It starts with knots in the upper back or stiffness in the neck itself and gradually pain in a wrist or elbow becomes just another part of the day.
In order to demonstrate what muscles should feel like, let’s look at an example of a muscle that in most people remains in a healthy state: the biceps.
If you take your relaxed left bicep muscle and squeeze it with your right hand, you’ll notice that it’s smooth and supple — no knots, no rigidity.
This is what a healthy muscle feels like, firm but not tight. If, however, you held a five-pound
weight absolutely still in your right hand with your elbow bent for even half an hour every day
for a week, you’d notice that your right bicep would be tight because you’ve taught it to stay
contracted.
Imagine if you held that weight for months, even years: this muscle would become
rock hard, even at rest.
Healthy muscle is hard when flexed and firm but supple when relaxed — unhealthy muscle
never relaxes and may be simultaneously weak and hard. All of this from only five pounds - half the weight of the average human head.
So now you have an idea of what’s been happening to your neck — it constantly supports
weight and gets little rest or proper exercise.
This ongoing isometric contraction, as described in the biceps example, invites muscle stiffness and pain. And the modern workplace, as we now know it, creates a perfect environment for dysfunction within the neck.
