For one extraordinary weekend, Baltimore had an unusual posture problem. Heads tilted back, chins pointed toward the sky, cameras followed aircraft sweeping across the harbor, and parents lifted children onto their shoulders while spectators tried to keep six fast-moving jets somewhere inside a phone screen. The U.S. Navy Blue Angels were among the featured performers at the SAIL250 Maryland Airshow over Baltimore Harbor on June 27 and 28, following a scheduled practice day on June 26. The broader celebration brought tall ships, Navy and Coast Guard vessels, festivals, educational programs, and aviation demonstrations to Baltimore as part of the country’s 250th-anniversary observances. (Sail250 Maryland)
It was difficult not to look up… and up… and then a little farther up because someone had just shouted, “Here they come!” For most people, that was simply part of the fun. By Monday morning, though, a few spectators may have discovered that their necks enjoyed the show somewhat less than they did.
A Spectacular View from a Very Unusual Position
The human neck is designed to move in several directions, including looking upward. Briefly extending the neck to watch an aircraft pass overhead is ordinarily no great event. An airshow asks considerably more of it because the aircraft disappear, circle back, approach from another direction, cross paths, climb, dive, and return. Instead of looking up once, spectators may repeatedly extend and rotate their necks while holding those positions long enough to find the next formation.
That sustained posture requires work from the muscles behind the neck and across the upper shoulders. Research has long recognized that prolonged postural loading can contribute to neck-muscle fatigue and discomfort, particularly when the head remains away from a comfortable neutral position. Someone who already has limited neck mobility, arthritis, an old injury, or recurring tension across the shoulders may notice the effects sooner. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons also notes that symptoms associated with cervical spondylosis can worsen after prolonged periods of looking upward or downward, or after keeping the neck in one position for too long.
None of that was likely occupying anyone’s thoughts along the harbor. Six F/A-18 Super Hornets were flying overhead at remarkable speed and precision. Cervical spine health could reasonably wait until later.
Then Everyone Took Out a Phone
Smartphones usually enter conversations about neck discomfort because we spend so much time looking down at them. An airshow turns that familiar problem almost upside down. People hold the phone high, lean backward, raise one shoulder, rotate through the torso, squint into a sun-washed screen and keep repositioning because the aircraft never stay where the camera expects them to be.
You may begin with the phone directly in front of your face and, without really noticing, end up with one arm overhead, your head turned, your shoulders uneven and the rest of your body trying to follow a jet that has already disappeared behind a building. Concentrating on getting the photograph can make early muscle fatigue surprisingly easy to ignore.
Anyone who has tried to record an airshow also knows how this often ends: two minutes of beautiful blue sky, several excited voices, perhaps half a second of an airplane and, with some luck, only a brief appearance by your own finger. At least the memory was good.
Your Neck Was Not Working by Itself
Looking upward was only one part of a long day around Baltimore Harbor. Spectators walked considerable distances, stood on pavement, carried bags and folding chairs, held children, turned repeatedly toward approaching aircraft and sometimes sat for long stretches on blankets or portable chairs with very little back support. Others remained standing because they had found a good viewing spot and were understandably reluctant to surrender it.
The body does not divide those activities into separate departments. When someone leans backward to follow an aircraft, some of that motion may come from the neck, some from the upper back and some from the lower back. Tired shoulders can change how the neck moves. Standing with most of the weight on one leg can alter what happens farther up the body. Add a child on one shoulder or a bag hanging from the other and the mechanics change again.
At an airshow, the issue is not that the neck moved. It is that the neck may have spent a long time doing the same unusual thing while the rest of the body was getting tired too.
That helps explain why two people can watch exactly the same show and feel very different afterward. One may wake up with nothing more than mild stiffness. Someone else may notice tension near the base of the skull, discomfort between the shoulder blades, difficulty turning the head or aching that extends toward the shoulder. Previous injuries, conditioning, mobility, age, arthritis and what each person did during the rest of the day can all influence the outcome.
Why You May Feel It More the Next Morning
Muscles do not always complain at the moment they are becoming fatigued. During an event like SAIL250, there was plenty competing for attention—jet noise, crowds, heat, conversation, ships in the harbor and the anticipation of the next pass overhead. A gradually tightening neck can be pretty easy to overlook when six Blue Angels suddenly appear.
