Hey, everybody is Doctor Jo. And today I'm going
to show you ways to relieve neck and shoulder pain. So let's get started.
So one of the first things that I like to do to help relieve neck and shoulder pain
is one of my favorite exercises is kind of a mix between an exercise and a stretch.
And it's called a chin tuck. So chin tucks are one of my favorites, because it helps
fix your posture. Because if you've been working on the computer and your head is going forward,
a lot of times that will cause neck and shoulder pain. So chin tuck is pretty simple. But sometimes
it's hard to kind of get the correct movement in the beginning. So these should never hurt,
you should never force it. But just starting off gently, it's not ducking down, but it's actually
tucking your chin back in. So what I like to do is a lot of times just start with placing my
finger on my chin just to get myself a target, because sometimes if you have a target, it's a
lot easier to get it correctly done. So just kind of placing my finger on my chin, and then moving
my chin away from my finger. So keeping my chin in that neutral position. So I'm not coming down,
I'm not coming up, those are kind of different movements. But just bringing my head completely
back, hold it for about three to five seconds, and then relax. And so a lot of times, you might then
have a little bit of space in between I know while I was talking, my finger was moving a little bit,
but that's resetting those muscles. And that really helps relieve that pain a lot. So you
can just do a three to five second hold five of those at a time just to really get things nice and
loosened up and get those muscles working a little bit. Another one of my favorites is an upper trap
stretch. So these big muscles up here that go all the way up in the neck come all the way down
into the shoulder can get really tight, and that can cause some pain as well. So you can do this
stretch a couple different ways, I usually just like to sit on my hands. So if it was the pain
on this side, I'm sitting on my hand on this side, bringing the other hand up and over where I'm kind
of just gently touching the ear on the side, and then just pulling over until I feel a nice gentle
stretch. So I'm still keeping my head in this plane, I'm not turning up or down which you can,
but that's kind of a different stretch, and then just gently pulling over. I'm feeling
that all the way up in here all the way down into the shoulder. So this is going to be a full
stretch where you hold it for 30 seconds. Even if you're just having pain on one side, I will always
say switch sides and then stretch over the other way. And you can do that three times on each side.
If sitting on your hand is a little uncomfortable, you can place it behind your back or you can just
rest it to the side. But if you sit on it or put it behind your back, that kind of keeps that
shoulder down, and you're going to get a much better stretch with it. Another great way to
relieve shoulder and neck pain is to use a heating pad. Comfytemp their their neck and shoulder
weighted heating pad. Heating pads are great because it the heat helps loosen up the muscles,
it helps lengthen those muscles. And a lot of times when you're having pain is because of tight
muscles. And so heating pads are great to help loosen those up, you can use a heating pad before
you start your stretches and exercises to kind of loosen everything up. Or you can use
it afterwards if you're still a little tight and uncomfortable or just throughout the day.
So Comfytemp's weighted heating pad is really neat because the the weighted part, they use
micro glass beads, and they're kind of dispersed throughout the whole heating pad. And then there's
this neck portion as well. Because as you know, a lot of times when you have neck pain, or when you
have shoulder pain is both related. So you might have neck and shoulder pain because those muscles
all the way up into the neck go down into the shoulder and vice versa. So this one, you
just kind of bring it around and it sits on your shoulder. This is nice because it actually has a
snap so it stays in place. It has nine different heating settings. So you can go from low to all
the way up to the nine which is the warmest one, it also has 11 Different auto shutoff times or
it has a stay on mode where you can hold and press the button and just keep it on as long as you want
to. And then so I like that button because then it just stays on nicely. You know, maybe while you're
working at your computer or watching TV, they also have an extra large weighted heating blanket
as well. So if you want to use it on different parts of your body, like your back or your legs,
if you're interested in purchasing either one of these, you can click on the link up there.
So the next stretch is going to be another one of my favorites just for the neck and shoulder
because it's getting that muscle that a lot of times causes problems, which is the levator
scapulae stretch and that's the one that goes all the way up into that cervical spine or that neck
and goes down to the shoulder blade. And so a lot of times when we get overstressed we bring those
shoulders up or if we're working on the computer a lot and then kind of hunched over that muscle gets
really tired and irritated and so that can cause a lot of pain. So with this one, the side you
want to stretch you're going to bring your arm up like this bringing your elbow towards the ceiling
now I know this is a little bit tough for some people do especially if you're having some pain,
so you can also bring it down Back here, but this is the way I learned this is the way I like it,
then you're going to take your other hand and bring it up, I always say almost like a helmet,
you're going to turn your head to about a 45 degree angle. So it's not going to be in the
front, it's not going to be all the way over almost kind of like you're looking down at your
opposite knee. So you're bringing your head up and over. And you're just going to kind of pull
down where it's almost like you're trying to tuck that nose, into your armpit. And so getting that
nice stretch, I'm feeling that all the way up here all the way through down there. Again,
if this is just a little bit uncomfortable for you or hard to bring that arm up, you can put
it down behind your back, this is also one that is a 30 second hold. And then you're going to do
that three times on each side. But again, if this is uncomfortable both of those, then you can just
set your hand down, that I'm bringing my head, my hand up over, and then pulling down this way.
So I'm still getting a good stretch right there. But it's going to be a little bit better if I add
that arm because that's just going to keep that shoulder blade down to get that extra stretch.
So then the next one is actually going to be an exercise. A lot of times people think of more
when they have pain, they want to do stretches, but exercises help as well. So this is a super
simple one, it's just called a shoulder squeeze or scapular squeeze. The key to this one is to
try and keep those shoulders down. A lot of times when people won't do the squeeze, they kind of
come up, bring those shoulders to their ears, but you want to keep everything down. Imagine that
someone's got their hand just gently placed on the spine of your back. And what you want to try and
do is take those shoulder blades and squeeze them in where it's almost like you're trying to squeeze
into their hand. So just kind of coming back and squeezing. You can use your elbows as a guide. So
I'm just coming back like this, but you're not moving with your elbows, you're actually using
those muscles to squeeze back so you don't have to use the elbows. I'm getting that nice squeeze in
there. But a lot of times if you haven't done this before, using the elbows really kind of helped as
a guide. But again, make sure you're using those muscles. So I'm coming back I'm squeezing, I'm
just going to hold for three to five seconds, and then relax. So maybe five to 10 to start off with
these. And this again really helps kind of relieve that pain in there because when you start working
those muscles, it helps everything relax. So there you have it. Those were ways to relieve neck and
shoulder pain. If you're interested in purchasing any of the Comfytemp weighted heating pads,
then click on the link up there. And remember, be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.