Neck and Shoulder pain are extremely common for most people. At our clinic in Sherwood Park, people come everyday with very similar complaints – working at their computer for long hours, high stress periods, bad sleeps ending with waking up with a sore neck. But the truth is the underlying problem started long before the pain started – the trigger was just the straw that broke the camels neck.
So what started the issues in the first place? It’s a combination of posture, muscle weakness, repetitive stress and injury and imbalances. As human beings, we were built for movement and variation—not to stay in one position for hours at a time. We were meant to be both active and rest throughout the day – never to do the same thing over and over for hours on end. Our bodies were never meant to live our modern lifestyle.
If you told someone that you were going to run the death race – running for 8 hours straight – one of the first questions they would ask – is what are you doing to train your body to be able to do that? When we look at any sport – there is an automatic understanding that our bodies need to continually train to be able to sustain that activity AND that our bodies need to be cared for on a regular basis as well. Athletes mix cardio, strength and maintenance exercises along with self-care and maintenance to be able to play their sport. But we see our jobs as different – most people work 8 to 12 hour days, doing repetitive work in repetitive postures for their entire workday. We never talk about training or maintenance to do the work that we do.
A lot of what we do involves working in a very closed, tight postures. Our arms are often close to the mid-line, rounding our shoulders and chest inward and up to our ears. We also tend to have a forward head-posture – which rounds the upper back – especially when we are working with technology like computers and cell phones. We often feel the tension in our upper backs and shoulders because these muscles are fighting to bring our posture back-upright. We do everything to release these muscles – but the reality is that the issue is actually in our chest. The strongest muscles in our chest – our pectoral muscles – are the ones that are overworked, tight and pulling everything forward. If we release these muscles and allow the upper back and shoulders to relax – this can do more good than chasing the pain in between the shoulder blades.
We work for long periods every day – exhausting our muscles doing the same thing and staying in the same position all day long. But we do nothing to train these muscles to have the strength to do this everyday without exhausting our bodies. Engaging in light cardio and strength training – like yoga, Pilates, walking and swimming – can help build up strength while also easing the muscles of the body. Exhausting the muscles – both with what we do every day and exercise – needs to be followed-up self-care. Maintenance massage help move blood throughout the body – delivering oxygen, nutrients and building materials – all needed for muscles to heal and build stronger.
Repetitive movements – think typing at a computer/mouse or turning tools over and over again. These repetitive movements lead to repetitive stress injuries – examples of this include injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome. But we often overlook these injuries in the neck. We are constantly holding our neck in forward head postures for long hours and make small micro rotations as we read or use computers. These injuries can lead to tension headaches, pinched nerves in the neck, and reduced range of motion. Massage helps to treat these injuries so they can resolve but also not become worse. Massage therapists are trained to assess these injuries and be able to discern the difference between tension and repetitive stress injuries. Techniques like graston work very well on repetitive stress injuries to reduce scare tissue and tendon issues.
All of these factors combined – poor posture, muscle weakness, overworked muscles and stress on the body leads to imbalances within the body. When the body isn’t working like the fine tuned machine it was meant to be – it tries to compensate for what isn’t working. The strange thing is – the body doesn’t try to fix what’s not working – it tries to find a way to work around the issues – often causing more issues along the way. Registered Massage Therapists are trained to assess and treat these imbalances so the body is no longer compensating and can move towards working the way it should – the way it was meant to. But for most of us – we still need to work – so we go for a massage to “fix” what is wrong – but don’t do the exercises or stretches recommended to us – by doing both – we are fixing what the issues are and staying ahead of problems before they arise.
So what actually works when it comes to neck pain and shoulder pain? The number one thing that works is consistency – combining movement, maintenance and self-care. Choosing an activity – any activity that keeps your body moving that you enjoy can do more for both your physical and mental health than we ever realize. A common joke in our field is that massage is like a bath – once is great but it really needs to be repeated often and regularly to truly have lasting benefits. Massage is no different that your hygiene – by keeping on top of it – it rarely becomes a problem – but it’s a lot harder if you wait until something stinks – or in our case- hurts – to get things back in check. Last, but certainly not least – keeping on top of self-care keeps things at bay but also moves the needle closer and closer to solving the root cause problem.
In our experience, the clients who see the best results are the ones that are proactive rather than reactive. Don’t get me wrong – they come in when they are in a crisis – but we see them long before that. They practice regular care – not just with massage – but with their nutrition, acupuncture and practicing regular movement. If you’re dealing with neck pain and shoulder in Sherwood Park – our team can help – both when you want to start making taking care of yourself as a habit and when you are in a crisis. By working with a collaborative team, like the one we have at Kollectiv Health – we work together to create a team approach to a person as a whole. It’s rarely just one thing—and it’s rarely a quick fix. But with the right approach, it’s absolutely something that can improve.
