Life is often a literal pain in the neck, and virtually everyone suffers from a sore neck from time to time. The weight of your skull should balance on top of the spine, but natural movements upset this balance, leaving the muscles and other support structures of the neck to pick up the slack.
While some movements that cause imbalance are unavoidable, you may be fueling neck pain through little lifestyle habits that put unnecessary strain on these soft tissues.
At Westside Pain Specialists, we help you with neck pain that’s become chronic, and we have some suggestions for preserving pain-free conditions. Consider these four common lifestyle habits that could be contributing to ongoing pain.
Arguably, each of these lifestyle habits reference your posture in some regard. It’s important to understand that posture isn’t a singular condition or position.
If you’re sitting or standing, you can balance your body in a static posture, adopting a pose that relieves strains and stresses by aligning the parts of your body in an efficient way, what you’d do when you sit up or stand “straight.”
However, your body is made to move, which means your posture can also be dynamic. You have different positions of balance and efficiency based on the activities and tasks you perform.
This might be things like concentrating on your gait as you walk or run, or carrying heavy loads close to your body. Make an effort to reset your posture throughout the day, while moving or at rest, as well as altering these other potentially bad habits.
A habit imparted by contemporary devices, the head-forward, eyes-down position we use to view a smartphone or other electronic device places the weight of your skull in front of the line of support through your spine.
This cantilevered position strains ligaments, muscles, and tendons that support the neck. While your body can handle this imbalance for periods without pain, over time it takes a toll on the natural curve of your cervical spine, leading to chronic pain.
Working at a desk puts the keyboard and display on different planes. That’s an improvement over a smartphone or tablet, but you can still optimize ergonomic conditions like chair, desk, and monitor height to support better posture.
In particular, set your station to support your lumbar spine, raise your face, and straighten your shoulders. Rolling your shoulders forward and slouching are the habits you want to fight.
When you’re facing deadlines, it’s easy to tie yourself to an unbalanced posture in the interest of finishing the job. However, you may be working against yourself in more ways than one.
Your body resets whenever you take a break from sitting or standing in a stationary position. Building in a movement break every 30-60 minutes not only helps to break bad posture conditions, it can also refresh your focus.
Changing your position for even a moment or two can aid your efforts to build good posture habits.
Neck pain can be about more than just bad posture. Contact Dr. James Nassiri and the team at Westside Pain Specialists when neck pain persists. We have offices in Beverly Hills and Rancho Cucamonga, California, so call the nearest location to book your visit today.
