Physical Therapy for Neck Pain
Getting to the Bottom of Your Neck Pain
It is unlikely that you will get through your life without ever having neck pain. If you are lucky, it’s the result of sleeping in the car on a long drive or picking up a new tennis hobby and will resolve as quickly as it develops. In some cases, however, neck pain can be more severe or more persistent and you are left wondering where in the world it came from. If you are experiencing neck pain for the first time or for a while now, here are some questions you can ask yourself to try and get to the bottom of it.
1. Did I sustain an injury?
The neck is susceptible to injury just like any part of the body. Injuries to the neck can range from mild to severe and in most cases a person will experience pain as a result of this injury. Some examples of injuries to the neck that can lead to neck pain are whiplash following a car accident, for example; a muscle strain caused by a fall; a spinal cord injury to the neck; and a herniated disc in the cervical spine. While mild injuries may heal well on their own using common sense techniques like avoiding painful movements for a while and gradually returning to your previous activity level, moderate to severe neck injuries can often benefit from assessment by a physical therapist.
After an acute injury, injured tissues go through three phases of healing: acute, subacute and chronic. Understanding what actions to take and what actions to avoid during each of these stages will help support your body’s natural healing process. One of the ways physical therapists support their patients is guiding them through these stages. Waiting too long to begin active recovery can slow down healing time just as trying to do too much too fast can set you back to the beginning of the healing cycle. Full resolution of a neck injury can take time depending on its severity and whether surgery is needed, however, addressing and minimizing pain is one of the primary goals of rehabilitation for neck injuries.
2. Have I checked my posture?
If you find yourself rubbing the aches and tightness out of your neck and shoulders after working for a few hours, your posture may be to blame. We are meant to be moving around throughout our day but many find ourselves maintaining sustained postures for long periods of time while working, scrolling on our phones, driving and so forth. Postural alignment can be a contributing factor to neck pain. Because our bodies are connected from head to toe through a complex network of bones and joints, nerves, skin, muscle and fascia, the neck is affected by the position of the rest of the body.
Sometimes by making changes to your sitting or standing posture you can decrease irritation on the structures of the neck to relieve pain. Adjusting the height of your laptop or phone screen, for example, may allow you to obtain a more neutral neck position. In some cases, adjusting your posture to improve neck pain may require only mindfulness around how you are sitting or standing. In other cases, muscles may have shortened, lengthened or weakened and joints may have stiffened as a result of holding certain postures so often and may need to be addressed through an individualized stretching, strengthening and mobility program.
3. Have I evaluated my activities?
In the absence of an acute injury, evaluating the activities that you have been doing lately is a helpful way to discern the cause of your neck pain. Have you started a new activity recently? Is there an activity that you are performing daily or frequently leading up to an episode of pain? As we mentioned above, the neck is connected to and affected by the actions of the rest of the body. Poor body mechanics, muscle tightness or weakness, restricted mobility and even motor control impairments in the neck and surrounding areas may be resulting in increased stress and strain in the neck thus causing your pain. The key to addressing the pain in this case is to have someone carefully evaluate your movements, identify problem areas and develop a plan to address those issues to provide long term relief.
4. How am I sleeping?
Ever woken up with a stiff neck? Sometimes we sleep so deeply that our body doesn’t get the message to wake up and change positions when it is uncomfortable. Other times, however, your nightly sleep posture may be contributing to your neck pain. In this case, making changes in your sleep posture may provide relief. While there is no need to find a perfectly “neutral” position of the neck for sleeping, you will likely find that your neck and body are most comfortable and most well-supported in a specific position using a specific pillow, for example. When working with a PT they can give you some suggestions on how to modify your sleep set-up to help you wake with fewer symptoms. If you aren’t yet working with a PT, however, purchasing a few different pillows or even a new mattress to try may be needed until you find the right one.
WHEN IN DOUBT, ASK FOR HELP
We hope that asking yourself these questions will give you some insight into what is causing your neck pain. With any luck, you will be feeling better in no time but if you didn’t find your answer here or are looking for help in addressing your pain, our team of therapists are here to help. We offer a thorough and individualized assessment of your neck pain and will create a plan to provide you long term relief. Give us a call today to schedule an evaluation. Call 1-718-258-3300
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About EvolveNY-
Brooklyn's Premier Holistic Physical Therapy Clinics- There’s physical therapy, there’s training, and then there’s EVOLVE. We use the science of biomechanics merged with fitness to help our patients get better and stay better!
First we evaluate, then we heal, then we strengthen our clients so they can reach their goals, feel better, and live happier lives. We do so by utilizing a range of core techniques and specialized treatments to reduce pain, improve mobility, enhance physical strength and deal with the underlying issues, not just the pain itself.