Subby
09-13-2009, 11:35 AM
The last few weeks I've made a lot of progress in strengthening my neck. What has happened for the last 15 years is that it is very susceptible to the muscles tearing on my LH neck/shoulder and either one heavy use/lift, or repeated use like light digging in the garden, will cause inflammation, soreness and headaches. My pillow needs to be perfect or I have terrible headaches. I get some relief from an osteo, but I've wanted better answers. It's been very frustrating.
I've tried strengthening before but it was a struggle: even very small free weights can throw everything out again.
So what I've been doing 3-4 times a week lately, is quietly going through the resistance/workout machines, the ones that really limit a range of motion (I understand this is not such a great thing usually, but it seems to be what I need to avoid injury) and doing a a lot of sets of reps at a level which I feel is not going to pull my neck/shoulder.
I wanted to post my routine, but I can't remember the names of the exercises right now. I do up to 6x 10 of some exercises, like lat pulldown, at a very low level, just enough to work it but not at all strain it. If I didn't have neck tearing problems, I could probably do twice as heavy. I wait at least 30 secs between sets. I'll post it later, but my question is, is this a viable approach for rehabilitating my neck or am I likely to run into dangers? I feel it's been positive, that I can do more day to day without "pulling my neck". Last night I slept on it wrong, and while my neck did hurt, it interfered far less with my head, less of a cloudy headache. It seems to have recuperated faster and better too.
I understand the concepts of core strength and rotating exercises, and the usual idea of balancing reps with effort commonly around 8 reps and just a few sets. I know I am not really doing this, and I would plan to go to a more typical routine at some stage. Is it ok to be more repetitive at this very low level to build up some basics? I am also jogging 20 min and using a cross trainer 15 min at a pace I feel taxes me nicely. As I get fatigue issues from overdoing exercise, this feels about right currently - I can judge my threshold of pushing it and stick just behind it (the one they tell you to push through... if I do, I am stuffed for days, enough to halt life activities).
I've tried strengthening before but it was a struggle: even very small free weights can throw everything out again.
So what I've been doing 3-4 times a week lately, is quietly going through the resistance/workout machines, the ones that really limit a range of motion (I understand this is not such a great thing usually, but it seems to be what I need to avoid injury) and doing a a lot of sets of reps at a level which I feel is not going to pull my neck/shoulder.
I wanted to post my routine, but I can't remember the names of the exercises right now. I do up to 6x 10 of some exercises, like lat pulldown, at a very low level, just enough to work it but not at all strain it. If I didn't have neck tearing problems, I could probably do twice as heavy. I wait at least 30 secs between sets. I'll post it later, but my question is, is this a viable approach for rehabilitating my neck or am I likely to run into dangers? I feel it's been positive, that I can do more day to day without "pulling my neck". Last night I slept on it wrong, and while my neck did hurt, it interfered far less with my head, less of a cloudy headache. It seems to have recuperated faster and better too.
I understand the concepts of core strength and rotating exercises, and the usual idea of balancing reps with effort commonly around 8 reps and just a few sets. I know I am not really doing this, and I would plan to go to a more typical routine at some stage. Is it ok to be more repetitive at this very low level to build up some basics? I am also jogging 20 min and using a cross trainer 15 min at a pace I feel taxes me nicely. As I get fatigue issues from overdoing exercise, this feels about right currently - I can judge my threshold of pushing it and stick just behind it (the one they tell you to push through... if I do, I am stuffed for days, enough to halt life activities).