WHY YOUR NECK PAIN MAY NOT START IN YOUR NECK

Dear Reader,

Neck pain is one of the most common complaints I see at JANMI in Marylebone. Very often, the neck is certainly tight, sensitive and overloaded.

But there is another question worth asking.

Why does the neck need to stay tight in the first place?

A recent JANMI case illustrates this well.

THE CASE

A client came to see me with persistent one sided neck stiffness. Previous massage had helped, but only temporarily. After some time, the familiar tension would return.

During the JANMI assessment, I did not focus only on the painful neck.

The wider pattern showed:

Significant forward head position

Rounded shoulders

Restricted thoracic movement

Predominantly shallow upper chest breathing

Reduced scapular support

Considerable guarding through the SCM, scalenes, suboccipitals, upper trapezius and levator scapulae

It would have been easy to conclude that these tight neck muscles were the problem and simply work harder on releasing them.

But JANMI pattern recognition looks at this differently.

A TIGHT MUSCLE MAY BE A WORKING MUSCLE

When a muscle repeatedly becomes tight, stretching or massaging it can certainly feel good.

However, if the same tension continually returns, I become interested in what that tissue may be trying to compensate for.

In this case, the relationship between the thoracic spine, ribcage, shoulder blades, breathing mechanics and head position was particularly interesting.

The neck appeared to be part of a much larger postural pattern.

LOOKING THROUGH THE LENS OF BIOTENSEGRITY

Biotensegrity offers an interesting framework for thinking about the body as an interconnected structure rather than a collection of independent muscles and joints.

Movement and mechanical tension are distributed throughout that structure.

If thoracic movement becomes restricted, ribcage mechanics change and the scapulae provide less efficient support, other areas may need to adapt.

In this client's pattern, the cervical tissues appeared to be doing considerable work to maintain the position and control of the head.

This does not prove that thoracic stiffness or breathing mechanics were the cause of the neck symptoms.

But clinically, they gave us important areas to investigate.

THE JANMI QUESTION

Instead of only asking:

Where does it hurt?

JANMI asks:

Where is movement restricted?

Where is excessive guarding occurring?

Where has support been lost?

How might load be redistributing through the body?

This is the foundation of the JANMI Postural Pain Recovery System:

Observe.

Map tension.

Find guards.

Find lost support.

Follow the chain.

Treat.

Retest.

Treatment can then combine targeted soft tissue therapy and deep tissue massage with appropriate movement and corrective exercise support.

Most importantly, we reassess.

If our interpretation of the pattern has clinical value, we should be looking for meaningful changes in movement, comfort, control or tissue behaviour rather than simply assuming our theory is correct.

LOOK BEYOND THE PAINFUL AREA

This does not mean every case of neck pain originates somewhere else in the body.

Nor does it mean posture has one perfect position that everybody should achieve.

It means that persistent pain or tension deserves a wider question than simply identifying the tightest muscle.

Sometimes the painful area may also be the area that has been working hardest within a larger compensation pattern.

Where pain appears and where the story begins are not always the same place.

JANMI provides assessment led soft tissue therapy, deep tissue massage and personalised corrective exercise support in Marylebone, London, with the aim of understanding the individual movement and postural pattern rather than treating every painful area in isolation.

This anonymised case represents individual clinical observations and interpretation. It is educational content and not a medical diagnosis. New, severe or persistent symptoms should be appropriately assessed.

Untul next time,

Paulius