Sore/Stiff Neck Muscle

[DrCue'sProtege]

ok, what do you posters do when you have a sore or stiff neck muscle? the muscle i am talking about is the one that sort of starts in the top and on a side of the neck, and kinda goes down towards the shoulder blade. i would assume you posters know what i am talking about here.

any ideas here?
DCP

p.s. serious replies only, please

 

[Barbara]

ok, what do you posters do when you have a sore or stiff neck muscle? the muscle i am talking about is the one that sort of starts in the top and on a side of the neck, and kinda goes down towards the shoulder blade. i would assume you posters know what i am talking about here.

any ideas here?
DCP

p.s. serious replies only, please

Which side? Your cue-holding side or your bridge side?

Barbara

 

[BRKNRUN]

ok, what do you posters do when you have a sore or stiff neck muscle? the muscle i am talking about is the one that sort of starts in the top and on a side of the neck, and kinda goes down towards the shoulder blade. i would assume you posters know what i am talking about here.

any ideas here?
DCP

p.s. serious replies only, please

This leads me to believe that you are getting "rigid" over your shot. Upper body tension leads to stroke consitency problems.

I think a $35.00 massage should do the trick....Then practice ralaxing your upper body and shoulders....

 

[Tbeaux]

ok, what do you posters do when you have a sore or stiff neck muscle? the muscle i am talking about is the one that sort of starts in the top and on a side of the neck, and kinda goes down towards the shoulder blade. i would assume you posters know what i am talking about here.

any ideas here?
DCP

p.s. serious replies only, please

If you mean what to do to avoid a sore neck I have no idea,if you mean how to get rid of it...take 2 advil, get in the shower,water as hot as you can stand,turn the shower head to soft massage,slowly bend head AWAY from the pain while letting the water massage the painful area, hold neck in that position and breath slowly and relax, after a few minutes slowly roll you head with water still massaging,repeat until the muscles un-bunch. (your head will be mainly sideways on shoulder an forward chin toward chest.)

Hope it helps.

 

[DrCue'sProtege]

right side, shooting side.
i wake up with these, seemingly too often anymore.
not sure if its the same thing Allison had the other day that almost prevented her from playing Karen on ESPN.

DCP

 

[Barbara]

right side, shooting side.
i wake up with these, seemingly too often anymore.
not sure if its the same thing Allison had the other day that almost prevented her from playing Karen on ESPN.

DCP

Oh, you're waking up like this? I'd go get a physical therapist give you a massage.

Barbara

 

[chefjeff]

right side, shooting side.
i wake up with these, seemingly too often anymore.
not sure if its the same thing Allison had the other day that almost prevented her from playing Karen on ESPN.

DCP

Hi DCP,

Maybe you missed it, but in Peoria I saw Allison rubbing the left side of her neck (she's right-handed).

Do you use a calcium supplement? How much water do you drink everyday?

Jeff Livingston

 

[drivermaker]

right side, shooting side.
i wake up with these, seemingly too often anymore.

DCP

Experiment with different pillow heights and firmness. Sounds like something you're doing in bed while sleeping.

 

[TheBook]

About ten years ago there was an aticle in the newspaper. It was called "9 Ball Neck". It was about players getting a stiff or sore neck playing 9 ball. I don't remember what was recommended for this but I do remember it was because of the players getting down low on the table and tilting their head back when shooting. The lower stance is more widely used in 9 ball than 8 ball or straight pool.

 

[Bruce S. de Lis]

This leads me to believe that you are getting "rigid" over your shot. Upper body tension leads to stroke consitency problems.

I think a $35.00 massage should do the trick....Then practice ralaxing your upper body and shoulders....

If you don't have the money for a Message. Try Hot Showes to loosen things up.

 

[Barbara]

About ten years ago there was an aticle in the newspaper. It was called "9 Ball Neck". It was about players getting a stiff or sore neck playing 9 ball. I don't remember what was recommended for this but I do remember it was because of the players getting down low on the table and tilting their head back when shooting. The lower stance is more widely used in 9 ball than 8 ball or straight pool.

There are a couple of reasons you can can a sore neck/shoulder while playing pool. You may be putting too much weight onto your bridge arm, or your forward foot in your stance is out of alignment with your shot.

Barbara

 

[thoffen]

First of all, heat is not necessarily a good thing.

