Many of us experience tightness and neck and shoulder pain as part of our day to day lives, either intermittently or bothering us on a consistent basis. Generally, we will exacerbate the pain with long periods of sitting at a desk, or with stressful periods at work or home. For some, we may even feel a throbbing headache that comes on with the neck tightness.
It’s likely that you would have tried stretching and possibly deep tissue massage, but the discomfort still doesn’t seem to go away. Here’s why:
As we get more tense and fatigued, our shoulders tend to round forwards. The collarbones raise up from their ideal position, while the ribcage will become lower. These changes in position prevent our diaphragm from expanding properly and result in us developing stiffness in the mid-back and ribs. This makes our breathing much less efficient.
Exercises for neck and shoulder pain
To increase the efficiency of breathing, the body naturally drives the head forwards while increasing tension in the neck and shoulder muscles. Some of us might also arch the lower back to try to open-up the chest, leading to lower back pain as well!
Stretching and massaging may relieve the tightness for a short period, but this is a vicious cycle that keeps on reinforcing itself if the postural drivers are not addressed properly.
The key here is to restore proper expansion of the ribs so that the diaphragm can work well to support good breathing – Only then can the neck and upper shoulder muscles relax. Try this simple exercise while at your desk:
Take a deep breath in through your nose while bringing your hands outwards, then bring back your hands while exhaling the air through your mouth. Once you feel your ribcage expanding well, the stretches and massage will be far more effective.
To understand more about postural issues specific to your body, visit this page to choose a physiotherapist or book a physio appointment. We can take you through a comprehensive postural assessment to identify the key problem areas and formulate a treatment and exercise program that works for you.
