.

I am also going to show you why getting treatments or doing exercises for your neck pain is generally a fruitless pursuit. You can seek out the purported best neck exercises but none of these will give you anything more than temporary relief at best.

Is this a magic cure?

This is not something magical, it has nothing to do with gimmicks or gadgets, it is simply about physics, the laws of gravity and your body mechanics.( But I can tell you that it will feel like magic once you are pain free from something so simple.) And it has worked successfully for thousands of people!

It is simple and straightforward and will soon make perfect common sense to you.

Let’s just recap:

No amount of Treatments,  anti-inflammatories, exercises for your neck pain, yoga classes, Pilates, TENS, Ultrasound, osteopathy, Physiotherapy, Chiropractic, Massages or stretches will ever keep your neck pain free permanently if you do not remove the causes.

So let’s have a look at what is one of  the major causes of neck pain.

Look no further than your forward head posture.

When you sit poorly and stand poorly you create stresses so great for your neck that it is virtually impossible for you not to suffer from neck and upper back pain.

 Every inch your head travels forward of the correct postural position creates and extra 10lbs of weight on your neck structures. This means that if you are sitting here reading this without sitting properly( think-if you were to drop a rock from your chin would it drop onto your chest or onto the floor?) you are probably putting anywhere between 20-40lbs of strain onto your neck.

That’s 20-40 pounds of stress on your neck structures for…um, how long have you been sitting at the computer today?

I want you to imagine how long you could hold a 40lb bag of potatoes with an outstretched arm and how much it would hurt if you had to do it( if you physically could) for two hours. Your arm and shoulder would not only be screaming in pain but they would also hurt for days after that.

This is what you do each and every day if you sit and stand in poor posture.

Your neck and the 20 lb bag of potatoes quiz

Take it a step further. If i asked you to hold that bag of potatoes every day in the same manner your arm would be in constant pain especially whilst you were holding it. If you wanted to stop your arm hurting what would be the best way to stop it?

1.stretch your arm and shoulder by doing special exercises

2. get chiropractic treatments, massages, acupuncture or various other treatments spending thousands of dollars

3. remove the cause of your pain and stop holding the bag of potatoes with an outstretched arm

Of course, by now you should know that number 3 is correct because if you continue to aggravate your shoulder, continually straining your joints and muscles by holding this 20lb bag of potatoes you will continue to have pain.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist( or a physical therapist) to know this. You wouldn’t spend you hard earn’t money on treatments to try to fix your pain when you know your pain will be fixed by simply fixing the cause of your pain. You would simply stop causing your pain right?

What else dont you know about what is aggravating your neck each and every day?

This is why neck exercises will not work whilst you are continually harming your neck and upper back each and every day. This is also why it is crazy to get treatments and expect to remain pain free if you continue to hurt your neck. And of course this is exactly what happens to people. They either suffer from constant neck pain or recurrent bouts of neck pain.

How many of you are receiving regular chiropractic treatments or massages whilst still spending your day( and nights) in a forward head position?

But it’s not just at the computer you do this.

Think about when you drive, when you read, when  you watch your favourite program on TV.

Now you know why the famous Mayo clinic also states that a prolonged forward head posture leads to long term muscle strains, disc bulges and neck pain.

I can tell you that i do not get any treatments for my neck. I have not spent thousands of dollars on an ergonomic chair-I sit on a $15 chair.( its very easy to have a $1500 ergonomic chair and sit slouched forward in it)

I have not suffered from neck pain in years.

You too do not have to suffer from neck pain.

How to start helping your neck-it just makes perfect sense

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 ( known as a forward head posture) they are continually straining the ligaments, muscles and discs. 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 gives 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 and soft tissues of your neck; stop slouching and putting your neck into a forward position and they will get a chance to heal finally- thus removing your pain.

What about a pinched nerve?

If you damage your ligaments further though, they can lose the ability to hold your disc in place and the disc may eventually bulge or even herniate and can press on a spinal nerve causing pain or numbness or pins and needles in the shoulders, arms and/or hand.

The good news is that this too can be helped by adhering to good postural habits and (if needed), a little bit of self therapy and (if needed) also by doing some quick specific neck exercises. (The exercises can fast track your healing by re-aligning the disc and taking the strain off the soft tissues.)

Incidentally, many people I see who think they have a pinched nerve because they have radiating symptoms in their arms are actually not suffering from a pinched nerve after all. Quite commonly I see clients who have trigger point referred pain instead (which is also easily helped.)

What about degenerative disc disease and arthritis?

You have been told that you have both or either of these but this too does not necessarily mean that the pain is coming from this condition. In fact, I have seen many clients over the years who told me that their pain could not be helped because they had arthritis only to find that they were soon pain free after receiving my advice simply because the pain was not coming from the joints at all. I see this all the time; people have been given a diagnosis from an MRI or Xray and believe that they have to live with their pain. This does not have to be the case!

What about whiplash?

The same applies. If you have been suffering from chronic neck pain after a whiplash injury is it from your injury itself? Are you sure? Now that you know that every inch forward of a central postural position creates an extra 10 pounds of stress on your neck, think how that must feel on a neck that has had a violent injury such as a whiplash. I have treated many clients over the years who thought that they had to live with their ‘whiplash pain’ only to find out that they almost magically removed their neck pain by removing the daily stresses on it.