Neck pain can be both frustrating and debilitating.
Whether it increases over time or appears out of nowhere, neck pain can cause headaches, restrictions in movement, and zap your energy.
You might be tempted to wait for your pain to go away on its own, or be told it’s a normal part of getting older. But if your neck pain is negatively impacting your daily life and you’re getting the same generic advice when you see your GP, it’s time to make a change.
You don’t need to accept neck pain as your new normal – or rely on painkillers to keep it at bay.
Private physiotherapy can find the source of your issue and then provide you with a tailored plan to treat it – so you can regain mobility and get back to doing your favourite things again.
Discover proven techniques to relieve neck pain, improve mobility, and prevent recurring issues. Written by our expert physiotherapists.
Neck pain occurs due to irritation or injury to certain structures within your neck and spine. It can become debilitating for anyone suffering from it, often accompanied by headaches.
Identifying which structure is causing your neck pain is the key aspect of getting it treated. The main cause of your pain will either be from your neck joints in your spine, the nerves in your neck or the muscles around it.
Neck pain can both build up overtime or appear out of nowhere. Regardless, it has a significant negative impact on your quality of life, often leaving you with no energy to do the things you enjoy the most.
The most common sign of neck pain is central neck pain, stiffness that restricts your movement and occasionally clicks and cracks coming from your neck when moving. This can often be paired with shooting pain down the arm, pins and needles into the hand or even headaches. What also surprises people is that pain in between your shoulder blades can also stem from your neck.
For the people aged over 40 that we help, the symptoms that make them take action are when they have waited so long that sleep becomes affected, this has a real effect on their energy levels. They suddenly struggle to look over their shoulder when driving, are unable to concentrate at work looking at a screen because of the gripping pain in their shoulders, and even feel that their head is too heavy for their neck.
Thankfully physiotherapy can improve this.
We know you might feel apprehensive about physiotherapy – especially if you’ve previously spent months on a waitlist before being seen, and then walked away with a sheet of generic exercises that didn’t improve your situation.
At Hamilton Physiotherapy, we focus on outcome over intervention. After an in-depth consultation, we will create a personalised treatment plan that tackles your pain at its source – with clear actions and milestones for when you will start to feel better.
Your treatment plan will depend on your injury and could include exercises, stretches, or manual therapy such as massage.
By starting physiotherapy for your neck pain, you will do far more than ease your discomfort. You will move more freely, get a good night’s sleep, and enjoy every moment with your loved ones again – unburdened by pain.
The first aim of physiotherapy is to help reduce your pain so that you can regain neck movement and not have to give moving your head a second thought.
By finding and treating the source of your neck symptoms physiotherapy will be able to help you get a good night’s sleep again and restore your energy that pain zaps from you. This will help greatly in reducing a need for pain medications, and have you back living life unburdened by pain.
Holding your neck in one position might relieve your discomfort temporarily – but as soon as you look over your shoulder or try to turn your head, the pain comes back.
Regularly change your neck positioning. Your body wants movement, so stay active to reduce your stiffness.
A quick Google or YouTube search will bring up hundreds of exercises for neck pain – but how do you know they are the right ones for your issue?
In some cases, doing the wrong exercises will make you feel worse! The best way to create a personalised exercise programme is to talk to an expert, who can create a progressive plan that builds your long-term strength, function, and mobility.
You’ve changed your pillow, had a neck massage, and used heat packs – and none of it worked. The most important thing you can do to tackle your neck pain is get a physiotherapy appointment!
Stop letting fear hold you back – improvements can always be made to your quality of life. Working with a professional is the best way to reclaim your energy, independence, and enjoyment of your favourite activities.
We don’t promise a magical fix for your pain if we can’t provide one.
As soon as you can.
A physiotherapist will identify the cause of your pain and start you on a treatment plan specific to your needs to help with your symptoms.
The more you wait, hoping it goes away on its own means the more time you are suffering needlessly.
Sadly there is no one answer for this. It usually amounts to trial and error.
The one thing not to do is spend loads on different types of pillows.
Get your neck pain assessed and treated by a professional, they will guide you if you need to change your pillows, but will likely save you money by not needing to.
No. Exercise is so important. It helps restore your movement, reduce your pain and get you back into your hobbies again.
The important thing is to make sure you are on a guided plan, so you are doing exercises specific to your needs.
Sitting looking at your phone, working on a laptop, all things that we do more of and put our necks into positions that look sore.
The great news is, it actually doesn’t matter that much for your pain. It’s more important to focus on moving and changing position often over trying to “fix” your posture.
Definitely not, but you have to take action.
People wait too long in pain, hoping that it will go away on its own, or relying on family and friends for advice.
Get professional help, ideally from a physiotherapist, and they will be able to help you.
