Is life giving you a pain in the neck?! Eight things you could be doing wrong.

Do you have a pain in the neck? Perhaps a niggly back ache?

It could be something as simple as your posture or your daily habits. With a little detective work on the cause and some corrective exercise, you may be able to reduce or eliminate these little issues and regain enjoyment of a full and active life.

Here are 8 tips to help you improve your posture and beat the aches and pains!

1. Of course if you spend time  at a computer, this is an obvious activity which can pull the head and shoulders forward and make the abdominal and gluteal muscles switch off. Even if you have had a desk assessment, ‘operator misuse’ can bring in a set of unhealthy movement patterns.
2. Similar is the new term ‘text neck’ where people overuse the neck muscles constantly peering forward and looking at their mobile.
3. Driving is another issue for many people. Again a  seated position often held for a long time shortens the frontal slings of muscles.
4. Holding your phone handset between your ear and hunched up shoulder places strain on the muscles of the neck, upper back and shoulders. They are not designed  to hold this position for any length of time. The use of the microphone and headsets in mobiles has gone some way to mitigate this but unless you work in a call centre, most workplaces do not have headsets.
5. Walking a dog that constantly pulls one side of your body can twist the pelvis and spine.
6. Carrying a bag on one shoulder can significantly affect the way your body holds itself. This is not limited to women as this link shows  https://chirocentre.co.uk/man-bags-uk-back-pain-study/. Pupils carry bags around schools and more men in the UK are carrying man bags with laptops.
7. Inactivity for whatever reason is not good for the body. It is made to move and constant change position. Even if you have mobility difficulties , changing position from one chair to another is often possible and moving the limbs or joints you can move , helps.
8. Any activity that is repeatedly performed such as a sporting move (particularly one sided like a golf or tennis move) or a vocational task will overstress the body one side. Sometimes these moves cannot be avoided but exercises balancing out the body can help to redress symmetry in the body.

Basically the body just needs to move in a balanced way and keep moving!