Neck pain when you can't prevent bad posture
Neck pain when you can't prevent bad posture
How to make your neck stronger
One of my most recent patients is a former Marine (retired after 20 years) who is now a barber.
I actually get my hair cut at his shop now since as a Veteran I love to support Veteran owned small biz’s, so if you were in my area I’d 100% recommend him.
Anyway, he’d been dealing with some neck pain, said his pain starts after the first 3-4 cuts of the day, then was just sore and painful the rest of the day.
The major root causes of his issues were
he couldn’t find a barber chair that is high enough for him to be comfortable while cutting hair
“I got a big ass head”
My hat size is 7 3/4, and I can vouch for his big ass head.
Anyway, I started him on our Neck Pain Protocol. The next visit he was 50% better. The kicker was…
He didn’t even do the exercises correctly.
So, we fix his technique. A week later he says he makes it through 75% of his day without any issue, and even then he does some retractions and his pain goes away.
He comes back 1 more visit, I confirm his technique, and we shoot the shit talking biz and military life.
A couple weeks later I’m getting my haircut, and he says to me…
“Hey doc, I’m feeling great, I don’t think I need to come in on Monday.”
“Sweet, I’ll go ahead and cancel you, see in you a few weeks for my next haircut.
Strengthening the neck is pretty easy. It only does 3 things
Flexion (chin to chest)
Extend (look up)
Rotate (look to the side)
Since the neck is simple, the program I use is simple. Endurance and range of motion for the above listed motions.
You can get creative and buy some bands, but otherwise, unless you’re training for something specific, this will cover it.
It works to stop pain and to prevent pain.
You can start this program right now since I’ve included it below, and just like all of our programs it’s included when you upgrade your Substack.