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How to Treat a Stiff Neck

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Treatment of A Stiff Neck Naturally Without Pain Medications

This squidoo lens is all about how to treat a stiff neck. What steps do you have to take to ease the pain of a stiff neck ?

What can cause a Stiff Neck to begin with?
  • A stiff neck can be caused by waking up one morning because the pillow you used under your head was too high or too firm.
  • Maybe you left the window open and a draft came in.
  • Maybe you fell asleep while sitting watching the television with your head bopping to the right side.
  • Or maybe...you just sat a little too long at your computer at home- in one position.
  • A Stiff neck can also occur from a car accident (whiplash) or a fall.

Lots of things can cause a stiff neck. It hurts, its painful, you cannot move your neck- it is not a fun condition to have at all.

Table of Contents

  1. How do People get stiff necks?
  2. Neck Exercises
  3. Using Moist Heat On the Neck and Upper Back
  4. Featured Lens: How to Choose between Cold and Hot For Pain Relief
  5. Work on Muscle Spasms of the Neck
  6. Featured Lens: How To Treat Muscle Spasm in Your Neck
  7. Sleep with good neck posture at night
  8. Featured Lens: How to choose the Right Neck Pillow for Sleeping
  9. A note about choosing a pillow to sleep on.
  10. How to Create A Towel Roll for Neck Support
  11. Do Gentle Traction to Stretch Your Neck
  12. Featured Lens: Using Neck Traction for Pain Relief in the Neck
  13. The Neck Pain Support Blog
  14. The Neck Pillow Queen
  15. Check Out the Arc4life Blog on Blogger
  16. Other Arc4life Lenses
  17. Tell us What you are thinking?
  18. All About Arc4life

How do People get stiff necks?

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Neck Exercises

Neck Stretches and Strengthening Exercises are important

Neck StretchesTreatment of a stiff neck begins with doing simple neck exercises. Specifically neck stretches. These will help to increase neck range of motion, muscle spasm and pain. In the beginning, work slowly, you may only be able to turn your 1 cm to the right. Thats Okay ! Do only what you can and only to the point of feeling a gentle stretch, never to the point of pain. Learn how to do more neck stretches at the Neck Pain Relief Shop>Neck Exercises.

Using Moist Heat On the Neck and Upper Back

Increase Blood Flow to the area and Decrease muscle spasm

type=textUsing moist heat on the neck and upper back can provide soothing relief to muscles and stiff and undergoing spasm. What does heat Specifically do? Heat increases blood flow to the area. It brings down pain, stiffness and muscle spasm. It also reduces muscle inflammation and build up of fluid or edema in the area. Heat also make connective tissue more flexible. If you are concentrating on just the neck, use a hot/cold pack that you can stick directly in the microwave for 30-60 seconds that is dimensions of 6"x20". Alternately, to cover the neck and upper back area, use a hot/cold pack that is 9"x16". Keep in mind that a 9"x16" hot/cold pack is going to be heavier. But it is also going to cover your neck and upper back area. When treating a stiff neck, the upper back muscles especially the trapezius muscles are often involved. *** always take extra precautions with hot packs; Wrap your hot pack in a towel before placing it against your skin.

Alternately, you can also use a moist heating pad that you plug in. The thermophore moist heat pads have a special tightly woven fleece blend cover that retains moisture from the air. There is no need to do a temperature adjustment with these moist heating packs.

Featured Lens: How to Choose between Cold and Hot For Pain Relief

When do you use a hot moist pack and when do you use Ice?

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Work on Muscle Spasms of the Neck

Using a Tens Electrotherapy for neck pain relief

For treatment of a stiff neck, look to work on painful muscle spasms and trigger points in the neck and upper back area. Using a tens unit can help you get neck pain relief. A portable tens electrotherapy unit is a pocket size, battery-operated device that sends electrical impulses to certain parts of the body to block pain signals.Use it on your upper trapezius, lower cervical paraspinals musces. What does "T.E.N.S" stand for? Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation.

