As we approach the end of the month of love, this February, it's time to love your neck again. For many, neck pain is a daily problem and often is at the root of shoulder pain, tight tender knots between your shoulder blades, numbness and tingling into your arms, and even migraines and TMJ or jaw pain. Yet, it is often overlooked as a source of these common issues. In this post, I share 4 key strategies for easing stiff, painful necks, headaches, shoulders, and even jaw pain.
First-we’ve got to answer the question of how the neck could be involved in all these issues. The simple answer for shoulder pain, numbness and tingling into your arms, and headaches is that nerves from your neck go to and serve all those areas. Because of that, any irritation to your neck can refer or radiate into your hands, arms, elbows, and shoulders and cause pain, numbness, and tingling where there is no injury. In fact, if your pain, numbness, or tingling travels up and down your arm, it is most likely coming from your neck. This irritation can come in the form of tight muscles or fascia squeezing the nerve, swelling or irritation right along the spine in the form of a bulging disc, or chronic poor posture placing extra stress on the neck. The same rules apply for the neck being the cause of headaches in that the muscles that come off the base of your skull can squeeze the nerves serving your scalp and top of the head creating a headache that seems to creep up and over your skull. In addition, this tightness can also trigger a migraine complete with nausea, sensitivity to light, and sound. In fact, when migraine sufferers are able to tame these muscles, which we often treat here at Body Mechanix through dry needling, they are often able to get off their migraine medication, avoid botox shots, and avoid the hours of suffering(and burning through medical leave) that usually come along with a migraine.
How can the neck be the cause of TMJ or Jaw Pain?
With TMJ issues, the problem comes back to tight muscles, but in this case, it is the muscles below the jaw pulling the jaw down, often because of posture and text neck. What this does is then forces the muscles that close the jaw to work overtime when talking, chewing, or just trying to not have your mouth hang open. Just like your muscles between your shoulder blades can get knots, your chewing and talking muscles can get knots, often creating pain along the jaw, into your temples, while also pulling your jaw out of alignment.
Now, if you’ve been suffering from neck issues for more than about 6 weeks, then chances are that you’ve noticed that it is becoming easier to provoke your headaches, jaw pain, neck stiffness, or pain down the arms. The downside is that your body is “learning” pain while trying to protect you and is becoming easier to provoke your symptoms because it is becoming overprotective where no new injury is happening. Because of this its often easier to have pain with ever smaller levels of activity. But, there’s actually good news about all of this as well. Because of recent research into what’s actually happening with pain, we now know that we can use movement, aerobic exercise, and gentle hands-on strategies to reel pain back in and give you power over it.
4 Keys to Easing Stiff Painful Necks
Key #1: Figuring out what kind of pain you have. While it may seem like pain is coming from where you feel it, for many people, where they feel pain is often the “victim” and not the “culprit”. This comes back to how our bodies are wired. Chances are, if you are having pain in your shoulder, arm, or hand, and there is not an “aha” moment where you actually felt an injury occur but rather the pain came out of nowhere or slowly built over time, then there is likely at least an aggravating factor coming from your neck. The percentages may vary, but your issue may be 50/50 neck and where you feel the pain or any other combination. Often if you’ve treated where the symptoms are with no lasting relief, you’re treating the wrong thing.
Key #2: Fixing Postural Contributors to Pain: While many have been told they need to improve their posture, its often difficult to “feel” when you are in a good posture. What's more, there’s disagreement on what good posture actually looks like and if it has anything to do with pain at all. On top of that, when we move to a better posture, it just doesn’t feel right(mostly because slouching “feels” right) and we often go back to slouched without even knowing it. Now, how do you know if posture is a contributor to your pain? If it is a contributor, you will notice your pain either creep up in intensity after slouching or notice your symptoms start to spread from your neck and back down your arms(pain or numbness/tingling). Some simple strategies for improving posture are to use Kinesio or Rock Tape from your neck to between your shoulder blades while in a good “posture” then when you are slouching, the tape then provides a gentle tug that alerts you to you going into a slouched position.
Key #3: Fixing Spine Mobility Issues: Can you stand against the wall and have your heels, hips, shoulder blades, and back of your head all against the wall? If no, there is some mobility issue going on(often in your midback) and sorting out those mobility issues often go a long way in fixing both posture and pain. Often fixing posture comes down to 1 of 2 problems. The first is that my back is so stiff that even if I wanted to have better posture, I couldn’t because my spine is too stiff to even get into that position. If you have good bone health, then using something like a foam roller to “open up” and let your spine bend back is a quick way to improve posture while making it so you have less stress on your neck.
Key #4: Having enough Postural Strength to Maintain better positioning. The second problem with posture is that even if you could make it to a better postural position, you are missing the strength to keep yourself there. In thai case, strengthening the muscles of your shoulder blades, neck, and mid back through a combination of rowing movements, pull-downs, and shoulder blade retraction/squeezing together under load often allows you to build up the strength and endurance so you can maintain improved posture and reduced pain.
Confused about where to start? Book a call from the comfort of your home or office and on your schedule with one of our Pain Specialists. You can schedule your call here. Need help now, we got you covered! That’s why we offer free in clinic consultations to help you get to the root of why you are dealing with stiffness, pain, or just not performing the way you need to.
During one of our free consultations, the Total Body Diagnostic, we offer expert advice about the worry and frustration of life-changing aches and pains – for FREE, in under 30 minutes.
If this article describes your story and you are looking for some help with overcoming neck pain, we offer FREE consultations, which give you the opportunity to come in and meet us and see for yourself how we can help you.
Here are just a few of the things you will learn in one of our free consultation:
What is the underlying cause of your pain? (hopefully nothing too serious!)
Roughly, how long will it take to fix the problem?
What to do to help – which doesn’t include painkillers, resting or surgery etc.
What other, natural, drug free methods are there to speed up recovery alongside treatment?
Our consultations are great for anyone that may be “unsure” if physio is right for them, and they give you the opportunity to ask questions and see for yourself if we can help you.
If you’d like one of our limited free consultation sessions, please click here to request your Total Body Diagnostic or CALL us on 850-765-2779 to make a no-obligation enquiry.
About the Author
Dr. Brandon is the owner and a Physio at Body Mechanix Physiotherapy and Fitness. Four of his favorite people call him daddy while he's been married to his other favorite person for 20 years. He enjoys teaching martial arts and is a Mestrando in Capoeira while in the mornings, he can be found working out with the guys in F3 around town. He's the author of 4 pain relief guides for sciatica, low back, shoulder, and knees and the lead contributor to the Active Tallahassee Blog.
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