If you’ve ever experienced chronic neck pain, you know how awful it is. One small move and you’re flared up for the rest of the day (and maybe even longer). You may have even had imaging come back negative, leaving doctors unsure of where the pain is stemming from, or what to do to fix it. But did you ever think that the very same thing that keeps us alive everyday could be the root of the problem?

I still remember the day I got my x-ray results back; the doctor said “Ashley, because your dysfunction is mild, it’s not of a concern to us right now (meaning it doesn’t need surgical intervention). The best thing for you to do is see a massage therapist”. My images showed mild facet osteophytosis between C2 and C7 caused by facet arthrosis. Pardon me? I’m 26 flipping years old. I cringed, not because I think massage therapists are not great at what they do (they are actually fabulous), but because I knew that wouldn’t solve my problem. In fact, I had been to a massage therapist prior to seeing the Doctor and it flared me up. I didn’t bother telling him my profession – I just took my prescription for massage therapy and left his office.

For a long time, I attributed my pain (just as the doctor did) to tension through my muscles caused by stress. I had just recently certified as an Athletic Therapist and if you know anything about the program and it’s certification process you know its no walk in the park. Let’s just say I’m very lucky that my (at the time) fiancé still chose to marry me.

So, why did the massage I got flare my neck? As soon I saw the x-ray results I knew that the fix for my neck wouldn’t be as simple as loosening my muscles. Did my muscles have something to do with the overall problem? Absolutely. But they certainly weren’t the cause. They were taught for a reason – they were protecting my spine from further damage. This mechanism is no different than the adrenals releasing hormones when we’re stressed – my muscles were looking out for me. Loosening them flared me up because as soon as I stood up, the muscles sensed the dysfunction in my neck and went into protection mode again.

I’m not going to lie, a huge part of me was convincing myself that my problem had to be muscular. I didn’t want to think about the potential that I actually had something going on at the “articular” (joint) level. I went home and pulled out my books – thank goodness my spinal professor was incredibly knowledgeable. I had to find the cause of the deterioration in my neck if I was going to be able to control my pain.

Being in the profession, I knew all of the basic steps that I needed to take (manual therapy, postural correction, core strengthening), but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what actually caused this to happen. And I very strongly believe that if you can’t find the cause, you can’t find the cure. Then I stood in the mirror and paid close attention to my breathing. Sure enough, every time I took a breath, my abdomen stayed glued down, and my chest would rise. I was what you call a “chest breather”, using my SCM and scalenes to breathe. I couldn’t believe that I had missed this all along.

During the day, we breathe anywhere from 20,000 – 30,000 times (at rest). Despite what some people may believe because of proximity, our neck muscles (especially Sternocleidomastoid aka SCM and Scalenes) are not meant to be our primary breathing muscles. Breathing is meant to come primarily from the abdomen /stomach (aka diaphragmatic breathing), with very little support from our deep neck muscles (outside of when you are taking a deep breath).

I want to note that the scalene muscles attach directly to our vertebrae – the very same place that I was experiencing dysfunction. Now think about what using those neck muscles as primary breathing muscles 30,000 times a day. No wonder why I had neck pain.

Wait a second, am I creating a circle here? Let’s lay this out – my neck was in dysfunction because I was using my neck muscles to breathe -causing overuse and excessive pull on my vertebrae. The excessive pull then led to the dysfunction in my neck – THEN my muscles seized up to protect from further damage? Yep! A nice little circle of events..

Changing my breathing patterns wasn’t easy, I had been breathing this way my whole life. But after a lot of practice, I finally got the pattern down while resting, then I progressed to breathing with my abdomen during activity as well.

About two months after seeing a therapist for the manual side of things paired with correcting my posture and breathing patterns my pain started to diminish. To be sure I didn’t fall back into my old tendencies, I also had to strengthen the deeper muscles in my neck so that they could handle the role of assisting my breathing freeing the SCM and scalene to perform the role they were meant to (tilting, turning and pushing my neck forward).

Am I saying that correcting breathing patterns alone will completely solve everyones problem? No, not necessarily. But take a second to think about the stress we’re putting on those muscles (and everything that they attach to) when we ask them to work 30,000 times a day – of course that’s going to lead to some sort of dysfunction over time.

Some other things you might want to try are:

  • Correcting your posture
  • Strengthening the deep neck muscles (especially the ones on the front)
  • Hydrating
  • If you work at a desk – ensure your computer screen is at eye level and that your chair is at the proper height
  • Seeking support of a physical therapist to ensure there’s healthy movement at the “articular level”
  • Get the proper imaging done to rule out any articular dysfunctions

I know how terrible neck pain can be – I remember the days where I couldn’t leave the house without some kind of muscle relaxant nearby. Is my facet arthrosis gone? Maybe not. But I’m living pain free, and that’s enough for me. Is breathing what’s causing your neck pain? I think it’s certainly an idea worth exploring. Drop us a line here if you’d like one of our professional personal trainers to take a peak.

Ashley