OH MY ACHING NECK: Remedies for a hurting, stiff neck.

  • Have you gotten shorter as you have gotten older?
  • ​Do you check your iPhone for messages?
  • Is it uncomfortable to sit up straight?
  • Do you look down when you walk?
  • Do you use a walker or cane?
  • Are you under a lot of stress?
  • How well do you sleep?
  • Do you sit a lot?​

Our neck is affected by all the conditions listed above. We misuse our neck constantly, stemming from either from poor posture or from bad habit. Stiffness and pain can be ever-present and may affect us even to the extent that driving becomes difficult because we cannot turn our head to observe close traffic. 

"Exercises for a Stiff Neck" describes what exercises to do to improve neck health. It is free and available to you by clicking on the link at the end of this article.

Poor posture affects the neck significantly. Slumping causes the shoulders to roll forward, compressing the rib cage, bending the neck and shortening the muscles in the back of the neck.

How can we correct our posture?
Slide the head back and slightly tuck your chin.

In life we tend to push our head forward and out of alignment with the spine. We lead with our head. This is a common but destructive habit that ultimately causes the back of the neck to tighten and cause all kinds of problems. The remedy is to move your head into alignment by sliding your head backward with your chin slightly tucked.

As you slide your head back, the back of the neck lengthens and stretches, the chest lifts, the abdomen pulls in and the lower back straightens. Many of our problems are helped significantly with this one movement. Slide your head back as if it is on a railroad car in reverse, keeping your chin slightly tucked in.  Take care not to raise your face upward. Keep facing the wall directly in front of you. 

Try not to feel frustrated when that slumped posture keeps returning. Moving the head back is something we need to keep reminding ourselves about. Just keep bringing your head back.

Other bad neck habits everyone has:
In general, do not bend the neck.

Unfortunately there are some other habits that compromise the health of our neck. Some of these habits become more prominent as we age. (One habit is pandemic among younger folks.) Reasons vary from extended sitting, computer use, history of having fallen, posture when using a walker to even being a tall person and trying to be "shorter".
​ 
  • ​Bad Habit #1: We look down at the floor as we walk by tilting our head and neck downward, bending at the base of the neck. This habit is prominent in people who use walkers and/or have had a fall and are afraid they will fall again. It causes our upper spine to compress as our neck moves out of alignment with the rest of the spine.
 
  • Those who use iPhones succumb to the same bad habit as those who look down at the floor. Eventually the bad habit causes the vertebrae, disks and nerves of the neck to deteriorate. In 20 years there are going to be a large number of people who develop spinal nerve impingement from so much iPhone use.
 
  • Bad Habit #2: Poor posture causes us to slump. As we slump, the head naturally drops downward. It is hard to keep the head upright, resulting in tightness in the back of the neck.  The neck bends in the middle to hold the head up. 
 
  • Bad Habit #3: When we use a computer we jut the head and chin forward to read the screen: This causes similar stress as the back of the neck tightens resulting in it bending backward in the middle. 

How it should be: The spine should hang from its first vertebrae, where the head meets the neck. The shoulders are then left relaxed and dripping down the structure of the rib cage.

THE NECK SHOULD NOT BEND.

The neck should be seen as simply the top part of the spine. It is not a separate structure even though it is quite different in nature to the rest of the spine. Think of your neck and spine as being one long flower stem, where the head is the blossom. Do not bend the neck strongly just as you would not bend a flower stem.
Instead, keep the neck upright and tilt just the head (as you do when nodding "yes") to see what is around you. You can also see what's below by keeping both the head and neck upright and straight and rolling just your eyes to see downward. A 3rd trick is to keep your head, neck and eyes straight and sense what is below using your peripheral vision. Read more about how to master these skills by clicking on the button below:

Practice walking in a safe environment: Look straight ahead as you walk. While walking, practice tilting only your head slightly down to see the ground in front of you. After a quick look, tilt your head back so you are facing straight ahead again. Use a nodding motion with your head. Secondly, try rolling your eyes in the eye socket to see below and then quickly look back straight ahead. Practice going from one to the other. Make sure your environment is safe with a railing to hold onto while practicing. Have both hands free of parcels or purse.

Taking steps toward neck health:

Become aware of your neck and how you use it. Notice your shoulders and whether they tend to roll forward. Important concepts to keep in mind, especially when your neck is bothering you:
  • Suspend your spine from the top of your neck.
  • Tilt your head to look down using a nodding motion. 
  • Try to break yourself of the habit of bending the entire head and neck downward. We do this so much that it can be frustrating to keep reminding ourselves not to. Persevere. Nod instead.
  • When you find yourself looking straight ahead and getting tension in the back of your neck, bring the head back to improve your posture.
  • Sit upright at your computer screen. Use a standing desk. Take short breaks every half hour to stretch and move around.
  • Keep the joints of the neck working well using exercise. An excellent neck exercise routine is described in the article below. Click to read further.

One of the most important principles of Building Better Balance involves improving the health of the whole spine by releasing tension in the lower back and shoulders and neck, strengthening the core substantially and stretching the spine. Building Better Balance has proven to result in great strides in spine health improvement among many of my students but also as shown in my own experience. My own spine health has improved significantly.