Have Your Neck Pain Fixed by All Care Physiotherapy
Do you have a sore neck? Text neck? Want neck pain relief? Read on to see how we can help you.
Neck pain is a common condition that we see in our patients. Because we are Brisbane City Physios, we see many clients that suffer from neck pain for a range of reasons including repetitive poor posture and work overload with increased computer usage.
Other common reasons include trauma like car accidents causing whiplash, sporting injuries, and even waking up with an acute wry neck from sleeping in a poor position.
The anatomy of the human head and neck is complex with the head weighing around 5 kg and sits on an articular pillar of 7 vertebrae that are supported by muscles. Unfortunately, when we bend our head forward to look at devices or phones the relative weight of the head increases by about 400%. Progressive overload of our joints, ligaments and muscles can occur leading to pain.
Researchers have shown that the likelihood of suffering neck pain in modern life is up to 70% with up to 54% of the population experiencing neck pain in the last 6 months. Unfortunately, studies have shown that neck pain does not commonly resolve with up to 37% of people still suffering 12 months later. What this research means is that if you suffer neck pain you should be seeking an appointment with your All Care Physio to have this condition expertly treated and not linger on for months.
At All Care we aim to address your neck pain both in the acute stage for neck pain relief and then address the factors that we know underly why you can experience neck pain in the first place.
Neck pain can be experienced on one side of the neck or both sides and can refer to the shoulders, shoulder blades or even refer down the arm. Neck pain can also cause headaches. If your neck pain relates to compression of a nerve then arm pins and needles may also be present.
Your All Care Physio will complete our Specific Neck Pain Assessment Protocol which aims to pinpoint the painful joints and muscles to direct treatment towards. We then work on the long term factors that have contributed to your neck pain in the first place.
Treatment normally consists of a combination of the following 5 All Care Treatment Plan principles;
- Hands on therapy (mobilization/manipulation) to improve joint pain and range of movement. Stiff joints of the neck and upper back are common with people with neck pain. Improving the flexibility of these joints helps improve your range of movement and helps reduce muscle spasm and tightness.
- Dry needling of overactive or tight muscles around your neck.
- Postural taping to help improve posture and unload your neck to help with neck pain relief.
- Strengthening exercises for both the neck and the shoulder blades to improve stability of the region.
- Adjustment of lifestyle factors that may be causing or aggravating your pain including your work station ergonomics, pillow selection, adverse repetitive postures, poor sleep and a lack of regular exercise.
If you have neck pain, then try these simple treatments initially to help gain initial neck pain relief.
- Practice good posture by growing tall through the top of your head and drawing your shoulder blades back gently.
- Start gentle chin tucks. See this video https://youtu.be/QT_LsSUkrXA.
- Start gentle first rib stretches. See this video https://youtu.be/FqNyoPR6_Ow.
- Use hot packs regularly to ease stiff or overactive muscles around the neck.
- Sleep with a pillow either on your back or side and avoid sleeping prone.
- Minimize use of a laptop, phone or device where your head is bent forward repetitively.