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Deisel

Neck Pain

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This weekend, one of our elder statesmen that I respect immensely, showed me an X-ray of his neck. It looked like road kill. A freakin banana shaped curve that hurt to look at. He tells me it's just from a lot of jumping over a lot of years. And since I've started doing tandems, my neck is a little sore too. Needless to say, now that I've seen this I've become concerned. Until now, I figured that my good looks and phenemoninal physique and strength would get me through as I adjust to this new discipline. Maybe not.

So my question is; how common are neck issues amongst TIs? Is this a technique or body position problem? Or is there something else that we should all know about tandem skydiving that isn't widely publicized? I figure that there's a pretty good reason that you don't see a lot of older guys throwing drouges. Please pass along any wisdom out there you guys care to share! Thanks :)
The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

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What I figured. But I just read Pat Morehead's letter in Parachutist on Mike Truffer's hard opening and broken neck. Says that his technique is to tuck his chin on every deployment. Sounds like Ft Benning ground school. But coming from him, I'll take it!
The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

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I posted a while back about some neck issues I had. I have a couple buldging (but not herniated discs). I've had a few hard openings in my day that likely contributed. I wouldn't necessarily say that its specifically due to tandems, but certainly doing 15 tandems in a day out of a 182 doesn't help. My last two seasons had some pretty bad flair ups where I literally couldn't move my neck. I made some lifestyle changes that helped. I cut back on alcohol consumption and noticed a huge improve.ent and started eating right. This year I haven't had any issues and I feel great. The biggest thing you can do is make sure you rest and take time off when you have pain. Continuing to jump will only make the problem worse. Dont feel like you have to jump because of people pressuring you. Chiropractors have also been greatly beneficial.

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Get a bunch of TI's together and mention it and you'll realize its pretty common to have neck and back pain from doing this stuff. You'll probably get your share of hard openings and less than perfect landings and over time they do damage. Also as you age your body doesn't recover as quick. I try to stay in as good a shape as possible. Also I use glucosamine/chondroitin supplements. I don't know if they work but I seem to notice more inflammation when I stop taking them. I try to avoid NSAID's due to the effect on the stomach and liver but if I strain something specific they usually work good for the inflammation. Soreness is one thing but pain is another! I know a guy that wears a neck support while doing tandems and that seems to work for him. Stretching helps a lot. Listen to you body and try to cut back when you hurt. i know thats easy to say but its tough to do when the DZO is on the hunt for TI's for a busy weekend. I've been doing tandems for 16 years and its tough to avoid some long term effects. The neck problems have long been known among camera flyers, maybe they have some more specific tips?

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I'm a little sore in my neck from tandems, but video is the worst... Most guys I know are more injured and beat up (in the neck) from flying video. I had a hard opening video diving that caused me to black out, broke my audible, and herniated two discs... I ended up with paralysis down my right side and in bed for two months. Quit video diving for good and got a tandem rating. Since then, I mostly have trouble in my back unless the packers are slacking... if they don't even up the risers then I get twirled and spanked on opening and then my neck gets sore, but the injury itself is from video diving. Facing into the wind direction on deployment can help though.

Best practice is to do a regular routine of neck stabilization exercises to strengthen the supporting muscles in your neck. I've also found that tucking my neck down (bad form) next to my students head on opening reduces the strain on my neck if I'm having hard openings. Obviously heading and stability are priority, but you can tuck your chin a bit and still fly the opening. Lets be real though, when you're working you have no control over your openings... so it's easy for stuff to add up, but most TIs seem to have neck injuries left over from video days.

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Quote

I'm a little sore in my neck from tandems, but video is the worst... Most guys I know are more injured and beat up (in the neck) from flying video.



I totally agree. I used to do a lot of video back in the caveman days when we jumped big-ass VHS-C cameras and "real" film SLR's. Too many hard openings under the Sabres and Monarch's of the day left me nearly incapacitated. So much so that I took a couple of years off from jumping nearly-altogether. When I was still working full-time at "sport" dropzones I only allowed my name to be put on the video roster as "last resort." Not that I"m a bad videographer; it's just that I prefer to save my neck for tandems and AFF.

It's been a really rare thing for me to injure my neck on tandems under today's excellent canopies.

Chuck

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It's been a while since I chucked a drogue, but I've chucked my share -- about 2,000. Back pain went with the territory for me. As far as the advice to tuck your chin on deployment, an article in September's Parachutist indicated that Air Force research found that the best thing was to keep your shoulders straight and your neck in a neutral position over your shoulders. Twisting the head or doing anything other than keeping the neck an a neutral position was found to overload the neck muscles. With all due respect to the experienced jumper advocating tucking the chin, this seems like asking for trouble. Keep your neck in a straight and neutral position over your shoulders on deployment.

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I haven't noticed much neck pain... Or back pain really. Only chronic repetitive issue I've seen is your right shoulder. Every long term TI I know has shoulder issues.

The big thing for me is to find the parts of the jump that tax the body and avoid them. I have the student help us get to the door, I twist my arm and use my (massive, toned) bicep to get the drogue out of the pocket rather than my shoulder. I also worked on my in plane harnessing technique to minimize effort.

If you're experiencing neck pain, like others said, it's probably from deployment. Get some outside footage of yourself and see what it is you're doing, and do less of it. It's impossible to say without knowing what it is you're doing. But don't just accept that ruining your body is part of this. It doesn't have to be!

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