Neck & shoulder – the evil cousins!?

Have you started feeling the weight of your head on your shoulders? Do you get stiff neck? Do you like your arm under your head while sleeping? Do you wonder if you can do something at your convenience to relax you body? Do you work, play or travel long hours? Are you a sports person wondering why you are getting slower with time?

Demystifying the logic's and bringing you solutions is the sole purpose of this article.

Like my previous articles; I will try to stay away from anatomical explanations, and bring my perspective with regard to the problem as I have experienced; and what I feel can provide you a solution. Interestingly, we are all aware of these issues but sadly, we are not completely aware of the consequences and perhaps, don’t know how to deal with them.

We have a vertical structure - straight, as you can see, from the line of gravity shown in the picture. Our body is blessed with curves; but, where lower back curve is well known; the curve in the neck is unfortunately never discussed in general. It may be a smaller curve than lower back, but it is there. And we mostly keep our neck bent forward while sitting, playing, working, training or driving!

What are we achieving in the process?

Well, we are trying to reverse the fundamental pattern of our structure at the neck. What is bound to happen considering we have ligaments, arteries, muscles and nerves in the region that we are toying with?

As per some experts, the forward bending of the neck results in reversing the bend of the main ligament (posterior longitudinal ligament) or may affect some important arteries like the Carotid, which contributes to maintaining CO2 and blood pressure. With every inch of neck bending forward; the weight on the discs increases to double. Now imagine the inches we bend and you can visualise how tight our neck muscles become. And not to forget the cervical nerves for example C1, C2 and C3, which besides controlling the head and neck/movements, also contribute in breathing. 

Among all the problems like headache, breathing issues, neck pain etc. I will be focusing on how a tight neck can effect the functioning of the shoulder and thereby causing problems! Not to mention performance, which is automatically affected.  

Lets look at my understanding of how these beautiful distant looking parts become evil cousins together:

Case study: I had a client with frozen shoulder. And while working with her (post her physio sessions), I noticed that she has perfect broad shoulders and a straight neck – she was sitting perfectly with a straight back. A rarity! She did light gym before the injury, doesn’t drive much, is not heavily overweight, and she doesn’t operate computers for her daily work. What brings frozen shoulder to her is the question I kept asking myself? No sign of any serious wrong doing anywhere!

Why? I kept asking…

Until one day, I found out her pillow story! She would take two pillows, while sleeping and watching TV, and pillows were arranged in such a way that her neck would nicely slant down from the top of the pillow – almost making a 45 degree angle. A possible suspect to the crime! So even a small breach like this can get us in trouble, then imagine what damage we do in our daily lives!

Therefore, one learning that I took from this is: ailments are strictly individual and you can never be sure who gets it first. So take care of it as and when you become aware of it; and don’t wait for others to get it first just because they look to be doing more damage to their alignment than you!

Look at the picture on the right and visualise the effect if the neck bends a few inches forward from its current position. The muscles of the neck will have to elongate/lengthen/stretch to bend forward from their natural position. Right!?

Now, since these muscles are attached to several other muscles; the neck muscles will naturally pull upon all other muscles – what we may call the upper back muscles (rotator cuff muscles, rhomboids, trapezius and the rest), because they are connected. Therefore, none of these muscles are in their natural positions and instead, most of these muscles all pulled/stretched to facilitate the forward bending of the neck.

So, can I say, that most of us live/play/train with an imbalanced upper half?

Now let’s see how shoulders contribute more to the imbalance whereas, they are meant to be doing different movements than neck! Interestingly, in most cases we somehow manage to keep our shoulders slightly forward curved instead of hanging them on the sides – thanks to pillows, chairs, cushions, cars, sports etc. Don’t believe me? Watch your shoulders in the mirror in normal standing position and you will be surprised how our shoulders tend to curve a bit forward naturally now! This directly implies that we are pulling (at least a wee bit!) on already stretched (from the neck) rotator cuff muscles and further pulling on other muscles. And not to forget that, this time, you are contracting your chest muscle as well.

Double whammy!!

Can I therefore summerise that most of us are living with an imbalanced upper back and contracted chest = Imbalanced upper body?

