In this video, I'm going to show you how to fix neck and
upper back pain for good. Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Dr. Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
Saint Joseph, Michigan. In this video, we're going to go over
easy exercises that can give both quick and long-lasting
relief for neck and upper back pain and to make this easy, I'm
going to break the video up into three separate parts. Each
part works just a little bit differently. In the first part,
we're going to focus on warming up the muscles. Get everything
loose knockout tightness. In the second part, we're going to
focus on getting long-lasting relief by strengthening the
main muscles a associated with pain in this area and the third
part, I'm going to go over easy stretches that you can do
throughout the day for instant neck and upper back pain
relief. These can give relief within 30 seconds. So, my best
advice, go through all three parts, use what gives you the
most relief. With that being said, let's get started. So,
the first thing that we need to do is warm up the muscles. Get
some good blood flow in there, knock out some tightness and
one of the easiest and quickest ways to do this is with an
exercise called the figure eight. This one may seem tricky
at first but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy. I
like to do this one seated. Just start with very good
upright posture. Have your back as straight as possible. I'm
going to go through several different movements. So, I want
to break those down before demonstrating it. To get into
position, you're going to take your hands right here. Place
them right on the back of your head. You kind of want to
gently just press your head back a little bit into your
hands until you feel a gentle activation of the muscles in
the neck. What we're going to do from there is put our
straight in front of us just like this. Just like the name,
the figure eight, what we're going to do is trace a figure
eight with our elbows but again, we're going to go
through different motions to target a lot of muscles. So, as
we trace the top of the eight, what you want to do is a big
loop with your elbows. Really focus on moving through your
shoulders, your upper back, and shoulder blades but as we trace
that top part of the eight, what we're going to do is put
the back into extension. So, we're going to go backward like
this lifting our elbows upward towards the ceiling. So, let's
do that top part of the eight first. Let's do a big, wide
loop just like this and once we get right to the top part of
the eight, your elbow should be pointing up towards the ceiling
but what we want to do is stop right at the top and allow our
shoulders to go back as much as possible. Focus on feeling a
deep stretch in between the shoulder blades. You also want
to let your head go backward like this. In extension until
you feel a really good stretch in the neck too. I like to hold
this for a second or two and then what I'm going to do is
then start to come back down towards the middle part. Again,
taking that big loop right here. This time around my
elbows are going to go a little bit downward towards the floor.
Once we get to the middle part of the eight, what we're going
to do now is the opposite. We're going to go into flexion.
So, we're going to bring our elbows downward towards the
floor. Again, really focus on moving through your shoulders,
upper back, and a shoulder blades. You want to keep going
down until you get a really good deep stretch. Once you get
to the bottom, lean into it just a little bit more like
this. Also, take your hands and gently tuck your chin towards
your chest to get a little bit more of a stretch into the
neck. Hold that for a second or two and then come back up
towards the middle. So, it's a nice fluid movement just like
this of tracing that eight. I like to do this over and over
again for roughly three to five times and then once I'm done,
what I'm going to do is then switch it up and go in the
opposite direction. So, we're making sure to target the
muscles through as many different movements as
possible. When you do this, you're going to notice that one
certain movement is going to give you the best results.
Maybe it really is targeting achiness, tightness, giving you
a lot of pain relief. Let's say for me, it's going up into
extension off the right like this. The trick is with this
exercise is to build into that movement over and over again.
So, what I'd like to do is stop right at a point where I'm
getting a very deep stretch or right before the point that I'm
going to experience pain. I hold that for a brief second,
relax, and then keep building into that movement over and
over again until everything is nice and loose or I'm not
getting anymore improvement and then from there, I just build
back in the regular exercise. It's just a really good
exercise to identify movements that are going to target the
most or I should say give you the most amount of relief and
it's a really good one that you can do throughout the day. So,
after we have the muscles warmed up, we're going to move
on to the most important part, strengthening exercises. So,
don't skip this step. If you want long-lasting neck and
upper back pain relief, you have to make these muscles
stronger. Here's a really easy exercise that you can daily
right in bed. To get into position, lie on your stomach,
scoop forward until your head and shoulders are off the edge.
What I'm going to do first is take two fingers, put them
right on my chin, slowly tuck your chin towards your chest,
and then press the back of your head upward towards the ceiling
until you feel a really good activation of the muscles in
the neck. You're going to hold this position during this
exercise. From here, we're going to straighten our arms
off to our side like this with our palms facing towards the
ceiling. This is known as a blade pump. So, just like a
pumping motion, what we're going to do is lift our palms
upward towards the ceiling until we feel a really good
activation of the muscles in the upper back going into the
neck. You want to hold this comfortably for 5 seconds. From
there, you're going to relax and then, on the next
repetition, we're going to change the position up a little
bit to target some more muscles. So, this time around
my arms are off to my side so my body kind of looks like a T.
I'm also going to do hitchhiker sign with my thumbs upward
towards the ceiling. What you're going to do is pump your
thumbs like this upward towards the ceiling and with this one,
really focus on trying to pinch your shoulder blades as much as
possible. You're going to notice the muscles in the upper
back and neck get hit just a little bit differently.
