Bone spur on neck - My experience and advice

[MadCookie]

Hello everyone!

English is not my native language, so, sorry for the mistakes i will make.

I´m here to tell you about my painful experience of having a bone spur on my neck, and with the hope i can give some advice and also some hope in the end of the tunnel.
I had a motorcycle accident more than ten years ago, and it was really violent, so i guess it helped a lot to get this problem. I started my love to lifting weights also more than ten years ago. One day (7 years after the accident), i was training shoulders, doing shoulder press and suddenly i feel my neck got stuck, couldnt move it and it was quite painful. Went to a chiropractor, and since the bone came out of its place, he putted it in place again, and thats it he said, nothing special. After a few days, feeling better already, went again to the gym, was doing shoulders again, lateral raises... again, the bone came out and had to go to the hospital again. same procedure, but here i made an x-ray, finding i had a bone spur. Again, no good advice, just to not do sports for a month. Went to a specialist, explained very well the problem, but then again, no good advice. Finally, went to a sports doctor, who said i must do sports (in a controlled way) in order to make the area stronger. So he sent me to a gym where he had a personal trainer who works with this kind of problems, and we started to find what i could or couldnt do.

The most important is, DON´T give tension to the trapezius, always have your shoulders down and relaxed while working out, or even outside the gym. Very important to not put stress on the trapezius. Before i found this doctor, i didnt know, so one day i played darts for 2/3hours, and the next day the bone went out again.
When i´m doing my exercises i have to lean my head forward, with my chin coming towards the throat, that way it wont hurt and wont create more problems. A lot of exercises i cant do, especially overhead ones, like shoulder press, but i still can workout the whole body. I didnt had hope before, but after i found the right doctor and personal trainer and realized it can be done. Sometimes doctors only tell you to rest, and in some cases its not the best advice. If i dont workout or go the the swimming pool for weeks, i start to get worse because the area is getting weaker. Also, find a good pilates teacher because you will have to work your posture, this is really important if you want to continue to workout with this problem. It taught me to use my abs and glutes while working out, to help take away the tension of the trapezius. Since every person has a different situation, find first a good doctor. Im just sharing my own experience. I now go the pool 2x/week and 2x/week i lift weights. For example, tuesday lift weights and friday weights again, let the area relax.

Sorry if the post is too confusing. I just really wanted to share my experience, and tell you to find a good doctor. Hopefully you wont need to stop lifting weights, just have to adapt to the problem. If you have some questions feel free to ask. Thanks!

[Gwybodaeth]

Can you undergo surgery to shave down the bone spur? Bone spurs are common ailments in joints like ankles and hips.

[MadCookie]

Can you undergo surgery to shave down the bone spur? Bone spurs are common ailments in joints like ankles and hips.

I guess it is possible yes, but since its in the C5 spinal segment (if im saying correct), for now it is not an option for my doctor, especially because i'm having a normal life, just have to be careful. Even if i can't do a lot of exercises at the gym, but still enough to workout. Anyway, a surgery in that place is kind of scary to do if not done properly. But thank you for your comment anyway. Take care

[GeneralSerpant]

Is it going to keep growing?

[MadCookie]

Is it going to keep growing?

Doctor said i dont have to worry, just stick with my daily precautions, like no overhead extra efforts, no sudden movements with my head, and so on. Dont think it will grow (hope so), he just told me that due to the accident and also maybe due to other reasons as well, the distance between this two bones was reduced with time, so now they are too close. He actually said nothing about growing.

[GeneralSerpant]

Doctor said i dont have to worry, just stick with my daily precautions, like no overhead extra efforts, no sudden movements with my head, and so on. Dont think it will grow (hope so), he just told me that due to the accident and also maybe due to other reasons as well, the distance between this two bones was reduced with time, so now they are too close. He actually said nothing about growing.

Ah. Well I've had a bone spur before, but this sounds like a much more complicated situation. Good luck.

[MadCookie]

Ah. Well I've had a bone spur before, but this sounds like a much more complicated situation. Good luck.

Thank you very much my friend! Hopefuly doesnt get more complicated then this. Anyway, i just wanted to share my own experience because i know that someone with this kind of problem, or even others, sometimes can lose hope. No need! Have to keep on fighting and find the doctor that suits you and addapt to the problem, not let it control your life at 100%.