1.stretch your arm and shoulder

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A reminder for you when you are typing at the computer is to make sure that your hands are above your thighs not further out past your knees. Think: if you dropped a pebble from your hands would it land on the tops of your thighs or onto your knees or worse, the floor. If your hands are too far from your body you will be continually dragged forward which will put you into a forward head posture.
I want you to imagine how long you could hold a 40lb bag of potatoes with an outstretched arm and how much it would hurt if you had to do it( if you physically could) for two hours. Your arm and shoulder would not only be screaming in pain but they would also hurt for days after that.
Think of cutting your elbow, if you continue to bend your elbow you continue to re-injure your cut and the elbow doesn’t heal. However, if you stop bending your elbow, the cut will have a chance to heal and will get better quickly. This is the same with your ligaments of your neck,How Orthodox Medicines Differ from Alternative Medicines, stop slouching putting your neck into a forward position and your ligaments get a chance to heal finally- thus removing your pain. If you damage your ligaments further though, they can lose the ability to hold your disc in place and the disc may eventually bulge and can press on a spinal nerve causing pain or numbness or pins and needles in the shoulders, arms or hand.
You have to be aware how you sit and stand when you drive, are at the computer, when you read, eat and drink. Long term forward head posture is the reason that the majority of people suffer from neck pain! By the way, this is not just me sayin this. the Mayo clinic states that long term forward head posture leads to muscle strains, disc bulges and neck pain.
As i said before, if you are slouching you cannot possibly get your neck in good position. How are you sitting now?
How to stop continually hurting your neck-it just makes perfect sense
The good news is that this too can be helped using some specific exercises and adhering to good postural habits. The exercises will fast track your healing by re-aligning the disc.
Take it a step further. If i asked you to hold that bag of potatoes every day in the same manner your arm would be in constant pain especially whilst you were holding it. If you wanted to stop your arm hurting what would be the best way to stop it?
What is the major cause of neck pain? why you are suffering right now?
What is the major reason that exercises for neck pain do not remove your neck pain permanently? Why does massage, chiropractic, Yoga, acupuncture help you only temporarily? Why do you wake up suddenly with neck pain and cant turn your head?
This is why neck exercises will not work whilst you are continually harming your neck and upper back each and every day. This is also why it is nothing more than ludicris to get treatments and expect to remain pain free if you continue to hurt your neck. And of course this is exactly what happens to people. They either suffer from constant neck pain or recurrent bouts of neck pain.
Let’s look at the example of a person at a computer. You will see this all day every day, the person is sitting with their head protracted (pushed forward). In other words, if you were to hang a plumb bob (piece of string with a weight on the end) from their chin it would hit the floor. Their head is too far forward. This then puts the lower neck into a position of flexion. From years of poor posture certain muscles will also chronically shorten( known as adaptation) causing more pain and dysfunction. This can cause more pain and headaches. Every inch your head translates forward from the correct postural position( your ears above the centre of your shoulders from a side-on angle) you create 10 lbs of extra strain on your neck. It is common for people to sit at their computers for hours on end with their heads 2-3 inches forward which puts 25-30lbs of extra strain on your neck! It’s little wonder your neck hurts at the end of the day
Hows’ your lower back
If you want to remove your neck pain and become pain free you must start here-removing the forward head posture from your every day activities. I show you many ways in my DVD on how to do this but for now here are a couple of quick tips:
Your neck is no different.
Your neck and a 20 lb bag of potatoes quiz
Then guess what-the FHP is the culprit i can pretty much guarantee you.
At the computer
This is what you do each and every day if you sit and stand in poor posture.
When you drive,
When you sit poorly and stand poorly you create stresses so great for your neck that it is virtually impossible for you not to suffer from neck and upper back pain. Every inch your head travels forward of the central position creates and extra 10lbs of weight on your neck structures. This means that if you are sitting here reading this without sitting upright( think-if you were to drop a rock from your chin would it drop onto your chest or onto the floor?) you are probably putting anywhere between 20-40lbs of strain onto your neck.
If you are sitting poorly, standing poorly or doing you daily activities using poor bio-mechanics you will be injuring your neck time and time again. When a person is sitting slouched with the chin jutting forwards( known as a forward head posture) they are continually straining the ligaments, muscles and discs. The ligaments surround the joints and are responsible for supporting the discs that lay between the vertebrae. After prolonged poor postural habits the ligaments can actually tear. This can then cause pain and if the person continues to have poor posture the ligaments will not heal properly. If good posture is performed this gives the ligaments a chance to heal.
I can tell you that i do not get any treatments for my neck. I have not spent thousands of dollars on an ergonomic chair-I sit on a $15 chair. I have not suffered from neck pain in years. You do not have to suffer from neck pain.
Is your neck worse when you are at the computer?
1.stretch your arm and shoulder
2.get chiropractic treatments, massages, acupuncture or various other treatments spending thousands of dollars
3.remove the cause of your pain and stop holding the bag of potatoes with an outstretched arm
Of course, number three is correct because if you continue to aggravate your shoulder, continually straining your joints and muscles by holding this 20lb bag of potatoes you will continue to have pain. You dont have to be a rocket scientist to know this. You wouldnt spend you hard earnt money on treatments to try to fix your pain when you know your pain will be fixed by simply fixing the cause of your pain. You would simply stop causing your pain right?
Look no further than your foward head posture.
to learn more check out my blog www.treatyourownneck.com
tilt your rear view mirror slightly higher than you need it. This will keep you sitting higher in your seat rather than slouched. It is a great neck saver especially if you have to drive for a long while. Also, put a rolled up towel or cushion(or you can buy a lumbar roll) behind your lower back. You cannot have good neck posture if your lower back is slouched-your good neck posture starts at the lower back.