April 30, 2021

Best Exercises To Fix Neck Pain

What a Pain in the Neck!

 

If it’s not your boss with a last minute request on a Friday afternoon, or your in-laws showing up unexpectedly for the weekend, or even your dog shredding your couch cushions while you’re out on a hot date, then maybe the pain in the neck in your life is just that…pain in the neck. 

If your neck is annoyingly sore, especially by the end of each day, let’s dive into why that is, and what you can do about it. This article shares a few simple tips, tricks, and the best exercises to fix neck pain. 

Before following any of the suggestions in this article, please consult your physician if your neck pain:

• Is getting significantly worse.
• Exists for more than 6 weeks. 
• Comes on sharp and quickly.
• Is accompanied by nausea.

 

Do You Really Have Rocks in Your Head?

 

One reason why your neck aches is that it may feel like your head is filled with rocks. Not necessarily true in most cases, but your head is HEAVY! 

Weighing in between a whopping 10-12 pounds, your head not only affects your neck, but it also has a significant impact on the rest of your spine. Envision trying to balance a bowling ball at the top of your spine! 

Seven small vertebrae in your neck, as well as, muscles, ligaments and tendons all working together support everything you do with your head. It’s a big job and something that most of us take for granted. So, making sure you maintain good posture is key to putting less torque on the neck. 

 

The Impact!

 

The position of your head impacts the pressure on your spine, meaning that for each inch your head moves forward, an additional 10 pounds of weight is felt on your spine.  

So, for example, looking down at your phone (45 degrees) elevates the pressure on your spine from about 11 pounds (neutral) to 48 pounds. That’s huge!

If your neck and back are painful, what is happening at the top of your spine may be a contributor. 

Let’s talk about perfect posture: 

• Hold your phone up in front of your face instead of looking down
• Make sure you are looking straight at your computer monitor with your head neutral over your shoulders
• Ears over the shoulders by pulling chin in slightly and lengthening the back of the neck
• Shoulder blades pulled together and down slightly
• Chin parallel to the floor

 

Stretching Your Sore Neck Muscles

 

There are a variety of stretching exercises that you can do to alleviate and avoid neck pain. Here are some of my favorite:

Chin Tuck:

• Standing or sitting tall 
• Chin parallel to the floor 
• Pull chin in with ears over shoulders
• Hold 1-3 seconds
• Repeat for 10-15 repetitions

Wall Slides: 

• Standing against a wall
• Pull chin in and lengthen the back of the neck 
• Place arms laterally against the wall bending at the elbow for 90 degree angles 
• Keeping your back against the wall by engaging your abs
• Extend arms directly over head by sliding arms up the wall to feel a stretch in your chest
• Return your arms to the starting point
• Repeat for 10-15 repetitions

Shoulder Blade Squeeze: 

• Standing or sitting tall
• Ears aligned over your shoulders
• Squeeze shoulder blades together keeping shoulders down 
• Hold for 1-3 seconds
• Repeat for 10-15 repetitions

Look Both Ways:

• Standing or sitting tall
• Ears aligned over your shoulders
• Slowly look directly left over your shoulder 
• Return to center 
• Slowly look directly right over your other shoulder
• Repeat for 5-10 repetitions each side

 

Beware of Traps!

 

Is your neck sore because you are holding a lot of tension in your trapezius muscle?

It’s the large triangle shaped muscle that runs from the base of your skull (occipital bone), down the center of your back (thoracic vertebrae), and laterally to your shoulders (scapula). 

Simple Suggestions to follow to avoid being tripped by your traps are: 

Shoulder shrugs: 

• Hold arms down by your sides
• Lift shoulders up and back in a circular motion
• Repeat for about 10-15 repetitions

Trap stretch:

• Interlock fingers behind you and pull your fist to the left side of your waist
• Hold your left elbow out laterally away from your body
• Slowly lean your left ear to your left shoulder toward your elbow. 
• Hold for 30 seconds
• Repeat on your right side 

If interlocking fingers behind you is a challenge:

• Simply lean your left ear toward your shoulder
• Loop your left hand over your head
• Apply light pressure to the right side of your head, increasing the intensity of the stretch slightly
• Hold for 30 seconds 
• Repeat on your right side

The above exercises not only help to increase neck strength and flexibility, but help improve posture, too! 

