20 Aug What Is The Fastest Way To Relieve Neck Pain?
What is the fastest way to relieve neck pain? To really answer this question, it is important to understand what is driving the neck pain in the first place. This is where it is really vital to have a good history and assessment to direct the proper interventions.
Breaking down neck pain into different subgroups is a good way to understand how these interventions can be utilized. These subgroups include mobility, functional weakness, and a miscellaneous category. Let’s break these down further!
Mobility:
When looking at the first category (mobility), this is to say that there is dysfunctional joints within the neck itself. When a joint is moving too much/too little, this will lead to irritation, muscle guarding, inflammation and overall pain. Common today, many people are overly tight in the transitional area between the upper back/lower neck (the cervicothoracic junction), leading to an overloading of the joints in the neck. Over time this leads to pain. For this, it is important to get those joints and tissues in the cervicothoracic junction to move better. Depending on the breakdown of tension, rolling techniques and stretches may open it up.
Functional Weakness:
The next category is functional weakness. It is called functional weakness because often members are very strong through movements seen in a gym. When breaking it down to specific muscle groups, the timing the muscles fire and overall strength may not be there.
A common example with the neck is some individuals who have had a previous shoulder injury. If the shoulder injury was not rehabilitated properly, over-utilization of the upper trap muscle is probable. The upper trap muscle inserts at the base of the skull. If through shoulder movements this muscle is doing the job of multiple muscles, the constant overworking leads to increased stress. Treatment for this would look more towards improving the proper muscle engagement and firing pattern of the shoulder so the upper trap is not taking over. This category can take a little bit longer to rehabilitate due to the fact that changes to a movement patter must happen.
Miscellaneous:
The last category is miscellaneous because it is contributing factors to the neck pain. This could include things such as the ergonomic set up of a work station or sleeping position. This category is about identifying activities that are contributing to the neck pain and reducing/eliminating them. This could be as simple as ensuring not to rotating in the neck for hours on end staring at a slightly off centre computer monitor. These little changes can make a big difference.
The reality is most members will have a foot in each category, it is rare to see someone neatly fit into one category alone. This is why it is so important to have a good history and assessment so one can understand what the true cause of neck pain is.
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