In this video, I'm going to show you how to instantly
relieve neck pain from sleeping wrong. Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Dr. Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
Saint Joseph, Michigan. So, did you wake up this morning with a
lot of neck pain or stiffness? Maybe you can't even turn your
head without a lot of sharp pain. In this video, I'm going
to show three different ways to get instant neck pain relief
from sleeping wrong. All of these exercises work just a
little bit differently. So, to get the best results, go
through them all and use what gives you the most relief and
with these exercises, you may find you get instant relief
even within 30 seconds. So, let's get started and fix your
neck pain from sleeping wrong right now. So, the first thing
that we need to do after waking up with a stiff neck or just a
lot of pain is to release muscle tightness. That way,
we'll be able to turn and move our head a lot easier with less
pain. Here's a really easy way to do this in bed. What I'm
going to do is start lying flat on my back. We can use a couple
different things for this method. The easiest being a
large rolled up towel. Just place it underneath your neck
to support it but if you are looking to get better results,
I would recommend using what is called a peanut tool because it
looks like a peanut. What you're going to do is take two
tennis balls, place them in a sock, twist the sock, tie a
knot. Why this one works better is because it's more
comfortable. Your spine will sit right in this groove but
it'll allow the balls right here to massage deeper into the
muscles off to the side of the spine. So, if you have a couple
tennis balls laying around, definitely use this instead.
So, let's start off lying flat on our back. I'm going to go
over the six movements of the neck to cover all bases. First
is going to be flexion and extension. So, what I'm going
to do is take two fingers, put them on my chin. Press the back
of your head gently into the back of the bed as much as you
can but stopping before the point that you are having any
pain or discomfort if that's the case, peck off slightly.
Let's go into flexion first which is doing a chin tuck. So,
take your in downward towards your chest as much as you can
until you feel a really good activation of the muscles in
the neck. I really feel it at the base of the skull. You're
going to hold this comfortably for five seconds and then we're
going to do the opposite. We're going to go into extension
which is a backwards movement just like this. Again, stopping
before any point of pain or discomfort. Five-second hold,
you're going to release it and then you're going to repeat
this five times in bow directions. From here, we're
going to now focus on rotation or turning our head. So, let's
press our head back into the bed again and what I'm going to
do is slowly turn my head to look over one shoulder as much
as I can comfortably. Five-second hold, you're going
to then release it and then repeat on the other side. You
want to do this five times in both directions. The last
movement that we're going to focus on is bending or tilting
our head. So, our ear towards our shoulder. Once again, press
the back of your head into the bed and tilt your head, taking
your ear towards one side shoulder as much as you can,
holding this comfortably for five seconds and then repeating
on the other side. Five times in both directions. Going
through all of these motions, you're going to notice that one
certain motion or maybe a couple of them are really
painful or you really have so much tightness that you can't
move into that motion. That is the point that we're going to
stop and then focus on throwing more repetitions in until we're
pretty much getting rid of that tightness or pain so let's say
that it's really painful for me to turn my head towards my left
leg this I'm going to keep building into this motion
stopping before the point of pain holding this for five
seconds relaxing it and then repeating this over and over
again until the pain or tightness is gone or I'm not
getting anymore improvement another thing What we want to
focus on if we're using the peanut tool is to switch the
placement of the peanut tool over the neck. I like to start
right at the base of the skull and then do these motions and
then from there, I'm just going to move down into the middle
part of the neck then all the way down to the base of the
neck. You're going to find that one certain spot just hits it
the best. At that point, you're going to stop over that spot
and then throw more repetitions in. Again, doing this over and
over in until tightness and pain has been released or
you're not getting any more improvement. Here's a really
easy muscle activation technique that can give instant
relief for neck pain and stiffness after waking up. You
can do this one standing or seated. Just have very good
upright posture. The first movement, what I'm going to do
is make hooks with my fingers, interlock them, and then put my
hands to my chest. What we want to do is try to pull our arms
away from each other as much as we can but we're going to
resist a this movement. As you build into this, you're going
to feel a very good activation of the muscles around the
shoulder blades, upper back towards the neck. You want to
hold this comfortably. From here, we're going to build into
some neck motions. I like to start off with flexion. That is
just taking my chin towards my chest as much as I can stopping
before the point of pain or discomfort. So, if that's the
case, just back off slightly just like this. You're going to
hold this comfortably for five set and then from there we're
going to go into extensions so looking upward towards the
ceiling just like this again holding comfortably for five
seconds the next movements we're going to do rotation or
turning our head to look over our shoulder as far as we can
five second hold on both sides and then we're going to do a
tilting or a bending motion taking our ear towards one side
shoulder 5 second hold and then repeating on the other side now
let's put all of these motions together by doing a big
circular motion like this with our head and neck you want to
do five big wide circles in one direction building into it with
each repetition and then switching it up in the opposite
direction and repeating for five more so let's take this
one to the next level by putting in a different position
that's going to target some more muscles so for this one
I'm going to put my arms off to my side just like this and now
shrug your shoulders up towards the ceiling as much as you can.
