Painful Neck Spasm During Squats

Last rep of the last set of a 3x5, about halfway up.....neck completely seized up, pretty damn uncomfortable. Managed to get the weight racked and everything but it felt like a devastating charlie horse of the neck, went away after maybe 30 seconds.

Anyone have this happen to them?

Take a couple days off maybe? Heating pad?

 

Where are you looking when you squat? Up?

Are you shrugging your shoulders when you squat?

Low or high bar?

 

Eyes are focused a little above straight ahead, I'm almost always tight......although this rep was a grinder, so there may have been a little squirming under the bar in this case. Closer to low bar but not lower than the shoulders.

 

Dehydration is often a large contributer to cramps.

 

Are you leaning forward? leading with your face?
like you are looking at a computer?

the head and neck should be neutral. you dont want to look up , down,
to the sides, or lead with the face, head, neck. your head should stay in the same vertical plane
as your spine, and as close to the line of your hips.

there are a lot of nerves running inside and outside- the thoriac area.

I get this sometimes, ( my neck is not so healthy) usually it is because I am leaning forward at the head.

 

Considering it again I am thinking this may have been the cause. Because I was so focused on finishing up the rep I might have allowed too much movement under the bar and that probably led to my neck getting tweaked.

When this happens what do you do for recovery?

 

it only happened that one time?

see how u feel after a day or 2 of rest

 

Yeah first time it's happened to me, no pain since the actual spasm. To be honest, I probably would have just continued on with the workout had it been some other muscle but my neck isn't something I want to be messing around with.