hey everybody it's doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you my top 5 ways to
reduce neck pain. so let's get started so.
so before we get started, if you haven't already, make sure and click on the
subscribe button down below, and you can always find me at askdoctorjo.com.
so we're gonna start off with some stretches, and then we'll move into the
exercises towards the end. so the first stretch is an upper trap stretch. a lot
of times when you have neck pain, those upper trap muscles really get tight, and
they'll cause more neck pain because they're they come up all the way up
those upper traps and connect to the neck area and then come down into the
shoulders. so there's a couple different ways you can stretch the upper trap. the
one I usually show you is where you're kind of sitting on your hand. today I'm
going to show you it a little bit differently, but if you have some
shoulder issues, this might be a little uncomfortable so do which one is more
comfortable for you. this time you're just going to place your hand behind
your back. so my hands just kind of in the middle of my lower back and my
elbows to the side right here. so I'm keeping it close to my body. this is the
side I want to stretch. I'm gonna take my other hand and bring it up and over
almost where I'm touching the top of my ear. then I'm gonna gently pull my ear
over towards that side keeping my shoulder down low getting that stretch
right through here. and you're gonna hold that stretch for 30 seconds. if you want
more of a stretch, take the elbow on that side and pull downwards towards the
floor or if you're sitting in a chair down towards the chair, and that'll give
you that extra stretch in there. 30 seconds doing that 3 times on each side.
but remember with a stretch you don't want it to be painful, you want it to be
tension where it's that hurt so good feeling. so then the next stretch is
going to be the levator scapulae stretch and that levator SCAP muscle is the one
that elevates our lifts up our shoulder blades. and so a lot of times when we're
holding stress, we overwork that muscle and it tightens and we kind of sit up
in this position, and that can cause a lot of neck pain because that that
muscle again goes all the way up into that cervical spine or that neck area
and can put a lot of pain and stress on that area. so the way to stretch that one
out is this one's going to be a little bit differently, so
again you're going to use your arm but this time it's going to go up. so you can
either just raise your arm, or I like to kind of put it back this way where my
elbow is kind of pointing up towards the ceiling. so I'd be stretching this side
now. so you're putting the arm up or the elbow up on the side that you want to
stretch and all this does is this kind of pushes that shoulder blade down, and
so that helps keep it down to get a better stretch. so again if this is
uncomfortable for your shoulder, you don't have to do that part, but you're
gonna get a little bit better stretch if you can do that because it holds that
shoulder blade down while you stretch. the important part of this stretch is
you're not bringing your head down you're not bringing it over to the side
like for that upper trap stretch but you're bringing it down kind of an angle
where you want your nose to be at about a 45 degree angle towards your opposite
knee. so it's not down and then this way, it's turning your head kind of rotating
it and then coming down. so elbow up, nose towards the opposite knee, hand up, and
over behind the head. and then you're pulling down and you should feel that
stretch in that upper neck area, that levator scapulae muscle that goes
through there and it goes all the way down to that shoulder blade. so again
you're getting that nice stretch in there, holding it for 30 seconds, coming
back up, three times on each side because if you're having neck pain, even if the
neck pain is on one side, if you have the time I'd really recommend stretching
both sides because that's really just gonna loosen up that whole neck area. so
another great way to relieve that neck pain or reduce that neck pain is to use
heat or cold therapy, and the folks at bio med DB Design LLC sent me their
sunny Bay hands-free neck wrap. and so what I really like about using heat
therapy and cold therapy is, the general rule if you're doing stretches and
exercises is to use heat before to help loosen up the muscles and then the cold
therapy afterwards. so after you've gotten everything excited and working
use that cold therapy to cool it back down. and so what I really like about
their wraps are you can use heat therapy with it, and you can use cold therapy
with it. so you can heat it up in the microwave and then afterwards you can
put it in the freezer and cool it back down to
the cold therapy. they've also changed their design a little bit. you might have
seen me talk about these in the in the past, but they added an elastic
band here which is really nice because it helps just hold the wrap on your neck
a little bit better. and so once you get that band in you can really move around
you know I can bend my head I can turn to the side and it's not gonna fall off.
