Top 5 Neck Pain Relief Stretches

hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you my top 5 neck stretches. so let's get started. before we get started with the stretches, a lot of you asked do you need to warm up before you stretch.

and the simple answer is yes. but sometimes if you have neck pain or if you're just trying to stretch your neck in general, it's kind of hard to warm up those neck muscles. usually if it's in the legs you can kind of you know March or do jumping jacks or walk real fast for a while, but with the neck it's a little bit harder.

so a lot of times I'll tell people just to put on a heat wrap for about 10 to 15 minutes before and the warmth will help kind of loosen up those muscles to go into the stretch. so the folks at biomed DB Design LLC sent me their sunny Bay unscented hands-free neck wrap.

and so what's really cool about this is not only does it just fit around the neck very nicely, but you can just heat it up by microwaving it for about a minute and then you can flip it over and just do ten second increments to get it to your comfort level.

so once you have it heated up you can place it around your neck for about 10 to 15 minutes, maybe even five minutes, just to warm up those neck muscles before you go into the stretches will really really help because that just kind of gets everything loosened up.

and they they come in a couple different colors. so if you're interested in purchasing them make sure and click on the link up there. so after you get that nice and warmed up, you'll you'll kind of feel that it feels a little bit looser as well and then go into the stretches.

so the first stretch is going to be an upper trap stretch. and that's those muscles up in here. so the best way to stretch that is just take the hand on the side that you want to stretch and sit on it.

you don't have to sit on it if it's uncomfortable, but you want to try and push your arm down to keep that shoulder dow.n if you aren't comfortable doing either one of those, you don't have to, but again it just holds it down to give you a better stretch.

take the other hand and then just gently pull away from that side kind of bringing your ear towards the other shoulder, and you should feel that stretch kind of right in through here. and you want it to be a good comfortable stretch, nothing where it's painful, but that kind of good hurt.

and then you want to hold it for 30 seconds. do the 3 on each side if you have neck pain, even if you're just having neck pain on one side I'd really recommend doing both sides. so 30 seconds, I like to alternate each side just to give it a kind of a break in between and do that three times on each side.

so the next stretch is going to be for your levator scapulae. and that brings up those shoulder blades or your scapula, and the reason that this one gets really tight and it's important to stretch it out because it causes a lot of neck pain because that's kind of where we hold our stress.

our levator scapulae muscle brings those shoulders up, or elevates those those shoulder blades, so when we're kind of stressed out or working on the computer for a long time, we kind of tend to crunch up like this, and so stretching those out really helps relieve some of that neck pain.

so this time the side that you want to stretch you're going to kind of bring your arm up where you want to get your elbow pointing towards the ceiling as much as you can. if you can't do that this is okay, you can just kind of raise your arm.

if you can't do that either, that's okay, you can do this stretch without this but again this kind of helps hold that shoulder blade or that scapula down to give you a better stretch. so this time you're gonna put your hand behind your head and what you want to do is you want to come down at an angle.

you want to kind of take your nose and stretch down towards your opposite knee. so it's not right in front of you, it's not out to the side like the upper trap stretch, but it's kind of at an angle that way.

so I'm pulling over this way bringing that elbow up towards the ceiling as much as I can. and you should feel that stretch right through there. so same thing 30 seconds, 3 on each side. alternate if you can and then come back through this way and then hold that for 30 seconds.

so the next stretch is an anterior scalene stretch. this is the neck muscles in the front here, so a great way to stretch that out is take the hand of the opposite side you're going to stretch. so if I'm stretching this side I'm just gonna place my hand kind of on my collar bone or that clavicle bone right there.

and this is again just to kind of help pull down when you're stretching. and then you're gonna take your head, turn it away, and then bring your ear up towards the ceiling as you pull down a little bit.

and you should feel that stretch right in through here. so again this is a 30-second hold and then alternates side. so then you're turning, holding here, lifting that ear up, and kind of pulling down.

when you stretch, you don't have to do this part, but you I always feel a little bit better stretch when I kind of pull down that way just to get that extra stretch. then again 30 seconds 3 times on each side.

so then the next one is going to be a chin tuck. chin tucks are kind of a stretch kind of an exercise, so sometimes you'll see it in both, but I really do feel like it's a good stretch just to kind of reset all the muscles and stretch them out a little bit.

