Two of the common symptoms that acupuncturists handle are neck pain and low back pain. I have noticed that people complain of neck pain more than low back pain since cellphones had become the extension of our bodies. Obviously, our bodies are not designed to tap small screens with your fingers to navigate through cat videos with the neck bent down for a few hours (I am guilty as charged).
A very likely scenario would be when a person spends most of the day typing and staring at the screens. Such a person develops tight and sore forearms and tension in the shoulders and the neck. This is because the repetitive motion of the hands tightens the muscles on the forearms, and the tension in the forearms travels up to the side of the neck.
To address such neck pain, tender points on the forearms can be stimulated to release the tension in the neck. This area is called kami shi toku 上四瀆, and it is located on the forearm, roughly 1/3 of the way down from the elbow crease and the wrist joint. If you tend to have tight forearms and neck, this area is very noticeable to palpation. You can self-massage this area while you stretch your neck to release the tension of the neck. This point is located on Triple Warmer channel, which runs from the 4th finger to the outside of the forearm, the top of the shoulder, the side and back of the neck, and the side of the head.
*individual results may vary.
