Interesting neck pain...

[Jon Nosferatu]

Last week, I came pretty close to failing at the end of my Press sets, with the final rep taking some like four or five seconds to complete (I'm fairly sure that I was able to maintain good form, though). A few minutes later, the back of the right side of my neck starting acting up; I was afraid I'd torn the trap, but when I woke up the next morning, the pain was gone in normal posture and only came back at the end ROM when turning my head or when I rotated my head about 45 degrees and tilted it back, so I didn't think much of it; the pain was completely gone when I woke up the next day.

Yesterday, however, I got a 295 squat and after reracking it, discovered basically the symptoms (on my right side, this time), but much more severe. This time I was sure I'd torn the trap, but again, I wake up this morning and discovered that the same thing had happened as before - it hurt more than the last one had, but only in the two situations described above. My theory here is that I sort of subconsciously did a Hise Shrug at some point during the rep and something went wrong.

Immediately afterward in both cases, it hurt to shrug the respective shoulder up, and after some exploration this morning, I discovered that it still does, but only if I've rotated my shoulders EXTREMELY far forward. I can do everything else that I'd expect to involve the traps without any pain regardless of positioning (pinching shoulder blades, etc.), though I did note yesterday that the pain got very intense if the back had to stabilize the head (i.e., if I was doing a sit-up).

Thus, I'm not entirely sure the hell is going on. I don't THINK that I've torn either of my traps, and given how quickly the left side recovered I don't know that I've torn anything else, but if I have done something worth rehabbing, it'd be nice to know. Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me even figure out which muscle I did that something to, so...yeah.

Any advice/comments?

[Mark Rippetoe]

This is a common lifting injury, associated with a C6-7 disc/facet joint problem. It is usually dealt with by chiropractic, but it will heal even if not treated. I hate to tell you guys this, but if you train hard you're going to hurt things. Sorry. This is little stuff. Best to learn how to tell big stuff from little stuff, and to only worry about the bigger stuff.

[zephed56]

And this is why Rip advises you to keep your neck in a neutral position while lifting and not all cocked back staring at the cieling and shit. I did chins and sorta reached for the bar with my chin, and I could barely move my neck the rest of the day. Lesson learned.

[Jon Nosferatu]

Is it serious enough to warrant any concern?

Are there any particular methods for avoiding in the future?

And, equally if not more important:
Is there any reason I shouldn't go squat tomorrow?

[Mark Rippetoe]

It might be serious. It's probably not. Various things cause it, so I can't tell you how to avoid it. And you probably need to squat if you can.

[TyphoidYellow]

I had something similar happen to me on a set of hard Presses. Except, I could definitively attribute this trap "injury" to improper form (closing your eyes while grunting through a heavy rep isn't a great way to maintain form). And it really did feel like shit. Like when you wake up after sleeping in a weird position and it hurts to even slightly move your neck. The pain lasted all the way up until my next press workout (~4 days). I managed to get through a previous workout without too much difficulty, but on the day of my next press workout, I honestly didn't even know if I could manage the warm-ups. So I did my squats, looked down at my little notebook and realized Presses were next. I figured that I'd humor myself and see if I could manage pressing the bar. It was...surprisingly pain free. I then proceeded to hit all my warm-ups and all my target reps for the worksets. My trap felt infinitely better than it had been all week.

I basically experienced firsthand what Rip described in his injury sticky. Putting my injured part through the same thing that caused its injury made it heal waaay faster than if I would have just waited.

Jon, even if you don't think you'll feel better on the squats, do your warm-ups. You'll be able to tell by the pain if you're capable of performing your worksets.