3 simple things you can do for neck pain relief straight away

Here are some simple neck pain relief strategies  that you can employ in the comfort of your home or office. With more and more people working from home these days, it’s become a norm to have neck pain . If not pain, then it’s definitely tightness around the shoulders. Of course preventing it in the first place would be better than seeking neck pain relief immediately. But of course if you’ve ended up with neck pain then the following few strategies will certainly help! Like anything it requires consistency. Rome was not built in a day they say…

Posture is the one thing that can come in the way of long term neck pain relief. Sitting with a mountain of pillows on your bed will certainly not help your posture. Yes it feels comfortable for the time being but you’re going to end up with a poked chin if you continue this. So it’s absolutely important to sit up straight with a good back support. Because it’s nearly impossible to sit up erect for 7-8 hours continuously. So make sure your back is supported when you’re sitting and don’t slouch! It’s important to have a little pillow/cushion in the curve of your lower back to support it when you’re sitting. Even driving! That’s sitting too right? And if you’re working on a computer, make sure you sit right back in the chair and pull the desk as close to you as possible. This will prevent you from poking your chin forward.

Your workstation can be set up nice and right but if you’re still sitting there for hours together, your postural muscles are bound to get tired! Our bodies are designed to move so make sure you get up every 30 minutes. Whether it’s going to the printer or grabbing a drink of water, movement will help. Sitting is the worst thing we can do for our spines. It puts tremendous amount of pressure on our joints and muscles. Which can cause pain over a period of time. In fact an office worker is as prone to neck pain as a labourer doing heavy physical work. This is one of the best strategies for neck pain relief.

Stretches is one of the best ways to get neck pain relief. It’s important to hold the stretch for a good 5-10 seconds to help the muscles relx. Because muscles are elasctic in nature, they can revert back to it’s original length quite quickly if we don’t continue stretching. So repetition is the key. Make sure you repeat them at least 2-3 times a day. it’s almost like exercising those muscles separately to counteract the effects of sitting. It will also keep the blood flow going and prevent tightness from settling in. A lot of people try to turn the head around doing a full circle. That’s actually not good for the neck. Just try one movement in one direction at a time and hold it. Rather than going round and round with your head and making yourself dizzy!

And no, I’m not just saying it because I’m a physio. All of us do it. We wait until the pain is worse to get treatment. But, the longer you are in pain, the longer it’ll take your body to heal. So do yourself a favour and go to a physio at the first sign of neck pain. Your physio will also be able to give you strategies suited to your specific lifestye to prevent this happening long term. A remedial massage might help too if you’re only feeling tightness and have no restriction or pain with movement.