hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and princess Remy, and today I'm going to show you my
ten best stretches and exercises for a herniated cervical disc. so let's get started
So the first stretch is kind of a stretch and an exercise and that's gonna be a chin tuck.
chin tucks are one of my favorites. not only do they help if you have a disc
issue in your neck, but they also help just kind of recorrecting your posture.
and so they're really easy to do. you can do them almost anywhere. so a chin tuck
is not tucking it down like this, but you're tucking your chin in. so you're
trying to get that neck into a normal position. so I like to sometimes just use
my finger as a target. so I'm gonna keep my finger here, and I'm gonna try and
bring my chin away from it. so I'm taking my head and moving it backwards. and then
so just holding it for about three to five seconds and then relaxing. a lot of
times once you relax there's a little bit of space in between your finger and
that means that it just gives you a good visual feedback that you're actually
resetting those muscles, getting you back into that position. so you don't have to
put your finger there, you can just pull that chin in and you can see it kind of
flattens out it gives me a bunch of little Chins right there, and then again
holding that for three to five seconds and then coming back. so sometimes this
is a little hard for people if they've got some stiffness in their neck or even
if they have that disk issue in their neck, but just work on it a little bit
and the more you do it the more you'll actually be able to get that head
actually going back. but keep that chin in that neutral position, so it's not
tucking in like that, or tucking in like that, you're really just bringing it
straight back and then letting those muscles kind of relax once you let it go.
so then the next one is going to be isometric exercises for your neck. and
isometric exercises are really you're activating the muscle, but you're
not really moving it. so it does a good job of kind of getting some stiffness
out of the muscles, starting to get some strength in the muscles, but you're not
doing the big movements that might still hurt your neck at the time. so what
you're gonna do is we're gonna start off with what would be a side bend, but again
I'm not actually moving into that side bend. I'm gonna
place my hand on my head and then push into and you should see my muscles here
activating a little bit, and just again a three to five second hold and then relax.
I'm not pushing as hard as I can, especially the first couple times I do
these isometrics. I'm doing maybe twenty to thirty percent of my push, and then
later on the next day if that's not sore, then I can push forty to fifty and then
60 you know in the 70 and so it forth. but make sure you're doing both sides.
then this is the movement I would do and then I'm pushing in three to five
seconds and then relaxing. do five on each side, you can alternate back and
forth if you want, or you can just do them all on one side and then do all on
the other side, but make sure you're doing both sides. so the next isometric
one is turning your head from the side to side. and so that would be what we
would call rotation. so again I'm just placing my hand here. I would be turning
into my hand, so then again I'm pushing, but now I'm getting the rotational
movement. so you can probably see a little bit of those muscles activating
that three to five seconds, then my hand on the other side and then I'm turning
in that way. so three to five seconds, five on each side. I like to alternate
back and forth, but you can do them all on one side if you want to. so then the
next one is going to be to get some neck or cervical extension. and so when we
have a disc issue, a lot of times if you can give that extension movement at the
right level, you're gonna actually kind of push that disc back in a little bit.
so using a towel to kind of stabilize the bottom part so you can move the top
part actually does a really good job. so I'm gonna put the towel you know around
this one level, and then it's staying and then I'm gonna move my head back into
that extension. so you're probably not going to be exact to start off with, so
sometimes I say just move it up a little bit each time, but what i'm gonna do is
i'm taking this towel and i'm pulling it forward this way to help kind of
stabilize the bottom part of the spine. and so i'm pushing or pulling
forward and then i'm just going to look back and up going into that
extension. so doing that motion at the same time while I'm pushing forward so
I'm stabilizing that bottom segment and moving that top one and you can go at
each level of your spine and just do maybe five to ten of those at each one.
and that really helps kind of loosen everything up. it's a really nice way to
get some movement in there. so now we want to stretch out all the muscles
around our neck, so we got some big muscles in the back, we've got some
little smaller muscles up in the front. so let's start off with an upper trap
stretch and that's that big top of the triangle muscle in the back of your neck.
