Mobility Mondays

Posture Assessment of the Neck at Home 

What's causing my neck tightness/pain?

Well first off these are two very different qualities. Is it "Ow I can't move without feeling that pinch or pain?" Pain can be described as sharp, dull, achey, or with radiating qualities. Tightness is more limiting and often described more as I physical block. "It just stops when I look this way." A good way to differentiate is to physically assess what is going on. Everyone is different. People have different jobs, different lifestyles, and present with different postures. All of these things are contributing factors. So with so many differentials, how can I know what is causing my discomfort? Let's take a look in the mirror. Drop your shoulders. Relax your neck. What do you see? Is your head slightly tilted or rotated to one side more than the other? Do your shoulders have a hard time relaxing down? Is your your head sitting alot farther forward than it should be? This is the first step in deciding what the contributors are. Often people associate neck discomfort with either weakness or muscles being too tight. While this may hold true, often I see combinations of both in almost every person! You can stretch your life away and still have the same pain the very next morning. This goes both ways. You can fire a muscle over and over, but if that muscle isn't firing properly because it's range is inhibited, or it is being over powered by assisting muscles, than you may also have the same issue. What I am trying to say is you need both! Normalizing the tissue causing the discomfort in coordination with firing involved or surrounding musculature in the correct pattern is what you will see long term results with. Althought this is a quick easy way to bring self awareness to your own posture- if you suspect more is going on, I recommend seeing a professional for a posture/mobility assessment to rule out any potential injury that may have occured. For some self release/ stabilizing exercises you can do for this area! Check out my neck tightness relief reel on Bare's Instagram page at 8PM 2/20/23 . Feel free to drop any questions :) 

-V