Question
Hello,

I have had chronic neck pain and stiffness for the past 3-4 years.  The pain is pretty mild and not noticeable at all when my head is in an upright "normal" position.  I can rotate my head and move it in any direction about 3-5 inches (about 10% mobility) before I encounter any pain or stiffness.  There is also no pain when I move my head directly back 100%.

I feel that I have about 10% mobility side to side and get pain and stiffness when I try to move my head to either shoulder.  When I attempt to touch my right ear to my right shoulder I get pain on the right side of my neck.  The same happens when I attempt to touch my left ear to my left shoulder, I get pain on the left side of my neck.  It feels like there is an imaginary softball sized rubber ball sitting where my neck meets my shoulder and it will not allow me push through it so I can touch my ear to my shoulder.  If I do push through the pain and imaginary ball I can eventually touch my ear to my shoulder and if I hold my head there for about a min the pain seams to go away for about 5 to 10 mins and I have 100% mobility but then the stiffness and pain comes back.

I can touch my chin to my chest at 100% mobility and when I do I hear a small squeak or squishing noise that sounds like fluid being forced to move somewhere and 2 to 3 cracks or pops with stiffness and pain.

When I stretch out my neck for a 10 min session pushing through the pain I can get 100% mobility and make the pain reduce to almost nothing but it comes back in about 30 mins to and hour later.

I eat fairly healthy although I do get drive-thu 1-2 times a week but I do  have my vega protein shake in the morning (http://myvega.com/products/vega-one-shake/features-benefits).  I am 235 pounds at 5'11 and I am currently on the path to getting back into shape hoping to get down to 190 in the next 6-9 months.  Getting rid of this neck pain would really help with this goal.

Thank you in advance for your advice and time!

Answer
Hi Keith,

First:  stop spending 10 minutes stretching your neck.    What you are likely doing is 10 minutes of stretching your muscles and straining your joints.    One step forward and two steps back as they say...      You very likely have either an osteoarthritic or degenerative condition to your neck, or you have a chronic capsulitis (a chronic, postural or repetitive/cumulative trauma joint strain).     You would be better off doing rhythmic exercise movements of your neck and not forcing it into end-ranges of motion.   For example, forcing your neck into side bending, e.g. ear towards shoulder, jams the interlocking "facet" joints of your neck.   While the muscle pull can be stimulating, thus dulling your pain, the joint gets more strained in the long run.    Also, you would very likely get a lot of relief from chiropractic joint manipulation to your neck and upper back, along with soft tissue mobilization (e.g. Grastontechnique.com or FAKTR.com);      

'Hope this was helpful,

Dr. G'