and a lot of times when it's tight, it's putting a lot of pressure on your
cervical spine in that neck area, and pushing on that disc. so when you're
gonna stretch your upper trap, I like kind of sitting on my hand of the side
that I want to stretch. And what that does is that just keeps that shoulder
down. you don't have to sit on it, but I feel like you're gonna get a better
stretch. then all you're gonna do is take your other hand and pull your head
gently towards the opposite side. like I'm trying to take that ear to the other
shoulder. but keep the shoulder down. don't bring it up, but just gently pull
over this way. and you should feel that stretch right in through here. so nice
gentle stretch just holding that stretch. so since this is a full stretch you want
to hold it for 30 seconds and then switch sides. so sitting here pulling it
over gently getting that stretch and doing three on each side. again I like to
alternate back and forth just because that makes it where you can give each
side just a little bit of a break. so before I go on to my next exercise I
want to do a wall of thanks for some of my folks that have supported me on the
wall of thanks. and so Katherine H., Louise W., and Elan M. thank you so much for
supporting me. and if you're interested in being on the wall of thanks, find out
how by clicking on the link in the description below. so the next stretch is
going to be for our levator SCAP. and that levator scapulae muscle is the one
that kind of holds our shoulders that will elevates or lifts it. and when we
have a lot of stress and tension, that's the muscle that really holds a lot of
that tension, so it gets tight a lot. It comes all the way up into the neck. so it
could put a lot pressure on that neck or that cervical
area. so this time the side that you want to stretch you're going to put your hand
up where you're trying to bring your elbow up towards the ceiling. now
sometimes people can't do that, that's okay. you can also just raise your arm up,
but you don't have to do that either. this is just now that's pushing that
shoulder blade or that scapula down to give you a better stretch. but you don't
have to do that, I just feel like you're gonna get a better stretch. so I'm gonna
bring this side up of the side that I want to stretch, and then I'm gonna take
my other hand and put it behind my head. I'm gonna pull down at an angle about a
45 degree angle towards my opposite knee. so I want my nose to point towards my
opposite knee when I'm going down. so I'm stretching this way. so it's not
stretching to the side, it's not stretching forward, is stretching at that
angle to really get that stretch right through back there. that's where you
should feel that stretch. so again this is a full thirty second hold, and you
want to do three on each side. so then the next stretch is going to be for your
anterior scalene muscles. these are the ones in the front here. so the way to
stretch those is to take your opposite hand and kind of push down on your
collarbone. and that just again kind of helps stabilize everything. then you're
going to turn towards the side that you want to stretch and look up towards the
ceiling. and so you can see right here, that's where I'm getting all those
stretch of those scalene muscles right there. and so again you're holding that
for thirty Seconds and doing three on each side. so really getting it nice and
stretched out. so then we're going to go into some exercises where we are getting
some movement. so the next one is just gonna be scapular squeezes. and our
scapula or scapular a have more than 20 muscles attached to them, and a lot of
them go up into our neck. so that's really why it's important to get those
moving, get everything moving in the right place. so for a scapular squeeze,
you want to almost imagine that somebody's hand is on your spine, and
you're just gonna squeeze those shoulder blades back. now you can use your elbows
to kind of guide your your shoulder blades going back, but don't just use
your elbows. so see I'm if just using my elbows I'm not actually
getting that squeeze, but sometimes when you first start doing it, you can get a
better squeeze if you use your elbows, but you don't have to. you can do squeeze
them back this way, but try and keep your shoulders down
when you're squeezing. so you're not coming up like this, but you're squeezing
down and back. hold it for about three to five seconds and then do ten of those a
couple times throughout the day, and that's really going to kind of help
reset that and get some strengthening in there as well. so then the next one is
going to be lying down. and so at the side that you want to work is going to
be up on top. so this one if you can, you're going to lie down and put your
arm just kind of out so you can rest your head on it, so your head stays in a
neutral position. so all I'm gonna do is just lift my head up to the side and
come back down. so I'm working these muscles on the side, but I'm supporting
it in a neutral position and then bringing it up. so I'm trying to keep
everything straight forward here. so I'm not looking up like this, I'm not coming
like this, but I'm really almost just trying to bring that ear towards my
shoulder. so this one you can do ten, ten to fifteen, couple sets, a couple times
throughout day. but make sure you're switching the sides. so then the next one
so you can get some extension is to get it on all fours or in quadruped, and
you're gonna just put your head in a neutral position here. and then you're
gonna lift up into extension and then come all the way down. so you're getting
that pull motion and then coming back up and again. if you've got a disc issue you
might not be able to come all the way up without some pain, so make sure it's a
pain-free motion. so if you can only come up to about right there, that's okay, but
each time try and go a little bit more as long as it's in a comfortable
position. and then the last one is just gonna be a cat dog because again you
want to kind of get that upper back as well as that cervical area. and this is
one of my favorite stretches. it always feels really good. so the cat stretch
you're going to arch your back up and tuck in your chin. so just like when a
cat is stretching you're coming up like this. just hold it for about three to
five seconds and then drop down into the dog. or some people
call it a cow. and then lift your head up again. so again you want it to be in a
pain-free motion. so if that's uncomfortable, you can bring your head
down just a little bit and just alternate back and forth, maybe five
times each way ,holding it three to five seconds. so there you have it. those are
my ten best stretches and exercises for a herniated cervical disc. if you'd like
to help support my channel, make sure and click on the link up there. and don't
forget to subscribe, yeah, down there. and remember be safe, have fun, and I hope you
feel better soon.