Story

Neck and hip pain: how whole body work changed everything.

Two pains, one pattern. We worked the whole line, not the two sore spots.

Mia Gleason, BCSI Story 5 min read

The relationship between the cervical neck and the hip through the body’s lines — Neck and hip are further apart than you think, and closer than they look.

She had two complaints and a packed calendar. A neck that ached by midafternoon and a hip that barked when she stood up from her desk. She had treated them as two separate problems for two years, with two separate practitioners, and gotten nowhere.

They were not two problems. They were one pattern, read from two ends.

One line, two symptoms

When I assessed her standing, the story was clear. A forward head, a collapsed front, and a hip hiked to compensate, all strung along the same lines of pull. The neck and the hip were the two loudest points on a single rope that ran the length of her.

Desk and text neck posture that loads the neck and hip together — Desk posture loads the whole front line. The neck and hip pay the bill at both ends.

Working the whole rope

Instead of chasing each ache, we worked the line. Freed the front, woke up the back, leveled the pelvis, and gave the neck somewhere to settle. As the pattern released, both complaints quieted, because they were never really separate.

Treat two symptoms as two problems and you will be busy forever. Find the one pattern and both let go.

She left understanding her own body, with a couple of simple things to do at her desk. Months later, both the neck and the hip were still calm.

The short version

Neck and hip pain were two ends of one postural pattern.
Treating them separately had gone nowhere for years.
Working the whole line released both at once.
Understanding the pattern let her keep the change.

This is educational writing about bodywork and movement, not medical advice. It does not diagnose or treat any condition and does not replace care from your physician.

Mia Gleason, CMT, BCSI

I am a Certified Massage Therapist and Board Certified Structural Integrator in Grass Valley, with nearly thirty years of hands-on work. I read the body like evidence and follow the lines back to the cause.

Mia Gleason Bodywork · Grass Valley / Nevada City