Top 5 Life Hacks to Cure Chronic Neck Pain in Minutes

Neck pain can be a total joy killer, making it hard for you to carry out mundane tasks such as brushing teeth, shaving and showering. Even drinking coffee in the morning can feel a bit irritating when you’re experiencing this type pain. Plus, it can transcend and affect other areas of the body such as your shoulders, arms and back.

For some, the pain can be as bad as feeling an electric shock right up the center of the middle back when picking up something as light as a laptop bag.

You might have tried taking cortisone shots or prescription pills, hoping that they would heal you. Or maybe you’ve been visiting the chiropractor, massage therapist or acupuncturist weekly.

Although these approaches might give you relief for a short period of time, they will not completely heal your neck pain. What you have to remember is that there is always a natural solution to your chronic pain symptoms.

Below we’re going to address 5 types of neck pain, what causes them and exercises that will alleviate and eliminate your pain symptoms.

30 Second Self-Mobility Test for Chronic Neck Pain

You can get longer lasting recovery and a cure to your problem by taking only 1-2 minutes per hour. Yes, it is that effective. How might you ask?

Well, before I jump in and explain to you what you ought to do, here’s 3 reasons why you might be experiencing neck pain and stiffness:

1. Poor Muscle Balance
   Since we mostly sit slumped over our desks for hours, glued to our computers, this creates a tightening of muscles in the front of our neck, and weak muscles in the back of our neck. After a period of time, the ligaments holding our bones together start to perform the task of those weak muscles, and thus the pain.
2. Middle Back Stiffness
   Our middle backs were created to be mobile. So, when we sit the whole time looking down working on our smartphones, we create stiffness in the middle back. This stiffness causes the neck to work harder in order to make up for the loss of mobility in the middle back.
3. Lack of Standing
   Sitting, puts our bodies in a position that it was not meant to be in for a long period of time. When we stand, we use our spines, and our joints and muscles work more optimally.
   Now for the solution…This is a quick self-mobility exercise you can do in your chair in order to keep your spine healthy and cure chronic neck pain at the same time.

While sitting in your chair, grab the back of your neck while leaning over the back of the chair. Keep your chin tucked into your chest while leaning back even further until you can’t lean back anymore. Continue to remain upright while gently breathing in and out.

Repeat this exercise as many times as possible for 1 minute every hour.

Disclaimer: If you feel that this exercise or motion creates more pain than you currently have, specifically pain that radiates down your arms or away from the neck after repeating the motion, then its highly suggested that you stop and make an appointment with the PainFree Maverick immediately.

30 Second Self-Test for Shoulder Pain

As previously mentioned, your neck pain could be the culprit of other body aches and pains such as your shoulder. Here is a short 30 second Shoulder Pain Test, to determine whether that’s the case and how to fix it yourself.

This test is extremely helpful if you feel pain in your shoulder when lifting at the gym, or pain in your arm or fingers that is numbing, burning or shooting. It’s difficult to know whether the pain comes from your shoulder or your neck.

Give this quick test a try to eliminate your pain, even if you have pain from a shoulder impingement.

	Take two fingers from the arm of the same side where you’re experiencing pain and tuck your chin towards your throat.
	Push it all the way back with a fair amount of force to make a double chin, bringing your chin to your throat.

If your pain moves away from where it is, and moves closer to the neck, it’s a good indication that your pain is coming from your neck.

30 Second Self-Test for Upper Neck Pain

Now, if the previous test didn’t affect your pain, then it could be a stiff upper neck pain which can commonly cause headaches and migraines.

Doing this 30 second test will relieve you of this constant nagging pain in your upper neck.

Before I show you, have you ever stopped and thought why it is that the upper neck pain first comes on before a headache kicks in?

It’s caused by fascia (gristly layers of tissue under the muscles), and by imbalances and weaknesses pinching the neck nerves.

We spend a lot of time slouched, and because of this, together with bad posture, we develop migraines and tension headaches.

