In this video we're going to look at
some myofascial exercises to help with
your neck. Necks get a lot of strain put
on them. A lot of people do
computer work which tends to create
rounded shoulders and a forward head
Position, and the more this happens, the more
our body gets pulled forwards and into
the screen almost. It puts pressure on
the back and the sides of your neck, so
tightness in your neck can cause
headaches, migraines, shoulder pain, neck
pain itself, and can contribute to
things like problems with your arms and
your hands because your arm nerves start
from your neck. Working on your neck
can really help to loosen lots of other
areas in the body as well as loosening
your neck itself. So we’re going to do a stretch
for our neck and to do this you just
need to keep your arms nice and heavy,
just hanging down by your sides, and
you're just going to start to bring your
ear towards your shoulder. When you
first do this it might be a good idea to
look in the mirror, because lots of
people tend to bring their shoulder up
as they go into the stretch and so they
don't feel the full benefit. By
keeping your shoulders nice and relaxed
you start to feel a stretch coming into
the side of your neck. Never force the
Stretch, you're just waiting for things
to relax and release. From a fascial point
of view, the longer you stretch, and the more
progressively you stretch, the more the
fascia will release. Being in the
stretch for at least 90 seconds to 2
minutes will allow the fascia time
to release. You may start to feel the
stretch extending up into your head, down
into your shoulder, and that's all good.
Everyone has different patterns of
release and you might feel that you want
to go into a deeper stretch as
you progress, and you can encourage this by
just placing your hand on top of your
Head. You're not pulling, you're just
allowing the weight of your arm to create a
slightly deeper stretch. Then at the
end come out of the stretch and give your neck
and head a little bit of a roll around.
Then you can work on the other side.
This next exercise we're going to do is
for a muscle that is on the side of the
Neck. This muscle is called the
Sternocleidomastoid, which is a bit of a
Mouthful, and it's usually known as the
SCM. The name indicates where it is -
sterno is the sternum or your breastbone,
cleido is clavicle or your
Collarbone, and mastoid is just below
your ear, this part of the
skull.
This muscle travels from ear down
around your neck into two points on your
breastbone and
collarbone.
It is responsible for turning your head
from side to side so there's one on
either side, and it can get very stuck.
When people have problems with
turning their neck, what feels sore when
they move is quite often this muscle and
all the associated fascia around it is
part of the problem.
To work on this muscle you need to
turn your head to the side and
then bring your head a little bit
towards your shoulder. Taking the
opposite hand you're going to come up
and take hold of the muscle, so that will
feel a bit like a greasy rope. Don't
be scared of it because working with the
sternocleidomastoid can really help to
release restrictions in your neck.
Taking hold of it you just wait until
you get a sense of things starting to
release and let go. So I have hold of the
muscle between my thumb and my fingers
and I'm on a point which feels a bit
Tender, which is a trigger point. I'm
just waiting for this to start to
release and let go. As long as you're
here for 90 seconds to 2 minutes the
fascia and the muscle will start to
Release, and then from there I can move
to a different point and just compress
this and wait for that to start release.
Working regularly on your SCM you'll
find that you get much better and freer
of movement in your neck.
In this next exercise I’m using balls
In a bag and putting the balls under my
neck so the gap between the balls is
where my spine is in my neck so I'm not
putting pressure on the bones, and just
allowing things to relax in this area.
The pressure of my head and my neck on
the balls is enough to allow the tissues
to start to release and let go, so this
helps to relieve a lot of the tension
that builds up in the neck and at the
base of your skull where a lot of the
neck muscles attach. In this exercise I'm
going to be working with one ball on the
side of my neck. The side of the neck
is an important area because it is
where the arm nerves
originate and so sometimes if your neck
is very tight it can not only cause neck
pain and problems, but also sometimes
pain and other symptoms in your hands
and arms. To work here I'm going to be
placing the ball on the side of my neck
as I lie on it. To make sure you're in
the right position, you can find the line
of the sternocleidomastoid muscle that
we worked on earlier and you want to be
just behind that. I'm going to lie on my
side and place the ball on my neck. To
make sure you have enough pressure on
your neck, just make sure your bottom arm
comes forward slightly so it pulls your
shoulder forward which allows you
to have the ball in the right place. For some
people lying like this can feel is a bit
uncomfortable for the head or the neck,
and if that is the case you can always
place a small pillow under the top of
your head before you
Start. If this feels comfortable, then great, you
just need to be here for 90 seconds to
2 minutes to allow time for the
fascia to start to release and let go.
In this next exercise we're going to do
a towel stretch. To do this you need
to use a big towel like this which is a
bath sheet and you can roll it up into a
big sausage like this. I'm going to
lie on this so that my head and my
bottom are actually on the towel and my
spine is along it.
When you do this you can lie on the
Floor, or if that's difficult for you, you
can do this on your bed, and you can
either have your knees bent or you can
have your legs flat depending on how
comfortable it feels. With this
stretch you're just lying on the towel
And allowing your body to relax, and so
the towel will lift your spine up off
the ground and gravity starts to slowly
pull your body back down towards the
floor. When you do the towel
stretch if you're here for anywhere from
5 to 15 minutes this allows time for your
body to start to release and let go. In
particular it's going to open out
across your chest and in doing so this
helps to relax the muscles and the
fascia up into your neck. It's a
really nice relaxing stretch to do and
probably the best time to do it is at
the end of the day when everything is
quite tight and stuck. Doing these
exercises regularly can help to release
tension in your neck which will
alleviate pain symptoms and problems not
just in your neck but also in other
areas, especially your head, your
shoulders, and even into your arms. You can find more
myofascial release exercises in our Living Pain Free online programme which is available from our website along with our myofascial release kits.