Saturday, March 14, 2009

Why Do I Constantly Develop Muscle Tension In My Neck And How Could I End The Pain And Soreness?

Do you frequently wake up with a stiff neck? Feel like you always have soreness across the shoulders? Notice you cannot turn your head like you should be able to? Sometimes feel the tension going right up into your head, causing a headache? Or even check it frequently difficult to work on the computer or drive for a long period without having your neck tension increase?

Many people suffer from tightness, spasm or sore muscles in the neck. frequently times if you feel the neck you could check hard nodules which are knots in the muscles or what I call trigger points. It is really common.

Usually the source of the problem actually stems from the neck spine and nerves in the neck. Why is this so? Well, to start, the nerves control our muscle function. If there is pressure on nerves in the neck your muscles are not acquiring proper communication, so they acquire imbalanced and do not work like they should. Next, a spine that is misaligned would not only contribute to possible direct pressure on a nerve by a spinal bone or bones misaligned but also it could create an uneven ness in the spine so that the muscles are not balanced. For example, if your spine is not straight u and down from the front to back and has a curvature to the side then the side the curve is toward has a constantly stretched and tense muscle. The opposite side would have a shortened muscle. Simply because of mechanics you might be able to tilt more to one side on the same hand the other side is limited.

Let's take another example of the forward head. From the side view our spine should have smooth flowing curves. The neck should have a C-curve of 40-60 degrees. This keeps the spinal cord relaxed and the nerves that come off it free of interference. It also allows your spine to with stand the forces of gravity at it's best. It has been shown that for each inch of forward head drift or carriage could cause 10+ more pounds of gravitational forces pressing down on you. Not to mention those muscles in the back of the neck that now have to work harder to hold the head up and in alignment.

So you could see from just two examples how misalignments could cause tension on the muscles and/or put pressure on the nerves causing pain and blocked communication of the brain and spinal cord to those muscles.

How could I threw of this neck pain and tension?

Fix the cause - the unpreferred misalignments and nerve pressure.
  • acquire your spine treated by a Chiropractor or Osteopath. A Massage Therapist or Physical Therapist could assist as well. The Chiropractor or Osteopath could adjust or manipulate the spine into it's best position. They may also use muscle stretches or trigger point release techniques as does a Massage Therapist or cervical traction, electric muscle stimulation or postural exercises that a Physical Therapist may do as well.

  • Be aware of your posture - remember posture is a window into your spine. If your posture reveals a forward head carriage for example then your spine has lost some of the normal curvature and is out in front of your center of gravity. be sure your work station is ergonomically correct and also be aware of things that increase neck tension and stress.

  • Sleep with a good neck pillow. I recommend one with support for the normal cervical curvature (normal neck alignment).

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