Anyone else wake up with a little tension in their neck?
It is not uncommon for people to hold stress and tension in their neck - in fact, in the world today, it has almost become the norm for my patients to talk about the knots in their neck, or how tight and tension their shoulder muscles are.
We know many things that can cause this like sitting at a computer for prolonged periods of time, looking down while texting and scrolling through Instagram, or just general life stressors tend to make everyone's shoulders raise up an inch or two.
Now in COVID-19 times, there are extra causes of increased tension in your neck muscles. I see people all the time (myself included!) chest breathing when I have my mask in, which causes increased stress and tension in those muscles around my neck versus breathing with my diaphragm. Or transitioning from your comfy desk chair to your new make-shift office at the kitchen table causes increased tension because of the change in ergonomics.
Well, my FAVORITE tool in my tool-box for tension and tightness in the neck is hands-down trigger point dry needling. Dry needling is an intervention where we use filiform needles to stimulate trigger points in the body with the goal of improving pain, mobility and function.
You can see immediate results in many patients, and I frequently will say this is an awesome "reset" to get everything nice and loosened up. However exercise, activity modification, stress reduction techniques and office ergonomic assessments are keys to "save" these changes for lasting improvements.
For more information on how dry needling can help your neck pain, contact us through Instagram, Facebook or through the contact information on our website!
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