Pain and tightness in neck and traps

Hi to all,

Can you please give me advice what to do regarding the pain and tightness in my neck and traps?

I feel like I'm on a rollercoaster with this pain, fighting it for over a year now.

Every time I think it's gone and I start over with my F1, in following 3-4 weeks it comes back again and disables me for good.

Usualy I feel pain whenever I'm doing any overhead pushing exercise, no matter how big or small the weight is, however, this pain can also come from sPL/PE1 or any other exercise which is forcing me to contract neck and trap muscles even for a short moment.

Currently I feel more pain in my left side of the neck and traps, but previously it was also on the right side. If I'm letting my head hang and try turning it from right to left, I feel pain and discomfort on my left side of the neck.

Just to add, I'm 28 and in moderately good shape. I would say that my biggest weakness is 1) terrible mobility due to years of lifting weights, 2) minimaly 8-9 hrs/day sitting at the computer, 3) bad posture (forward rounded shoulders).

I really don't know what else to do here.

I tried going to regular massages and even started swimming 2x per week (swimming helps to ease the pain a bit), however I still feel like it's not enough.

Stretch series gives some traps stretch. they will probably solve the problem.

Thanks Alessandro.

That was the reason I've bought all three Stretch courses

In Bridge series, are there any exercises you would reccommend doing more then once per week, and which ones to stay away from?

Boris Ostojic said:

Hi to all,

 

Can you please give me advice what to do regarding the pain and tightness in my neck and traps?

 

I feel like I'm on a rollercoaster with this pain, fighting it for over a year now.

Every time I think it's gone and I start over with my F1, in following 3-4 weeks it comes back again and disables me for good.

Usualy I feel pain whenever I'm doing any overhead pushing exercise, no matter how big or small the weight is, however, this pain can also come from sPL/PE1 or any other exercise which is forcing me to contract neck and trap muscles even for a short moment.

Currently I feel more pain in my left side of the neck and traps, but previously it was also on the right side. If I'm letting my head hang and try turning it from right to left, I feel pain and discomfort on my left side of the neck.

 

Just to add, I'm 28 and in moderately good shape. I would say that my biggest weakness is 1) terrible mobility due to years of lifting weights, 2) minimaly 8-9 hrs/day sitting at the computer, 3) bad posture (forward rounded shoulders).

 

I really don't know what else to do here.

I tried going to regular massages and even started swimming 2x per week (swimming helps to ease the pain a bit), however I still feel like it's not enough.

Try laying on the floor with a lacrosse ball between the floor and your traps (switch sides after you do one side).  You can add pressure by pressing your feet into the ground and bridging up slightly.   Do this for about 1-2 minutes each side.  Also, try using the same ball and just holding it against the side of your neck and lightly pressing and rolling it throughout your neck each side.  You need to release all the tension in this area.  Do you have forward head posture?  If so, work on improving your posture.

I've tried using tennis ball and it hurts too much if I'm laying on it. So now I'm trying to put the pressure just by standing and leaning against the wall. Haven't tried pressing it on my neck, though. It seemed too delicate for such focused pressure.

And yes, I have forward head posture too. Didn't mention it in my first post because I thought that with forward rounded shoulders you instantly "get" forward head posture too. I'll search for that term on forum now and find some advices which exercises to do.

Thanks.

If you have had this problem for a year you need to see a good physiotherapist or osteopath.

Mark, I was going to one osteopath every 3-4 weeks and that helped a lot. However, when I wouldn't see him for longer period (6-7 weeks) the pain would come back again.

It helped me only in the short term so I decided to ask here on the forum if you could help me with some advices.

I found one thread on a forum about fixing forward head posture with some good points so I'll try to follow them for several months and see how my neck and traps will feel after it.

Boris Ostojic said:

Mark, I was going to one osteopath every 3-4 weeks and that helped a lot. However, when I wouldn't see him for longer period (6-7 weeks) the pain would come back again.

It helped me only in the short term so I decided to ask here on the forum if you could help me with some advices.

I found one thread on a forum about fixing forward head posture with some good points so I'll try to follow them for several months and see how my neck and traps will feel after it.

Hey Boris, yes I really think what you are describing is probably caused by posture issues.  I would spend at least 3 minutes every day (or more) working on some exercises designed to fix that.  Once you get to the point to where the tennis ball isn't causing pain you should advance to a lacrosse ball.  

Thanks guys for giving me a lot of good advice.

I'll start correcting my posture immediately since without a proper one I can't do any weighted overhead movements.

Just to show how sensitive and tight my neck is, earlier this morning I made a slight sudden move with my head and I god major cramp on my right side of the neck.

I really need to focus more on stretching, not just my neck and traps, but on whole body.

Eek... 8 to 9 hours a day at a computer seems like itd be hard to recover from

Boris Ostojic said:

Mark, I was going to one osteopath every 3-4 weeks and that helped a lot. However, when I wouldn't see him for longer period (6-7 weeks) the pain would come back again.

It helped me only in the short term so I decided to ask here on the forum if you could help me with some advices.

I found one thread on a forum about fixing forward head posture with some good points so I'll try to follow them for several months and see how my neck and traps will feel after it.

If you felt better with treatment but then the problem returned then there is something that you are doing in terms of poor movement that needs to be changed. You need to conscious of how you move day to day and when you see the pattern of poor movement you will be able to fix it.