I’ve been experiencing both neck and upper back pain now for years, thanks to two car accidents I was involved in where I got whiplash both times. I always wanted to work out though, because usually working out and doing yoga would help immensely with keeping my muscles strong and stretched, as well as keeping stiffness at bay. You see, keeping muscles flexible and warm is very important, especially if you want to avoid common neck and back injuries, including upper and lower back.

As I said, I usually experienced a relief from working out after a whole day of sitting at my computer chair at work, but the other day and a few other times, I did notice that working out actually made it worse. Turns out, I was doing some of my exercises incorrectly and this most likely was the culprit of my tense, tightened up muscles that was causing such stiffness and limited range of motion.

I had to seek the help of a doctor, who wrote me a prescription for a light muscle relaxer and told me to take that three times a day until I could get in to see a licensed medical massotherapist. I did see the massage therapist, and boy let me tell you, I didn’t believe that a massage could manipulate problem areas and make them “smooth out” so well, but indeed I’m a believer now!

She also gave me a great tip for working out that would help save my back and neck. I’ll try to explain it as best I can, but it goes like this. She said that many times people don’t keep their shoulders stable when they work out with weights on their arms, and this creates instability that leads to neck and upper back strain.

She said to try to imagine your arms firmly in their sockets, with little leeway for moving around, and really focus the movement where it should be, on the arms, and not on the shoulders. She also said to try to keep your neck extended and spine as much as possible (imagine a string pulling your head to the ceiling, and this will help prevent neck and upper back strain and injuries while working out.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 11:10 am and is filed under Fitness Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.