Many people, including school-age children, experience neck and shoulder pain throughout their lives. Almost everyone becomes limited in their ability to turn their heads and raise their arms as they age. We often notice neck and shoulder injury when we get up from our work station, kitchen table, piano, or any other non-violent but repetitive activity we engage in. Repetitive strain injuries greatly affect the quality of our lives, even if we don’t know it. Neck and shoulder pain should not be considered part of a package that comes with our computers. There are ways to protect ourselves against it and ways to relieve ourselves of it.

What do we often do when we find that our neck and shoulders are stiff? We turn our heads from side to side, up and down again and again, frantically roll our shoulders back and forth, hoping to “untie the knots,” to free ourselves from pain, to no avail. Instead, as we try to relieve tension and pain, we often injure ourselves further, making things worse. Then, trying to avoid painful movements in one area, we often tense other areas.

Most neck and shoulder pain is caused by poor posture and movement habits formed by faulty learning, usually beginning in childhood. When the movement of our back, neck, and shoulders is disorganized, some of the forces generated by our muscles create friction that, over time, destroys body tissue, leading to injury and pain. Even when neck and shoulder pain is the result of accidents or illness, unfortunately, when we try to protect ourselves from pain, we create new bad movement habits that cause us even more pain and can lead to chronic pain. Regardless of the cause of the pain, the speed at which it can resolve can be traced back to movement habits learned in childhood and adulthood, and our ability to learn new patterns of movement, thought, and awareness.

Instead of insisting on moving already tight and painful muscles, we should look for ways to avoid the injured area. In this way we can achieve what we propose and allow the injured part of our body to reorganize and heal.

Since movement is organized by the brain, effective techniques for shoulder and neck exercises must be developed to provide your brain with the information and experiences it needs to form new patterns and solutions without pain. Instead of creating friction where it hurts, we should seek Methods that guide us through safe, gentle, and easy ways to avoid those painful areas. With new information from the body, mind, and awareness, the neck and shoulder pain should go away, often in just a few short sessions.

There are various methods that attempt to address pain and stress in this way, some more popular than others. There is Yoga, Pilatis and the Feldenkrais Method. The first two are very well known. The last and least known of the three, it addresses specific complaints using scientifically proven bypasses that are of particular interest and efficacy for shoulder and neck pain.

Daniel was a first chair violinist in one of the best orchestras in the world. When he came to see Mrs. Anat Baniel (a former student and assistant to Dr. Feldenkrais), he was unable to play for nine months due to severe neck, shoulder and wrist pain. None of the traditional therapies helped. He was terrified that his career as a musician was over. Like most people, he had no idea what he was doing wrong and how the way he moved was causing him to get hurt. Ms. Baniel observed that various parts of Daniel’s body: his lower back, upper spine, and the powerful muscles of his pelvis did not move at all when Daniel used his neck, shoulders, arms, and legs. hands to play. Mrs. Baniel began by guiding Daniel through very gentle movements in those inactive areas that were new to him and felt easy and safe to do. These movements were awakening his brain to new possibilities. Daniel quickly learned to move better, which gave him complete relief from neck and shoulder pain, as well as wrist pain.
Two months after Daniel started training, he was back playing.

This cutting-edge approach is based on understanding how the brain forms posture and movement patterns, good and bad. Look at all aspects of the person: body, mind, emotion and spirit and their relationship with pain. It addresses an “invisible” element that is paramount in our ability to recover from neck and shoulder pain and prevent future pain: the QUALITY with which we move.

Thousands of computer users suffer from neck and shoulder pain as a result of poor workplace ergonomics and repetitive strain injuries. To help those who need to relieve neck and shoulder pain at their workstations, Desk-Trainer (www.desk-trainer.com) offers pre-set 5-minute sets of the Anat Baniel Method based on the desk exercise work of the Dr. Feldenkrais. The site also offers subscribers a series of workouts on fitness, desk exercises and office stretching to protect against repetitive strain injuries, as well as office workplace ergonomics guidance for organizing the workstation.