Hi everybody. Dr. Jodi Kinney, your chiropractor for neck pain in Jackson Township, NJ.
Today, I’m gonna show you the three easiest and best stretches that you can do on your own at home, if you’re starting to feel neck pain.
So, first thing you wanna do is sit up straight, because a lot of times when people stretch, they’re all slouched over, and that’s one of the worst things you could do to try to stretch.
So you want your shoulders back; you want your head back.
If you can tolerate this, start in this starting position.
Neck Pain Stretch 1 | Chiropractic Jackson Township, NJ
First thing you want to do is grab your head, right above your ear, and you’re gonna gently pull directly sideways.
You should feel the stretch in your neck, from your skull all the way, if you’re doing it right, to like out in the shoulder.
You’re gonna hold this for about five to 10 deep breaths.
So you always want to breathe into any kind of stretching, okay.
So you should feel a nice stretch on this side, then when you count to five or 10 breaths, you’re gonna go the other way.
Same thing, by the way, you don’t want to shrug the shoulder up, when you do this, you’re not gonna feel the stretch.
You want to drop your shoulder down to the floor, and then pull your head gently over.
You should be feeling a nice stretch in the muscles here, if you’re doing this right.
So breathing into it and dropping the shoulder while you gently pull the head sideways; those are gonna stretch the muscles in the side of your neck.
Neck Pain Stretch 2 | Chiropractic Jackson Township, NJ
The next stretch we’re gonna do, is gonna stretch the muscles more in the back of the neck.
So you’re gonna turn your head just about 45 degrees.
Using the same arm, you’re going to pull the back of your head and your chin and your nose towards your chest.
You want to also drop the opposite shoulder back and down.
So you want to breathe into this.
If you’re doing this right, you should feel the stretch from the skull all the way into like your shoulder blade.
So this is a good way to stretch the back and sides of your neck.
Same thing, you’re gonna turn your head the opposite, 45 degrees, grab your head, looking towards the other direction, drop the opposite shoulder back and down, and pull your head down, and breathe into the stretch.
Again, you should feel a nice stretch all the way in the back and into the shoulder blade.
Neck Pain Stretch 3 | Chiropractic Jackson Township, NJ
Now, the last stretch I’m gonna do, is one that combats what I call tech neck.
Tech neck is another video that I have in my library, that you should go check out.
If you’re looking down at your phone or your computer, and you have a rounded sort of upper back, you want to do the opposite of that.
So this is a tech neck stretch.
So what you want to do, is you want to stand up, you wanna grab one of your wrists behind you, if you can get there, try your best to straighten your elbows as stick straight as you can get them.
If you’re here, you should already start to feel a stretch in your chest.
That’s gonna bring your shoulder blades back and stick your chest out.
Now you want to tilt your head all the way back, and of course, breathe into the stretch.
If you’re doing this right, you should feel the stretch all the way in the front and into the chest, and into like the front of the shoulders, too. Same thing, five to 10 deep breaths.
This is a good way to start, if you’re having neck pain, get up in the morning, do these stretches first thing; same thing before you go to bed at night, try to stretch at night.
A lot of people sleep wrong or get a kink in their neck when they sleep.
So waking up and stretching first thing in the morning is a really important thing to do.
All right.
