Pain In the Neck!

[Sir Patrick]

I armoured up in what I have of my early 14th century kit tonight and took the kids treak-or-treating.  It's the first time I've worn the helmet for any length of time and man do I have a crick in the neck!  I made a close-fitting, padded liner (the kind that makes you look like you have on a jester's cap until you tie the dags up at the top) so there was not a lot of movement, but by the end of the night I just wanted the thing off.  It's a 16 gauge crested sugarloaf (I've posted pics of on other threads).  Does anyone else have this problem with their helms?  Is there something wrong with my padding set-up, or do I just need to suck it up until my neck muscles get used to the weight?

[Sir Wolf]

no it takes a lil time to build up the neck muscles. plus your crest is high and probably makes you have to do a balancing act whether you know it or not. any pics? hehehe. i noticed i had to wear my helmet with the bottom front tilted toward my neck and the face plate almost touching my nose in order for me to see out of mine. totally different than how i thought it should fit.

[Sir Brian]

My sympathies to you good sir, I have experienced that pain numerous times! 

Surprisingly my sugarloaf with the visor gives me more neck fatigue than my crested great helm and I attribute that mainly to the gorget that I wear with the great helm and not with the sugarloaf helm. 

[Sir Edward]

Yeah, a lot of it has to do with getting used to the weight, and also your posture. I find the armor is less forgiving of bad posture in general.   But it could be your suspension. It's hard to know on a forum.

My sallet is the heavier helmet of mine, and I wore it all day at the renfaire with my plate armor. I did fine with it, even though I'm not used to doing it all day. With my great helm, I wear it only here and there and end up carrying it a lot. The sallet, with the visor up, wasn't a big deal to wear the whole time despite the weight. And my suspension isn't even all that snug. The helmet would end up shifting, and I had to keep straightening it, which is an annoyance, and yet I did OK.

So I'm not sure. 

[Sir Patrick]

My sympathies to you good sir, I have experienced that pain numerous times! 

Surprisingly my sugarloaf with the visor gives me more neck fatigue than my crested great helm and I attribute that mainly to the gorget that I wear with the great helm and not with the sugarloaf helm. 

I was wondering if a gorget would help.  maybe I should invest in one

[Sir Patrick]

any pics? hehehe.

Here's one.  This kit is in the VERY early stages, and obviously needs A LOT of work (like the right footwear, or some maille!).  I'm really just in the "soft kit" stage right now (BTW that surcoat is way old, and just being used as a placeholder at the moment).

[Sir Wolf]

thats a small picture! hehehe

[Sir Patrick]

thats a small picture! hehehe

That's ok, there's not much to see!

EDIT:  I resized the pic so it's easier to see.

[Sir Matthew]

Kit looks like it is off to a nice start. I know that when I first started wearing the maille coif and kettle helm, I had a sore neck for a while. Once I got used to the weight though, it didn't bother me at all. One of the guys at PaRF that I know had a different experience though. He wore his helmet, a burgonet, pretty much all the time during Faire and had a sore neck and shoulders afterwards. He attributed it to the weight of the helm and didn't think much of it. His wife mentioned it to the doctor when he went for a checkup and the doctor examined him and told him the helmet was causing one of the nerves in his neck to be pinched which was causing the pain. He's now only supposed to wear the helmet for demos and for short periods during the day, not that he really listens to that all that much. He is a pikeman after all 

[Sir Patrick]

I'm pleased to report my neck feels pretty good today, so hopefully I avoided a pinched nerve!  Thanks for the kind words about the kit, madmanpsu

[Sir Wolf]

that kit looks cool man. glad the neck is doing better

[Sir Edward]

Kit looks great so far! I love the ailettes.

What's great is that it look pretty good even as it is without all the armor. You could take it to a renfaire and look knightly without all the heavy stuff!

[Sir Patrick]

Thanks for feedback!  I'd been so worried about the state of the kit that I was afraid to post any pics!  Glad to know I'm on the right track.

[Sir William]

Your kit already has the knightly sheen...it seems to me that armor is optional; just depends on how deep you want to get into your persona.  Glad to hear the neck pain's gone away...I know in the past for me, it always took a couple of weekends before my body got re-acclimated to the weight.

This year, I decided to be proactive and put together a workout regimen that focused on my shoulders, back and legs since those were the problem areas I'd noticed in years past.  Mostly free weights, I worked in squats, deadlifts, leg and core workouts - as Sir Edward stated, your posture has a lot to do with how your body's going to feel after being laden down with armor all day.

Hitting the lower back has been especially beneficial for me as I've always had poor posture but I'm more aware of it now.  Getting an area like the neck 'used' to carrying weight depends on how strong it is in the first place.  Sir Wolf's right, you can definitely end up with a pinched nerve if you're not careful...you might try something like strapping on a 18 gauge display helm and wear it for like an hour a day until you no longer notice that you're wearing one, then graduate to the full-on 16 gauge helm.  Just an idea...its what I do; but then, I'll wear various bits of armor around the house just because I like to.  Luckily for me, my wife finds it adorable and somewhat sexy so...guess I'm good.  Nothing worse than having your spouse look at you like you've grown a third eye or something to take the fun out of things.  lol

[Sir Edward]

I find at the beginning of the faire season, my problem spots are the shoulders (top of them, and under the shoulder blades) from carrying the shield and helmet around, and also my feet from all the added weight on uneven ground. It gets easier as the season progresses and I adjust to it.