What causes neck pain?

Customer: What causes neck pain?

C.C. (Colm Campbell): If you follow me I’ll show you the way you and ninety nine percent of people sit at an office desk. It’s the reason why the vast majority end up with back pain.

(C.C. walks over to a desk, sits on an office chair, and simulates somebody crouching over a keyboard.)

C.C.: The C position. Does this look familiar? (The customer nods again)

C.C.: As you can see I’m bent over the desk like a bent wooden ruler. This puts huge pressure on my lumbar spine.

C.C.: Let’s examine the neck.

(C.C. sits well back into the chair with his spine supported right up to the nape of his neck, elbows perfectly supported, arms gently sloping downwards, as he pretends to key)

C.C.: I’m now sitting with perfect posture. The S position.

Customer: How do you know that?

C.C.: Because the chair was made for me using Spinal System-S. As my head is resting on the headrest the stress on my neck is very low.

(C.C. again bends over the desk)

C.C.: The stress on my neck is now huge. Do you know why?

Customer: Because you’re bent over the desk.

C.C.: Yes. But I’ll demonstrate the reason. Hold this upright with the thumb and index finger.

(C. C. gives the customer a hard backed book. The customer does as requested.)

C.C.: Now bend your arm slowly forward keeping the book in the same plane. (When the book reaches an angle of about forty five degrees from the vertical the customer has difficulty holding on to it.)

C.C.: The reason you are losing control is because a moment ago the weight was acting straight down your arm. Now the weight is still acting downwards but it’s displaced from the fulcrum, the place where you’re holding it, by about eight inches. This causes a huge leverage effect, the weight multiplied by eight inches. It’s the same with your head. The weight of the book is very low, less than a pound. But your head is a large percentage of your overall body weight. The average weight of the human head is around 14 pounds. When the head is vertically over the spine the stress is at a minimum. But when you bend forward the weight of your head multiplied by the distance from your neck results in enormous stress in your neck. And a neck pain can be a lot more difficult to cure than one in the lumbar spine.

Customer: Why is this?

C.C.: The lumbar discs are massive in comparison with the cervical. And the cervical are moving all the time. They get little chance to rest.