Imagine lifting shopping bags or sitting at your desk without that familiar neck ache.
Patients usually come to physio for an appointment for their neck pain, headache or shoulder blade pinch – and good hands on mobilisation, massage and dry needling (for those who actually like it) work wonders for pain and movement. But 30% of this type of neck pain never goes away – it just keeps coming back a few times a year, every year.
If you live with neck stiffness, osteoarthritis, or nagging headaches, the problem may not just be in your neck. The neck doesn’t function in isolation — it’s the top of a chain that connects the arms, shoulders, and upper back
Often, weakness in the arms, shoulders, and upper back forces the neck to work harder than it should. By strengthening these areas, you can take pressure off the neck (cervical spine) and reduce flare-ups.
So, how can you actually control your neck ache and stop it being a common feature in your life?
- Have hands on physio treatment to restore full movement and clear any pain where there is a flare up.
2. Isolate and activate the rotator cuff muscles – those innermost shoulder muscles, that hold and centre the arm bone into the shoulder joint
3. Finally add in strengthening exercises for the big arm muscles – biceps, triceps, deltoids, traps and rhomboids.
When shoulder and upper back muscles are weak, the smaller muscles in the neck overwork to stabilise your posture. This extra load puts pressure on your lower neck and keeps tension in the base of the skull, where trigger points often cause headaches.
So if you have neck ache a few times a year, get the treatment to ease pain but explore how you can exercise to develop stronger arms that offload the neck. By giving the shoulders stability, the neck and shoulders share the load of daily tasks.
By Megan O’Shea
