There are many reasons why we could be suffering with neck and upper back pain, but generally pain seems to be due to client’s posture. Now some of you must have heard of the saying ‘text neck.’ This is an overuse syndrome, or a repetitive stress injury caused to the neck, caused by holding your head in a forward and downwards position for long periods of time. When we hold our head in this position, excessive amounts of tension are created in the deep muscles of our neck and across our shoulders causing both acute and chronic neck pain.
Pain and discomfort doesn’t seem to occur straight away, and tends to build up over time. When left untreated in some cases ‘text neck’ can cause increased curvatures in the spine and in some cases cause postural deformities like dowager’s hump (hunch back.)
Some signs and symptoms:
Instant or delayed-onset upper back or neck pain when using a handheld device, driving, working at a computer,
Nagging or sharp pain in the neck or shoulders at the end of the day or postural fatigue,
General shoulder pain and tightness,
Head forwards of neck posture,
Intermittent or constant headache made worse when looking down or using the computer.
With a combination of massage therapy to help reduce tension within the neck muscles, simple strengthening exercises and small changes in day to day activities, this will address the posture that is aggravating the symptoms and ‘text neck’ can be treated and managed to prevent a recurrence.
If your suffering and in pain, contact me to see how I can help you.