Later comes the drive home. Then dinner, sitting down, checking photographs, perhaps spending another half hour sending the best ones to friends, and eventually going to bed. The next morning may be when turning toward the alarm clock reveals just how much work those muscles did the day before.
That delayed soreness does not automatically mean an injury occurred. Muscles can become tired and sensitive after an unfamiliar amount of sustained activity, much as they might after gardening all afternoon, painting a ceiling or returning to a workout you have not done in several months. Mild stiffness will often settle as normal movement returns and the irritated area has time to recover.
What deserves more attention is pain that continues to worsen, refuses to settle, repeatedly returns or begins traveling into the arm. Numbness, tingling, weakness, severe headache, difficulty walking, or symptoms that followed a fall or another injury are also reasons not to assume that everything is simply an overworked muscle. Those symptoms warrant appropriate medical evaluation.
You Probably Do Not Need a “Perfect” Posture
People hear so much about posture that it can begin to sound as though the body has one approved position and anything else is damaging. Fortunately, we are built to move. Looking upward is normal. Turning your head is normal. Leaning, reaching and changing position are normal too.
Trouble is more likely when an unfamiliar or demanding position is maintained for too long, repeated after fatigue has set in, or combined with several other activities that are asking the same muscles to keep working. At an airshow, simply lowering the head between passes, moving around periodically, changing which hand holds the phone or giving your shoulders a break can make more sense than remaining locked into one viewing position for an hour.
This does not mean interrupting a family outing for a posture seminar. Nobody needs to start doing corrective exercises every time an aircraft circles the harbor. It is simply worth remembering that the body generally prefers some variety. If you have been staring upward for several minutes, look forward for a while. If you have been standing still, walk. If your shoulder has been holding a child for twenty minutes… the other shoulder may deserve a turn.
Posture guidance from MedlinePlus follows much the same practical idea: maintain awareness during ordinary activities, allow the spine to retain its natural curves and change position periodically rather than remaining static for long stretches.
When the Stiffness Does Not Leave with the Jets
If your neck feels a little stiff the morning after an unusual day, there may be no mystery at all. But recurring or persistent neck pain deserves more than simply identifying the place that hurts. Muscle fatigue, reduced joint motion, irritated soft tissue, poor endurance, an old injury, degenerative changes or the way different parts of the body are sharing a movement can all contribute, sometimes at the same time.
At DeMaio Family Chiropractic & Physical Therapy, that is why we begin by evaluating the individual rather than assuming every stiff neck has the same explanation. Some patients may benefit primarily from chiropractic care. For others, physical therapy may be important for restoring mobility, strength, endurance or movement control. Massage therapy can be useful when muscular tension and soft-tissue sensitivity are prominent, while dry needling may be appropriate for certain muscular trigger points and related complaints.
Quite often there is overlap. A patient does not arrive as a “chiropractic problem” or a “physical therapy problem.” They arrive because their neck hurts, they cannot turn comfortably, the discomfort keeps returning, or something they used to do without thinking has suddenly become difficult. The examination helps determine what appears to be contributing and which approach—or combination of approaches—makes sense for that particular person.
Baltimore Looked Up for a Good Reason
The Blue Angels are supposed to make people stop what they are doing and stare, and Baltimore certainly gave them plenty of people willing to do exactly that. Their precision, speed and sound transformed the harbor for a couple of days and gave Maryland families the kind of experience that will probably still come up in conversation years from now.
If your neck happened to object afterward, that does not mean you watched the show incorrectly. Most of us simply do not spend an afternoon tracking high-performance aircraft overhead, and the muscles around the neck and shoulders are quite capable of reminding us when we suddenly ask them to do something unusual for several hours.
For patients in Bowie, Gambrills and surrounding Maryland communities who continue to experience neck pain, shoulder tension, headaches, restricted movement or discomfort following an activity, DeMaio Family Chiropractic & Physical Therapy provides chiropractic care, physical therapy, massage therapy, dry needling and rehabilitative treatment in one coordinated practice.
The Blue Angels have moved on from Baltimore… and, with any luck, your neck has too. If it has not, it may be worth finding out why.
With care,
Dr. John DeMaio, D.C., CNS
A Chiropractor in Bowie & Gambrills, Maryland
For appointments, call or text my office at:
Gambrills – (410) 721-2222
Bowie – (301) 262-4545
