Do you have trouble moving your neck? You may have a “crick in your neck.” A colloquial term for head, neck, and shoulder stiffness and soreness. A crick may need to be treated if you have trouble turning your neck or moving your head up and down. There are many treatment options, and your local chiropractor can help you get rid of your crick in neck and prevent it from returning.
What is a Crick in the Neck?
If your neck feels tight, you have a crick. The muscles, ligaments, and tendons around your shoulder blades and lower neck are usually tight. There are many causes of neck cricks. You may have a herniated disc in your neck or spasming shoulder blades. Spinal stenosis can worsen the crick in neck. Most neck cricks are caused by poor posture or sleeping conditions. A sudden neck crick can make it hard to sit, drive, exercise, and move your neck. Luckily, there are a number of treatments that can help you get better.
Crick or Stiff Neck Symptoms
Neck cricks are uncomfortable but not painful. Having a neck condition or injury like whiplash may make a crick and stiffness worse. The top three neck crick symptoms are:
- Neck and muscle stiffness.
- Inability to fully turn your head to look over your shoulder due to neck mobility issues.
- Neck popping when moving a certain way.
What Causes Neck Stiffness or Cricking?
A stiff neck, or crick in the neck, has many causes. Causes are sometimes a mix of things that can be controlled and things that can’t be controlled. Controllable causes of neck cricks include:
- Poor posture during prolonged computer work at a desk.
- Uncomfortable sleeping positions and/or neck-unsupportive pillows.
- “Tech neck,” or constantly checking your phone or tablet.
- Neck and shoulder muscles can tighten involuntarily due to stress and emotion.
- Heavy or awkward lifting without ergonomics.
- Painting a ceiling requires prolonged overhead reach or gaze.
Uncontrollable causes of stiff neck and neck crick include:
- Injury: whiplash
- Injury from sports (e.g., football spearing, stinger) Aging
Approximately 15% of stiffness and neck pain are caused by a cervical spine condition like:
- Herniated cervical disc
- Spinal fracture
- Stenosis of the cervical spine
- Spinal osteoarthritis
Exercises for Neck Issues
- Sit or lie on your back for this exercise.
- Single repetition: turning and holding your head on each side.
- With your head facing forward, slowly turn your head to one side as far as comfortable. Your neck should stretch on the other side.
- Return to the starting point after 2 seconds.
- Flip and repeat.
New neck pain sufferers may benefit from this information. Neck patients and those who have had neck surgery should follow their neck pain doctor in Dallas advice. Recovery from neck injuries requires movement and strength. This aids tissue repair and mobility.
Resuming exercise may take time, and improvements may be slow. However, a gradual return to normal activities is best for short- and long-term neck recovery. Pay attention to your pain when you work out, especially at the beginning. Initial symptoms may increase with these exercises. With practice, they should become easier and improve neck movement. If the exercises hurt, pain management in Dallas may prescribe medication to keep you exercising.
How to Determine Your Exercise Level?
You can determine your exercise level with this guide. It also shows how much pain is acceptable.
Rating your pain from 0 to 10 (0 being no pain, 10 being the worst pain you’ve ever had) can help:
- 0–3: minimal pain
- 4–5—acceptable pain
- 6-10—excess pain
- Try to keep your pain at 0–5. If pain exceeds this level, modify exercises by reducing movement frequency.
- Decreasing movement speed
- Increasing rest time between movements
Post Workout Pain
You shouldn’t get worse neck pain from exercise. As the body adjusts to new movements, new exercises can cause short-term muscle pain. Exercise should relieve this pain quickly and not worsen it in the morning.
How Many and How Often?
To relieve neck pain, gradually add exercises. Do all the exercises at once or start with one or two and add more as you get comfortable. Repetitions are an action’s frequency. Starting new exercises with 2–3 repetitions can help. Small amounts throughout the day are best. You could practice repetitions every hour. You can add 1 or 2 repetitions every few days as this gets easier. Try increasing repetitions to 10 over time.
Treatments at Home
Try following simple home treatments:
- Ice can reduce inflammation in the first 24 hours. Put an ice pack in a hand towel to avoid burning the skin and apply it to the problem area. Leave the ice pack on for 20 minutes, remove it for 40, and repeat.
- A heating pad can relax neck muscles, ligaments, and tendons after 24 hours.
- If you have an irritated crick in neck, a heating pad can help ease the pain and make it easier to move your neck.
- Stretches can also reduce neck stiffness. Simply put, stretches relieve muscle tension.
- Rotating your neck is a simple stretch. Before returning your neck to its natural position, touch your ear to your shoulder every time. After the pain and stiffness subside, do this 3-minute neck drill daily.