CHARLOTTE – What things do you notice from being confined by the pandemic? I noticed today my neck hurts a little more. I’ve also noticed my shoulders are trying to get friendly with my ears. Think about it this way, when you’re standing upright and carrying your body the way it was meant to be carried, your head fits squarely on top of your spine with a normal weight of about 12 lbs. You have a slight, natural curvature of your spine all the way down to where it intersects with your sacrum. Beyond your sacrum is where your tailbone ends (where your gluteal muscles are attached), and it is naturally flexible and curves in so we can sit comfortably.

What happens when your muscles are tight and throw your spine out of sync with the rest of your body? For starters, if your head pushes forward and relies more on your neck to hold it up, then the stress is like having a 20 – 40 lb bowling ball balancing on the top of your spine. This in turn can weaken the scalene muscles, weaken the trapezius muscles and cause your neck/chest muscles to compensate. This will carry on until you start having headaches or are in danger of screwing up the bone in your spine.

Massage can help with your musculature, thus helping get your spine back in order, allowing that bowling ball head of yours to fall back into alignment and allow those muscles and nerves to return back to where nature intended.