4 steps to getting rid of back and neck pain

In 2019, I went to college for software development and regarded myself as an overachiever (try-hard). As expected I spent more time sitting than I ever have.

I’ve been active in karate since the age of 6, but at that time I hadn’t spent that much time at the dojo. So when it came time for our annual camp, things went back in a wrong way!

During the warmups of the Judo session, my back went out and caused lower back pain that I felt on and off. Crippling lower back pain at aged 20? The price we pay right? Wrong.

In this post, I will share my approach to getting rid of back and neck pain, caused by countless hours of coding.

PLEASE NOTE: If you feel any pains and aches in your spine and joints, or the methods I discuss make things worse. See a doctor && || a physiotherapist😉**

Why does this happen

While there may ne many reasons for pain, the general cause of pain and stiffness can relate to under developed and stiff muscles combined with bad habits that leaves us with poor posture. This causes general discomfort and some cases can lead to injuries.

The common places we feel discomfort include:

1. Lower back, either to the right or left of the spine, above your butt.
2. Neck and shoulders. Some discomfort and stiffness which can be felt around the neck to the left or right of it and sometimes even close to our armpits.

These pains are closely related with bad posture due to poor development of the glutes and core in the lower back and poor inner back muscle development to support the back and shoulders.

GOOGLE CHALLENGE: Curious about the specific muscles? Read up on: rhomboids, lower trapezoids, hip flexors, glutes and core.

DISCLAIMER: Once again... If any pain is felt around your joints and spine, get checked out!

How to make the pain stop!

So now it’s time to make these aches, pains and bad posture to go away. One of the common solutions given is stretching and even “mobility work”. And while these may give you some relief, it won’t solve any underlying problems.

My approach? Performing corrective exercises that strengthen the underdeveloped muscles, critical for our posture.

Now the sentence above can come across as scary but luckily, you only need about 4 exercises, and the pain could be a thing of the past!

Below I will offer a few exercises pretty much anyone can do, with a few cues to help you get the most out of them

Lower Back Pain

To help this, we want to strengthen the lower body stabilizers: the glutes and core!

Glute Bridge

• Lay on your back with you knees up
• Push through your heels and squeeze your butt.
• Hold for 5 secs and repeat 5 - 10 times

Reverse Crunches

• Lay on your back with your hands underneath your glutes and your knees up
• Lift you feet from the floor with out pushing from the floor
• Curl your back by using your core and hold for 2 secs and repeat about 8 - 15

Pain in the Neck! (and shoulders...)

Here, we want to work the tiny, sometimes hidden muscles that can will keep your posture in check by themselves: the lower traps and rhomboids.

Anti-Hug

• Hold your arms out in front of you like a zombie, and keep your thumps up and out if you can.
• Pull your arms back and imagine pinching a broomstick in between your shoulders.
• Hold that position for 5secs and repeat about 5 - 10 times.
• When getting better, include some resistance bands if you can.

Y Raises

• Lay face down with your forehead touching the floor, and hold your arms straight above you in a “Y” pose.
• Keep your thumbs up.
• Now squeeze that broomstick in between you shoulders and lift you arms off the floor, while keeping your head on the floor.
• Hold that position for 5 secs and repeat about 5 -10 times

Additional Tips

While these exercises are a great way to correct the pains and stiffness, below are a few general tips that can help out in the future:

1. The rules of 90 degrees, in your setup
2. Taking frequent breaks - not spending countless hours sitting down
3. Look at how you’re sleeping. We spend a lot of hours asleep. Make sure your mattress and pillow is good as well as your sleeping position.
4. Get moving! The human body was not meant to stay static all the time. Whether it’s CrossFit or Yoga, get your blood flowing and your body moving to cement these changes!

Conclusion

And there you go. If you perform the exercises mentioned above correctly as well as implementing some of the additional tips I provided, your pains are bound to go away. And I cannot stress this enough, if the pain is around the joints and the spine or if these exercises makes things worse, seek professional help.

Hopefully this article helped you and I would be keen to hear your thoughts!