How to ease neck and shoulder pain and improve posture
Many people with neck and shoulder pain know that posture might have something to do with it.
For most people, tension is held in the shoulders and causes headaches and neck pain or stiffness.
This is because the muscles at the back are over stretched from forward facing activities, like driving and being at the computer.
I often hear people say that it is age that causes then to have round shoulders. There is an element of truth, but it is not inevitable.
The wrong solution
Often, I see people stretch their arm forward to ease the tension, I have even heard pilates teachers suggest doing this at the end of classes. However this is the opposite of what you need, if you want to resolve shoulder pain and tension.
When it comes to good posture most of my clients tell me it requires pulling their shoulders back, sticking their chest out and staying like that.
This type of posture is impossible to hold for more than a minute or so. As the muscles used to do this are not postural muscles, they fatigue quickly and the body reverts to its previous position.
No pain more gain approach!
However, creating a sense of length and awareness of what is happening in the neck, will help correct the posture. This does not require force and therefore the new position is easier to maintain and can become permanent.
Watch this video to see how I help clients begin to ease neck tension, easily and without going to the gym.
The simple techniques, I share, can be used almost anywhere, at almost any time and require no effort, so any resistance to improving is removed.
The body work helps get rapid improvement and enable clients , sometime for the first time discover how their body can actually let go and the movements they practice help to reinforce the new pattern and get lasting improvement, without the need for constant appointments as often experienced with chiropractic treatment.
The following article is about a talk I gave on the subject of neck, shoulders, pain and posture.
And this one is a bit more about my approach.