How to avoid neck pain when preforming abdominal exercises
Getting a flat stomach and toned abdominal muscles takes a lot of dedication with diet, exercise and of course, a ton of crunches. But you don’ have to hurt your neck during the process. Many people use their neck and upper back muscles to help them raise their upper body to preform a crunch or sit-upas their abdominal muscles get fatigued. This is how neck pain and and spinal problems can develop over time.
This type of neck injury is the example of a patient who came to see me on Friday in my office in Livermore. She has been working out intensely the last few weeks getting ready for a summer vacation in Hawaii where she explained that she had been doing more crunches than before and began to notice her neck feel strained.
After examination, I found that her neck muscles were pulled causing misalignments to some of the vertebrae in her neck that lead to subluxations. So how could she have avoided this situation? By preforming crunches properly and a few of the following tips that I shared with her:
- When doing sit-ups use a towel or cup your hands under your neck to support the normal curve of the spine and to prevent tightening of the muscles.
- Always contract the abdominal muscles before preforming a crunch or sit-up as it intensifies the abdominal muscles to fire and increases results. This also prevents you from using other muscles to engage during a crunch.
- When preforming crunches focus your eyes on a single spot in the ceiling or a light so that you don’t move your neck forward during a crunch.
If you do experience pain in your neck after preforming crunches or sit-ups be sure to have your neck and back checkedfor pulled muscles and mis-aligned vertebrae that can lead to further problems with your nerves.
For more information on this topic email me at drhaque [at] haquechiropractic [dot] com
