In this video, I'm going to show at-home spinal decompression stretches that can
give relief for bulging discs and pinched nerves in the neck.
Hey everyone, Dr. Rowe here at SpineCare in St. Joseph, MI. When it comes to
cervical discs, those shock absorbers in the neck, it's all about pressure. The discs
are built to withstand a lot of compression or up-and-down forces
throughout the day. However, just like a shock absorber on a car it can be
overwhelmed through hard impacts. Think a hard fall, or an accident, and a sports injury
and over time gradually start to break down through repetitive wear and tear.
Once the discs become damaged they tend
to bulge or herniate since they cannot contain normal compressive forces.
The result of this is an out-pouching disc (or a herniation) that will make contact with
a nearby spinal nerve. This is the classic cause of a pinched nerve.
So to unpinch the nerve, we need to reduce the pressure in the disc or
simply decompress the disc, and we're going to do that through pulling or
traction base stretches. Why is traction the route to go to for a pinched nerve
in the neck? You can imagine if there's a lot of downward force being put on the
disc causing compression it's going to pancake the disc and bulge it out. If we
do the opposite by pulling on it it's going to relieve the pressure within the
disc and cause bulging material to come back in, taking the bulge off the nerve.
You take the bulge off the nerve it will start to heal and you'll feel a lot less pain.
The main thing that we're going to look for while doing these stretches is
less frequent and intense symptoms, but more importantly what we call
centralization. Centralization is a fancy way of saying when you put pressure on a
nerve it will cause it to travel, such as a sharp shooting pain into the
shoulder or arms. When you take the pressure off the nerve the pain starts
to move back up to the starting point, which would be in the neck. So this is
important to remember: nerve pain heals by slowly moving back towards the
starting point. After doing these stretches, if you're feeling less pain
and the pain isn't traveling as far, then they are working for you. So let's get
started with them and get feeling better right now!
The first decompression stretch that we're going to do is very straight
forward. You're going to take your thumbs and place
them at the back of the head, or the base of the skull. If you feel off to the side
you should feel two large bumps (off to the side of your head). That's the spot
where you're going to want to put the thumbs at. I'm going to find those two
spots right there, take my thumbs place them at the base of
the skull and then lock my knuckles. The next part is going to be
the traction. We're going to lift up on those two spots, so just like this.
Then I'm going to lift up until I feel a very good stretch right in the neck.
You can also tilt the chin towards the chest to get a little bit of a better angle on
it while you lift up and create that traction.The goal is to hold it for
about a half minute (thirty seconds), relax, and then repeat it three to five times.
You can do this stretch as needed throughout the day, as long as you're
finding relief with it.
So another way to be able to do this stretch is just using
a normal hand towel, and I like to fold it up just like that. You're going to
place this again at the base of the skull, right at those two spots where you
feel those bumps. You're going to grab the ends of the towel with your hands right
here and then start to lift up to get that traction. Again, with this one I
like to hold it for about 30 seconds, relax, and then do it upwards to three to
five times. A lot of times with disc bulges in the neck you're going to get a
one-sided arm pain. That's generally from the spot where that bulge is going off
towards. So what you can do with this stretch is modify it to the point where
you're going to get a lot of relief from a bulging disc that's causing it to go
down into the arm or hands. So to do that, pull up on it and then on one side just
pull a little bit more. Almost kind of like a side tilt with your head, and you
can do this to the point where it starts to help relieve that
bulge and gives that pain relief. Give it a try, see if it works for you.
If your pain is still lingering or getting worse, more sophisticated traction is going to
be needed to get relief. Look into spinal decompression therapy which is one of
the best conservative options available that can help treat herniated disc and
pinched nerves. I use spinal decompression therapy in my office and have gotten
great results with it and have helped a lot of people get long-lasting relief
without the use of drugs, injections, and surgery. So I hope these stretches
helped you out and you're already getting some relief. If they did, please
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