Five-second hold, you're going to relax. The next movement,
very similar but we're just going to do a Y with our arms
and then repeat. The last position is taking our hands
putting them on the back of our really pressing the back of our
head upward towards the ceiling, winging our elbows up,
pinching those shoulder blades but with this one, really try
to lift your chest off the edge of the bed as much as possible.
You're going to feel a ton of muscles start to fire. In the
front, the back, and the neck. Five second hold, you're going
to relax. From here, what we're going to do is just go in
reverse going through all of those positions. The nice part
is when you do this, you're probably going to notice that
one movement is the hardest. Maybe it just feels like you
have a lot of weakness, maybe even pain during that movement.
At that point, treat it like your weak link like let's say
for me, it was when I was doing the T. At that point, you
want to throw more repetitions in to strengthen that because
the odds are you'll get more long-lasting pain relief but
afterwards, see how you feel. If it feels like you have a
little bit more energy, try to challenge yourself in those
muscles by throwing in more repetitions through all of
those movements. In the last part, we're going to focus on
stretching. Stretches are perfect to do after
strengthening exercises to keep everything loose and help avoid
soreness in the muscles but with stretching, you can do it
throughout the day anytime that you need instant neck and upper
back pain relief. Here's a really easy combination stretch
that you can do that's going to target the main muscles of neck
and upper back pain. The first exercise is called the turtle.
This one is one of my personal favorites because it's a really
good postural exercise too. So, you're going to start with very
good upright posture. Have your back straight as possible. What
you want to do first is draw your shoulders back as much as
you can. Kinda like pinching your shoulder blades in the
back. Once you feel a very comfortable activation of the
chest and the back muscles, you're going to hold this
position and then stick your head forward like this. So,
just jot your jaw forward like this kind of like a turtle
sticking its head out of a shell. When you can't go any
further, what you're going to do is look upward towards the
ceiling this point, you should feel a really good activation
of the muscles in the neck but this is how we're going to take
this one to the next and level. We're going to hold this
position and we're going to drive the back of our head like
this backward towards our shoulders as much as possible.
You should feel a really deep stretch going from your neck
into the base of the neck into the upper back. It usually
feels really really good. I like to hold this one for about
15 to 20 seconds. I relax. Afterwards, see how you feel.
If it feel like there's a little bit more that you could
go and target I should say muscle tightness you could
target throw a couple more repetitions in so now let's
move a little bit more into the shoulders and upper back what
I'm going to do first is target a muscle towards the front
called the SCM or the sternocleidomastoid, big
instigator of neck pain. Also this one makes it where you
can't turn your head as easy if it gets really tight so again
let's try to draw our shoulders back like this pinch our
shoulder blades what I'm going to do is turn my head away from
the I'm having the most amount of pain like let's say it's on
my right side. So, turn to look over the opposite side shoulder
as much as you can. When you can't go any further, what
you're going to do is then tilt your head back. So, it's
kind of like taking your ear and tilting it towards your
upper back. As you do this, you're going to feel a deep
stretch right over the front of the neck and again, it usually
feels really really good. I like to hold this one for about
15 to 20 seconds, relax and then I'm just going to repeat
it on the other side to keep everything nice and loose. So,
from here, we're now going to target a muscle called the
levator scapulae. Big instigator of upper back and
neck pain. So, this one's very similar. We're going to bring
our shoulders back. We're going to look over our shoulder but
instead of going back with it, what we're going to do is tilt
our chin forward this time. So, taking our chin towards our
armpit. You should start to feel a very gentle stretch from
the bottom of your ear into the side of the neck towards the
top of the upper back and the top of the shoulder blade. To
deepen the stretch, just take your hand on the other side.
Grab your head like this and slowly pull your chin towards
your armpit. We call this one the armpit sniffer for good
reason. This really feels good right here. I feel it into the
side of the neck going into my upper back. 15 to 22nd hold.
You're going to relax and then repeat on the other side. The
last movement, we're going to target a muscle called the
upper trapezius which is right on the top of the shoulder goes
into the upper back into the side of the neck. This one
right here causes a lot of issues. So, for this one,
whatever side that you're having pain. Again, let's say
so you're right side, you're going to shrug that shoulder up
towards your ear as much as you can when you can't go any
further you're going to hold this position take your hand on
the other side hook the side of your head and now slowly pull
your ear towards the other side shoulder when you can't go any
further you're going to hold this and then lower your
shoulder downward almost kind of like trying to pick
something off off the floor with your hand you're going to
get a deep stretch into the side of the neck top of the
shoulder into the upper back to take this one to the next level
slowly turn your chin upward towards the ceiling while this
one's really grabbing into that area. Hold this one comfortably
for 15 to 20 seconds and then relax, repeat on the other
side. Go through all of those movements. If any of them are
really offering you the most amount of relief, really
attacking tightness at that point. Throw more repetitions
in until everything is nice and loose. If the exercises help,
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