Last Thursday (so, 5 days ago), I did a short leg workout, centering on finding my maximum weight for squats. I used a Smith Machine and, for the first time ever, I did not have a pad on the Olympic bar, as my gym only has one pad and someone else had it. I only had a small towel to pad the bar and no training partner that day to watch me to make sure I wasn't rolling the bar up my neck as I squatted down (a form problem I have). I don't remember the bar rolling up, but I fear it might have, because of this pain in my neck and shoulders (specific muscles feel like they are traps, the splenius muscles, rhomboid minor -- that whole area).
The pain itself is an achy type, not sharp or shooting. The feeling led me to ask my partner if he saw any black & blue marks on the area. He said no. But if he'd said yes, I'd not have been surprised, because it feels like I've been thumped around there. It's an odd achy feel that I'm not used to getting after squatting.
I'm a hair's breath shy of being an outright hypochondriac, so I don't feel that I have actually sustained an acute injury. If I had any thought at all that I'd seriously hurt myself, I'd have been at the doctor's in a shot. But, short of a keen injury, what could I have done? And what should I do to alleviate these aches and pains? Should I just ice/rest for a while? work through it to 'loosen it up'? Is this just DOMs -- (it's been suggested by a friend that maybe I was actually hefting the heaviest weights up with my shoulders a bit, recruiting muscles I shouldn't have)? Or something else? Should I be concerned or not fuss too much and move on?
Just never experienced anything like this before.