pain in the neck

Pain in the neck! (video included)

If you have experienced neck pain, you will know how disabling it can be. 
We know that two thirds of us will experience neck pain at some point in our lives. 
Did you know neck pain will affect women more than men, and is most common in middle age. 
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Signs and symptoms can include....

Pain in the neck! -  (video included bottom of page)

​If you have experienced neck pain, you will know how disabling it can be. 
​
We know that two thirds of us will experience neck pain at some point in our lives. 
Did you know neck pain will affect women more than men, and is most common in middle age. 

Signs and symptoms can include....

• pain around the neck, this can spread to the shoulder, shoulder blade and base of the skull
• muscle stiffness or spasm
• pain aggravated by certain movements, postures and activities 
• headaches
• restricted range of movement in the neck area

How likely are you to get neck pain? 
Well some people are genetically more likely to get pain in the neck. 
However, those who smoke, have poor physical fitness, and develop poor postures are more at risk.

We are now more sedentary

Living more of a sedentary life than ever before and the postures we adopt will put our neck at risk.!!

Think about mobile phone we use from the minute we open our eyes and the posture of your neck while we use them, we over load the neck joints and ligaments.

Driving jobs, desk jobs, teaching Jobs, nursing....(you get the idea) all round us forward !

Adopting this type of flexed position will put stress on the ligaments at the back of the neck, which will result in the neck being less supported.

It also means that your core muscles will not work as effectively, again resulting in less support around the neck.  This creating more pain long term.!

The Pain 

Pain can be one sided, or affect both sides of the neck. It can radiate around the front of the neck, but can also travel down into the shoulders.

Sometimes, despite the the problem being in the neck, the pain is felt only in the shoulder and arm. It is also common to experience headaches too.

What can we do ? Pilates of course ! 

The recovery of neck pain is very similar to that of back pain.

If you are living with pain, then you need to look at your daily life and try and change  things as much as possible. 

eg..Look at you desk set up, altering your set up can help to correct poor posture. Use ear phones whilst on your phone. Then we can look at moving our bodies correctly.

Pilates exercises focuses on working the whole body in excellent postures. It is an extremely effective method of rehabilitation for spinal pain.

If you have mechanical neck pain, and you are not in severe pain then Pilates will work on your posture, gently strengthen the core muscles around the neck and stretch the neck out.

During Pilates, we will exercise your deep neck muscles, in a variety of positions.

Occasionally you may feel pain in your neck during Pilates.

​We will always stress that feeling the neck muscles working is normal, however pain in the back of the neck is not. If this continues you should seek advice from your GP or Physiotherapist. 

Neck Mobility Exercises