Neck & Back Pain Help
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Exercises to Strengthen and Retrain Muscles
When you stop bending wrong and injuring your back dozens of times each day, it can begin healing with good exercises.
Neck pain exercises are misunderstood. People often injure their neck all day then hope to fix it with a few exercises. They don't understand when this does not work. They lie on the floor to do exercises, then stand up and walk away with no use of the positioning or strength they just practiced. It is like eating butter and sugar all day, then doing 10 minutes of exercises and wondering why it doesn't "work." The key is what you do all day!!
What To Do Every Day To Prevent Neck Pain.
To restore proper muscle length to allow healthy posture:
- First thing in the morning, don't sit on the bed. Instead of sitting and rounding your back first thing, turn over and lie face down. Prop gently on elbows, but not so high that it strains. It should feel good and help you straighten out first thing. Get out of bed without sitting.
- Don't droop your head forward when sitting and standing. Remember that posture is a voluntary muscular exercise.
With Physical Therapy we can review exercisesand stretches for you to do every day, that are appropriate for your condition and your symptoms.
More Things To Do Every Day to Prevent Forward Rounding from Ruining Your Neck
- Sit without rounding your shoulders and upper back.
- Count how many times you let your head tilt or hang forward each day. Imagine the injury to your neck by doing that many times each day.
- Raise your computer monitor up. Don't just tilt it, use a low shelf or phone books to raise it higher so you don't bend your neck down to work.
- Move your television up higher. Stop curling down and forward to watch.
- Move your desk and car seats closer in. Then sit back, not forward.
- Use your muscles, not joints to hold you up. Its free exercise.
- Do upper back extension exercises provided by your PT.It will feel good.
- When you pull your chin in to fix your posture, don't do it by arching your back. The postural change needs to come from your upper body, not by creating another strain on another body part.
- Don't think you have to live your life "on eggshells" constantly holding yourself rigidly straight. Restricting your movement to limit pain is not how to live, isn't healthy, and isn't fun. Get more active. Learn the principles and apply them, instead of memorizing "rules" and buying expensive ergonomic chairs and beds.
Don't Exercise in Ways that Damage Your Neck, Shoulder, and Upper Back
Many people hurt from excessive forward bending all day over their desk, steering wheel, work, and TV. The last thing they need is more upper back and shoulder rounding. Yet, that is usually the first thing they do to exercise or stretch. Many exercises, ironically even those commonly (but mistakenly) prescribed for back and neck pain, often involve more forward bending - toe touches, knee to chest, crunches, and shoulder stands like "the plow" and "The Frog" (lying backward, raising legs over head so that all weight is on your upper back and neck). It is important to strengthen the muscles that pull your upper back and neck the other way. These are called Extension Exercises.
It is common to see people pulling their arm across their body in front to stretch. Most people already are good at rounding their shoulders. They don't need more stretch in back of their shoulder. Round shoulders are part of the problem in the first place. Don't add to your round shoulders with more stretching in back. Instead, stretch the front.
