The 3 Essential Keys to Solving the Challenge of Neck Pain

The neck is an incredibly delicate structure and our modern life literally abuses the neck, so it’s no wonder so many people experience chronic neck pain. Like most chronic pain, neck pain tends to develop so slowly over time that we become accustomed to it. 

It still extracts a cost on our well being, our energy, our ability to get comfortable, and often how well we sleep. But, if we understand why we might be experiencing neck pain it’s a lot easier to craft a strategy to solve the challenge. 

Neck pain treatment is dependent on uncovering the cause of the pain and correcting that cause. The leading medical institutions list the common causes of neck pain as things such as:

  • Physical strain
  • Poor posture
  • Mental stress
  • Degenerative arthritis
  • Disc injuries
  • Pinched nerves

But, that list does little to help you solve the challenge of neck pain and even less to find the appropriate neck pain treatment. Instead of viewing things like that with little link to the cause, let’s explore how the neck works and how our daily activities can contribute to the challenge of chronic neck pain.

Here’s a post of mine: 3 REASONS YOUR PROBLEM IS IN YOUR NECK

The Posture of Neck Pain

Next time you are out where you see a lot of people take a look at their posture from the side. Look at the relationship of their head to their shoulder. Is their ear in front of their shoulder? It is for a large majority of people these days.

They even have a name for it when it’s associated with using a cell phone, “text neck”. 

Have someone take a picture of you from the side while standing relaxed. Your ear should be right over your shoulder. 

Your head weighs 10-12 lbs. If your head is 3 inches in front of your shoulder it is the equivalent of it weighing 42 lbs. Imagine the strain to the small muscles of the neck and shoulders having to hold up a 20 to 40 lb weight all day long. 

The Causes of Neck Pain

Any time you experience pain it is due to some irritation of the specific nerve fibers that communicate pain, called nociceptors. But, that doesn’t get us anywhere closer to solving the challenge of neck pain. So, let’s look at the different tissues that might be irritated and what might be causing it. 

Muscles of the Neck and Shoulders – with the head weighing about 11 lbs any imbalance of the head puts tremendous strain on the muscles that have to hold the head up. Holding postures at computers and texting for hours upon hours each week is repetitive microtrauma. 

The muscles tighten up, go into spasm, and eventually become stiff and hard. Have you ever gone to massage someone’s shoulders and they were “hard as rocks”? This is why.

Upper Neck Muscles – the small muscles connecting the base of the skull with the top 2 vertebrae of the neck are smaller around than your pinky finger. When the head goes forward these muscles tighten and cause a pinching of the nerves in the upper neck that go into the head. This is a cause of both neck pain and headaches. 

Upper Cervical Spine – the top vertebrae in the neck can get stuck out of alignment. The brainstem is in the upper neck and when it experiences tension it will cause an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system that results in increased muscle tension and pain in the neck and shoulders as well as a host of other reactions.

Cervical Curve – the neck should naturally curve forward and when it loses that curve it sets in motion a series of events. The reduction or loss of the cervical curve causes tightening and spasm of the muscles of the neck and shoulders. It also sets in motion an accelerated breakdown of the joints leading to degenerative arthritis. 

Neck pain is mechanical and neurological in nature. Why would we expect to apply a pharmaceutical solution and expect any long term results? If the problem is mechanical and neurological in nature then we should first apply a mechanical and neurological correction. 

3 Essential Keys to Solving Neck Pain

The source of pain with chronic neck pain is likely from multiple sources. By the time your neck pain has become chronic there is involvement of muscles, joints, and nerves. That doesn’t matter because we want to address the underlying issues causing imbalances that result in pain. 

Essential Key #1: Cervical Joint Function – joints exist for one reason, to provide for motion. If the hinges of a door didn’t move then you really don’t have a door, at least not one that works. It’s the same with the joints of your neck. If the small joints of the neck lose their normal movement it causes a series of compensations:

  • Increased motion at other joints
  • Excess joint stress causing degenerative arthritis
  • Nerve irritation
  • Muscle spasm 

Joints that become restricted also become painful in addition to causing spasm of the muscles of those joints. The first step in solving neck pain is to restore as much neck motion as possible.

Essential Key #2: Cervical Curve – a reduction, loss, or reversal of the cervical curve dramatically increases the stress on the joints and muscles of the neck. This accelerates the wear and tear of the joints leading to degenerative arthritis. Effort must be made to improve the cervical curve in an effort to minimize stress to the joints and soft tissues of the neck. 

Essential Key #3: Posture and Movement – our modern life requires prolonged sitting which puts tremendous stress on the neck and shoulders. As we experience neck pain we instinctively seek movements and positions that offer relief. These positions typically result in greater compensations and pain over time. 

We need to learn simple ways of noticing how our posture is impacting our neck and shoulders and how to make minor changes that dramatically reduce that pain. Start to pay attention when you notice an increase in neck and shoulder tension. 

It’s not enough to reduce or alleviate neck pain if it returns with your daily activities. The key is to retrain your nervous system, your spinal joints, and your soft tissues for new patterns of movement.

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