Nobody likes having a stiff neck. Whether it’s long hours stuck in traffic, endless days at the office, or long nights of poor sleep, there are many everyday activities that harm your neck and make it tight. Ibuprofen can only get you so far and stiff neck remedies don’t seem to be easy to come by. Or are they? Read on to find out what you can do to relieve neck pain, naturally with one or more of these 21 simple “tricks”.
Common Causes Of A Stiff Neck
Weak neck muscles are one of the most common causes of a stiff neck. Dr. Andrew Bang, a chiropractor at the Cleveland Clinic, explains how it happens over time (1):
“Now they’re weak and you go to turn and instead of the joint nicely moving it’s now out of place. Then it catches on something and pulls a muscle or hits the nerve irregularly and then you’ll have instant pain and your body will, we call it ‘protective spasm.’ It doesn’t want you to get hurt more, so it will (crunching noise) and now you’re like ‘Oh, I can’t even move.’ And you’re wondering what you did,” Bang explained.
Neck stiffness is typically characterized by soreness and difficulty moving the neck, especially when trying to turn or tilt your head to the side (2).
This limited range of motion can be more than a nuisance, especially if you have an active lifestyle or need to do something as simple as drive somewhere.