The Rocking Canoe to Your Neck Pain

Ever been in a canoe before?

That might seem like an odd question to ask but hear me out.

If you have been in one, especially with someone else inside then you know that there is a little bit of sketchiness to it!

If you or the other person move too much one way or the other the entire canoe rocks that way. You could be at the very back of the canoe yet your movement there impacts what the front is doing as well.

When paddling it’s quite important that you’re both in unison with one another, otherwise things can get out of control.

What’s crazy is the work we do at The Specific Chiropractic Centers is quite similar. Well we aren’t doing any sort of paddling but we do work on the stability of the body. You know, so there’s not extra rocking of the boat one way or the other.

Let’s first start out by looking at the body as a whole. Everyone understands that the human body is one…everything that makes up the body is included inside of us. What a lot of people don’t totally understand is that no matter what system or part of the body we’re talking about it affects all other parts of the body, like our canoe earlier.

Think about stubbing your toe, suddenly you kind of start to walk funny. That difference in how you walk then affects all of the muscles in your legs and hips and they are firing a little bit differently. Stubbing your toe is something so small and insignificant, yet it can have an impact on all of your musculature.

Now let’s take a look at your spine.

There are millions of people who experience neck pain on a daily basis. Maybe sometimes it’s just a twinge, where others aren’t able to sleep, and even have headaches or migraines due to the neck pain! There are tons and tons of motions, potions, and lotions that can take away the pain but they never seem to actually fix the issue! Usually the things that we are trying at home are somewhat topical….meaning they are surface level.

The problem arises that our problem of chronic neck pain isn’t surface level at all!

Sure you can do neck stretches and exercises but usually that chronic neck pain will still be an issue. So what is actually going on here?

What we see at The Specific Chiropractic Centers is that there is some instability going on in the upper neck, meaning the top 2 bones.

This might make sense to you but I’m sure in the back of your mind you’re thinking, “but my entire neck or lower neck is what hurts the most, not just the top!”

I totally hear what you’re saying, let me explain!

The top 2 bones in the neck are what support your entire head. If we have a misalignment in one of those top bones that affects how our head is positioned. If it’s naturally positioned tilting to the right or left, rotated one way or the other, or really far forward on our body. Now we get most of our information from our head with our eyes, ears, and nose. Because of this the brain wants our head to be in a neutral position.

The body can’t fix this misalignment by itself, so what happens is the brain engages all of these other muscles making it so our head sits neutral. Suddenly the muscles in our neck, shoulders, mid back, and low back are engaged allowing our head to sit even. This is good for our head and our ability to take in information but bad for our overall muscle tension and potential pain that might be caused in the long term.

Suddenly that instability of someone standing up in a canoe applies to not only our neck pain but our body as a whole. What we do is take very specific x-rays to see if we do have a misalignment in the upper neck area. If we see one of these bones not moving how it’s supposed to then we provide a specific adjustment. The instability that was caused from these bones being misaligned is suddenly decreased and over time people will experience less and less neck pain.

Now this isn’t a quick fix thing. Sure the adjustment is really quick but it usually takes months to achieve long lasting results. Most of the time people have had this misalignment and instability for quite some time so it’s not going to take one adjustment to set everything straight and hold for years and years. The muscles and ligaments in your body were used to that one position for a really long time so we need to retrain your body to be in proper alignment.

As time goes on we start to see more stability in your body, less chronic neck and back pain, and the adjustments lasting longer and longer! Our goal is to make the adjustment last as long as possible so your head will be sitting straighter. This will allow your body to not have to engage all of those muscles to bring your head straight. By not engaging all of those muscles you’ll have a decrease in tightness and you’ll not have pain and soreness throughout your neck and back.

Next time you’re on a canoe be careful of the moves you make, you’ll realize quickly that what you do affects the entire boat and the other person inside….there’s some instability. If you experience neck pain then you now know why you might be experiencing it and what the fix is! If you know someone who is, send this article to them. If you’re someone who struggles with chronic neck pain then don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d be happy to help you out and give you back the life you deserve, no matter how extreme or minor what you’re dealing with is!

Learn more.

Here are a few more posts on how chiropractic care can help those who suffer from neck pain.