Cycling Neck Pain Moves Around

Your neck contains muscles, bones, nerves, joints, ligaments, and tendons. Although any of these can be painful and hurt, it could be cycling neck pain that comes from areas near your neck such as your shoulders, head, or jaw. Conversely, cycling neck pain can start with problems in your neck that make your upper back, arms, shoulders or other parts of your body hurt. With cycling neck pain, if the nerves in your neck are involved, you often feel weakness, tingling, or numbness in your legs or arms.

Nerve roots that go from the cervical or neck spine to the spinal cord travel along the arm. These nerve roots supply a cycling neck pain feeling to skin areas from the shoulders to the arm and fingers and electrical signals to the fingers, hand or arm. When a bone spur or herniated disc pinches one of these nerve roots, a cycling neck pain problem often occurs. Although the pinched nerve is actually in your neck, it may show up as pain, numbness, or weakness along the path where the nerve travels. This cycling neck pain could be an achy, dull, deep pain or a shooting sharp pain along the nerve path.

When the neck moves, it is subject to pressure and tension causing each vertebra disc to act as a shock absorber. When the neck bends forward, the vertebrae discs tend to bulge backwards towards the nerve roots and spinal canal. The center part or nucleus of the disk squeezes out causing pressure on neck nerves and a herniated cervical disk or rupture can occur. A protruding disk can put pressure on the spinal nerves or spinal cord causing weakness and numbness along the nerve. The inflamed nerve root can cause cycling neck pain such as deep pain or shooting, sharp pain in not only the neck but also shoulder and upper arm.

Cervical radiculopathy causes cycling neck pain or symptoms away from the neck, although the neck is the problem. Patients often feel pain in their hand, arm, shoulder, or other places the nerves travels. When the doctor locates the cause, he or she can normally tell which neck nerve is inducing the problems. Symptoms normally include weakness, numbness, and pain, with the upper arm reflexes sometimes affected. Treatment for cervical radiculopathy may include medications to control muscle spasm, inflammation, pain, and sleep disturbances. The doctor may recommend a cervical collar made of either hard plastic or soft foam. This collar helps by limiting motion while providing support until the injured neck heals. They may also recommend a special cervical pillow and physical therapy.