Cervical Spondylosis

Exercise, including strengthening exercise (working against something like a weight, gravity or exercise bands) is considered one of the key treatments for most aches and pains.

Exercise comes in many shapes and forms and there is no ‘best’ exercise. Often it is best to think of the most effective exercise as the one you enjoy and will actually do. Current recommendations on exercise and how often we should be looking to do it can be found here: Understanding Exercise

Exercise, even lifting weights or attending a gym, is safe for your joints. Bricca et al. (2019) looked at a number of other experiments on exercise and the effects on osteoarthritis of the knee (consider this as an equivalent to your neck). Their findings were that exercise, in whatever shape it takes, is safe and does not harm knees. In fact, they suggested that exercise may even improve the cartilage health alongside other benefits to general physical and mental health.

We have included a series of exercises at the bottom of the page that will be able to help you move forwards with managing your neck complaint.

Some people will choose to manage their pain with pain relief, whilst some may choose to avoid medication. Applying something warm around your neck may also be useful in helping with some of the pain (do remember to wrap your hot water bottle in a towel before applying it to your skin to avoid burns).

Weight loss is recommended as something that is important for the management of most aches and pains. Losing weight is difficult and we understand that.

You may be thinking “how is losing weight going to help my neck?” and it would be a good question if you were thinking it. Often people will think that simply putting more weight through their joints is the reason why they get problems and being closer to their ideal body weight will simply stop their symptoms. Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy. It is worth knowing that fat cells are very active cells and they produce chemicals that can have a harmful effect on the joint cartilage, which in turn can be a factor in joint-related pain.

By looking at diet, exercise, sensible goal setting and establishing a good support network, a weight loss journey is more likely to succeed and the benefits to your neck are more likely to be influenced by the journey you take to lose weight, rather than being lighter.

If you would like some support to help you with your weight loss journey, please contact our partners at Feel Good Suffolk or Active Norfolk.

It would be lovely if we could simply take pain relief or exercise our way out of all of the aches and pains that we face in our lifetimes, wouldn’t it? For a number of issues, that might be all you need to do and you will end up feeling better, however it is often a useful thing to do to take some time to think about some of the reasons why things might be sore.

If you think of your pain as your neck trying to say that it is struggling to do what you want it to do or the way you want to do it, by looking at the things that make it sore, you may be able to consider what you can do to help yourself. For example, if you find that your neck is always worse on the days that you are on the computer for longest or the days you don’t have your breaks, then perhaps your neck is saying it’s struggling and you might find taking more breaks/ having your lunch away from the desk might help.

By looking at what’s making your neck sore and asking yourself ‘how can I do that differently?’, you can find that the answers come more easily than you would have thought. Making small changes or adapting things can have big results and this is often the best way to start your recovery.