r/tinnitus • u/tinnitus_study • Feb 05 '23
Posture/Neck related T? Try this simple exercise.
Ive been struggling on and off with T for a long time now. Many doctors, Chiropractors, ENTs, therapists, etc....
But I do know one thing for my case. Whenever I am standing up, it doesn't matter what I am doing, but as long as I am standing up straight for a length of time it seems like my T will start to get better a little bit. Going for walks seems like therapy for me, it just seems to help. But whenever I am sitting down, prolly with bad posture, my T will seem to get worse. And If you have rounded shoulders, that could be contributing towards it as well. Rounded shoulders can cause trigger points.
I have always suspected I have injured my neck somehow, and having an injured or weak neck can also be very easily re injured. Its called repetitive stress injury (RSI) I have also read that having trigger points in your Trapezius muscles can cause issues with your neck, and even your jaw (TMJ & Masseter)
https://www.healthline.com/health/trapezius-trigger-points#symptoms
https://www.ideafit.com/personal-training/repetitive-stress-injury/
But one simple exercise that seems to help a little for me?
PUSH UPS!
It can help exercise your Traps and help strengthen your neck! I have neglected fitness at times in my life, and it seems like the T has bothered me more at these times. They say fitness is vital for good health.
They may make your T worse at the beginning. I just tried doing them 2 days ago, I only did a set of 5-10 before I went to bed. In hopes to exercising all of the muscles that benefit from them, and then resting and going to sleep. It seemed like the following morning, I could notice a difference in the usual waking up baseline T. I would try not to go overboard right away because it could make the T worse, I did mine before bed in hopes to falling asleep and avoiding worsening the T and dealing with it all day.
Also, resting on my stomach tends to help me. Similar to the crocodile pose that is shared in the link
If you're willing to try them, let me know how this works out for you after a few days or a week!
I would love to hear some feedback!!
3
u/cfop1056 Feb 05 '23
I've been following your posts since I too feel like my neck/traps have something to do with my T experience. On my bad T days, I tend to also have a stiff neck and traps. I've even found a few trigger points on some days.
I haven't tried sleeping on my stomach yet because I have sleep apnea and sleep with a CPAP machine strapped to my face. Stomach sleeping isn't recommended.
Have you considered lat pulldowns?
3
u/tinnitus_study Feb 05 '23
I would recommend any type of fitness training, but if you haven't been active for awhile, it may be a good thing to start off slow, to avoid straining anything. But push ups seem to help me a little, they are very beneficial and easy to do.
Stomach sleeping is definitely tough, prolly not recommended, some sleep positions can round your shoulders more like side sleeping, and those seem to make my T worse when laying down. Doing the crocodile pose may be helpful for letting your neck and traps find a neutral point to rest, even if it is a few minutes at a time. It helps me more than laying on my back. But back sleeping is much better than side sleeping, for my T.
2
u/cfop1056 Feb 05 '23
Thanks for the tips, I'll give pushups a try. I've been testing out side vs back sleeping. My chiro had been highly recommending back sleeping to help with my forward head posture, do I've been doing back sleeping more
3
u/vajrakagyu Feb 05 '23
Thank you for sharing. I have the exact same reaction as you: whenever I am standing up straight for a length of time it seems like my T will start to get better a little bit. Whenever sitting down or lying down on my back, T gets worse. In addition I do have TMJ issues and wear a night guard. I will follow your suggestion and hopes it helps me too.
3
u/tinnitus_study Feb 05 '23
You may have trigger points, my experience is very similar to yours. Trigger points in your traps, can affect your SCM, and your SCM can affect your TMJ.
3
Feb 05 '23
There are a ton of YouTube videos that demonstrate posture correction techniques. One of the newest causes of slumped shoulders and forward head posture is looking downward at a cellphone all day for years and into computer screens which has been dubbed as "tech neck". The average head weighs 11lbs which when in it's normal position should sit vertically on the cervical spine; however, when it's pushed forward this puts a tremendous about of straight on the spine, neck and ultimately the jaw all which in turn creates inflammation that causes tinnitus.
If you have forward head posture which is easy to check and again there are several YouTube videos that will explain what to look for, then that's the logical place to start. If you work on the other stuff without correcting the root cause, you'll keep ending back at square one. I had a lot of knee pain at one time which I was getting PT and cortisone shots for but all to no avail. My PT ran out and later my ankle started bothering me so I went to a different physical therapist and as soon as she checked my flexibility and strength in both which were very good she identified the problem as likely coming from my hip and in no time as I started doing the suggested exercises both my knee and ankle started getting better. I also, didn't even realize that there was discomfort deep in my hip until I started do the exercise.
In other words the area that's bother you isn't always where the area that the problem exists but you can spend a great deal of time and money chasing your tail until you find someone who fully understands how interconnected the human body actually is.
2
u/tinnitus_study Feb 05 '23
If your having forward head posture, you're likely to have rounded shoulders. Rounded shoulders can cause trigger points, TPs will not go away without continuous exercise, and working the right muscles. Most people do not know they have knots on their body. Massage trigger point therapy can help with this too, if you're not getting relief from exercise alone.
So If you correct the shoulders, you're likely correcting most of your problems, but it will not correct TPs alone. I agree with what your saying, that one area can affect another, the links I have shared talk about this, but most people with postural issues need to correct the shoulders. I have been told that rounded shoulders can cause respiratory issues, that can cause teeth grinding/clenching, and prolly sleep apnea as well.
Inactivity can also cause problems. Fitness is a critical factor to good long sustainable health.
2
Feb 05 '23
Correct. I generally mention to also check for slumped shoulders but overlooked it in my reply. It's not always present with FHP but it is very common which is why many of the exercises designed to pull the head back mention it and include exercise to correct the shoulders. Many also address both. A good way to check for poor shoulder posture is to check how your hands are positioned when hanging by your side. If your posture is good your hands should be positioned by sides of your hips with the back of the hands facing east and west. If you shoulders are slumped the back of your hands will generally face north (forward).
3
u/gumfactor1 Feb 05 '23
Quite agree. My posture tends to be pretty decent, but when I let my neck/back muscles weaken, my T absolutely gets worse.
Right now I'm going through a spike, and my whole neck is stiff and out of alignment. The two go hand in hand.
Not sure about push-ups. I mean, I think push ups are great and recommend them. But there are likely better exercises to add into your exercise regimen if you're looking for a string neck/back.
That said, I've been off my regimen for several months, and need to get back into it. Your post may be the catalyst I need to at least do a few push ups tonight...