 

Postural Kyphosis, Say What?

 

Postural kyphosis is curvature of the spine that forms a hump on the upper back. The hump can be located at the base of the neck, or slightly lower between the shoulder blades. Because of this, the hump is referred to as buffalo hump, round back, hunch back, as well as the outdated and offensive term dowager’s hump. 

Accordingly, contributors to the formation of a back hump are: 

• Carrying extra weight – extra pounds are a challenge for the skeletal structure of your whole body. However, fat also accumulates on the spine as protection and increases the presence of a hump 
• Poor Posture – allowing your body to slouch can create physical misalignment 
• Lack of Fitness – keeping your muscles strong and your limbs mobile allows your body to hold it’s frame properly
• Injury or vertebral compression fractures in which part of a vertebrae collapses
• Degeneration of the spine, a.k.a osteoarthritis, in which function and ability are impaired

 

How You Can Prevent or Correct Your Hump 

 

You can prevent the formation of a back hump or decrease the hump you have by making some changes that involve more than just exercises for your neck and back, such as: 

Sitting and standing tall, as well as sleeping with appropriate support – Your posture determines how your tissues support your bones in proper alignment – see the Hybrid Fitness posture article HERE

Stretching the pectoral muscles of your chest to allow the front of your torso to open, and your shoulders to move back and align with your hips. To do this: 

• • Stand in an average doorway
  • Place arms at 90-degree angles on either side of the door frame 
  • Step one foot forward and lean forward with your sternum while relaxing the muscles of your chest
  • Keep your head aligned with the spine, with ears over shoulders
  • Increase the stretch by leaning forward a little at a time as you inhale and exhale
  • If the doorway is too wide, do one side at a time
  • If this stretch is easy, raise arms higher against the door frame
  • Hold for 30 seconds

Stretching the muscles of your upper back to pull the shoulder blades together broadening the chest. To do this: 

• • Face a wall standing a few feet away with feet at least shoulder width apart
  • Place both hands flat against the wall above head height
  • Keep your neck and head aligned with your spine
  • Slowly push your butt back as you lean into the wall
  • Inhale and with each exhale sink a little deeper into the stretch
  • Hold 30 seconds

Building strength in your back, shoulders and arms by doing a variation of a push-up.

*Note – before you discount this exercise thinking it’s too hard and no fun, see the Hybrid Fitness article on how to get your first push-up and variations of push-ups HERE.

 

The Miracle of Massage

 

Another option is to receive a massage from a licensed therapist in order to help target muscle “knots” specifically. It’s beneficial to relax as much as possible while the therapist is massaging the muscle. Slow inhales and exhales can help here. 

In a pinch, an alternative to a massage:

• Place a tennis ball in a long sock and hang the ball over your shoulder
• Stand with your back to the wall with the ball between your body and the wall
• Locate the ball just below your neck to left side of your spine
• Bend your knees to roll your back over the ball in a vertical line between your shoulder blades on the left side of your spine. 
• Then, move the ball to the right side of your spine and roll vertically again. 
• Concentrate longer on areas where you have muscle soreness or pain until the muscle relaxes. 

Be sure to hydrate with water after any massage in order to help your body flush toxins that have been released into your bloodstream. As if you needed another benefit to drinking more water!

 

The Next Step!

 

There you have it! The best exercises to fix neck pain.

These exercises will help you stretch parts that are sore, and build strength in your neck and back muscles to prevent the pain from returning. 

You don’t need to large chunks our of your day to do these. Implement them slowly, and one at a time. Build a habit of doing them, and I promise, you’ll see relief!

I would even recommend adding them into your routine even if you don’t experience any pain currently. This will help prevent any soreness or pain from even starting!

If you found this article helpful, please check out the other articles from Hybrid Fitness coaches HERE

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