Posture, neck discomfort while diving

[Annie Shaw]

Minor dull neck pain is something I live with regularly. I go to a chiropractor and he keeps it in good check for me. It's nothing really medically serious just weak muscles. Anyways when I dive I feel like I aggravate my neck a lot. I feel like I am always looking up in the water while being relatively horizontal. Kind of like the position your neck would be if you were standing and you looked straight at the sky. I thought some of my discomfort was due to my head hitting my tank but I'm not sure. When I'm swimming straight forward or looking down I'm good. To compensate I actually just kind of turn my whole body sideways to what I want look at and that seems to work pretty well. I'm comfortable swimming this way. Am I doing something wrong? Could it be a problem with the positioning of my tank on my bcd?

 

[Doc]

Only you can, and should, be able to tell if your skull is bonking the first stage.

You would know. Get in the water and put your hand back there to check spacing or have your buddy check your skull for wounds or black & blue marks

More likely is neck strain cause by hour-long sessions of craning your neck in a “chin up” position to facilitate gawking.

I agree and use your solution. I roll & stay on my side, especially along vertical walls. This allows a more efficient position in the water, you can (and likely will) get vertical when there’s something worth stopping to look at.

Otherwise, consider looking in a neutral direction, head comfortable. Glance “ahead’ occasionally.

If your neck hurts after diving, it’s gotta be that.

 

[ibj40]

I had a similar condition.

In my case I was carrying all my weight (2x4 and 4x3) in a belt (I wear a 5mm full wetsuit).

With some advice from a very trusted instructor, I added two trim pockets to my tank strap and moved 2x3 up there.

That changed my posture in the water column and greatly reduced the pain and fatigue I had been experiencing.

 

[100days-a-year]

I gave up on having perfect trim years ago for the same reason.
I tried twisting, rolling on my side and all kinds of gear and set up changes.
Spent some unnecessary dollars and got cramps or disoriented.
Ended up just going through the water tail lower than head.

 

[Nemrod]

I roll to the side (slightly) and swim that way on purpose. I use a modified side scissor/frog kick. I do this not because my neck hurts but it positions my double hose regulator more to the center of my lungs. And it is comfortable to me. I get a better view, especially along reef breaks and walls. Just do not over exaggerate it. You might considering dropping your tank down, further aft. I now we try to get as horizontal as possible but we are each individuals and you may need to just a little derrière low. Keep your fins and legs up, arch your back some. Being a life long cyclist, bent over a racing bicycle, I guess my neck muscles are pretty well conditioned to holding/tilting my head up so I can see the road ahead . It might be that you are trying to be too rigid and locking your head up. Relax some.

James

 

[LFMarm]

Side mount may be helpful to release some stress

 

[TMHeimer]

Are you actually looking up while swimming? If so, why? What's there to see? Maybe your trim is such that your feet are higher than your torso so you compensate by "looking up" to wind up seeing straight ahead?
I usually am looking down searching for shells, and seeing straight ahead with peripheral vision so I don't clunk into a big rock.

 

[flyboy08]

How about a neck shoulder exercise routine?

 

[Kimela]

It’s not necessary for you to stay horizontal the whole time - a little tilt is a-ok. Save your purely horizontal time for when you actually need to be horizontal. You’ll save a lot of stress on your neck that way. If your head is hitting your first stage, see if you can get your BC higher on your tank. That helps me a lot, and I have to check every time to make sure that my BC placement is right if someone else changes over my BC to a new tank.

 

[Damselfish]

I think too much gets made of perfect trim on this board, with perfect trim generally interpreted as horizontal. New divers can read this and get equally obsessed by it.

I don’t think perfect trim means horizontal. Perfect trim is when I can easily be in whatever position makes sense for the situation. Sometimes that is horizontal. Often its something else. If I’m looking at things (which is why I dive!) and in no hurry to get someplace or needing to deal with a current or something, perfect is however it’s easiest to look at what I want to look at while having my neck in a comfortable position. If I’m swimming along a wall it might be sideways. Sometime I drift along cross-legged like I’m sitting on the ground, just because I can. (Yeah I do yoga.) If I want to be upside down to look at something or just because its fun, thats perfect too.

I also need to keep my BC high on my tank to not hit my head, and often have to fix it if someone swaps tanks for me.