Yes, we have a strong body…capable of handling everything. Read on…

Our chest muscles get contracted in most of the actions in sports whether it is throwing, bowling, serving or a swing of the shoulder; and contribute to power. Where in tennis or badminton, although an individual uses both contraction and elongation in good proportion, their angles could still be different; and in cricket only a selected few fast bowlers are able to fully flex and expand their chest muscle (pectoralis major) as compare to others.

May be same power but different part/s!

Therefore, each player/individual would have a slightly different structural alignment, and so would be their response to any training, related to this region of the body. (notice the back swing of both players)

My interpretation could be wrong here; but I strongly believe that – it is for this reason why a particular training can be most suitable to one compare to another in the same sport/team. For example: the top player (Saina Nehwal) needs a bit of extra work on her lower back in terms of opening the lower part, what I call relaxation, besides doing whole back.

Case Study 2: I applied this on myself as I wanted to study the effect of my day today life and training on my muscles. So I approached gym after a long gap; and I wasn’t surprised when biceps and triceps exercises felt easier/lighter than the rest of the body - if you concentrate and communicate well with your muscles; it is not hard to find your muscles response to an exercise.

Why?

My reasoning: because I almost run and train 5 days a week and therefore, most of my muscles including chest, shoulder and neck muscles are tired from my daily onslaught as compare to my biceps, because my biceps are lesser used and therefore, more relaxed. The important point am trying to make here is not on biceps BUT to prove that all the other muscles are tired! I can feel it and I don’t need the help of science to prove that to me.

Please think why it would not apply on your body? 

My conclusion: Don’t take any of your body parts/muscles for granted; they too need rest! Pay attention and give tired muscles some rest…activate the sleeping half. It is important to work towards bringing the balance back in body for better health. There must be a reason why, besides the best of best, top players keep getting injured in any sport!? Not to blame any training because you find a lot of successful cases in the same batch. I think players and individuals need to step up here a bit and learn to correct themselves by indulging in small practices – examples mentioned towards the end of this article, rather than solely relying on your training machines.  

Going by this theory - we must look at bringing the balance back in our upper body considering how we are overusing some parts of our neck and shoulder. It will not only help you improve your physical performance; but will also keep you safe from injuries in this region.

Don’t forget - injuries finish careers!!

 I avoid giving general advice for everyone because exercise selection is highly individualistic in my opinion, and it should only be prescribed after studying structural alignment and profile of the person.

Having said that I always try to give some basic postural experiments for people to experiment and see if it works for them. All these have worked on me and my clients. So try the exercises mentioned below while reading this article, and let me know your feedback in the comments section. Please consult your physician/trainer or physiotherapist if you think, you need to, before doing the below exercises:

Warm up the neck first thing every morning - bend your neck backwards and sideways. Do it slowly and hold it for 5 seconds first and 10 seconds second time, at one place. Straighten the neck as and when you remember as it would help to release some pressure of your muscles – use your thumb to lift your chin whenever you like to straighten it. And if you already have a stiff neck or have any issues in your shoulder region then keep your neck in line with the spine.

Neck follows the spine and should not lead it!

With regard to shoulder I thought it might be a good idea to click a few pictures in the home setting – you don’t need any equipment or even a mat! These are simple drills that I ask people to repeat a few times during the day whenever you remember. These will help your shoulder to move the other way…helps it to straighten a bit and of course, elongate the contracted muscles and vice versa. Don't worry about the posture...just practice this to feel relaxed!

Bring your shoulders on the side consciously whenever you remember. Make a habit of stretching your shoulders backward – I generally walk with my hands interlocked backward. Try it. Stretch your middle back by lengthening the shoulder upward and go as high as possible with your fingertips. You will start pulling the middle back when shoulders are fully extended.

Lastly, Stretch your back together with shoulder and neck – this to me, is the best upper body stretch. If you need support for your head then please use a wall and rest your head on the wall.

Caution: Be aware of the fact that there may be little pain, which is muscle’s reaction to straightening, when you start your journey towards bringing the balance back.

Those of you who are interested in reading more into BACK issues then please check my last article on back: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/back-singular-umesh-chhikara/?trackingId=nUzfZFhH3tREVlkqfUUhMw%3D%3D

Umesh Chhikara

Training Therapist

Ph: +91 9810113075

[email protected]