Oh, Oh! Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and
I've got my dynamic duo Wonder Remy and
Wonder Jo, and today we're going to show
you some stretches and exercises to help
relieve neck pain. So let's get started.
Are you ready? Are you ready? Let's do it!
So the first set of stretches for the neck
are just going to be active range of
motion. So you're not putting pressure on
it, you're just getting that neck
loosened up. So first you're going to do
a rotation side to side. So this one's
going to be a little bit of a continuous
motion. You can pause for about two to
three seconds on each side, but you're
just getting those muscles moving. So you
want to start off just do about five on
each side with that little pause, just to
get those neck muscles right there
warmed up a little bit. After you do the
rotation side to side, then you're going
to do a side bending. With the side
bending, you're taking your ear towards
your shoulder, but you're not bringing
your shoulder up to your ear. You want to
keep your shoulders down and relaxed and
then just side bend over trying to touch
that ear to your shoulder, and again just
hold it for about three to five seconds,
and then come back to the other side. Try
and keep your head in a fairly neutral
position. Sometimes people kind of go
down like that, but then you're just
changing the muscle that you're that
you're working and stretching, so try and
keep that head fairly forward when you
side bend, so again just about five on
each side just to get it loosened up.
After you get those loosened up, then
you're gonna do a chin tuck. With the
chin tuck, it's not going downwards it's
tucking it back towards the back of your
head. So again you want to keep your head
level and you want to just push that
chin backward, so you're making a whole
lot of little chins there, but I like
using my finger as a target because then
you can kind of see how much of a
stretch you get. So hold it for about
five seconds here, and then come back and
you can see that now there's a little
space between my fingers which means I'm
I'm working those muscles out a little
bit, so that forward head
movement that you might have then
straightens back up. So again hold it for
about five seconds, relax, and do about
five of those. So now that you got all of
those muscles warmed up a little bit,
you're going to go into some stretches.
So now you're going to do an upper trap
stretch which is those muscles in the
back up there. Those ones that are on the
top of that diamond, and what they do is
hold everything together so they get
stressed out a lot, and they have a lot
of tension in them. So if you want to
stretch the right side, you're going to
put your right hand underneath your
bottom, and what that does is it just
kind of sets that shoulder and
stabilizes it so it doesn't come up
while you stretch. So just kind of
sitting on that arm there, take the other
hand and then just gently pull your head
towards the side. Again you want to keep
that head in that kind of neutral
position. You don't want to turn your
head you want to keep it upright and
then just side bend over towards the
other side. So for this you want to hold
that stretch for 30 seconds, and then do
that three times, but if you want to
alternate back and forth, then you can
give one side a break. Just make sure you
do three on each side for 30 seconds, and
I always like to do both sides even if
you just have neck pain on your right
side, doing both sides helps keep those
muscles balanced. So the next stretch is
for the levator scapulae. What that
muscle does is it elevates or lifts the
shoulder blades, that scapula, and when
we're stressed out we tend to kind of
hunch up our shoulders and overwork
that muscle, so it gets really tender and
irritated and at the attachments up top
on the neck and down low at that
shoulder blade. There's usually those
really tender spots that you can push on,
and we call those trigger points. So the
way to stretch out that muscle is to
take the hand on the side that you want
to stretch and kind of put it on the
back of the shoulder blade where your
elbow is coming up a little bit. It doesn't
have to be super high, but by doing this
that helps stabilize and push that
scapula down to keep it in one spot
while you're stretching. You're going to
take the other hand and put it behind
your head because when you pull forward
it's going to be at about a 45 degree
angle away, so almost like you're looking at
your opposite knee. So it's not
straightforward down, it's not straight
to the side, it's kind of in that angle.
So you're just going to come down this
way, and you should feel it along that
levator muscle right there. So just
holding that stretch for about 30
seconds, switch sides, so then you come up
stabilizing that shoulder blade and then
pulling down towards that opposite knee
for 30 seconds, and then doing three on
each side. The next set of muscles are
your scalene muscles, and those are the
muscles in the front there. When those
get tight, they can sometimes cause a
little bit of nerve pain because the
vessels run through those muscles and
underneath those muscles, so when they
get tight, they can put a lot of pressure
on everything. So the way to stretch that
is if you want to stretch your right
side, you're going to take your left hand
and place it just above that collarbone
kind of on those muscles. That's going to
kind of help stabilize that collarbone
because they're connected there at that
clavicle, and so you want to keep it
stabilized. You're going to turn your
head towards that side and then look up
towards the ceiling while you're putting
a little pressure downwards on that
collarbone. So again you're going to hold
that for 30 seconds, come back down,
switch sides, opposite right over there
turn your head, and look up getting that
nice stretch through there, and doing
that three times on each side. The last
set of exercises are going to be to
strengthen the muscles a little bit, but
they're going to be isometric exercises
which is you're not actually moving but
you're contracting the muscles. So the
way to do that is we're going to go back
to those motions, but we're going to put
our hand on our head so we're not moving
our head anymore, but we're pushing into
that direction. So for a side bend, you
want to put your hand on the side. This
is the motion that you're going to do,
but you're going to push into your hands
and your head's not actually moving. With
this sometimes if your neck is painful,
if you push really really hard, it hurts, so
you want to feel tension, you want to
feel pressure, but you don't want it to
be painful. So you might want to start
off with just about a fifty percent push.
So pushing into your head, and then
relaxing. I'm moving my head a little bit
just so you can see what I'm doing, but
you really shouldn't be
moving anything. You're pushing into your
hand, getting that pressure. You might be
able to see those muscles activating and
then relaxing, so for just about five
seconds push in, relax, and do three on
each side. So if you want to alternate
back and forth to give one side a break
you can. So pushing in and then coming
back, so about three to five seconds and
then relax. So then the next one is going
to be that rotation motion, so again
you're doing that movement, but you're
not going anywhere. So holding holding
your head again, but now I'm doing that
rotational movement. Pushing into my hand,
so again about three to five seconds,
switch sides, turning in that way three
to five seconds, and then doing three on
each side. And then the last one is going
to be going forward. So again just
pushing in your hand, but now it's going
to be on your forehead. So just kind of
put the the bottom of the palm there so
it's comfortable, and then you're pushing
in like you're doing that motion, so
again pushing in three to five seconds,
relaxing, pushing in three to five
seconds, three times. Yeah we need a nap
after that. Those were your stretches and
exercises to help relieve neck pain. If you have
any questions, leave them in the comments
section, and I'd like to recognize our
wall of thanks! Thanks Frank DG, and
thanks Woody and Daisy! We appreciate
your support. If you want to be on the
patreon wall of thanks, click the box up
here. And remember, be safe, have fun
and I hope you feel better soon!