How To Treat A Crick In Your Neck? Remedies For Treating A Crick In The Neck!

Any tightness in the muscles surrounding your lower neck and shoulder blades is referred to as a crick. When you have a crick in your neck, you will have increased neck pain and often feel like something is stuck in your neck. Cricks affect the mobility of the neck and cause stiffness in and around the neck region. 

Ways To Get Rid Of Crick In Your Neck

Some cricks are temporary while others might be chronic. People with pre-existing neck conditions are more prone to sticks than others. Cricks normally occur when there are injuries to the muscle. 

People having sticks might often notice a popping sound or sensation when they move their necks in any specific direction. They will often have the feeling of popping their necks at frequent intervals. While having cricks it becomes difficult to rotate the neck and this causes uncomfortableness and makes your neck area vulnerable.

Reason For Crick In Your Neck

Cricks in the neck often occur as a result of poor posture, poor muscle flexibility, muscle weakness, muscle spasms, sitting or sleeping in an awkward position, sitting in front of a television or computer for a whole day or prolonged hours, and so on.

But around 20% of neck stiffness and cricks occur as a result of an underlying medical problem. Some of these medical causes include fracture in your spine as a result of an accident, swelling of discs, narrowing of the spinal canal as a result of osteoarthritis, and so on. 

Treatment For Crick In Your Neck

There are multiple treatment options available to treat the crick in your neck and you can choose any of them based on the level of pain.

1. Over-the-counter pain relievers 

Any pain in your neck joints can be relieved by intake of over-the-counter pain relievers including Tylenol. Anti-inflammatory medicines like ibuprofen, and Advil can also help with neck pain. These medications will help with the stiffness in your body and fight the inflammation and subside all the symptoms that trigger inflammation. The first step is trying a few home remedies to subside the pressure of cricks in your neck.

2. Ice or Heat:

The application of heat helps in loosening muscle spasms while the application of ice helps with easing up the inflammation. When you apply heat to the stiff muscles, they start loosening up and once the muscles are flexible enough to move freely, your motion will return to the neck as the nerves in your spine will start relaxing. You can put a heating pad on the affected area for 7-11 minutes and this will be enough time for the neck muscles to loosen up and for mobility to return.

You can also heat uncooked rice and use it to treat cricks. Take uncooked rice in a clean sock and heat it in the oven for 30 seconds to a minute using this rice sock to soothe your neck and shoulder area. 

The alternative between heat and ice can melt the stiffness in the neck and treat the cricks. 

3. Hydrotherapy:

Hydrotherapy is the usage of hot water or steam to massage and relax your neck. You can stand under hot water and let the jets massage your neck area and this will enable your muscles to move freely and relieve neck pain. Hot neck steam can also be taken in steam rooms and you can also receive your neck pain by taking a long and hot steam. 

4. Stretching :

A few gentle stretches can free up the nerves in your neck and ease up your stiff muscles. Rock your head slowly from side to side and roll your head forward and backward and rotate your head around a few times although this might be uncomfortable to perform with a crick in your neck, these few rotations in and around the neck area will help relieve the pain. 

A few other stretches that will treat cricks include lying flat on your back, raising your arms to your shoulder level, and moving your head slowly from one side to the other. Performing a few sets of these stretches can relieve your neck pain.

If at any point in time, you feel difficulty or pain while stretching,  discontinue stretching your neck for it will hurt more than it helps by causing pulling of muscles and so on.

Compared to other treatments, exercise, and stretching work the best to treat cricks as they target the root cause of neck stiffness including muscle weakness, poor posture, low flexibility, muscle spasms, and so on.

However, you should be more careful as to not force stretch as this will worsen the pain. Studies conducted in 2015 by trained medical experts proved, following a four-week stretching routine can fight chronic muscle pain and act as an effective treatment for whiplash. 

5. Chiropractor or physical therapist 

When home remedies don’t give out positive results, you can get an appointment with a chiropractor or a physical therapist who can help with your neck pain. These trained physicians will treat the crick in your neck by using specific machines that will ease up your pain. 

These medical professionals will also educate you about the root cause of cricks and inform you about the lifestyle changes that you should make that will prevent neck stiffness in the future. Acupuncture massage therapy also helps with chronic neck stiffness. Medical experts have the expertise to recommend a wide range of treatments including physical therapy, medication, exercise, and so on. 

6. Change your sleeping position 

If you get cricks in your neck at regular intervals despite following a stretching routine, you can try changing your sleeping position and if need be even your sitting position. 

Invest in a comfortable neck pillow and a neck cushion to prevent stiffness during long travels. Consult a medical expert immediately when you experience neck stiffness after a fall or blow to your head and if your neck pain is a result of seizures and paralysis. Often cricks in the neck only a few hours and a maximum of one to two days. If you