Is your neck stiff?
Neck pain or a stiff neck is characterised by stiffness or pain when turning or moving the head or neck. Neck stiffness is a common problem which usually gets better after a few days or weeks.
The neck contains muscles, tendons, ligaments, and the cervical spine. These work together to support the head and allow it to move in many directions. A stiff neck may become painful when a person tries to move their neck or head.
A stiff neck often occurs when one of the muscles becomes strained or tense. Common causes of neck pain or stiffness are:
- Sleeping awkwardly.
- Sitting or slouching for long periods, such as at a desk.
- Looking down at an object (such as a mobile phone) repeatedly.
- Experiencing a fall.
- Sustaining a sports injury.
- Having tense neck muscles due to stress or pressure.
A stiff neck is one of the conditions that will benefit from stretching. While keeping the back straight and shoulders still, gradually turn the head to the left as far as it can naturally go without increasing pain. Once the head has reached its rotation limit, hold the stretch for 5 seconds before bringing it back to neutral position.
A stiff neck, along with stiff shoulders it is one of the most common triggers for booking a massage. The reason is that massaging in the neck muscles may alleviate the tension and improve the blood flow to your neck.
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Why does massage help so much?
In a previous post I outlined some of the benefits of the 15 minutes Seated Acupressure Neck & Shoulder massage including the scientific evidence for these claims. But I think their is one benefit that stands out above these.
I know in my previous life as an IT project manage, several times I spent most of a day trying to fix a problem and I just couldn't find a solution. I had a tendency to get caught up in a problem and its just frustrating -- it can literally stress you out. When you're stressed out, it's harder to think clearly. Emotional stress can send your problem-solving skills into a tailspin. To make matters worse I used to flip over that fine line between being focused on solving the problem and obsessing over it.
The trick to break this cycle is to shift your focus. The purpose of shifting your focus is to temporarily get your mind off whatever challenge has it tied up in knots. So when you come back to it you have are re-energised and have a fresh perspective.
Going for a massage, shifts your focus to your body releases anxiety and the seated acupressure massage energises you & improves your mental alertness. So I found it an ideal way of breaking the cycle of mentally obsessing over problems when I worked in IT.
What causes my muscles to knot?
What are knots:
- Muscle knots are points within a muscle where contracted fibers are unable to relax.
- The dictionary is: “highly irritable localized spots of exquisite tenderness in a nodule in palpable taunt bands of muscle tissue.”
- The medical term for muscle knots is myofascial trigger points.
- Active An active trigger point or knot is one that actively refers pain either locally or via nerve pathways to another location in the body. Active trigger points are the one that clients are aware of and cause them to book to see a masseur.
- Latent A latent trigger point is one that isn’t painful until pressure is applied to it. This is when clients come to me and they find that during the massage they feel pain that they hadn’t felt before the treatment.
- Your posture
- Your potassium and calcium levels as both help to prevent knots
- Being dehydrated doesn’t help
- Your posture
- Stretching may help release knots
- To self-treat a muscular knot put a tennis ball in a sock (it makes it easier to hold on to the ball), simply place the tennis ball in the sock against either a wall or the floor and then press the part of your body with the knot on to it and move your body up and down.
- As an alternative, you could apply a deep, stroking massage directly to the muscle knot.
- The alternative is to visit a masseur.