a lot of times with neck pain, it comes from if you're doing something focusing on something. a lot of time specially when you're working on a computer, you kind of start leaning forward like this, and then you over stretch all these muscles in your neck area, and doing some chin tucks kind of helps reset that.

so with a chin tuck, it's not tucking down like this, but it's actually taking your chin and tucking it back in, or just moving your whole head back. so I like to kind of put my finger on my chin, you don't have to but just use it as a target.

so you would leave your finger there and then tuck your chin and see how lots of little Chins right there, and then hold that for about five seconds. you want to give it a nice big hold, and then when you relax usually you have a little bit of space in between, and that just shows that you're kind of resetting the muscles.

so I think it's sometimes nice to see that visual feedback that you probably have been doing this for awhile, and if you just tuck it in hold that stretch for about that five seconds, and do maybe three to five of those, that kind of helps reset those muscles.

so it's just a really nice way to kind of get everything reset. and then the last stretch you're going to use a towel to help you stretch, and these are called snags. and so basically with the snags, you're kind of holding one segment in place with the towel and then stretching.

so it's just a really great way to help get rid of some of that neck pain. just make sure you don't choke yourself with the towel. so you're just going to kind of put it around you. and then the side that you want to stretch, you're gonna grab here and then you're going to anchor the other side down like this.

see how my hands are kind of crossed here. I'm gonna take this side and bring it up at an angle kind of on my ear. so I don't want it to be here on my neck, but I'm gonna bring it up right over my ear, and I'm gonna take it up and over.

so it's kind of gonna be at an angle, not just straight across. so I'm coming up over my ear, I'm pulling down this way, pulling up that way, so this is just really giving me a nice good stretch.

you can pull back just a little bit if that's comfortable while you're holding this to kind of stabilize that bottom. so again holding for about 30 seconds, doing three on each side. so then when I switch, I'm going to anchor here and then I'm going to pull up and over that ear down this way, up this way, to get that nice stretch in there.

so if this one since you have to kind of pull and use some some effort in your arm, if you can't hold it for that quite thirty Seconds, ten to fifteen seconds is okay, just then do a couple more on each side.

so there you have it those were my top five neck stretches. what's also cool about this "cool," is you can also put it in the freezer for about sixty minutes or an hour and then cool those neck muscles down after you stretch and exercise them.

