My neck pain is caused by my breathing - who knew?

You know the whole, the hip bone is connected to the thigh bone thing? There really is a lot too it. I'm a believer in how one part of the body affects another, but it's not always obvious and it can be a bit surprising when you learn about different connections.

As many of this blog's readers know, I separated my shoulder in December. I'm going for intense physio and therapeutic massage to get rid of the pain and regain good range of motion. This week, both my physio and my massage therapist worked on my upper back, the thoracic back because they both noticed that there was a problem there. I also just happened to mention to my physio that when I go for walks, my neck and shoulders begin to hurt, no matter how good my posture may or may not be.

You know what the problem is/was? My breathing. Somewhere down the road, I began using my upper back muscles to breath and not my abdominal muscles. So, when I go for a rapid or long walk, as I get tired, I start breathing harder, using those upper back muscles - which then become fatigued and sore.

I now have some exercises I have to do to try to retrain my mind and body to breathe properly. But I wonder how long I've been doing this and why I started doing this.

Anyway, now that I know, I can work on it and work on it, I will do. Now, do you know how you are breathing? Are you breathing properly? Or as I was?