Cannot Go to the Chiropractor or Physical Therapy for Neck Pain

Its April 2020- and an unprecedented time all over the world. Going to get your hair colored, going to the grocery store, getting ready to throw a birthday party, kids sports, going to the movies…. all of these activities have been affected. What about doctor’s appointments.

If you used to going to physical therapy or the chiropractor and they have shut down because they have been mandated to, then what? You cannot recreate a chiropractic adjustment at home, that’s for sure. You cannot go through exercises one on one with physical therapist either. So what to do.
You improvise for the time being, and do what you can do at home. Here are some simple things you can do at home to combat neck pain, neck stiffness and headaches at home.

First do neck exercises regularly. Your Chiropractor or PT may have given you these pre- Corona virus times. Dig them out and do them. Here is an example of simple neck exercises that you can do at home. Dr. Jo is a Physical therapist who has great videos on Youtube.

Many chiropractors will do hot and cold therapy, and Electric muscle stimulation in the office. You can do this at home as well. For example, here is an effective muscle stimulator you can use at home. It comes with the machine, the pads. ThisTENS unit muscle stimulator uses electronic pulses to stimulate muscles via multi-preprogrammed massage modes. This provides pain relief and can soothe muscle stiffness.

Another therapy you can do at home is hot and cold therapy. The cold therapy is easy – simply keep your ice packs in the freezer. Here is one example of a cold pack that you can keep in the freezer. It fits easily over your neck, shoulders and upper back. Also remember to wrap a towel around your ice pack before using it against your skin:

How about heat therapy? You can use the above tri-sectional hot and cold pack easily as a hot pack too. My preference is too keep one in the freezer at all time, and one outside for heating (you simply place the pack in the microwave). However, I will make one suggestion for home users. Get a moist heating pack that you can actually PLUG in. It is far more comfortable, more effective, and you don’t have get up after the heating back cools: You simply reset the heating pack as necessary.

Finally, I am going to recommend a pain relieving cream that you can use at home. My recommendation is sombra pain relieving gel. I have used this multiple times for trigger points in the cervical paraspinals, suboccipitals and trapezius muscles. Sombra comes in a heating gel and a cooling gel. I prefer the heating gel type because I find that it more effective and comfortable on the skin. When you use this cream in conjunction with your heating pad, you will get more results. Heat first, then do the muscle work. Don’t just rub the cream on – dig into the muscle gently and use broad strokes on the muscle.

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