Avoiding neck pain is possible with these 3 simple tips.
It can be extremely debilitating when we suffer from general acute neck pain.
Try performing these exercises or avoid these actions to help reduce your chances of an acute episode.
1. Avoid poor posture.
Sitting at a desk, car, table for hours will often force you into poor positions under fatigue. Regular breaks from this can help. Poor positioning for extended periods of time puts excess force through structures and will often bring about negative responses.
2. Strengthen your posterior chain.
Strength training of your upper back, lower back and posterior lower extremity will help in allowing you to withstand excessive force adequately. It will also likely help improve your muscular endurance and balance out any negative strength ratios of your anterior vs posterior units. Having a shorter/stronger anterior unit vs posterior will likely lead to poor positions and imbalanced forces through joints.
3. Open up your thoracic spine.
The majority of us lack sufficient extension through our thoracic (upper back leaning back).
Firstly, it is better for shoulder health and furthermore, if we can extend better through the thoracic spine, we are less likely to chuck the head forward in certain lifts.
My advice on improving your thoracic spine generally comes down to the individual and what works for them. I prefer to get the client moving with successful movements that can influence the less successful movement. However, a common exercise used to try and increase thoracic extension is to lay over a foam roller. Hold for 2-3 minutes.
For more advice or to help with fixing your next pain, then feel free to get in touch.
Sometimes a thorough examination and assessment are needed to work out the movement dysfunction which is causing the problem. You can book your next appointment here.
