Acute Neck Pain

Most people know what it feels like to wake up with a stiff neck. Often there is no specific reason for this, but if you treat it right away it can become just a minor annoyance rather than days of pain. 

Step 1 is typically to practice some diaphragm breathing to relax the muscles and lower the stress response in the body. When the neck muscles tighten it is easy to become stressed which feeds into the problem. By practicing deep breathing you prevent this from worsening. 

The next step is to get the muscles moving but typically not stretching right into the tension. I like to accomplish this with an open book stretch as well as thoracic ext.

*link to open book, thoracic ext

It is also important to keep the neck moving early on. It will be painful but if you go slow and careful, you can help speed up how quickly you recover. 

*link to Cervical AROM, SNAG

If done correctly this should only be something that lasts for 24-48 hours. If you notice that this condition keeps recurring then it is possible there are some deeper weakness issues in your postural muscles that can be addressed with physical therapy. Please reach out if you have any questions or would like to learn more.