Over a lifetime, many of us are often faced with the pain from the cervical spine. Sedentary office work, travel on your own car, a comfortable sofa at the TV – for all these blessings of civilization have to pay their own health. This article will try to understand why there is pain in the neck and how to treat it.

Why there is pain in the neck?

There are three main causes of neck pain: injuries, bad posture and incorrect practice inverted postures.  

Most often, neck injuries occur from motorists. As a result of very heavy braking (eg in an emergency), the body stops and the head continues to move as a “whip”: forward, down and up sharply. When this ligament overstrain. This injury is called – “thin shout.”

The second cause of disturbances in the cervical region is, of course, the way of life of modern man. During daily sedentary work the neck is in danger due to incorrect height of the desktop and chair inconvenience. If a person begins to rely not on the back of a chair, and on the table, the center of gravity shifts forward. The neck is in this case also brought forward, and the head continues to look directly, which creates room and tension in the neck.

The third risk factor for neck (if we’re talking about yoga) is a wrong practice inverted postures. In the inverted position of support have to go to the arms and shoulders, and in any case not on the neck and head . 

A typical mistake made by novice practitioners is the incorrect implementation of Sarvangasana (postures birch), when the whole weight on one vertebra, even under strong bending of the neck. In such a case, and injured vertebrae and intervertebral discs, is offset, and the brain is disturbed blood circulation. Always make sure that the weight of any inverted position heading into the hands, not in the head and neck.

What happens in the muscles and vertebrae?

With proper posture, the head is positioned over a cent support and the load on the muscles of the neck are minimal. If the head moves, the muscles have to strain excessively. They are trying to preserve the stability of the vertebrae, but are not designed for this load. Therefore, there is a pain. 

Often faced with a pain in the cervical region, we try to pull and stretch the cervical vertebrae to relax spastic muscles. Chat, rotate and pull the neck is not necessary, it will only exacerbate the situation. To relieve tension fit gentle massage, it is better to consult a specialist. But muscle relaxation only temporarily relieve the symptoms.

Tension in your neck at the wrong position, it serves a good purpose, trying to protect a person from a more serious problem – the displacement, protrusions, hernias. Should not just relax overstrained painful areas of the neck, but the important thing is to strengthen the muscles that will be able to maintain an upright position, thereby removing the neck the wrong load . To do this you must regularly do the exercises for the neck.

What exercises help with neck problems? 

All the exercises that are performed for the neck should be carried out on its axis , without tilting the neck with respect to the spinal column. This is a very typical mistake made even in the halls for yoga. Any rotation of the head, bending the head to the ear can injure the cervical spine as overload vertebrae and discs, and is strictly contraindicated with neck problems. 

If we approach the issue more seriously yogaterapii neck, then work individually with the neck is not obtained. After all, the correct position of the cervical spine arise due to incorrect position of the thoracic, poor posture. And to build a cervical spine axis correctly (when the head is above the center of the support and the tension of the neck muscles is balanced), you need to open the chest department. A correct posture will ensure a healthy and natural neck mobility.

Thoracic disclosure is very useful to do both passive deflections (on brick or ball), and power (eg, shalabhasana , ushtrasana ) to strengthen the back and shortening the muscles between the shoulder blades, turning the shoulders.

Is it dangerous to click cervical vertebrae?

By itself, the “click” only indicates that the gas is diluted in the joint capsule. Carbon dioxide passes from the liquid to the gaseous state due to sharp stretching. But the way we achieve this is already serious enough stretching time. If, for example, by clicking the knuckles, you just pull them, and the gas is discharged, it is not dangerous. What is achieved by clicking in the neck? If a person with full force shakes his head, of course, it is very sharply stretches the joint capsule. Gas clicks, the capsule is stretched, the muscles relax and the person feels relieved. But the breakthrough destabilize the neck, making it hypermobility, while the problem of over-voltage, it is necessary, on the contrary stabilize the area. Therefore, is not dangerous-click, and the actions that he called.

Working with a chiropractor can provide short-term effect, removing tension from the muscles. But the tension very quickly come back again, because, as we have said, it appears to stabilize the neck. Therefore, without exercise, aimed at stabilizing the spine and improving posture, such therapy does not make much sense.

All diseases of the nerves?

If the lower spine are injured by excessive exercise, the upper (upper thoracic and cervical) suffer from mental stress.

For us, the state of threat, anxiety, depression associated with a grouped housing. Defensively, we try to be approximated, the compression, so the stress extensor muscles are reduced. And such a psychosomatic tone can be a very long time, breaking the posture and causing stress and pain in the neck and shoulders.

Working in asanas, try to direct attention in the field of spastic and consciously relax them. For deeper work jaws can be used with deep relaxation techniques (e.g., yoga -nidru, body-oriented therapy).

Practice properly and stay healthy!

 

Questions Yogasecrets. ru replied yogaterapevt and yoga teacher Valentina Malinovskaya.

Valentina Malinovskaya:

• Experience yoga practice of 25 years of teaching experience of 14 years.
• He participated in seminars Kali Ray ( Tri Yoga ), Reinhard Gamenthallera (D.Brahmachari School), David Swenson (Ashtanga Vinyasa), Petri Raysyanena (Ashtanga Vinyasa), Sergei Agapkina ( Svastha Yoga ), R. Sharath Jois (Ashtanga Vinyasa).
• Trained and certified in the Moscow Ashtanga Yoga Center of International Yoga Federation standards (2008-2009).
• Yoga instructor certificate of the Moscow Ashtanga Yoga Center, International Yoga Federation diploma, certificate teacher of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga (David Swenson).
• Successfully trained and certified at the “Institute of traditional systems of healing” (Moscow, 2010-2011). “On yogaterapii Specialist” qualification.

Prepared Daria Rolin