Neck pain

[Maui19]

For the past few months, I've been troubled with pain on both sides of my neck. It hurts where the neck and shoulders meet tending to be confined to the sides and back. The pain/stiffness make it hard to turn my head to the sides. The stiffness comes and goes somewhat, but it is definitely aggravated by playing tennis--particularly serving and hitting overheads. It never hurts when I'm playing. Sleeping with a pillow makes things worse, so I sleep without it.

Anyone have any insights/exercises/suggested treatments?

TIA

 

[vandre]

have you ever been to a chiropractor? if you are out of adjustment somewhere in your neck then it can affect the muscles and make them tighten up and you'll hurt.

 

[Maui19]

have you ever been to a chiropractor? if you are out of adjustment somewhere in your neck then it can affect the muscles and make them tighten up and you'll hurt.

No, I have stenosis in my neck and don't want to get adjustments there.

 

[charliefedererer]

You may want to consider doing the following exercises:

Egoscue - Exercises for Neck Pain from The Egoscue Clinic of Austin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfmM9xbKjEw

Hopefully Posture Guy will weigh in.



Suzanna McGee, who posts here as sxftlion, has an article on her tennis web site you may find helpful:
5 Tips to End Neck and Back Pain http://beta.active.com/racquet-sports/tennis-articles/5-tips-to-end-neck-and-back-pain-9483



Do you do off court conditioning, like the thrower's ten exercises?
http://www.muhlenberg.edu/pdf/main/athletics/athletic_training/throwers10.pdf

 

[Bobby Jr]

... The pain/stiffness make it hard to turn my head to the sides. The stiffness comes and goes somewhat, but it is definitely aggravated by playing tennis--particularly serving and hitting overheads. It never hurts when I'm playing...

If I play singles for a couple of hours I generally get a headache afterwards nowdays. I put it down to the jarring on your body. I don't notice any relationship to overheads/serving though but, like you, it never bothers me while I'm playing. The issues start a couple of hours afterwards in my neck - like a neck tension headache or something.

I usually just use a hot wheat bag on my neck if I need to do other stuff afterwards. Seems to do the trick. I realise I probably need to see a chiropractor or something.

 

[Rob1]

I used to have very bad neck pain as result of the top vertebrae would
be to one side as result of tennis, sleeping, working on computer.
It happens very commonly.
Used to go to the chiropractor, but don't need any more with these
simple exercises.

Before each workout, do head exercises like tilting to one side slowing
10 times, down 10 times, and up 10 times.
This straightens your vertebrae that cause that issue.
Plus lean to the left and right 10 times each where your arm goes
past your waist area and rotate your knees to loosen them up.

 

[Bobby Jr]

...as result of tennis, sleeping, working on computer. It happens very commonly.

Yep... indeed.

Before each workout, do head exercises like tilting to one side slowing 10 times, down 10 times, and up 10 times.

Can you explain this better please. Keen to learn some tricks to prevent this happening.

 

[RogueFLIP]

Ever thought about getting some soft tissue work done on your neck?

Something is obviously compressed and tight enough to cause you to have stenosis in your neck....dollars to doughnuts its a factor in your neck pain/stiffness.

Stenosis doesn't happen overnight...leads me to conclude that probably you might be out of alignment lower in the middle spine and possibly lower which may be contributing to your stenosis and stiffness.

Exercise and movement is nice, but you or someone else might need to get in there and break up any soft tissue restrictions and help put you in a optimal alignment to reduce your symptoms.

My $.02.

 

[Cindysphinx]

I had what you describe.

It was due to a strain in the muscle of my upper back. The muscles were weak because I was being a lazy sack with my upper body workouts. Poor mechanics on the FH and serving made it worse.

It took an injection, PT, and lots of stretching and strength to get back.