Know about the hidden dangers of shoulder massage and neck massage

Shoulder massage is a very enjoyable thing. In fact, I also like to get a massage when I am tired.

When I was at work, I would joke with my colleagues about where to go for massage, which place is the most comfortable for massage, etc., and add some

In order to make profits, massage institutions exaggerate the effectiveness of massage and make you think it is true. So when we feel discomfort in the cervical spine,

When we need to take a massage, we will think of getting a massage, which will make us feel very comfortable, so we have formed a habit.

If you feel uncomfortable in your head and neck, go for a massage, because massage will really make you feel comfortable! But frequent massage will make your cervical spine more and more

Unstable! It may even cause cervical spondylosis!

Some people may ask, the cervical spine is originally sore and tired, and it feels comfortable after massage, so why does it make the cervical spine unstable and cause cervical problems?

Are you sick? I am just talking nonsense. If you do this, it is not me who is sick, but you who are really sick?

Why is there more than one disease? First, let’s talk about the issue of evolution.

Our lifestyle before was mainly based on physical labor, such as labor, some heavy labor, etc., so most of the muscles were strained.

So at that time, massage was indeed a good way to relieve pain.

But social patterns are changing, technology is changing, and people are changing too. For example, most of us now work at desks, industrial operators, and drivers.

Wait, these action patterns are too simple and fixed.

SO, then the question is?

So how do shoulder and neck problems arise in our lives?

Let’s take the daily use of mobile phones as an example. The posture we often use when looking at mobile phones is like this. Please see the picture below.

So, to maintain this posture, how do our muscles work in coordination through the epidermis? Aren’t you curious?

The picture above is a picture of a sailboat. We all know that every sailboat has a mast. If you want to keep the mast stable, you must use ropes.

Connecting and fixing in multiple directions vertically and horizontally can keep the mast from falling. Back to our cervical spine, our cervical spine also needs to be connected horizontally and horizontally.

Longitudinal stability: In order for our cervical spine to be well stabilized and support the weight of the head, we must maintain transverse and longitudinal muscle tension.

The balance of the muscles on either side will be affected if the tension is too strong or too weak.

When there is a problem with the system, the mechanical fulcrum of our cervical spine will also change. When the fulcrum changes, in order to maintain this balance system,

The human body will use compensatory methods to meet the demand, and the biggest victims are the muscles, followed by the nervous system, blood

Fluid, lymphatic system, why do we say this, our muscles are in a state of excessive tension for a long time, so the fascia

Under the high tension state, it is difficult to slide horizontally. Over time, they will stick together, lose elasticity, and the muscles will become stiff.

Hard and strip-shaped nodes. Then our nerves also exist in our muscles, and there is also a certain amount of sliding space,

When the entire muscle has become too stiff, it is easy to compress our nerves, or even pinch the nerves, causing a series of clinical symptoms.

The performance of the bed.

For example, when we bow our heads for a long time, our sternocleidomastoid muscle and upper trapezius muscle are tense, and our posterior neck muscles are tense.

The group is eccentrically stretched because our sternocleidomastoid muscle, upper trapezius muscle, and scalene muscle have the function of flexing the head and neck.

If you keep your head down for a long time, these three muscles will be in a tense state for a long time, and the muscles behind the neck will also be tense due to long-term tension.

The heart stretches and becomes protectively tense. When you feel discomfort and pain in the back of your neck, it is a warning from your body.

Many people go for massage because of discomfort, especially massage behind the neck. Although massage can relieve this kind of discomfort caused by long-term low

The head causes the muscles to protect and tense, but it also increases the hidden disease of the balance system that stabilizes your cervical spine. The more you press the muscles behind your neck, the more

If you relax your head, you will tend to lower your head more and more. The looser the muscles at the back are, the tighter the muscles at the front are. Therefore, your cervical spine problems will worsen without you realizing it.

How to solve this tension imbalance problem?

Eccentric stretching will inevitably lead to a decrease in muscle strength, and the muscles in front of our cervical spine are tense, so we should relax

The muscles in front of the cervical spine are loosened, not the muscles behind the neck, because we lower our heads more often than we raise them.

We should train the strength of our posterior cervical muscles. Of course, in clinical practice, cervical spine problems caused by muscle imbalance are also common.

There are many conditions and clinical manifestations, which we will not elaborate on here.

If you are addicted to shoulder and neck massage, you can consult a relevant rehabilitation center for diagnosis to avoid aggravation or even deterioration.

Next, I will list the common symptoms caused by muscle tension, as follows:

Symptoms caused by tight sternocleidomastoid muscle:

1. Dizziness and a tightness in the ears at both temples, which is difficult to distinguish from dizziness caused by damage to the clavicular branch of the sternocleidomastoid muscle.

2. Tight scalp, feeling like the head is wrapped in a towel, feeling like a golden hoop, insomnia, alopecia areata, hair loss, feeling like daydreaming, feeling of unreality, feeling of heat inside the head, feeling of heat stroke, etc.

