Hi there! Art here, and welcome to my blog!
What do I have for you this week? Well, I’ve noticed during lockdown more people are suffering with a pain in the neck.
What causes this? Well, I put this down to poor posture, sleeping heavily and the head position stays in one place for maybe three to four hours causing prolonged pressure on the neck, very often people go to bed feeling comfortable, have a good night sleep and then they wake up in the morning with a painful neck which is always on one side. Injuries can cause neck pain like whiplash from a fall or car accident.
Prevention is better than cure they say!
Poor posture like long use of sitting in front of a computer, lots of us use laptops and smart phones these days. Talking of computers when I use to work at a Police Training Centre, they had a brilliant thing on their computers, and I have not seen this anywhere else! What was it? After 20 minutes on a computer a message would appear across the screen which said “YOU HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT THIS SCREEN FOR 20 MINUTES. TAKE A 2 MINUTE BREAK AWAY FROM THE SCREEN” I thought it was a great idea. I have not seen anything like that in any other establishment and that’s a pity.
What can be done with this neck pain which is rarely very serious? Most people have heard about the use of hot or cold pack’s pain killers, lots of people seek therapist like Physios, Osteopaths Chiropractors and the like. Well before you do try these 3 amazingly simple exercises first, if you want to see me in the flesh watch my Vlog on Pain in the Neck During Lockdown? Try these 3 simple exercises.
Number 1 neck exercise is the chin tucking not to be confused with nodding the head!
Do the exercise slowly and always exercise in a way that causes a mild stretch not pain.
Small, repeated movements of 10 are best.
Number 2 head extension exercises are great to relieve neck tension with the use of a scarf or towel.
My all-time favourite is “ARTHURS FUNKY CHICKEN” lots of people that have poor posture or have neck pain loose this movement. Why is this so good? Because it is a mobilising technique that lots of therapists use only you pay the therapist to do this movement whilst lying down.
There are other techniques you can do without causing damage to yourself which I have learnt and used over the years but I will save those for another time.
Bye for now, stay well and stay safe!