I have always had a bad neck, even before starting Brazilian jiu jitsu, but after suffering a couple of herniated cervical discs back in 2016, my neck has never been the same. I wake up every single morning with really neck pain and head ache but some days are worse than others, some days, each foot step reverberates right through to my head.
If you suffer from cervical disc problems you will understand my pain, but even if not you will know how brutal Brazilian jiu jitsu can be on every single part of your body, particularly the neck. At my age (51 now) I avoid any kind of inverted guard, it is absolutely unnecessary, but it is still almost impossible not to put any stress on the neck, even bridging can cause neck pain for me. If I ever get stacked, I will weigh up the situation and if I feel it necessary, I will tap. Did I just say I will tap if I am being stacked? yes, absolutely if I feel any pressure on my neck. If you are over 40 and you are smart, you will do the same.
Over the years I have tried a number of different things to treat my neck pain, massages treatment, physiotherapy, acupuncture, foam rolling, pain killers, you name it, I have tried it. I have tried a seen number of different adverts for inflatable traction pillows but never tried one but after seeing an advert recently on Instagram, I decided to take the plunge. The product advertised on Instagram was priced at around £40 / $50 which I think is definitely worth it if you know the product will help you but I didn’t know anybody personally who had used and could recommend this product and oftentimes the reviews on the website that these products sell on are paid reviews.
So instead of purchasing the advertised product, I had a look on Amazon to see if there was something similar. I don’t know exactly how many different products there are listed on Amazon but it is a lot, some with good reviews, some with bad reviews. Most of the products with bad reviews were critical of the quality of the product, with many saying that the pillow ripped after only a small number of reviews.
The product I purchased was not the cheapest but it certainly wasn’t the most expensive. It only has 4 stars out of 5 but that is out of over 1700 reviews, others with 4.5 stars only had a small number of reviews and the reviews for the one I purchased were the most favourable.
What is cervical neck traction?
Essentially, cervical traction pulls your head away from your neck to create expansion and eliminate compression. It’s considered to be an alternative treatment for neck pain, helping people avoid the need for medication or surgeries. For me personally, I feel like the weight of my head is literally crushing my neck down into my body.
How does a cervical neck traction pillow work?
Basically, when you pump up the device, it fills with air to stretch the neck up and away from the body. This stretch relaxes your neck muscles and also widens the space between the vertebrae in the neck. It will also increase the blood supply and the circulation.
Does it help?
I think with something like this, you need to use it consistently for a good couple of months to get full benefit, having only used it for a number of weeks, it is difficult to say whether there will be any long term relief from my neck pain when not actively using the product. What I can tell you though, is that the feeling of utter relief I get when I am using the pillow is well worth the price of the product alone. I have been using it a couple of times a day when watching TV or when working on the computer and I have found most times it relieves the tension in my neck instantly. A word of device though, don’t pump too much air into the device, no matter how tempted you are; I have done this a couple of times and found that it actually made my neck feel worse when I removed it.
Over the past month, I think it would be fair to say that I have had more days without really bad neck pain than days with, but as I haven’t been training due to my gym being closed it is hard to know whether this will be the case when I am actively training, but for now, I wholeheartedly recommend it.
I cannot guarantee this product will help you of you have cervical disc problems or even if you only suffer from tension but for the low price of only £14.99 / $16.99 at the time of writing, it is definitely worth a try .
I am not being paid for writing this product review but the links below are Amazon affiliate links that will pay me a small commission should you buy the product which helps keep this site running.