3. Jaw pain and toothache, including pain in the lower gums, which is similar to the symptoms of trigeminal mandibular neuralgia and is sometimes misdiagnosed.

It is trigeminal neuralgia. Some of them may cause habitual oral ulcers on the lower gums, easy oral inflammation, pain in the roots of the teeth on the lower gums,

Difficulty opening the mouth, inability to chew for a long time or chew hard objects, and temporomandibular joint disorder syndrome, etc.

4. Injury to the upper trapezius muscle is one of the main causes of stiff neck.

The contraction of the upper trapezius muscle bundle cooperates with the levator scapulae to lift the scapula, and unilateral contraction causes the head to tilt to one side.

When you use the computer for a long time with your elbows hanging in the air, or do some long-term shoulder-shrug movements such as carrying a shoulder bag, the upper trapezius muscle will be strained.

They cause strain, and when they are strained the most common effects they cause are the above symptoms or prohibitive headaches.

Symptoms related to scalene muscles:

1. Causes abnormal sensations such as numbness, tingling, burning pain, etc. in the front of the neck, chest, upper back, shoulders, forearms and hands.

2. In clinical practice, patients describe fever, swelling, soreness, etc. in the area between the inner side of the scapula and the spinous process of the spine (equivalent to T1-3)

Symptoms are a very common symptom description (often misdiagnose as rhomboid muscle strain)

3. The shoulders feel like they can’t bear the weight of clothes or feel like a heavy weight is pressing on them (because it is difficult for patients to describe accurately, it is often misunderstand).

Diagnosed as levator scapulae strain)

4. Difficulty and effort in lifting the upper arm, difficulty in taking off clothes, etc. (might be misdiagnose as frozen shoulder, etc.)

5. Feeling of cold, swelling and pain in the upper limbs, etc., and even worse, feeling discomfort, fatigue, chills and coldness on one side of the body (often misdiagnosed)

for Raynaud’s disease, etc.)

6. Chest tightness in the upper chest (may be misdiagnose as angina pectoris)

7. Often misdiagnosed as cervical radiculopathy.

Finally, I will teach you how to effectively stretch to protect our cervical spine, which is especially suitable for office workers and mobile phone addicts.

Self-prevention and health care and clinical solutions will be share with you next. I hope you can work hard and live well.

At the same time, you can also have a healthy

The stretching combination scheme is as follows:

Upper Trapezius Stretch

Action process:

Sit cross-legged on a yoga mat or stand with your body perpendicular to the ground. Do not lean left or right. Use your index and middle fingers to gently pinch your ears.

Fix it, bend to one side, and stretch the other hand downward in the opposite direction. Hold for 30 seconds.

Slightly rotate the body to achieve a more complete stretch.

Note:

Stretch along the lateral flexion direction of the cervical spine, do not press down, keep the head in the frontal plane, do not lean forward or backward, and keep the upper body

Keep your body vertical at all times, don’t shrug your left shoulder, keep your breathing even, and don’t hold your breath.

Number of action sets: 3 to 4 sets on both sides, 30 seconds each set, about 4 to 5 minutes in total.

Anterior neck muscles

Action process:

Clench your teeth, tilt your head back, keep your body vertical, and keep your head in a neutral position. Hold for 30 seconds, then rotate left and right several times.

Pectoralis major

Action process:

Find a wall or fixed object with one hand, bend your elbow 90 degrees, keep your upper arm parallel to the ground, and put your feet in a lunge position, or at shoulder level.

Hip, rotate with the opposite shoulder joint as the axis. If you want to stretch the upper bundle of pectoralis major muscle fibers, you can lift your arms a little bit.

You want to stretch the lower fibers of the pectoralis major, so you can lower your arms a little, stretching the middle fibers, keeping your upper arms close to the ground.

Just parallel.

Note: Do not straighten your chest too much, stretch gently, and do not over-stretch to avoid muscle strain.

Number of action sets: 3 to 4 sets on both sides, hold each set for 30 seconds, and the time is about 5 minutes.

Deltoid muscle

Action process:

Sit on a yoga mat with your legs bent at the hips and knees, place your hands behind your body, palms down, thumbs facing outwards, back straight, hands

Move back and extend your upper body as far as possible.

Note: Avoid hyperextension of the elbow.

Number of action sets: 3 to 4 sets, each set holds for 30 seconds.

Neck resistance

Stand with your hands crossed behind your head, keeping your head and hands against each other and your elbows open.

Note:

The range of resistance should be 50% of what you can bear, not too large or too small.

Number of action sets: 3 to 4 sets, time about 30 seconds, time about 4 minutes.

Shoulder external rotation muscle stretch

Action process:

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your body perpendicular to the ground. With your left hand below and your right hand above, grab both ends of the towel and pull the towel upward with your right hand.

Note: Keep your upper body vertical at all times.

Number of action sets: 3 to 4 sets, each set is maintain for 30 seconds, the time is about 4 minutes.