Hi I'm Paula Moore The Chiropractor.
Lets look at some exercises for stiff necks.
These are really easy.
This is a great thing to be doing if you are a laptop user, pc user or you're at your desk
all day.
You want to be doing simple movements and you want to be doing them often.
Every 40 minutes; no longer without moving your body.
We get really stuck in front of our computer terminals without really moving and then we
wonder why we are stiff at the end of the day.
You want to push your chair back from your desk slightly and sit up nice and tall.
Think about a balloon lifting you from your chest.
Nice and tall, lifting from the head.
Look as far as you can to the right and then as far as you can to the left.
Just gently to start with.
Right left, right left.
Watch that you don't turn your body as you turn your neck.
You want the movements to come just from the neck.
After you have done that, some left and right movements.
Again, don't tip your body just move your neck.
Bring your ear toward your shoulder.
If you are hearing a lot of crunching and grinding, don't worry about that.
That is telling you things haven't moved very well for quite some time and often what you
hear is the ligaments just flicking over the bones.
Then I also do a few front to backs.
Again, don't put your body into it and make sure you are staying tall.
Front, back, do this one carefully.
Come out of this slowly.
Front, back, allowing yourself to stay open at the shoulders.
Now you can go beyond and get a bit more out of a stretch doing these same exercises.
Turn as far as you can to the right and give a gentle push.
Hold for 3 or 4 seconds and use only 20% of your total strength when pushing.
You will feel a slight stretch in your trapesius muscles or right up to the skull bone.
Turn, gentle push and turn, gentle push.
Again, make sure you are not twisting your body.
Your shoulders stayed squared and you turn and push.
Now let's move into the next phase for the side movements.
Tip and reach over until about the opposite ear and use a gentle pull.
I like to drop my opposite arm down toward the floor and at the same time I'm stretching
my fingers down toward the floor.
Come out of these slowly as this is when people often hurt their necks.
You may see some of the muscles stretching on my own neck.
Then do a few more front to back.
These ones I don't necessarily put in any extra effort into them but you may like to
slightly give the skull a little lift by locking your fingers together.
Forward, with a little lift and back.
Then end with a few gentle shoulder rolls.
It only takes a minute or two and you might not do the full exercise but this is what
I advise you do at least every 40 minutes at the office.
It will save your neck.
Thanks for watching.