If there is any swelling at all, ice is what you need. Heat will constrict the blood vessels and cause more swelling and pain. Ice will reduce the swelling and is what you want if you are going to rest the area.

Heat is good if you are going to exercise the area. It will bring in more circulation for that and allow your muscles to stretch further, but don't do it if you're not going to be moving around! A chiropractor may introduce heat to loosen you up for adjustment.

A chiropractor is a good idea. They will take x-rays and make adjustments and provide therapy to make sure the bones are in good working order, but it is up to your body to heal the damaged tissue or calm the muscles that are spasming. They just make it easier for your body to do its thing and provide as much movement in the joints as is possible.

If a disc is ruptured or bulging, or a nerve is pinched, or tendons are torn, etc. then a chiropractor will not be able to help you much. If you were in an auto accident or suspect something severe you will need to see a doctor, preferrably an orthopedist. In order to see what's going on, they will need to perform an MRI.

I was rear-ended last week so I'm going through this whole ordeal right now .

 

[Guru]

ok, what do you posters do when you have a sore or stiff neck muscle? the muscle i am talking about is the one that sort of starts in the top and on a side of the neck, and kinda goes down towards the shoulder blade. i would assume you posters know what i am talking about here.

any ideas here?
DCP

p.s. serious replies only, please

I date a massage therapist. I highly recommend it, just don't take mine.

 

[SlimShafty]

I have been dealing with the same thing, I shoot right handed and most of the pain was on the left side and it caused headaches on the same side above my neck in the back, only slight discomfort on the right side.

Funny thing is it only started when I tried to mimic Fishers stance (I never use to get down that low) now hearing Fisher has back problems I think I might go back to my slightly more upright stance

The only thing that helped was not playing for a few days, thats not an option, so I will play around with how low I get and see if moving my bridge hand or putting less weight on it.

Mine certainly seems to be from having my neck tilted back to an extreme, I was touching my chin with the cue, before I had problems my chin was about 7-10 inches above the cue, amazing what a slight change can do.

 

[Bluey2King]

Back Spasms

ok, what do you posters do when you have a sore or stiff neck muscle? the muscle i am talking about is the one that sort of starts in the top and on a side of the neck, and kinda goes down towards the shoulder blade. i would assume you posters know what i am talking about here.

any ideas here?
DCP

p.s. serious replies only, please

I Know exactly what you are talking about! I just went thru three weeks of back/neck muscle spasms! If you go to a Dr. he/she will give you muscle relaxing drugs they didn't help me one bit! Then they injected the muscle with some kind of steroid that did help some about 50% more movement without pain. I told I would try anything short of surgery. They recomended a massage school close by. Hey these guys and gals Really did the trick!!!! It took three times to work all the knots out of my back and they worked HARD and Deep!! I feel soo much better! I am going to go back for a few more weeks. They too recomended that I drink a lot of water. Last night was the first time in three weeks I could bend over to play without pain!! Hell at first I could not even drink water (tipping my head back) with out pain.
Good Luck lets us know how it goes
Bluey

 

[VonRhett]

About ten years ago there was an aticle in the newspaper. It was called "9 Ball Neck". It was about players getting a stiff or sore neck playing 9 ball. I don't remember what was recommended for this but I do remember it was because of the players getting down low on the table and tilting their head back when shooting. The lower stance is more widely used in 9 ball than 8 ball or straight pool.

That's exactly what I thought of when I read the original post. If memory serves "9-Ball Neck" is a real medical condition which only affects pool players. When shooting, the position of the neck is unique compared to other sports. After diagnosing this condition on x-number of people, the only common denominator the Doctors could find was that they all played alot of pool, hence the name. I've never heard of it affecting the average weekend warrior, but have known several guys who put in 30-50+ hrs/wk complain of this from time to time.

The cure? HellifIknow. 2 Advil, daily neck exercises and a beer should do it.

 

[Big Bad Bern]

I would say that if you ajusted your stance or head level recently that this may be the culprit. Think of it this way have you ever done some yard work and suddenly realized that you had muscles you didn't know you had because they ached badly, adjusting your head height or stance may be stressing muscles that were not in use previously and they will probably need some time to condition to being used.

 

[Snapshot9]

Notice ..

I don't notice anything from Playing Pool, but laboring
over this PC reading and posting sure make me start
aching and a headache ... lol