Question
hi my names mike and for the past month ive had severe neck pain.  it started off at a wrestling match and i was thrown on my head vertically but off to the left a bit, me neck caved in to the left.  it hurt instantly then and the wrestling tournament.  it took a few days to heal and i felt fine.  i come back to the gym and every upper body excersise i do is weekend and unbalanced.  at first i didnt no what was wrong because well i had absolutley no pain.  so i stopped working out the muscle groups that were week but i continued going to my 4x a week wrestling clinic.  it eventualy began to hurt the exact way it hurt at the tournament so i can imagine they are related.  but now it has gotten very bad in the past 3 weeks.  the pain runs from i guess you can say the upper right part of my left trapezoid (where the hair line starts a tiny bit below) it runs all the way threw my shouler, very pain the top of my shoulder and runs down threw my tricep.  i had a bone scan done recently on my back because i have back problems and if this "new" injury has anything to do with my back it would have come up on the bone scan according to my doc.  i am going to a nuralogist next week.  it hurts to the toutch at the top and bnottum of wear the pain begins/ends.  i havent wrestled in to weeks and its not getting any better, if anything its getting worse, this is very frusturating haha.  if you can give me some possible ideas of what possibly went wrong that would be great.  i hate going to a doctor and not knowing what he talks about, basically i like doing my home work.  if you can email me back please that would be greeat,  my email is
THANKS!!!!

Answer
Hi Mike and thanks for writing,

I am so glad that you re going to see a Neurologist this week as my first thought was possible nerve damage from your head drop - I also wonder if you might have an alignment issue possibly related to muscle spasms.

See what the Neurologist says and maybe ask him if he can do a CT Scan or MRI of your neck to really see what's going on. These tests are very expensive though so I'm not sure if your medical insurance plan will cover them ...

You might want to consider seeing a Pilates Instructor who works one-on-one and teaches Classical Pilates - these gentle exercises are symmetrical and help strengthen core muscles which support your neck and may alleviate the pressure on the nerves as well as help correct your total alignment.

Wishing you all the best, I hope you are better soon.

Margot