Can Swimming help with Neck Pain? Yes, If You Swim Smartly

A dip can help with many things, but is swimming good for neck pain?

Of course, when you have pain of some sort in any part of your body that won’t just go away, you should see a doctor.

Can swimming help a stiff neck? Swimming using the backstroke method can help with a stiff neck. It does not require you to extend your neck too much to breathe. Avoid swimming styles that force you to rotate in the water.  

Because of the low-impact nature of the swimming exercise, you can swim when you have pain in different places. Even if you have joint pain, you can still kick and propel yourself with your arms without making the pain worse.

If you have neck issues, always choose swimming exercises because the buoyancy of the water is going to help you. This is preferable to doing land exercises.

What is a swimmer’s neck?

When you are swimming, you have to lift your head out of the water now and then to breathe. Now, the muscles in the front of the neck are weaker. Therefore, they can suffer more than those at the back, causing serious pain.

If such a thing happens, you need to rest the neck, get a nice massage, or even apply ice to calm it down. However, the problem is that when you swim again, the neck becomes stiff again, causing you pain.

With time, swimming should strengthen your neck muscles and help to alleviate stiffness. However, if you continue to experience pain even after you have got into a proper swimming regimen, just look at your swimming stroke. It must be to blame.

Thus, your overall concern should always be how to enhance your swimming stroke. You can also try to undertake exercises that strengthen your neck muscles.

Do try to keep your neck aligned to your torso throughout the swim. While this is hard, practice will make you perfect. The idea is to keep your entire back, including the neck in a straight line as you swim.

Try not to lift your head too high out of the water to breathe. Again, this takes practice, but the sooner you learn it the better.

How swimming can help your neck pain

Now that we have seen that you can help your neck pain by swimming, how exactly does a dip in the cool water help you?

First, swimming works out the neck muscles! Imagine all the neck movements that you have to do to lift your head out of the water, to see where you are going, and to breathe.

In the first days after learning how to swim, this is going to feel hard. However, as you get used to it after swimming more often, your neck is going to get enough workout.

If you have neck pain, you cannot just jump into the pool. Also, you might want to avoid jumping so that you do not jolt your neck to excruciating pain.

Which swimming stroke is best for neck pain?

The first thing that you should know to help your neck pain is to know the best swimming stroke to adopt. Not all swimming strokes will be good for you.

The most recommended swimming style is backstroke because it gives you ultimate control over your movements. It is also adaptable, so you can find a position that does not trigger pain in your neck.

Avoid using the breaststroke method because it causes more strain on the neck, as you try to find the best position to keep your face out of the water.

The same applies to the freestyle method because it requires you to rotate the neck to position your face properly for breathing.

Second, to use the best style, you also want to listen to your body to know the most appropriate speed that you should use. You want to find the most comfortable position that will assuage rather than trigger the pain.

How do I prevent neck pain when swimming?

In addition to knowing how swimming can help a stiff neck, you also need to know how you can prevent pain when swimming.

As suggested above, the first thing is to choose the most appropriate style. Avoid rotating in water to breathe. This also means avoiding the freestyle method since it is the one that requires you to rotate.

Also, irrespective of any style that you use, timing is everything for the breathing intervals. If you must do the butterfly stroke, try hard to breathe early so that you don’t have to extend your neck further than you need to.

When you extend your neck too much, you exert too much pressure on your muscles, and they become too stiff in the process.

How swimming helps with neck pain: FAQ

Swimming and neck pain seem to be related, with the exercise seemingly being more liable for stiff and sometimes strained neck muscles.

As you have seen here, this is a pretty confusing topic. Hopefully, the frequently asked questions and their answers might shed more light.

Is swimming bad for your neck?

The neck muscles will experience strain when you extend it to keep your face above water. Also, swimming strokes such as freestyle swimming strokes require you to rotate, which causes a stiff or strained neck.

Can swimming help with back and neck pain?

When you do it right and keep the neck aligned with the spine, swimming can indeed help with neck and back pain. The buoyancy of the water is more helpful to an aching back. However, you need to find the best stroke that exerts less pressure on your stiff neck and back.

Can swimming help a stiff neck?

Using the freestyle stroke might make your neck muscles stiff. Thus, use breaststroke, as it will not require you to rotate, something that aggravates the muscles. When you swim, keep your neck and spine aligned. It will be hard, but with practice, you can do it.

How do I get rid of neck pain from swimming?

Placing a pack of ice on the sore neck muscles can help a lot. Also, getting a neck massage will help. If the pain is too much, especially when you move your neck, you might need to wear a brace. The overall remedy is to adopt the best swimming stroke that exerts the least pressure on the neck.

Why does my neck hurt from swimming?

You probably have not been able to keep your neck and spine aligned when swimming. Also, you might be using the wrong swimming stroke, which requires you to rotate and extend your neck muscles more than necessary.

Is swimming good for bulging discs in the neck?

Swimming is a low-impact exercise. It can help keep a bulging disc from causing excruciating pain, unlike doing exercises on land, which can aggravate pain.

Why do swimmers have large necks?

Because of the need to extend the neck so that you can breathe when swimming, a swimmer may have a larger neck than a person who does not swim. Also, their shoulder muscles seem to have more mass, which comes from the repetitive motions.

Is swimming good for neck pain? Conclusion

The information in this article is not supposed to replace a doctor’s advice. Thus, if using ice, massage, and other methods does not work here, you need to see a doctor.

Using the backstroke swimming style is going to alleviate the pressure on the neck muscles. Also, listen to your body.

If the neck muscles experience too much pain, perhaps it is time to stop, rest, and wait for the muscles to recover.

You can read about the main causes of neck pain in this article.