Daily Habits to Reduce Neck Pain

We’ve all had a bit of neck pain before, sometimes it lasts a day but sometimes it stays for a bit too long and starts to cause other problems.

Our neck is so important, it holds up our head, and inside that head is our beautiful brain, and that brain controls everything we do.

Your head roughly feels as big and heavy as a bowling ball, and the bones in your neck are around the size of a golf ball, so making sure that your neck is moving well and in the right place is extremely important! For every inch forward your head shifts, an extra 10 pounds of pressure (another bowling ball) is added to the bones of your neck, and all the muscles holding it up.

So, is it much of a surprise that when we sit all day with our heads tilted down reading or using our phones, or at a desk with our head forwards, that eventually we will start to feel some pain in our neck?

Remember that pain is our brain telling us that something is wrong, so let’s try and help it instead of living with it!

An easy thing you can do to start helping your neck pain is by trying to keep your head as close to your centre of gravity as possible, which is lining up your ear to your shoulder, and your shoulder to your hips and knees. This will take general tension away from your neck and head. Be warned, it will feel weird to start, so ease yourself into it.

Other things you can do are stretches and allowing full range of motion of your neck throughout the day, really looking up and around as far as you comfortably can.

To provide a little summary, here are my top tips you can do to reduce neck pain and take care of your spine:

• Keep your ears in line with your shoulders and hips.

• Check your desk set-up/sitting posture when working at a desk.

• Try not to look down at your phones or books too often, bring them up to eye level.

• Stretch and move your neck around throughout the day, yoga can be great!

If you’re struggling and think you need a little extra help, then Chiropractic care might be a great option for you, and we are here to help if you need some assistance.

Yours in Health,

Lewis