Hey everybody its Doctor Jo and Kali and Bear, and today we're gonna show you the
top ten neck stretches. So let's get started.
So these 10 best neck stretches are in my opinion the best. They're not any kind
of scientific research behind it, it's just my favorites the ones that I've
found work best for me as well as my patients, so let's start out with a
cervical rotation. So with cervical rotation exercises, what we're doing is
we're just stretching out the muscles all around the neck here, so make sure
that you keep your head in a neutral position to do these rotational
stretches, so let's take a look. For cervical rotation range of motion, you're
just going to turn your head to the side almost like you're looking over your
shoulder and then back the other way.
Number two is going to be a cervical Sidebend or a neck sidebend, so those
are just working the muscles on the side to get those stretch out, so let's take a
look at that one. For a cervical side bending range of motion, you're going to
bring your ear towards your shoulder, but don't bring your shoulder up to your ear.
Number three is cervical extension where you're bringing your head back, and
that's gonna stretch those front muscles, so let's take a look at that. For a
cervical extension range of motion, you're just going to be looking up
towards the ceiling and then coming back down.
And number four is cervical flexion or neck flexion, so then you're going to be
stretching those muscles in the back as you bend forward, so let's check that one.
For a cervical flexion range of motion, you're just going to bring your
chin towards your chest and then come back up.
Number five is a chin tuck. Chin tuck is kind of a mix between a stretch and an
exercise and is one of my favorite stretches because it's super easy to do and it
really helps reset your neck if you're getting into bad posture, so you can do
it several times a day. And when you work at a computer a lot or when you're focusing
on something and you tend to get that forward neck posture, doing some simple
chin tucks are really effective to kind of help reset those muscles. So let's
take a look at that one. For chin tucks in sitting, you're going to actually
move your chin back, it's not tucking it forward, so place your finger on your
chin and leave your finger in one spot, and then tuck it in and hold it.
Number six a chest stretch. The reason it's important to stretch out these
chest muscles even though you don't always associate them with your neck, is
they really are. If these chest muscles are tight, it
tends to pull us forward and then again our head comes forward, and we get really
really tight muscles, so when you stretch out those chest muscles it helps open
you up and get you back into better posture, so let's check out that one. For
a corner chest stretch, place a hand on each side of the corner, and one foot in
the corner ,then push in and hold the stretch.
Number seven is an anterior scalene stretch. The scalene muscles, especially the
anterior ones, come through here right in through here, and so when those are tight,
it can put a lot of pressure here and pull our head down and forward and that
can cause a lot of pain, so let's check out that stretch. For a scaling stretch,
place your hand above your collarbone on the muscle, turn your head towards the
side you want to stretch, and then look up.
Number eight upper trap stretch. The upper traps are big-time ones that cause
pain in our neck. They're the ones up here that go right all the way up into
our neck here and then down into the shoulder, sometimes they have trigger
points, those muscles get really tight often when we're focused on something
for a long time when we have a lot of stress, so it's really important to
stretch those out, so let's take a look. For an upper trap stretch, take the arm
of the side that you want to stretch and either push it downwards or sit on it to
hold that shoulder down, then take the other hand on the side, and just pull it
over towards your shoulder, holding that stretch.
Number nine a levator scapulae stretch. The levator SCAP is again another one of
those muscles. I sits right here, it elevates or lifts our shoulder blades
that scapula, and the reason that's so important with our neck is because it
holds our stress the most. When we're stressed out, we get like this and it can
cause a lot of tension and pain, sometimes it gives people headaches
because it gives you a lot of pain here at the base of the skull down into the
neck, and sometimes even out into the shoulders, so that one's really important
to stretch, so let's take a look. For a levator scapulae stretch, the side that
you want to stretch, you're going to take your arm and put it up over your
shoulder and that's to stabilize that scapula, then you're going to take your
head down towards an angle almost like you're looking towards the opposite knee,
take your other hand and put it behind your head and give it a little extra
stretch.
Number ten is going to be a cervical rotation or a neck rotation with a towel.
Sometimes they're called snags and the reason the towel is so important is
because it helps kind of stabilize the spine, so if we want to rotate our neck
but only rotate it at certain vertebrae, you can use the towel to kind of
stabilize one and then move the rest, so it's a really good way to kind of get
some movement in the spine to help open up those joints there. If the facets are
kind of stuck, this is a great way to loosen that up and stretch everything
else, so let's take a look at that. For a neck rotation stretch with the towel,
take the towel and put it behind your neck, grab one side to anchor it down and
keep it there, then take the opposite hand put the towel up over your chin
across your ear and you're going to pull upwards in a way when you rotate your
neck to the side.
So there you have it, those are your 10 best neck stretches. If you have any
questions, leave in the comment section. If you'd like to help support my channel,
make sure you click up here, and don't forget to subscribe by clicking down
here. And remember, be safe (keep those muscles nice and stretched out), have fun,
and I hope you feel better soon.