Who has never been affected by the so-called stiff neck ? The name itself tells us what it is: a painful blockage of the muscles of the cervical spine that prevents twisting or bending of the head .

Traditional Chinese medicine considers the cervical portion as an area of ​​particular support, as it actually is, it must support the skull, but even on a symbolic level this function is particularly onerous.

The neck supports the world, our rational, emotional, creative world, the hard disk of our whole organism , therefore a great weight.

It is no coincidence that the first cervical vertebra is called Atlas , like the mythological figure who supported the weight of the world on his shoulders. The stiff neck prevents freedom of movement , the rotational and flexor excursion with which you turn your head, with which you observe the surrounding reality: everything freezes, concentrates, and forcing this limitation causes pain!

The neck in for Chinese medicine

The neck is an area subject to so-called perverse energies : cold, wind, humidity and heat are elements that can cause cervical disorders and even from there “enter” the body and unbalance it.

In fact, Chinese medicine identifies various points through which perverse energies enter our body along the energy channels and can cause stagnation of energy and blood, with blocks of various kinds including muscle ones.

The stiff neck in particular is defined in Chinese medicine as an “attack of external wind”. It is no coincidence that a point called Feng Men, door of the wind , is indicated in a distal area between the T2 and T3 vertebrae , which is involved when a stagnation caused by an external energy comes into play.

The stiff neck is therefore the consequence of a “weakness” of our condition, of our land, sensitive to perverse energies, so that even prolonged incorrect postures , vibrations and incorrect movements are more easily noticeable in subjects in which the wind door is “easily opened “.

When a stiff neck occurs, and therefore a blockage of the cervical portion and its innate movements,  the energies of the connected meridians also stagnate : the gallbladder, liver and bladder Qi no longer flows freely.

The area cools down because even the Xué , the blood, no longer supplies the tissues properly . If you do not intervene promptly, muscle stiffening expands involving other dorsal portions, the shoulders, the arms, the frontal muscles, the eyes.

But how to intervene promptly? Thanks to shiatsu and its ability to aim “at the right point or points”, thanks to the mapping of the meridians and the theory of the 5 movements of traditional Chinese medicine .

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Shiatsu for a stiff neck

Shiatsu is a discipline that uses acupressure and targeted manipulations to unblock energy stagnations. The approach to the neck must in any case be very light and take place gradually, since the block in case of a stiff neck creates excruciating pain if manipulated with force.

In case of cervical shiatsu, it involves warming the part with the hands in an enveloping grip on the neck and trapezius, listening to the breath which, by changing and relaxing, allows you to “empathize” and welcome the treatment, an absolutely essential step.

The kneading of the cervical portion in a slow, delicate but progressively deeper way, allows you to further heat the muscles and invite them to melt. This practice can take a long time , depending on the underlying contracture level.

Acupressure occurs later, after having prepared the ground. The points to be specifically treated can be those of the biliary vesicle meridians  20 and 21, to drain energy stagnation, 3 Liver, 10 Bladder, always with the effect of emptying the block.

The meridians such as Triple Heater 15 and Governor Vessel 16 are also involved for the stimulation of the Xué, the unblocking of blood stagnation: these remain general indications because Shiatsu is a “tailored” technique , which provides for the personalization of the treatment based on how much the operator feels under his hands and how the user responds to the techniques applied.