Neck stiffness and pain

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

Hi Doctors,

Some recent training history for context…

I ran Powerlifting II with fairly good results, then started Powerbuilding II. During Week 1 of PB II, day 4 right after my Press sets I felt some discomfort in my neck. I wrote it off as just basic soreness. It has kind of just been a neck stiffness that results in some marginal pain when I turn my neck from side to side. Nothing debilitating, but it has persisted throughout the 10 week Powerbuilding II program. I did stop doing barbell press in the middle of the program (replaced with DB press) to see if that helped, but the stiffness/soreness has continued.

I mentioned this to my doctor at my annual physical last week and he didn’t really give much advice, but did say that I may want to look at doing some PT and gave me a referral card.

The pain seems to feel better after a few “sets” of turning my head left and right. And seems to be in a worse state after periods of stillness (waking up in the mornings and also after looking at my computer monitor while working etc).

I’m wondering if you all could offer any advice on next steps.

I was planning on starting PL II again next week and just kind of “seeing how it goes”…but am wondering if its time to consider PT or something?

Thanks docs…this neck issue aside…I’m loving the templates and community you have built.

Thanks,
Jon

2

Hey Jon,
I would definitely continuing training, and running the PLII would definitely be appropriate. Whether or not to pursue rehab comes down to a question of daily activity interference (including training) and the ability to self-manage. So if you’re finding that it’s significantly interfering with your day to day and that you’re unable to self-manage through activity modifications and exercise, then that’s when people tend to see us in clinic. That being said, it’s not uncommon for a situation like this to take a little longer than 8-9 weeks to resolve, and if you combine some activity modification (taking breaks from computer work) and specific exercise (daily sets of head rotations) it should help in the process. If this situation persists and becomes more interfering and unmanageable then seeking care would be appropriate. Hope this helps, and let us know if you have any other questions.

3

Thanks for the reply Mike! I’ll try the activity modification and specific exercise you mention and see how that helps. Have a great day!

Jon