Get Rid of Neck and Upper Back Pain Once and for All

5 minutes in and I’m starting to panic. There’s 45lbs of weight wrapped around my throat and and chin. I’m becoming claustrophobic.

“Breathe,” I tell myself.

I can’t say I ever thought I’d be willing to pay someone to almost choke me with a medieval weighted torture device.

But when the pain is high enough… I’m willing to try almost anything.

My Neck and Upper Back Were Throbbing All Day Long

I’ve been sitting at a computer for significant amounts of time since I was 14. This was 10 years later. And working 80 hour weeks, all behind a screen, was destroying my neck.

Day in and day out, there was tension and pain. If you bumped into me back then, I was always rubbing the right side of my neck and shrugging my shoulders a lot.

So, I went to see a chiropractor. And a 2nd. Finally, on the 3rd I found someone who knew what he was doing.

Chiropractors are just like any medical consultant. There are great ones, good ones and lousy ones. It took me a bit to figure that out.

The first day Dr. Ryan worked on me, I was breathing so much easier and feeling energized as I walked out. My pains were gone.

The relief was like an amazing drug.

But it was short-lived as the pain came back in a few days.

Sitting is Killing The Western World

Have you seen the TIME headlines? Sitting is KILLING you.

Now of course, there are some worthwhile ideas about all this sitting fuss.

I mean we know for sure that our ancestors, even as little as 50 years ago, were NOT sitting all day long. We know that 100s of years ago they were working with their hands, bodies, walking and standing at a much higher rate than the average westerner.

We know that us modern humans are sicker than ever and that our children are the first generation expected to not live as long as we do. Maybe sitting is the cause? Unlikely, but it is part of the big conglomerate of causes that do contribute to disease.

So, to combat this we’ve created a gym culture. One where we’re told that an hour a day is needed and you’re looked down upon if you’re not working out.

The truth is… we weren’t built to sit down all day with our necks craning to watch little 20 inch screens.

And let’s be real I’m not going to give up my computer anytime soon. So, I did what any health advocate would. Several years ago, I started trying out new ideas…

Like the standing desk.

Standing Desks to the Rescue!

Standing desks are the rage! They will fix our culture issue of sitting too much…

Or not.

Not for me at least.

They do help me. I’m much more productive. My neck hurts less.

But I get tired after 3 or 4 hours. And then, after a year of usage, I noticed I was getting new pains!

What the heck?! I thought this was supposed to cure me.

So, I kept digging and talking to experts. It was obvious to some of them I needed more movement in my life.

I needed a treadmill desk to save my health and neck!

Your Desk Matters, but Not as Much as You Think

The more I looked into the research, tested and tried different things, I started to piece together the real answer.

Our bodies aren’t built to stay in one position hour after hour, day after day.

You can sit, stand, walk and lie down and STILL GET NECK PAIN.

I still love my standing desk. I just started using a treadmill desk, which is great. And every single live event, podcast and video I do sitting down.

I rotate. ADHD is a good thing for working behind computers. I saw Robb Wolf mention it many years ago when he was working on his book. He said he would rotate his position, often several times an hour. I didn’t get it till now.

There’s no doubt that you’ll expend more energy standing or walking. And, in general, I’m as guilty as most about not moving my body often enough. Our whole culture needs to play more, move more and stop freezing ourselves into one position as much.

Regardless of the desk chosen, we still have a problem.  

The problem is that I, and most everyone else, have created bad muscle patterning and done a great job misaligning our bodies.

And while chiropractors are often a necessary part of getting rid of our upper back and neck pain, in my detailed experience at best they’re not the complete answer and sometimes they are completely unnecessary.

Retraining Your Neck and Upper Back to Get Rid of Pain

The muscles and tissues that move your neck and upper back, and keep them in place, are trainable. You’ll get better and better at sitting or walking in a bad position, if you keep doing it.

The solution to the pain is the same. Get better and better at moving correctly and getting into good positions and undo all the training you did to put yourself into pain.

By far the best first step for anyone who has upper back and neck pain is to begin with movement and muscles. And that’s why I’m excited to tell you about The Sitting Solution.

This exercise is from their ebook and I’ve been doing it every day, multiple times a day. And it’s helping so much.

Pretty easy and awesome right? I’ve been doing the exercises above twice a day and the tension in my neck is dramatically lower.  I’m one of those people who couldn’t move my head very much prior to doing this and I’ve easily doubled the distance my neck moves.

The ebook is cheaper than one appointment with a chiropractor and I’m convinced will help save you money if you follow their plan first.

Of course you might still need massage and chiropractic help as well. But I can say that without a movement plan to correct your specific issues, most people won’t ever really “free” themselves from the pain (or from the expert bills).

The reality is that, like most things in health, this too requires daily effort. And The Sitting Solution has a fast, cheap and easy way for you to get relief.

-Steve

P.S. – It’s on sale right now, so check it out here.