Kink in Your Neck?

I woke up with a kink in my neck today so I thought this would be the perfect subject for me to write about.  I massage a lot of people with kinks in their necks.  They wake up feeling this terrible pain that makes them want to pop their heads off.  When someone sees me for neck pain, I recommend the treatment suggestions below.  I focus, not only on the neck area, but also the jaw and upper back.  As your neck muscles are tightening and gripping around your bones, it is important to get them to relax.

What can cause your neck pain?

• Leaning your head forward too long can cause strain in your neck muscles.
• Sleeping on a pillow that doesn’t support your head correctly.
• Activities where you are using your upper body
• Stress causes neck, shoulder, and jaw muscles to tighten up.

Treatments

• Hold your head straight and stretch your neck muscles, slowly, if you are working at the desk or studying.
• For an acute injury, use an ice pack and lay on specific area for 15-20 minutes.  This will cause the inflammation in your neck to go down.
• After the ice pack, use a hot towel and roll it under your neck.   This will help your muscles to relax.
• Use a medicinal balm like Tiger Balm found in Chinese Medicine stores or Supermarkets, health food stores and apply it to your neck as you run continue activities for the day.
• If you also feel it in the shoulder, use a tennis ball or doorway on your back to compress the muscles.
• Don’t forcefully stretch it out as it may cause your muscles to contract more.

If your neck pain is consistent, it’s time to see a doctor to see how serious your neck pain is.

Alternatives:

Chiropractor – sometimes it is a disk out of place and a chiropractor can help you resolve it

Acupuncturist – needles have a magical way of inducing relaxation into muscles.  It also works with the whole body system so anything else related to the neck injury can be worked on as well.

Massage – Relaxing and having someone do the work for you is mighty beneficial.  Let them massage out the kinks for you.  In this case, you would need to find a massage therapist who does therapeutic work as opposed to just relaxation massage.