What Causes Neck Ache?
Neck aches are often the result of a combination of factors including; prolonged periods in poor posture, weak shoulder and core muscles and not enough movement through the day.
Better support for your spine is key in avoiding neck pain. Better spine support includes muscle strengthening exercises that help stabilise your spine, shoulders and neck, and improved external support (through good office set up, lumbar support in sitting and good footwear in standing.)
Weakness of our core stabilising muscles can lead to fatigue in prolonged postures, slumping in your chair, poor posture at your desk and subsequently increase load through the neck.
Tips to Reduce Neck Ache.
1. Take Regular Breaks. Remember “Our best posture is our next posture” Our bodies love movement and breaking up our day with short walks will help relieve muscle tension, improve blood flow and resets our posture for the next work period.
2. Stay Strong. A strong core, shoulder and spinal muscles helps us maintain good posture and reduces the load through the neck with day to day tasks. Walking is not enough to keep our upper body strong so make sure you weekly exercise includes some theraband or weights work to keep your muscles and bones of the upper body strong too.
3. Get off the Phone. Looking down at devices loads the neck muscles and joints and is bound to create poor postural habits, headaches and neck ache. Are you reading this on your phone? What positioning is your neck in now?!