hey everybody it's doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you some physical
therapy stretches and exercises for neck pain. so let's get started.
so the first exercise / stretch is a chin tuck, and it's my favorite. I think
this is a great one because you can do it anywhere because it really just kind
of helps stretch and work these muscles in the back and in the front to relax
them and get them moving a little bit. because of a lot of time with neck pain,
we end up kind of getting that forward head posture, and chin tucks really just
kind of help reset that. so I really like to start off with them. so a chin tuck is
not tucking down like this, but it's really taking your chin and tucking it
back behind you. so it's almost like if there was a wall behind you, you're
trying to push your head back into it, or you're tucking that chin in. so try and
keep it level. you don't want it down, you don't want up, you want to be looking
straight ahead. and you're just gonna take that chin and pull in like that so
you could end up getting lots of Chins right there. and so you're just gonna
hold that for about three to five seconds and then relax. so again that's
just kind of activating these muscles that aren't working when you're leaning
forward and just getting everything moving how it's supposed to again. so I
would just start off with about five of them. sometimes I like using your finger
as a target. so you can just place it on your chin, leave it in that spot, and then
tuck back, and then again hold it for that three to five seconds, and then a
lot of times when you relax, then you can see that there's a little bit of space
in between. that just means that you're moving that neck back into place and
that's really good for that neck pain because then that takes all that
pressure off the area. so again holding it for three to five seconds, doing that
about five times. you can do this several times a day, so it's so easy to do if
you're working, if you're just relaxing watching TV, you can do a couple of those.
so the next exercises are gonna be isometric exercises, and what just what
isometric means is you're activating the muscle, but you're not really moving the
muscles. so if you have a lot of neck pain, these work great because you're not
really over moving them, but you're activating those muscles that start
getting some of that strengthening back in there. so what I like to do is start
off with kind of a side bending movement. this is the movement
you're gonna do, but what you're really gonna do is just put your hand on the
side, so you're not making that movement. you're just pushing your head into your
hand. and the same kind of thing, you're going to hold it for about three to five
seconds and then relax. I like to alternate sides because then you just
give that side a little bit of a break, but again you're trying to take your ear
down to your shoulder, that's the movement. you want to keep your head and
chin kind of in that neutral forward position, and then go this way. but again
you're just taking that hand and blocking yourself from do it. so you're
activating these muscles, but you're not really going anywhere. and so again a lot
of times when you're really hurting this is the best way to do it because that
quick contraction and then letting go will relax those muscles a lot. so again
three to five-second holds, do five on each side. and then the next one is going
to be a rotation isometric movement. so it's the same concept where this is the
motion I'm going to be doing, but I'm preventing myself from doing it. so I'm
just turning into my hand doing it for about you know that three to five
seconds. don't feel like you have to go with all your force when you're first
doing this. you might just want to do 25-30 percent of a push and sometimes
you'll feel a little pop in your neck and that's just your neck self adjusting,
so that's fine as long as it's not super painful, that's okay. but again just kind
of turning in towards your hand for about three to five seconds, and then
five on each side. so then we're going to go into an upper trap stretch because a
lot of times these upper trap muscles get a lot of trigger points, a lot of
pain in them. so getting those stretched out is a really great thing to do. so the
side that I want to stretch, I'm just gonna kind of sit on that hand. if you're
standing so you can't sit on it, you can just make a fist and kind of push down,
but what this does by sitting on it is it keeps that shoulder down because you
can stretch it without that, but then a lot of times that shoulder tends to come
up with it and you're just not going to get quite as much of a stretch as you
really need. so just hand underneath your leg to keep that shoulder down, and again
your heads going to be straight forward and you're just going to try and
take that ear and stretch it over towards the shoulder, but keep your head
in this position. so it's not down like this, it's not up like this, you're taking
that other hand and just gently pulling over towards the other side, and you
should really feel that stretch through here. a little bit back in there. you
don't want it to be painful, you want it just to be slightly uncomfortable. you
want to feel tension in there. and so since this is a full stretch, you're
gonna hold that stretch for 30 seconds and then do three on each side. so I like
to alternate back and forth. some people just like to do them all on one side and
then switch, but I feel like if you give a little break in between that kind of
just helps reset everything. so again head forward up and over, and just gently
pull over to the side and you should feel a really really good stretch
through there. holding it for 30 seconds and again you can do these a couple
times a day just depending on how much time you have. so the last stretch is
going to be a levator scapulae stretch. and this is the muscle that
comes all the way up into the neck and then comes down and attaches to that
scapula or that shoulder blade. and the reason this one gets so tight is because
when we are stressed out, or when we're working for a long time specially on a
computer, we tend to hunch up like this, and then we're overworking that muscle.
so a lot of times you get a really big trigger point right back there right
where that muscle connects to that shoulder blade. so the way to stretch
that out is the side you want to stretch, you're going to take your hand and just
kind of put it on the back of the shoulder blade there. so you want to try
and get your elbow as high as you can. you don't have to crank it out there
because sometimes that might be a little uncomfortable, but you really want to try
and push it up this way because that's gonna hold that shoulder blade down. by
bringing your elbow up, that pushes it down, so you're going to get a better
stretch. so holding it like this and then you're going to put your other hand back
behind your head, and now this is the key sometimes people just pull straight
down, you want to go at an angle. so you're gonna turn your nose towards the
opposite knee. that's the angle that you want to turn. take your head and stretch
it down. so it's not to the side, it's not straight down, but it's kind of in that
angle right there. so I'm looking at that opposite knee and pulling downwards and
then trying to get that elbow up as high as I can, and you should feel that
stretch sometimes all the way up towards the
neck down into that shoulder blade. and so again, since this is a stretch you
want to hold it for 30 seconds and then do three on each side. so then up on this
side, hand behind the head, pulling down towards that opposite knee. and so that's
really gonna loosen up those neck muscles with the strengthening of the
chin tucks and the isometrics, it's really just going to get rid of that neck pain.
so those were the physical therapy stretches and exercises for neck pain. I
want to give a quick shout out to some people on my wall of thanks. so thank you
Dan, Eric P, Tom T, and Brad H. so if you want
to be on my wall of thanks, make sure and check out my patreon page by clicking on
the link up there, and don't forget to subscribe by clicking down there. and
remember be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.