Have you noticed your posture getting worse and worse? Are your shouldersrolling forward and your back rounding? Do you find yourself becominghunched over more and more as your walk sit or stand? Are you tight, tenseor feel like you “Hold” your stress in your neck? If so, you’re not alone.In my experience as a Personal Trainer I have found that approximately 3 of4 people suffer from upper neck and back pain of some sort. Whether youhave degenerative or herniated discs in your cervical spine, frozen shoulderor just aggravating muscles soreness, there are some simple, quick thingsyou can do to improve your condition immediately and over time.
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3 Quick Tips that will improve how you feel immediately:
Quick Tip #1: Take deeper breaths
Quick Tip #2: Do These Stretches
Quick Tip #3: Drink More Water
I have come to the conclusion that one of the quickest ways to get relief is to make a subtle change in the way you breathe. Start taking deeper breaths while you are sitting, standing, walking, talking, ect… It is a physiological fact that when you take shallow breaths you use the muscles of your upper back and neck. This means that the muscles of your upper back and neck are contracting more often. Therefore your muscles get tighter and tighter from overuse. As a result the blood flow to your muscles in this area actually reduces causing dull achy pain, inflammation, headaches and eventually vertebrae issues. Contrastingly, deeper breaths use more core stabilizing muscles (diaphragm, transverse abdominus). So instead of your upper neck and back contracting with every breath they will actually relax your upper back and neck with every breath. This will allow your blood to flow more freely to those areas, which will lead to better joint positioning and less pain.
It is imperative to stretch your chest, lats (lattisimus) upper traps (trapezius), and SCM (sternoclidal mastoid). This is especially necessary if your job requires you to sit at a desk, hunch over or drive for most of the day. I have included a link that will show you exactly how to stretch these areas anywhere you are including at your job. Just click on the link to: http://www.emailptprograms.com/upperbackneckstretches.htm have found that most pain actually originates from poor posture due to daily activities. So if you take ten minutes, three times a day (Morning, Midday and Evening) to complete each of these it will drastically change the way you feel over time and give you immediate relief. It will also change your posture so you will stand up straighter, appear taller and younger.I
I know you hear all the time that you should drink more water. Let me tell why it will actually help you stand up straighter, decrease muscle stiffness, increase energy and improve the way your skin looks. Simply put drinking enough water everyday will make sure that you avoid dehydration. Since our cells are made up of more than 90% water they require minimal amounts of water to survive. If they don’t get enough water they die. If a lot of cells on your skin die, your skin gets dry, cracked, itchy and irritated. When muscle fibers do not get enough water they shorten and tighten, which in turn causes blood flow to decrease, which as noted above leads to muscle pain, vertebrae issues, headaches, ect… So before you go to the doctor and get a prescription to deal with your symptoms, why not try these simple things that will actually deal with the root of the problem instead of masking the pain.
Jason Chiero, CPT
