A day full of screens, meetings and a phone wedged between your ear and shoulder while you type. During the day you barely notice. It’s only in the evening, once you finally sit still, that your neck feels tight and heavy.

Why you only feel it later in the day

As long as you’re busy, your body holds the tension to keep you upright. Your head weighs around five kilos, and every centimetre it drifts forward towards the screen asks more of your neck muscles to carry it. During the day you’re distracted by work, so you don’t notice that extra load. Once your attention drops, the fatigue of the day surfaces, and the tension along with it.

For many of the women who come to me, that tension doesn’t stay in the neck. It pulls through into the shoulders and sometimes all the way into the jaw.

Why stretching isn’t always enough

Rolling your neck or shrugging your shoulders between meetings helps for the moment, but rarely resolves the tension a full working day has built up. That tension often sits deeper, in tissue that has been loaded the same way for months.

What helps

In my practice in Hoofddorp I work specifically on the neck and shoulders, so tension that builds up day after day actually gets the chance to release. That’s different from a quick stretch in between tasks: it’s giving your body the time and attention it needs to properly recover.

Does this sound familiar? Read more about tension in your neck, shoulders and back or make an appointment.