so this is a really cool thing where you can heat it up to get your muscles warmed up and then cool it down after you've done the exercises. so if you'd like to purchase the product make sure to click on the link 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. hey everybody it's doctor Jo and today I'm going to show you my top 5 neck stretches so let's get started just climber learn this glamour alert before we get started with the stretches a lot of you asked do you need to warm up before you stretch and the simple answer is yes but sometimes if you have neck pain or if you're just trying to stretch your neck in general it's kind of hard to warm up those neck muscles usually if it's in the legs you can kind of you know March or do jumping jacks or walk real fast for a while but with the neck it's a little bit harder so a lot of times I'll tell people just to put on a heat wrap for about 10 to 15 minutes before and the warmth will help kind of loosen up those muscles to go into the stretch so the folks at biomed DB Design LLC sent me their sunny Bay unscented hands-free neck wrap and so what's really cool about this is not only does it just fit around the neck very nicely but you can just heat it up by microwaving it for about a minute and then you can flip it over and just do ten second increments to get it to your comfort level so once you have it heated up you can place it around your neck for about 10 to 15 minutes maybe even five minutes just to warm up those neck muscles before you go into the stretches will really really help because that just kind of gets everything loosened up and they they come in a couple different colors so if you're interested in purchasing them make sure and click on the link up there so after you get that nice and warmed up you'll you'll kind of feel that it feels a little bit looser as well and then go into the stretches so the first stretch is going to be an upper trap stretch and that's those muscles up in here so the best way to stretch that is just take the hand on the side that you want to stretch and sit on it you don't have to sit on it if it's uncomfortable but you want to try and push your arm down to keep that shoulder down if you aren't comfortable doing either one of those you don't have to but again it just holds it down to give you a better stretch take the other hand and then just gently pull away from that side kind of bringing your ear towards the other shoulder and you should feel that stretch kind of right in through here and you want it to be a good comfortable stretch noting where it's painful but that kind of good hurt and then you want to hold it for 30 seconds do the 3 on each side if you have neck pain even if you're just having neck pain on one side I'd really recommend doing both sides so 30 seconds I like to alternate each side just to give it a kind of a break in between and do that three times on each side so the next stretch is going to be for your levator scapulae and that brings up those shoulder blades or your scapula and the reason that this one gets really tight and it's important to stretch it out because it causes a lot of neck pain because that's kind of where we hold our stress our levator scapulae muscle brings those shoulders up or elevates those those shoulder blades so when we're kind of stressed out or working on the computer for a long time we kind of tend to crunch up like this and so stretching those out really helps relieve some of that neck pain so this time the side that you want to stretch you're going to kind of bring your arm up where you want to get your elbow pointing towards the ceiling as much as you can if you can't do that this is okay you can just kind of raise your arm if you can't do that either that's okay you can do this stretch without this but again this kind of helps hold that shoulder blade ER that's scapula down to give you a better stretch so this time you're gonna put your hand behind your head and what you want to do is you want to come down at an angle you want to kind of take your nose and stretch down towards your opposite knee so it's not right in front of you it's not out to the side like the upper trap stretch but it's kind of at an angle that way so I'm pulling over this way bringing that elbow up towards the ceiling as much as I can and you should feel that stretch right through there so same thing 30 seconds 3 on each side alternate if you can and then come back through this way and then hold that for 30 seconds so the next stretch is an anterior scalene stretching this is the neck muscles in the front here so a great way to stretch that out is take the hand of the opposite side you're going to stretch so if I'm stretching this side I'm just gonna place my hand kind of on my collar bone or that clavicle bone right there and this is again just to kind of help pull down when you're stretching and then you're gonna take your head turn it away and then bring your ear up towards the ceiling as you pull down a little bit and you should feel that stretch right in through here so again this is a 30-second hold and then alternates side so then you're turning holding here lifting that ear up and kind of pulling down what you stretch you don't have to do this part but you I always feel a little bit better stretch when I kind of pull down that way just to get that extra stretch then again 30 seconds 3 times on each side so then the next one is going to be a chin tuck chin tucks are kind of a stretch kind of an exercise so sometimes you'll see it in both but I really do feel like it's a good stretch just to kind of reset all the muscles and stretch them out a little bit a lot of times with neck pain it comes from if you're doing something focusing on something a lot of time specially when you're working on a computer you kind of start leaning forward like this and then you over stretch all these muscles in your neck area and doing some chin tucks kind of helps reset that so with a chin tuck it's not tucking down like this but it's actually taking your chin and tucking it back in or just moving your whole head back so I like to kind of put my finger on my chin you don't have to but just use it as a target so you would leave your finger there and then tuck your chin and see how lots of little Chin's right there and then hold that for about five seconds you want to give it a nice big hold and then when you relax usually you have a little bit of space in between and that just shows that you're kind of resetting the muscles so I think it's sometimes nice to see that visual feedback that you probably have been doing this for awhile and if you just tuck it in hold that stretch for about that five seconds and do maybe three to five of those that kind of helps reset those muscles so it's just a really nice way to kind of get everything reset and then the last stretch you're going to use a towel to help you stretch and these are called snags and so basically with the snags you're kind of holding one segment in place with the towel and then stretching so it's just a really great way to help get rid of some of that neck pain just make sure you don't choke yourself with the towel so you're just going to kind of put it around you and then the side that you want to stretch you're gonna grab here and then you're going to anchor the other side down like this see how my hands are kind of crossed here I'm gonna take this side and bring it up at an angle kind of on my ear so I don't to be here on my neck but I'm gonna bring it up right over my ear and I'm gonna take it up and over so it's kind of gonna be at an angle not just straight across so I'm coming up over my ear I'm pulling down this way pulling up that way so this is just really giving me a nice good stretch you can pull back just a little bit if that's comfortable while you're holding this to kind of stabilize that bottom so again holding for about 30 seconds doing three on each side so then when I switch I'm going to anchor here and then I'm going to pull up and over that year down this way up this way to get that nice stretch in there so if this one since you have to kind of pull and use some some effort in your arm if you can't hold it for that quite thirty Seconds ten to fifteen seconds is okay just then do a couple more on each side so there you have it those were my top five neck stretches what's also cool about this cool is you can also put it in the freezer for about sixty minutes or an hour and then cool those neck muscles down after you stretch and exercise them so this is a really cool thing where you can heat it up to get your muscles warmed up and then cool it down after you've done the exercises so if you'd like to purchase the product make sure to click on the link 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