Pain in the Neck?

How do you release neck tension? We all get it from time to time. Sitting at a desk hunched over or carrying heavy backpacks will surely do it. Or, sometimes just general day to day activities cause it to creep up. Often times we go about alleviating neck tension with a massage, try using the foam roller or lacrosse ball, or sometimes just grin and bear it. There are other options, you know! And none of these require another person, a piece of equipment and can be done anywhere. Win! Win! One of the funny things we often do when addressing pain is go right to the painful site and try to make it feel better. But you may recall, pain is a symptom of something being out of balance usually somewhere else in the body. As a classical singer, I spend a lot of time making sure my neck isn't tense. But I usually attack this issue by emphasizing the front of my face and body. Not as much on the back of my neck. The reason being is that the muscles connecting the neck to the chest are being pulled when we hang our head or round our shoulders…think “text neck.” They are being shortened which is why you're feeling pain often in the back of the neck. This is why we want to work on lengthening the frontal tissues to help put the neck back into an upright position. Follow along in the video and try these manual tissue work techniques for your face, neck, and chest. Enjoy how good you're going to feel! Because if there’s tension in the face, jaw, and tongue, your neck will follow suit. And who wants that? Relaxed face means released neck!