Neck Pain

"What Should You Target If You Have Neck Pain?"

Neck pain can be a debilitating condition. Why is any neck issue less tolerated than lower back pain?

The joints are smaller, the muscles are more refined and you use your neck constantly throughout the day.

Once you have pain in this area, it is hard to avoid aggravating it with all those little activities you do automatically.

To understand more about why pain occurs and more importantly how to avoid the common mistakes made when dealing with it, read on.

But first...

What Causes Neck Pain?

The causes of pain in the neck are no different to the many back pain causes.

As muscles tire, they will tighten. The tightness can cause pain, as does the formation of Trigger Points in the muscle. This is the most common mechanism that creates pain.

The causes as explained in our web page on back pain causes are the distortion patterns that twist your spine and allow your muscles to tire.

If you spine is balanced, the muscles and joints work well. They can handle the day to day stresses placed on your spine and pain never develops.

As soon as your spine is out of balance, muscles lose power and strength and hence tire. The pain sequence occurs and you are left with the inability to turn or move your neck without having pain.

The problem with your neck is that you use if often in the day. With lower back pain you can usually avoid many of the activities that aggravate pain.

With neck pain it is harder to avoid these same activities. As soon as you sit or stand your neck is used, the muscles are suddenly under tension and it is those small movements that cause pain when someone calls your name or you decide to reverse your car down your driveway, or you just turn to watch someone as they pass by...

All of these send pain straight to your neck. Sure your lower back works also when you sit or stand, but the muscles are designed for strength, the joints are larger and hence these activities don't cause too much pain.

You also don't tend to move your lower back suddenly when watching people, or when someone calls out your name...

The major problem with any pain in your neck, is not what causes it or what aggravates it, but...

The Biggest Mistake with Neck Pain

When pain occurs, you immediately think the problems all arise from the site of pain.

However, your neck is not separate to the rest of your spine. In fact your spine works in pairs.

Did you know that the top joint in your spine moves in unison with your lowest joint in the spine? The second to top and second from the bottom also. And so on...

This is called the Lovett-Brother mechanism.

What it means is that if your lowest joint in your spine tightens, the top joint will tighten. Your neck aches may have developed not because of local tension, but due to other areas in your spine failing to work correctly.

If you have neck pain, there may be joints in the lower back also out of balance. They may not have pain, after all the joints are larger and able to cope better with minor changes.

But if you have pain you should look at the entire spine for solutions and not just the area of pain.

When pain develops anywhere in the spine, it has developed due to the many micro-injuries that occur, not the final event people mention such as how they turned, twisted, or even lifted an object.

The accumulation of these micro-injuries occurs because of the habitual imbalances in the spine. These imbalances allow the minor daily tasks to create stress on your entire spine.

As times goes by these stresses increase, muscles tire, trigger points develop and pain appears to arrive suddenly. In fact it has been building for days, weeks, months or even longer.

There are four main imbalances as explained in our web page on back pain causes, that can cause pain anywhere in the spine.

This is why the first step in removing pain is...

The First Step In Neck Pain Relief

To have long-term neck relief you must remove ALL the causes. The muscle and joint imbalances throughout your spine. Why?

As we said above, your neck pain may be local, or it may have occurred due to imbalances elsewhere in your spine.

The first step is therefore finding the distortion patterns (imbalances) that occur in your spine. These patterns will twist and distort the whole spine including your neck. Once you identify these patterns you can then target the areas causing your pain.

The biggest mistake people make with neck pain is trying to fix it without knowing where these patterns are. If you use generic stretches and techniques, you will only get temporary relief. You are less likely to remove pain long-term.

The first thing you should do is request a copy of our Free Relief Guide that teaches you how to detect these patterns. Once you know what and where to target, neck pain will ease quickly.