You should feel the upper trapezius muscles start to
fire. It's pretty much in the upper back, top of the shoulder
into the side of the neck. You're going to hold this and
now do those same motions that we did earlier. You're just
going to notice it hits the neck just a little bit
differently. So, go through all of those motions including that
circular one just like this. The last position is very
similar but instead of shrugging up, we're going to
shrug downward as much as we can. Really focus on moving
through your shoulder blades. Just really trying to bring
them down as much as you can and then repeat these motions.
What you're going to notice is is that one certain position or
movement just offers the most relief or it has the most
tightness or pain. At that point, you want to throw more
repetitions in until that tightness or pain has gone away
or you're not getting anymore this is one of my absolute
favorite ways to get instant neck tightness and pain relief
and it works really well if you wake up with pain after
sleeping for this one we just need a hand drying towel just
roll it up place it right at the base of the skull take the
two ends grab them with your hands and then pull forward
until it hooks over the muscle and it's just applying enough
pressure in there where you're going to get a good self
massage but not causing any pain or discomfort so to start
off with we're going to take one end and keep it locked just
straight ahead like this so it's not going to move the
other end what I'm going to do is raise the towel up like this
so it's going to be over my eye and then what I'm going to do
from there is then at a 45degree angle pull up towards
the ceiling like this what's going to happen is it's going
to cause the head to be put into rotation or a turning
motion but it's also going to offer a little bit of a self
massage over that area of tightness I like to build into
this much as I can and then I hold this position for about 20
to 30 seconds and then from there, I'm just going to relax
and then repeat on the other side. On the next repetition,
I'm just going to lower the towel just a little bit and
then I'm going to repeat doing this whole process pretty much
from the base of the skull working into the middle part of
the neck all the way towards the base of the neck. You're
going to find that one certain spot like let's say right here
for me is just addressing the most amount of tightness
especially when I build towards the left like this. At that
point, you want to keep throwing more repetitions in,
building into each repetition until that tightness has been
released or you're not getting any more improvement. Another
way to take this one to the next level is to focus on that
upper trapezius muscles. So, if you have a lot of difficulty
bending your head like this or just a lot of pain from the top
of the shoulder into the side of the neck, this is what you
can do. So, you're going to take your towel like this,
throw it over your shoulder, and then grab the other end
with your hand. You're going to just hook over that shoulder
pulling down with both ends of the towel so you get a very
good self massage going. I like to go right over the top of the
shoulder. Once I feel that good amount of pressure, what I'm
going to do from there is then tilt my head in the opposite
direction of the towel. So, I'm taking my left ear towards my
left shoulder. You'll feel the neck open up but it really
helps attack that muscle tightness. Hold this one right
here for about 5 seconds. You're going to relax, move up
a little bit towards your ear into the side of the neck and
then repeat this over and over again until you're in the side
of the neck. You're going to find that one certain spot is
just the most tight or painful. At that point, you want to stop
over that spot and then repeat this for 32nd holds until that
tightness has been released or you're not getting anymore
improvement and then from there, you're going to switch
to the other side and to keep everything in balance. If the
exercises help, please support the channel by giving this
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any comments or questions, please leave them below. I'll
get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks for watching.