Following on from the first blog on Tech neck, Ainslie teams up with Rob to understand how Myotherapy and Pilates work together to help Tech Neck

In the first article, Ainslie highlighted some key muscles of the neck and shoulders that have a signficant impact on those sore points we often feel around the neck and shoulder, as well as how Myotherapy can really help to alleviate those areas. In Part two, we’re hoping to give you more insight in to some more key areas around the hand and arms, but also start to look a bit more at the big picture of how to maintain yourself and where Pilates can really help to support your time between Myotherapy sessions.

Key Muscles

Biceps Brachii

Also commonly known as biceps. The double headed muscle on the front of your arm. The muscle that most people flex to show their strength.

The pain patterns of this muscle are different in that it refers up the muscle towards the shoulder. The actions of this muscle are complex when it bends your forearm at the elbow, like when you pick up a shopping bag. It helps bend your arm at your shoulder joint like lifting something over your shoulder. It can also move your arm away from your body when your arm is turned out. Most of the time heat and massage can release the tension in these muscles, but dry needling and cupping may be needed too. You would definitely be given corrective exercises and stretches to do at home.

There are a few other issues that mimic bicep trigger point pain. Some are bursitis, bicep tendonitis and shoulder arthritis.

Brachialis

Sitting underneath the Biceps, and can cause just as much pain! The typical referred pain pattern is into the hollow of the elbow, and to the base of the thumb. The biggest reason this muscle gets sore and trigger points develop is due to acute and repetitive movements and overload. generally at the elbow area. If you text with your thumb this could cause pain in that area due to the angle of the elbow.

Triceps Brachii

These are muscles at the back of your arm that can cause pain and discomfort, especially in your elbow. Also known as ‘Bingo Wings’, these refer pain within the muscles themselves or into the elbow and the Anconeus muscle - the Anconeus muscle is a small muscle that is triangular in shape and its fibres blend in with the triceps. Its action is to extend the elbow, making your arm straight. The pain you might feel is sharp on the outside point of your elbow. Warm water and stretching are recommended to help this muscle during recovery.

Forearms and hands

Let's start by looking at the extensor muscles in the forearm. These muscles are responsible for bending your wrist backwards. So any poor posture while typing should be looked at. Your elbows should be lower than your wrist when sitting at the desk or resting on your arm rests of your chair. Many of the trigger points of this muscle group are found below your elbow, in the first third of your forearm moving towards your wrist. The muscles that give your forearm shape are usually responsible for trigger points causing pain in your arm, hand and wrist. Because there are lots of smaller muscles, I won’t go in to all the names, but they generally all work their way down through the wrist and link in with controlling the hand and fingers in some respect.

Trigger points usually develop in this muscle group due to overuse of gripping and twisting motions, some sports, and a screwdriver action. Depending on your posture and speed of typing, small, similar actions can occur while sitting at the computer. You may also consider how you hold your mobile phone. The symptom of trigger points in this muscle group is a painful and weak grip.

Hand pain is usually referred from the finger extensor muscles. The trigger points in these muscles usually project pain down the back of the forearm into the back of the hand and fingers, but the pain stops at the first joint of the fingers. The professions most affected by these trigger points are those that execute forceful repetitive movements such as musicians (especially pianists), carpenters, or mechanics. Due to the small intricate work they sometimes need to do when working in small tight places.

Massage is usually enough to release tension and trigger points in this muscle group, as well the use of a heat pack and some easy stretches at home - these can be gone over in your Myotherapy or Pilates sessions.

Hand and finger flexors do the opposite job of the extensors. These muscles bend the hand towards the wrist and aid with gripping actions. The pain is felt in all the fingers individually and sometimes pain may extend beyond to the tips of the fingers. The pain is exacerbated with actions that involve any type of movement when the fingers are closing in on the palm of the hand, like using scissors to cut or cupping the hand. It must be differentiated from other diagnosis like arthritis, neck issues that involve nerves in the affected region, epicondylitis, ulnar neuropathy or carpal tunnel syndrome.

What to do about it?

When we start looking at dealing with the symptoms associated with tech neck, what we’re really looking at is the overloading of structures working against gravity, that really shouldn’t be doing so much work! This is where we need to consider blending the releases from Myotherapy with the exercises from Pilates, as well as making some lifestyle changes to reduced the build up and recurrance of tension.

We already know that with the specific release techniques used in Myotherapy, we can ease the points of tension (or trigger points) that may become cumulative and cause ongoing discomfort. However, if we don’t shift the patterns of how we’re moving, we’re not going to get anywhere long term. This is where Pilates can be really helpful in giving you some exercises and strategies to work with.

In Pilates, we’d start by generally stretching out the body in as many different directions as possible - kind of like stretching out a piece of dough before cooking it! This helps to align our joints as close to ideal as possible, and then we can load the body up with some strengthening around our deep waist muscles that work to counteract gravities never-ending compression of the spine. This supports our spine and ribs so we can then better align our neck and shoulders when we start building their strength through specific exercises that again aim to counteract gravity, while also accounting for the fact they still need to be mobile. As our necks start to hold their shape a bit better, there will naturally be less pressure down in to the shoulders, and hopefully that will mean less funky loading at the arms, elbow, and forearms. Unfortunately the hands are tricky to work with due to the nature of our work - the best thing we can do it build strength in to the extensors muscles, and stretch them out in all angles again to minimise tension building up in any one position.

Finally, we discuss lifestyle - anything we do in Myotherapy and Pilates will be offset but then going off and spending the next few days hunced over a keyboard! Moving in lots of different ways offsets the build up of tension, and doing the exercises and stretches you get in your sessions will certainly help reduced the build up of tension too. It’s never going to fully erase due to the nature of our work, and because we have gravity constantly trying to squash us. But with regular self care, Pilates and Myotherapy, you can go a long, long way to avoiding things becoming more sinister!

Hope to see you in the studio soon - Ainslie and Rob.

Tech Neck, Text Thumb, Mouse Hand and everything in between - PART 2