It is most likely that your migraines and tension headache pain is caused by a muscular imbalance because of the way you sit. The good news is it can be dealt with in 30 seconds.

Here’s the test:

	Take your hands and grab the back of your neck, at the skin areas with both hands.
	Try to drag your skin up towards the ceiling, while looking all the way up to the ceiling.

Do this for about 10 or 15 repetitions. In the process try to turn your neck left and right. If your neck feels looser, then you probably have a muscle imbalance.

Breathing – Your Number One Instant Neck Pain Reliever

If you’ve ever been in that unfortunate situation where you woke up and your neck felt like you slept wrong and it felt totally locked, then you know how terribly uncomfortable and painful it can be. This condition is called torticollis or neck spasm.

Most people deal with a neck spasm the wrong way:

Mistake #1 – Do not get into a hot shower, as this will only aggravate the situation.

Mistake #2 – Do not drink Motrin (ibuprofen) to relieve the pain. This type of pain is one of the nervous system and not a chemical pain. It cannot be fixed with a pill.

Before I let you in on how to deal with this type of pain, there is something you must understand. There are two main types of acute pain:

1. True Chemical Pain – This is the type of pain where an inflammation has set in and therefore a pill will definitely cause a relief.
2. Mechanical Pain – This is the type of pain you experience with a locked neck.

Any pain you have along your spine, which comes and goes, can be turned on and off through positioning. This is mechanical pain and is treated totally different from chemical pain.

The way to turn mechanical pain off without a physical therapist is through breathing. Not just any kind of breathing though, but belly breathing. This type of breathing has the power to reset your brains alarm of pain and shut off acute pain very fast. This is achieved through breathing and contracting the diaphragm. Air enters the lungs and the belly expands during this type of breathing.

When you have pain, the diaphragm reverses its ability to contract and the muscles in the neck over contract and work harder and harder to protect you. Pain is caused because there is a muscle asymmetry or imbalance in the neck and the joints or ligaments have lost their ability to support the neck properly. The exercise below will teach you how to reverse this imbalance.

Slightly bend forward keeping a straight back. Grab the rib cage with the pads of your fingers. Breath deep into your belly and exhale hard while you attempt to pull your ribcage outward.

Do this several times to stretch the diaphragm muscle and prepare it for inflation. By using this simple exercise and an ice pack around the tight neck muscles, we’re able to break the cycle of the spasm and pain. Our neck pain is instantly relieved as the nerves are relaxed.

Dealing with An Acute Whiplash

This type of pain can be described as pain and stiffness so terrible that the neck feels tight as when someone tries to escape from a bear hug but feels locked in. Every wrong move sends a sharp stabbing pain like daggers into the back of your neck that shoots into your eye sockets.

Here are the top three causes of acute whiplash:

1. The Dura Mater – The neck is connected to a long pipe of nerves that enters and covers the spinal cord called the dura mater, and when this pipe gets stretched, it can cause severe spasm in the middle of the back, the neck and the back of the skull.
2. Live Electrical Wires – The pipe of nerves entering the neck are very sensitive. These nerves are like live electrical wires, and once pulled they get really sensitive and painful to slight movement.
3. Bowling Ball Effect – The head is the weight of a bowling ball, and when the neck is strained or stretched the heaviness of the load of the weight on the head makes pulls on these electrical wires, which drives the pain.

Here is the corrective exercise that will reduce the pain and have you regain full motion in 36 hours. This is done by lying flat with one pillow under the head.

Lift the back of the skin using two hands under the skull and pull up towards the top of the skull.

Repeat this 15 times every hour.

A very important key point here is to never push into pain and to stop immediately if there are signs and symptoms of nausea, double vision, problems with swallowing or problems with slurring of speech.

If other parts of your body are also causing you pain, have a look at one of the other guides and step-by-step stretching exercises on the PainFree Maverick website.

If you need more help, email me:
If you’re looking for support or advice on natural ways to get rid of any pain you’re experiencing, reach out to me at info@allcarept.com