This is Dr. Devon Barley with Greenwich Bay Chiropractic, right here on Main Street in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. We’re talking about neck pain on this page, and one of the contributing factors to neck pain is muscle imbalance.
When you come into the office, we’re going to create a customized therapeutic exercise plan for you to help not only bolster the work that we’re doing in the office, but give you some agency and some power at home to help get on top of these issues more quickly.
Upper Cross Syndrome
We know that muscle imbalance is caused by a host of factors, but one of the big ones is sitting at your desk for maybe eight hours a day. Because of that, what we find is something called upper cross syndrome.
What this is, is a rounding forward of the shoulders, a weakening of the muscles in the front, and your head traveling forward over your shoulders. We know that for every inch forward your head travels over your shoulders, you’re going to add an additional 10 pounds of weight that your neck has to carry around.
Imagine doing that for eight to 10 hours a day. That’s a lot of stress and tension.
Here are three things that you can do at your desk to help not only relieve that, but give you a little reminder to improve your posture throughout the day.
Posture
We’re going to start with the first one, and it’s just that: it is a reminder of your posture.
Whenever you get into your work and you find that you’re falling forward, what I want you to do is check in, find the tension in your body, and realize that what we want to do is sit up nice and tall and bring our shoulders back and down.
You don’t want to bring them back and up because that’s going to create more tension in your shoulders. Bring them back and down, and just sit with this posture.
Notice how it feels. Spend 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or a minute doing it, and give yourself that reminder that this is the safe position for not only your muscles, but your spine as well.
The “Cup Your Buttock” Stretch
Number two, the second thing we’re going to go over is a very easy stretch, and it’s a lot of bang for your buck. I like to call this the “cup your buttock” stretch.
What you’re going to do—and I’ll move back—is actually take your hand and place it under your buttock. Sitting up nice and tall, you’re going to bend your neck to the opposite side that you’re cupping. You’re going to hold this for about 10 to 15 seconds.
Great. Back to center. Same thing on the other side. Nice and tall, all the way over.
Once you feel comfortable with this, what you’re going to do is actually add in some motion. You’re going to look up, and you’re going to look down. Do 10- to 15-second holds, three to five times on each side.
Remember, take note of where you’re feeling the tension. That may be a source of the cause of the pain, which is important to get on top of your issue.
General Exercise
Okay, the next thing that we’re going to do—and this is the third thing—is some general exercise to not only increase mobility in your shoulders, but strengthen some muscles in your back so that naturally you’re improving your posture throughout the day.
All you’re going to do is have your arms out at the sides, two right angles, and we’re going to do butterflies. They don’t have to be quick.
What we want to make sure that you’re doing is really squeezing your shoulder blades in the back there. Squeeze your shoulder blades.
You’re going to do about 20 revolutions, three to five times, and really get this stuff moving and wake it up. You’ll even find that you’ll feel some pressure relief on the top of your shoulders because what you’re doing is improving or increasing the function of your back.
That is what is creating stability in your neck, and it’ll help bring your neck over your shoulders.
While these are simple, these are three things that you can do in the office to help improve your posture and thereby decrease the amount of tension and pain that you feel.
Of course, if you’re finding that these simple things aren’t helping you get on top of your problem, and you’re really looking for maybe addressing the root cause of the issue, feel free to reach out to my office. Otherwise, I hope these help. Thank you.
