Do You Get Neck Pain When You Look Up?
If you get neck pain when looking up, you're not alone. Understanding the causes and knowing how to alleviate the discomfort can make a big difference in your daily life.
Watch this video to learn a simple exercise to help you look up more comfortably without your neck hurting
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What Causes Neck Pain When Looking Up?
There are three primary reasons you may experience neck pain when looking up: joints, muscles, and nerves. These issues often stem from one underlying cause, which we'll address later with a simple exercise. Let's break down the main factors:
1. Joint Compression
As you age, you naturally lose disc height between your vertebrae, causing the joints in your neck to become closer together. When you look up, the joint surfaces compress, especially if you've started to develop arthritis in your neck. This compression can lead to discomfort and pain.
2. Nerve Impingement
Looking up narrows the spaces where the nerves exit your neck.
If these spaces are already smaller due to age-related disc height loss, it can cause a pinched nerve in your neck.
That in turn can cause neck pain and/or pain that may even radiates down your arms.
3. Muscle Pain
The muscles in the back of your neck work hard to lift your head when you look up.
This is particularly true if you have a forward head posture.
This posture already puts your neck in a position of end-range extension, making it difficult and painful to look up further.
One Simple Exercise to Relieve Neck Pain When Looking Up
To alleviate neck pain when looking up, it's important to address the underlying posture issues and improve mobility in your upper back.
Here's an exercise to help relieve neck pain so that you can look up more comfortably:
- Sit with your back against a chair, ensuring good posture.
- Place your arms behind your head, with your fingers at the base of your neck.
- Use the chair back and your fingers to stabilize the base of your neck.
- Arch your chest upward, hinging around the cervical-thoracic junction (CT Junction) where your neck meets your upper back.
- Keep your chin tucked down as you perform this motion, avoiding lifting your head up excessively.
- Repeat this movement 10 to 20 times to improve mobility and reduce neck pain.
For best results, perform this exercise every hour or two if you spend long periods sitting at a desk.
This will help counteract the effects of a forward head posture and keep your neck and upper back more flexible.
Additional Tips for Reducing Neck Pain
In addition to doing the exercise, it's important to maintain good posture as often as you can during the day.
Furthermore, using the proper movement sequencing can help you look up without neck pain:
- Start by extending from the base of your neck.
- Next extend through the mid-cervical spine.
- Finally, allow your head to roll back to finish looking up.
By doing this, you allow gravity to assists with extending your neck rather than having to fight gravity to look up.
Need Help For Neck Pain?
If you live in the St. Louis area and you need help for neck pain, just tap the button below to request an appointment with one of our specialists.