oh hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and the pups, and today I'm going to show you my
five minutes stretching routine for neck pain, in real time. so let's get started.
so with the real time stretching routine, just five minutes is all you need. I have
my patients a lot of times say I don't have 30 to 45 minutes throughout the day
to do my home exercise program. with a home exercise program it's really about
the quality of the stretches and exercises, not necessarily the quantity.
so I say 5 minutes a couple times throughout the day just really should be
doable, something that you can do. since these neck pain stretches are in
real time, if you'd like to follow along with me you can because I'm gonna do
them for the full time that you need to stretch. the way I have it set up on my
timer is I'm gonna do a 45 second warm-up, and then I'm gonna do a stretch
on each side for 30 seconds. I know if you've seen some of my videos I always
say do the 30 seconds three times on each side, but again I'd rather you get
the quality stretch for a short amount of reps versus trying to just get three
but not do the thirty second full thirty Seconds. so we're gonna do 30 seconds
stretch on each side, take a little 10-second break in between, and then go
into the next stretches. so a total it'll be a little bit more than five minutes,
but the actual stretches will just be a quick 5 minutes that you should easily
be able to do. so we're gonna start off with the 45 second just warm up in
general. and with a warm up, you don't have to do anything crazy. we're just
gonna start getting some movement. so I'm just going to start turning my head side
to side. you don't really have to hold this because you're just trying to warm
up those muscles before you go into the stretches. so maybe just 5 on each side.
you don't have to be specific with the numbers, but again just getting the
movements a little bit. then you can kind of go into a side Bend. when you're doing
the side Bend, you want to bring your ear down. you don't want to bring your
shoulder up. so again this is just a continuous movement to try and get
everything loosened up and ready to go into those stretches. so again maybe just
5 on each side. you don't have to really count. your shoulders are also those
muscles and your shoulders are connected to your neck, so just a couple rolls
where you get started. so now we're gonna go into the first stretch. so an upper
trap stretch is the one I like. I'm gonna go ahead and go into the motion and just
talk to you about it a little bit. so I'm sitting on my hand and that's just to
help hold my shoulder down to get the extra stretch. you don't have to do that,
but you're gonna get a better stretch if you can keep that shoulder down. and then
I'm just bringing my ear over pulling to the opposite side and getting that
stretch through that upper trap right there. and so you don't want it to be
painful, you just want to have that nice stretch. so see 30 seconds goes pretty
fast and then we're gonna switch over to the other side. so same thing just
sitting on that hand and pulling over. if you don't want to sit on it, you can put
your hand behind your back like this, and you'll still get a good
stretch just trying to pull that elbow down towards the chair while you're
going over you're gonna get that nice stretch through that upper trap muscle
right there. and so that's a big stressor muscle when it's tight it can cause a
lot of neck pain, and so this is just a good way to kind of get it all nice and
stretched out. so after this one, we're gonna take a quick little 10-second
break to kind of reset all those muscles, and then we're gonna go into a levator
scapulae stretch. and so that one's where a lot of our stress comes in when we're
working throughout the day, so I'm just gonna bring my elbow up like this and
then I'm taking my nose towards the opposite knee. so I'm just holding this
stretch right here. if your elbow is uncomfortable in this position, you can
just bring your arm up for the stretch. and then if both of those are
uncomfortable, you can bring it down but again with my arm up like this I'm
pushing that shoulder blade down to get a better stretch. now make sure that
you're turning your nose towards the opposite side there. so now I'm going to
switch sides bringing that elbow up. that's the one I prefer turning my head
and then pulling it down towards that opposite knee. so I'm not bending my head
sideways, I'm not looking down and turning it over, I'm I'm rotating it over
and pulling behind my head down where my nose is going towards that opposite knee
and getting that nice stretch in there. so then once you get this stretch again
just take a little 10-second break to kind of reach
set everything, and then we're gonna go into the anterior scalene muscles which
are again a lot of the ones that cause that neck pain. take your hand and pull
down on that collarbone or clavicle, and turn that way and then bring your chin
up. so you should feel the stretch kind of through here. now that's where those
those muscles are and again you don't have to pull down on that collar bone
that clavicle bone, but this will give you an extra stretch. so you can just
turn and go up like that, but I feel a much better stretch if I just kind of
pull down gently that way. and so I have one of my patients say this is this is
like a portrait pose like you're gazing too out into nothingness. so again then
pulling down here bringing my chin over and then look pulling my head up that
way. so just getting that nice stretch in there again turning and pulling up. so a
nice good hold there. again I'm feeling that kind of through there. the stretches
shouldn't be painful, you should just be feeling some tension on there and that's
really what you should be feeling. so again after that stretch, take that
little 10-second break and then shake it out. so the next one's going to be a chin
tuck. so it's a little bit different because you're not going to actually
hold for 30 seconds. so if you've seen a lot of my stuff, the chin tuck is
bringing it back this way. so I'm not tucking in this way, I'm taking my chin
and pulling back, and just maybe holding for about five seconds and relaxing. so
we're going to do a couple sets of these through the 30 second period. so again
pulling back, keeping that chin level almost like if you're sitting in a tall
chair. you're trying to push your head into the back of the chair .you can also
do this against the wall if you need a target, and then just push your head into
the wall. so again you only have to hold it for maybe three to five seconds. we're
going to keep on going because this one would be the full minute of the chin
tuck. so again just pulling in. you can see I got lots of little Chin's right
there, but you should feel the muscles working and stretching at the same time.
so this is kind of a combination of a stretch and an exercise. remember make
sure you're not holding it for 30 seconds for this one
you're just holding it for about three to five seconds and kind of doing
those continuously. so you should definitely get a couple in there and
then just take that break. so now with that last break. the last stretch is
going to be coming in and this is going to be using a towel to get this big
stretch. so I'm taking my opposite hand and grabbing here and then bringing this
up over my ear and not over my neck, but up and over. I'm pulling down here and
I'm pulling up towards the ceiling. this just helps you get a stretch a
little bit more, what I would call it seg mentally of your of your cervical spine
because you're stabilizing the lower part, and then you're rotating up the
other one. so this one's a really nice way to get a really good stretch, and
it's is it sometimes helps kind of mobilize the spine as well. so now I'm
grabbing this side bringing it up over where my ear is. so I'm actually going up
towards the ceiling and over, and then down with this one, and getting that nice
pull in there. so don't bring it down low where you're choking yourself. we don't
want that, but getting that nice stretch in there. and this is one of my favorite
stretches because I really feel like it isolates out that stretch, gets that neck
stretch. so if you're having that pain in there it's really gonna get a good
stretch. so there you have it. that's my five-minute stretching routine for
neck pain. if you'd like to help support my channel, make sure and click on the
link up there. and don't forget to subscribe,
where Remy? yeah down there. and remember be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.