Pain in the neck?

Hi folks, 

When I work with clients experiencing neck pain  they often suggest they must have “slept the wrong way”.  While sleeping habits can certainly contribute to neck pain, the assumption that a misalignment or tension in the neck is the result of a single incident misses the fact that often the pain we feel in our necks has very little to do with our necks at all. 

Not long ago, a long-time regular client shared with me that he was experiencing a “crick” in his neck while traveling. He stretched and massaged his neck and shoulders in every way he could. After a few days of trying this unsuccessfully, he remembered advice I had given him years ago to stretch out his legs and hips and realign himself from the ground up.  

Lo and behold, his neck felt perfectly fine the next day. 

Everytime we strike the ground, when walking or running (or falling!), we send waves of vibrations throughout our body. A supple, flexible, and strong muscular system helps to dissipate these shocks evenly throughout the body (imagine a tuning fork). But when we carry tension and restriction in the lower half of our body, the upper half ends up taking more of the shock. The end point for our whole-body shock absorption system is the neck. When the rest of the body is too tight, the neck takes the brunt. 

When we start to see our bodies as whole systems, we can get to the root cause of our pain and discomfort and learn ways to experience more ease in our bodies. 

So next time you have tension in your neck, try stretching out your hips! 

With care,

Bob