Do you find yourself waking or dealing with a stiff neck? Ever wonder what to do about a stiff neck? If you answered YES to either question, then here is your solution.

A person’s neck can be stiff for a few reasons. One, the muscles are actually shortened, tight or stiff. This happens from chronic posturing or positioning. This could be sleeping in a scrunched position, the way a person sits to work, or repeatedly performing movements in the same way over and over. True muscle shortness is not the most common culprit. In these cases, when the muscle is truly short stretching is needed.

Option two is that muscles are stiff or tight as a protective response. Protective response you say? Yes…as a result of some injury or trauma the neck muscles can tense protectively. This response is fine for a few days, but if it lasts for weeks or longer then that is abnormal. In this circumstance, specific muscle activation or strengthening is necessary to reduce that tight feeling.

A third and possibly the most common cause is weakness. Weakness? YES…and then is often tied to reason number two above. When people do not utilize their neck muscles (all of them) in a reasonable balance then stiffness results. In this case people tend to feel like their head is “heavy” or that their neck cannot support their neck. The body’s response is to tighten up. The solution here will be muscle strengthening.

So how does one know which is the reason and what to do about it?

Well…that takes a thorough physical examination to discover the cause and then develop the best solution possible. Once the most likely source of stiffness is identified then an action plan can be developed to solve the problem. The good news is that regardless of the exact reason, the neck will generally respond well to treatment.

Tired of living with that stiff neck?

Then make the decision to address the issue.

Click HERE to request to speak with a neck expert who can identify the cause and provide the solution for that stiff neck.