If anyone has ever experienced neck pain or a stiff neck, I am sure you can relate to how defeating it makes you feel. I remember thinking, I don’t know what is worse, neck or back pain! Like many, I have had both and I can tell you having one over the other has been no fun. They both are pretty bad but the neck pain felt really awful! At least for me! Probably because it just didn’t seem to let up. I can tell you; that it made things very challenging with an annoying stiff neck and pain! Especially since I am an active person and, at the time, training for a certification that required me to complete a 5-minute strength and endurance test. The fact of not knowing what the issue was created stress, and even more neck tightness and discomfort. I was always good at working through things but this was different. I knew something wasn’t right, and there had to be something I was doing wrong. I guess I may have been guilty of doing the same things over and over again, hoping it would get better but it didn’t. Big surprise!
Here’s something to think about. Since we worked so hard as a child to hold our heads up, it is only natural that we would go back to this in an attempt to create some form of stability for us. Sometimes it is not the most efficient way, leaving us feeling defeated and physically exhausted. For me, I couldn’t stop using my neck for my abdominal muscles! I thought to myself, why bother having any other muscles in my body because my neck was doing all the work! No wonder I had so much neck pain. Geez! Can you relate?
Did you know that not having the best neck position can throw off your diaphragmatic breathing as well? The diaphragm, one of the primary muscles involved in breathing gets its nerve supply from certain areas in the neck. So, if you don’t have the best head and neck position not only will this throw off your abdominal muscles (like me), but you will kill the nerve supply to your diaphragm. Making breathing way more challenging. When you consider we breathe 20,000-25,000 times a day, I think it is safe to say that how we breathe has a huge impact on our lives. Not only for overall health and wellness but for body stabilization and, ultimately, injury prevention. Having good core and spinal stability helps us stay on point. Allowing us to continue doing all the things we love to do without the hassle of pain and discomfort.
Since I love working with trailblazers and thought-provoking folks. I will leave you with this thought to ponder. How do you think your neck will feel if it is being used to stabilize your whole body or being recruited over 20,000 times a day to help you breathe? Ask yourself: How do I breathe?
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Remember, you are destined for greatness and will always have the power to prevail!