5 Ways to Defeat Neck Pain and Stiffness if you Work at a Computer All Day

Do you spend most of your day working in front of a computer?

If you answered yes, then you'd be like most other Americans. Chances are you are also spending a lot of time on your phone as well. 

As a result many people will encounter some sort of achy or stiff neck that may or may not become painful. Below are 5 solutions that one should consider when experiencing neck pain and stiffness. 

1) It's never to late to address the issue, but the sooner you start the better.

I can't tell you how many people I have seen that come to see me for neck pain which has been going on for months to years at a time. I'll then ask them what they have been doing to resolve their pain on their own. The answer I usually get is: "nothing", "medication", or "hope it just went away."

If you get one thing out of this, remember that it is never to late to start addressing the issue yourself. On the flip side, the sooner you start doing something for you pain, the sooner it will go away. The problem is that most individuals do not know where to start or a reliable system of addressing their issues so they fail to start in the first place.

The purpose of this post is to eliminate this fear.

2) Ice early, heat usually works better later

This is probably the question I get asked the most. Should I ice or should I use heat? The simple answer is that you are probably overthinking it and use whichever feels better. Ice tends to dull the pain the best from 0-48 hours after the injury. After that, heat or a topical cream such as icy-hot seems to do better. It is important to realize though that both of these provide temporary relief by altering sensation, it is not a permanent or long term solution. Some type of movement based activity is and will always be long term solution to getting you back to what you enjoy the most.

3) Early Movement 

Piggy backing off the last statement made in point #2, movement will be your long term solution. The trick is finding the point of entry that is least provocative to your symptoms and building upon that motion throughout the days and week/s.

Two very simple exercises which can often be used early on are:

4) Soft Tissue Work

A lot of tension is usually held in the muscles that surround the neck for a number of reasons such as work, posture, exercise, taxes, and the boogey-man. Point being is that life in general can at times be taxing for everyone. When gone undressed these muscles become overactive and facilitate further stress in an already stressed out environment. So some type of soft tissue technique can often be effective. At On Track Physical Therapy we perform various hands on massage and myofascial techniques. Some other unique techniques we offer that can be very useful at times are: Cupping and Dry Needling (click the links to learn more about these modalities). I want to reiterate the fact that movement will always be the long term solution. All of these techniques just mentioned are most useful when followed up by some sort of movement based activity such as the ones listed in #3.

5) Breathing

If every thing you have tried thus far has failed to work. MRIs, Injections, X-rays, manipulations, and all the things listed in #1-4 have not made a difference. This may be your missing link. However, it's not as simple as just breathing. Let me explain, I'll try not to get to sciency on you.

Very stressful environments tend to push us toward inhalation. Think about walking on a tightrope or near the edge of a cliff. You tend to tense up and hold your breath. Unfortunately many of us tend to do this throughout the day without even realizing it because of daily stressors.

The main muscle of breathing is the diaphragm. It attaches to your ribs and low back. You breathe around 22,000 times per day. If it's done repetitively in a state of inhalation (or stress). Then it can start to alter one's spinal alignment causing compensation patterns all the way up through the neck. Another way people compensate is to use muscles of their neck to help with breathing. Think about someone who just got done running. They have their hands on their head and you can see all their neck muscles helping them breathe. While this may be necessary at times when working out, it should not be the case at rest. However it is very common to see people compensate with their neck when they breathe at rest. This can be addressed through a series of various exercises specific to how the individual may present in the clinic. 

Would you like some help to recover faster? On Track Physical Therapy can help get you back to the things you enjoy most! 

Sports Specialist Physical Therapy Clinic| Ann Arbor, Mi | FREE Discovery Session|

About the Author: Dr. Greg Schaible is a physical therapist and strength coach specializing in athletic performance. He attended The University of Findlay as a student athlete. As an athlete he competed in both Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field where he earned honors as a 5x Division II All-American and 6x Division II Academic All-American. In 2013 he completed Graduate School earning his Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT). Greg is the owner of On Track Physical Therapy in Ann Arbor, Mi. Follow On Track PT and Performance on Facebook.

Do You Have "Tight" or "Stiff" Shoulders?

Often times I am told by a client that “things just feel stiff or tight.”  These reports tend to be most common in the hips, shoulders, and neck.

I usually will proceed to tell the patient that stiffness or tightness may actually be a good thing. As it could be the body’s response to a perception of threat in the area, and its protective mechanism is to tense up or hold on tight for security purposes.

I will also inform them that things may not actually be as “stiff” or “tight” as they believe.

Usually at this point I get a blank stare from the patient or a barrage of questions because nobody has ever explained these concept to them. So that will be my goal in this article. For simplicity sake, we will just be discussing the shoulder.

Stiffness is a sensation the body will produce, it is not an actual state of being. Three things that tend to impact the sensation of being “Tight” are: 1) Position 2) Nervous System 3) and Muscles. Usually in that order.

Position

Let’s use the analogy of a door frame here. A crooked door frame will not allow for a door to shut, obviously one of the corners will catch. The answer is not to stretch or force the door into a position it cannot achieve. The solution is to create a better door frame position so that the door will fit. Taking this back to the body, the shoulder and hips are really no different. Both are ball and socket joints. And if the ball (meaning your arm or leg) does not go through a full range. It could be because the position of your frame (or socket) is not optimal. 

When considering the position of the shoulder, the socket would be the scapula or shoulder blade. Fortunately for our mobile arms, the scapula has a great deal of movement. The tricky part is that because the shoulder blade is so mobile, its foundation is more dependent on the ribcage than anything. The ribcage is the foundation the shoulder blade sits on and thus will ultimately dictate position of the shoulder.

Below is an example of a patient of mine who needed to have more approximation of his left ribcage and expansion of his right ribcage. By putting him in a position that would allow for this, and then having him establish proper breathing patterns in this position, you can see the change in range of motion after. Mind you this picture was taken right after the exercise which lasted at most 2 minutes. No stretching, massage, or dry needling was performed. Just positional breathing. Which is great, because now the patient can perform this activity at home and not rely on a medical professional to always make a change. 

(patient is lying on opposite ends of the table, which is why picture looks reversed). 

How is that big of a change possible? Just as we discussed. If a joint is in a poorly managed position, it can directly affect the length/tension relationship of the muscles that cross the joint. In this case, due to shoulder position, the muscles that crossed the joint were already on “prestretch”. Meaning these muscle were more than likely already on stretch to achieve a neutral position. So to establish full range of motion, the muscle would have to elongate further than what would typically be expected. By establishing a true neutral position of the joints we can take that “prestretch” off and allow the arm to access its full range of motion.

Sports Specialist Physical Therapy Clinic| Ann Arbor, Mi | FREE Discovery Session|

About the Author: Dr. Greg Schaible is a physical therapist and strength coach specializing in athletic performance. He attended The University of Findlay as a student athlete. As an athlete he competed in both Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field where he earned honors as a 5x Division II All-American and 6x Division II Academic All-American. In 2013 he completed Graduate School earning his Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT). Greg is the owner of On Track Physical Therapy in Ann Arbor, Mi. Follow On Track PT and Performance on Facebook.