Over the past month or so, I have been dealing with neck pain, the kind you sometimes get when sleeping wrong. It was initially on the left side and manageable, but a week or two ago switched sides and has peaked overnight. My range of motion in moving my head around is limited, and the pain is the worst when looking down or to the right. I can also feel it all throughout my shoulder, including outside of my right shoulder blade, my right trap, and my right delt/down my arm.
My first question is - what is the best way to loosen the area to regain range of motion pain free? Advil? Bio freeze? Stretching?
My second question is - could this be related to my programming? I’m on week 4 of powerbuilding 1 gen 2, and I’m doing the 3 day split. Before this I was doing the 3 day hypertrophy split in the time crunch template. Could the added pressing and increased compound lift frequency be causing this? I just find the timing of the issues to be interesting considering it started around the time I switched from time crunch to PB1.
I am wondering about when and how the neck pain started. It’s not clear that there is something training related, but it’s possible of course. I’d wonder about exercise selection, the loading, how your training has been going, and sleep to start. You can see why these types of questions often end up turning into consultations. We oftentimes need more information!
As far as what to do, we would generally advise engaging in exercise that you find tolerable. This approach is discussed in more detail here:
That other post is very helpful. Unfortunately I cannot remember a specific point in time or anything in particular that caused the pain. It was gradual and manageable on my left side, and had been the same on my right side until last night. I did bench yesterday, which went pretty well aside from some awkwardness getting into position with limited range of motion in my neck. Everything felt fine after the workout too. I will do what I can tolerate, take Aleve, and use a warm compress in the meantime. Thanks!
Following up here - based on my symptoms I think there is a chance that I have a cervical herniated disc. The pain has traveled down my right arm a bit and I can remember a distinctive “pop” in my neck a few nights ago when the pain escalated. Is there a preferred method of diagnosing a herniated disc? Do I need imaging to be sure?
We are a bit limited about what we can do over a forum. For your specific case, I think you would likely benefit from a consultation where we can discuss this in more detail.
As far as herniated discs go in the neck, when they do cause symptoms can cause pain, weakness, and sensory loss in the upper limb and neck (depending on where the issue is). Pops and cracks are common, but don’t tend to be very instructive. There are many people with disc herniations that have no symptoms as well. If people have progressive and/or severe symptoms, imaging is often indicated, but again, this is not something I can answer on the forum.