so it makes it really functional where you can go about and do your things, but
you're still either getting that heat if you need it or if you need that cold
afterwards you can do that as well. and so it's really nice also because
it's not plugged in, so you can move around with it on you know sometimes
with traditional heating pads you actually have to plug it in and stay in
one spot, but you don't have to do it with that. they also come in different
sizes in different colors. they have an extra-large version, so if you need a
little bit more length on the wrap around you have that option as well and
it also has that elastic band so it's really nice. they use you know all
natural products on the inside so it's you know sometimes flax seeds sometimes
it's lavender, and so they use different kinds with that as well. so if you're
interested in purchasing their product, make sure and click on the link up there.
so now we're going to go into some exercises. once you've gotten everything
stretched out, warm it up first, get it stretched out, then you want to go into
the exercises. so one of my favorite exercises if you've seen some of my
videos for neck pains is chin tucks. a chin tuck is really great because it's
kind of a stretch and an exercise combined together, but it's a great way
to help get you back in good posture. a lot of times with neck pain it comes
from people like this either at their computer or if they're focusing on
something they really bring that head forward, and that puts a lot of stress on
the neck causing pain. so a chin tuck is super simple. you've probably seen in
some of my videos where you use my finger as a target. you don't have to do
that. the great thing about a chin tuck is you can do it anywhere, it is super easy.
people might look at you a little funny when you're doing it, but it's easy to do.
and so all you're doing is just like it sounds you're tucking your chin back and
in, but it's not down towards your chest. so you're just taking your chin keeping
it level, you want to keep your head level, you're
not coming down or not coming up, but you're just bringing your head in almost
you know if you have a wall or something behind you your chair behind you just
try and push your head into the wall or the chair. and you see you
have lots of little chins right there. and so you just want to hold that
position. you might feel some tightness in the back, you might feel some
tightness in the front as well, and hold that for about 3 to 5 seconds, and then
relax. you can do those 5 times. you can do them several times throughout the day,
but again you're just taking that chin tucking it in, and getting that you're
working the muscles and you're stretching the muscles at the same time.
so it's a really great exercise combination stretch to really kind of
reset everything. and a lot of times just doing two or three you can
already feel that you're kind of back in that upright position. your head's not
forward so much, so I really like that exercise. and then the last one is just a another
super simple one that you can do all the time which is going to be
an isometric exercise. a lot of time with isometric exercises, if your neck is a
little bit out of alignment or need something like a pop, doing an isometric
exercise not only help strengthen it but sometimes it will help adjust your neck
as well. so the one that I'm going to do for you today and and you can follow
along with me is a side bent isometric exercise. but what isometric exercises
are is you're contracting the muscle but you're not really moving the muscle, so
if you're having a lot of pain you can tighten it up. you can exercise it but
you're not moving to a position that might be painful or uncomfortable right
now. so the motion you're gonna be doing is
this way. keeping your shoulders down your head
going over, but your head's not actually gonna move. you're gonna place your hand
on the side of your forehead here on your temple area, and then you're just
gonna push into your hands. so see my head's not moving you might see it move
just a little bit, but all I'm doing is I'm activating these muscles over here
on this side. when you first do this, just hold it for about three to five seconds,
but don't push as hard as you can to start off with because it might be a
little uncomfortable. maybe do thirty to forty percent of as hard as you think
you can push. so pushing over to the side this is the motion I'm doing but I'm not
going anywhere. I'm pushing into my hand and then I like to go back and forth on
each side instead of do them all on one side. I just like to
alternate back and forth just to give the muscle a little bit of a break. so
that 3 to 5 second hold maybe doing 5 on each side and that should really again
not only help strengthen the muscle it might help get you back into alignment a
little bit, and just get that neck pain out of there in general. so there you
have it, those are my top 5 ways to reduce neck pain. if you'd like to
purchase the sunny baton neck wrap hands-free, make sure and click up there,
and don't forget to subscribe by clicking down there. and remember be safe,
have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.