Rules for a Happy Neck: Reducing Neck Pain, Feeling Better, with Whiplash, Postural Strain, and Other Types of Neck Associated Pain.

Neck pain is very common. A lot of us get it and continue to go about our days. Sometimes it becomes so bad that it might make it difficulty to get through the day, exercise, or get a good night's sleep. At its worst, neck pain can disrupt one's ability to work, concentrate, and do things that matter to you. In this series of blogs, I am going to give you some tips that I have learned in my career as a chiropractor from experience and doing extensive research into the topic.

Happy Neck Rule Number 1: Keep it Moving.

Any neck can be a happy neck, but sometimes it takes work

When we have neck pain, movement can feeling more painful. Feelings of stiff, restriction and sharp pain can make us worry that moving our neck might make the pain worse, or cause damage to tissue. While there might be more pain with movement, in the moment, there are movements that can help our necks to be less painful and restricted. There are a few good reasons that we can be confident in this when working to improve neck pain.

There is a very small subset of neck pain suffers who may need to reduce their movement. These cases are very rare, and usually pretty easy to spot. This may be due to fractures or dislocation in the neck. In these cases, there has usually been some sort of major trauma, like a car accident, and the healthcare staff at the scene of the accident or in the hospital will screen for these types of injuries. I even screen for these types of injuries in my office, and they are so incredibly rare.

Most neck pain though, like whiplash grade 1 or whiplash grade 2, or common neck pain and stiffness that most of us get from time to time is not associated with any kind of structural damage that would get worse from movement.

You don't have to be lifting heavy weights, but our necks move when we move.

There are a few ways that we can move our necks that are helpful. One way to move is through exercises like active ranges of motion, segmental/regional movement and resisted movement. The why and how of these movements will be discussed in another post. But even incidental movement of the neck can be helpful. We move our necks a great deal when we walk, put away dishes or sit and have a conversation. This is why one of the number one recommendations for neck pain from experts and treatment guidelines for whiplash and neck pain is to return to as much normal activity as possible. Just by moving through the regular activities of life, you neck will move and you will get the benefits of this movement.

So one simple rule to have a happy neck is to move, move your body, move your neck, do things that are meaningful to you. Whiplash and most types of neck pain get better (slowly in some cases) when we are moving.