You back out of a spot at Kierland and go to check over your shoulder. Your head gets about halfway and quits, so you end up turning your whole body like a robot. That’s usually when people decide it’s time to deal with it. Others notice it at night, propped up in bed with a novel, when a hard little knot forms right under the skull. Some can’t look down at their morning coffee until they’ve stood in a hot shower for ten minutes. If any of that has been going on for weeks, PT can help.
Why It Sticks Around
A human head weighs somewhere around ten or eleven pounds, and most of us spend the workday letting it slide forward toward the monitor. The muscles along the back of your neck have to hold it there all day, and eventually they get cranky. Sit like that long enough and the little joints between the neck bones get stiff, too. If you’ve also got some arthritis, or you got rear-ended a while back, or your pillow is older than your car, the soreness has plenty of help.
What Keeps It Going
We ask a lot of questions about your day, because the cause is usually hiding in there somewhere. Here’s what we hear the most:
- You scroll on your phone in the recliner after dinner, chin down, for an hour.
- The laptop sits flat on the kitchen table, so you’re looking down all day.
- You sleep face down with your head cranked to one side.
- Your shoulders are up by your ears whenever work gets busy.
- Turning hurt last month, so now you just don’t, and it’s gotten tighter.
What PT Looks Like
First you’ll turn, tip, and nod for us so we can see where it catches. Then we’ll feel along the neck for the tight, tender spots. We’ll also squeeze-test your grip and check the feeling in your fingers, because sometimes a nerve gets pinched up there and shows up in the hand.
Most visits start on the table. The therapist presses gently on the stuck joints and works on the knotted muscles, and lots of people sit up already turning a little farther. Then you’ll do some exercises. Chin tucks pull your head back over your shoulders. Rows with a band and shoulder blade squeezes build up the muscles that hold everything in place. A few easy stretches round it out.
We’ll want to hear about your setup too. Propping the laptop up on a stack of old cookbooks helps, and so does a new pillow, or just standing up every time the dryer buzzes.
Signs You Shouldn’t Wait
Maybe your grip has gotten weak, or two fingers have been numb for a week, or the headaches keep getting worse. Call us sooner in that case, since a nerve might be getting squeezed.
Give it a few weeks of steady work and most necks start turning a lot more easily. If yours has been stiff long enough, book a visit with Modern Medicine of Phoenix, AZ, and we’ll help you check that blind spot without turning your whole body.