Great for treating muscle spasm, muscle soreness and stiffness. The electrical currents produced by the TENS unit are mild and can prevent pain messages from being transmitted to the brain and may raise the level of endorphins (natural pain killers produced by the brain). Also you can use a tens unit in conjunction with other therapies that we have discussed in treating a stiff neck: a hot moist pack and also neck exercises.


You can buy an Analog Tens Unit or A Digital Tens Unit. The tens unit kit comes with electrodes, and you can buy more if needed as well. Arc4life even sells the lead wires in case you need them one day. Simple to use, all you need is a 9V battery.

Featured Lens: How To Treat Muscle Spasm in Your Neck

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Sleep with good neck posture at night

Using a supportive Neck Pillow at Night Can Prevent a Stiff Neck

There are many supportive neck pillows on the market today. Your goal when sleeping is to ensure that your head and neck are aligned during sleep. Imagine taking a towel and rolling it up in a cylinder (see YouTube Video Below). Your neck has a natural "C"curve that should be maintained during sleep. You can do that with a cervical support neck pillow as the linear gravity neck pillow by Arc4life.com.

Arc4life's linear gravity neck pillow comes in 3 different sizies:

  • Small- 23"x17"
  • Medium- 20"x26"
  • Large- 21"x33"



Some people think that because they sleep on a king size bed, they should use a king size pillow. This is a big NO-NO ! Imagine a small female 5"2 in height using a pillow that is king size. That is grounds for neck pain and a stiff neck the next morning. So choose your cervical support pillow based on your height, weight and what your preferences are. The linear gravity neck pillow allows you to get the right size pillow for your neck, to prevent a stiff neck the next morning.

Featured Lens: How to choose the Right Neck Pillow for Sleeping

You may not be getting the proper support for your neck with the pillow you are using now.

With so many pillows on the market today, it can tough to choose the right one for your particular needs. Foam, polyester fiber fill, feather, flax seeds, beads- so many choices to choose from. Arc4life will help you choose the best neck pillow
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A note about choosing a pillow to sleep on.

Using the wrong pillow at night can cause a stiff neck. Not getting enough support in your neck can cause the muscles in your neck and upper back to tightness up and spasm. Choose the size of your pillow based on your height and weight.

How to Create A Towel Roll for Neck Support

Prevent a Stiff Neck

Dr. Bellingers shows us how to create a neck support with a towel roll.
Towel Roll for a Neck Pillow
by arc4life1 | video info

19 ratings | 18,579 views
curated content from YouTube

Do Gentle Traction to Stretch Your Neck

Stretch your neck after you are feeling better from your stiff neck...

Use the Soothe-A-Ciser for gently stretching your neckAfter you start feeling a little better, a little gentle neck traction can be helpful and give you some pain relief. Traction basically means stretching your neck. Stretching your cervical spine ligaments and muscles. Someone can do that for you- they can just pull your head longitudinally. But you can also use a device such as a soothe-a-ciser or a posture pump 1000. If you have been suffering from a stiff neck, you want to make sure you are not in ACUTE PAIN. This is after the acute pain- gently stretching your neck can yield some pain relief. Before and after stretching , you can also use a hot pack (6x20 works well on your neck) on your neck for 10-15 minutes for added comfort.

Featured Lens: Using Neck Traction for Pain Relief in the Neck

Choosing the right neck traction is important for pain relief and overall comfort

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The Neck Pain Support Blog

The Neck Pain Blogger Blogs about Neck Pain Relief

Get Rid of Neck Pain, Neck Stiffness and Learn How to Have a Healthier Neck.
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The Neck Pillow Queen

Expert Advice on Choosing the Right Neck Pillow

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Check Out the Arc4life Blog on Blogger

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Other Arc4life Lenses

Neck Pain Relief Articles for You to Read

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Have you ever experienced a stiff neck?

Tell us how you found relief after you got a stiff neck. How did you get a stiff neck? What did you do after to get rid of it?

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All About Arc4life

Pain Relief Products That You Can use Everyday !

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