If you are having some neck pain, stiffness, or tightness, check out this video for neck stretches. The neck muscles that are affected the most are your trapezius and levator scapulae muscles. People often describe neck pain as a crick in their neck.
First start off with some gentle neck stretches by bringing your chin to your chest and then looking up towards the ceiling. This is neck flexion and extension. Next you are going to take your ear to your shoulder on each side. Make sure you are not shrugging your shoulders up. This is side bending. Then you are going to turn your head from side to side like you are looking over your shoulder. This is neck rotation. If that is not painful, then you can add some overpressure with your hands.
Now place your hand under your thigh to keep your shoulder down, then side bend your head to the opposite side and gently put pressure with your other hand to get a stretch through your trapezius muscles. Hold these for 30 seconds and perform 3 times on each side.
The final stretch is going to be for your levator scapulae muscle. This is the muscle that is used when you shrug your shoulders, and they can get overworked when you are stressed out. Take your arm on the side of the pain and place it above and behind your shoulder. Then take your opposite arm and place on top and slightly behind your head. Look down towards the opposite knee of the pain and apply gentle pressure for a good stretch.
Sometimes neck pain happens with even the slightest movement. This often happens with a neck trauma like whiplash or a sport's injury. With any neck trauma, it's important to get checked out by your Healthcare Provider first. Once you're cleared for movement, these stretches and exercises may help.
These shoulder pain relief stretches are great for helping to relieve general shoulder pain and shoulder tightness. The shoulder stretches are done in real time, so they are easy to follow.
Cervical spondylosis can cause achiness and soreness as well as decreased motion in the neck. These stretches and exercises may help relieve the symptoms.
As Pickleball's popularity increases, injuries from pickleball are also increasing, and shoulder pain is common from the sport. Injuries to the shoulder include rotator cuff tears, tendonitis, and bursitis. The stretches & exercises in this video can help strengthen, relieve pain, and loosen up the muscles around the shoulder and neck area.
Cervical traction is a popular treatment for general neck pain and specific diagnoses like a pinched nerve known as radiculopathy, disc issues, arthritis, stenosis, and a few others.
This real-time neck routine features easy stretches & exercises that can help strengthen the neck & relieve pain. It can also help improve posture, decrease neck tightness, and improve overall neck flexibility.
Frozen shoulder, technically known as adhesive capsulitis, is a condition that causes stiffness and pain in the shoulder joint from adhesion build-up in the joint capsule. Stretches & exercises like these can help speed up the recovery time.
A pinched nerve (or cervical radiculopathy) is basically when the nerve coming out of the spine gets irritated at the nerve root. This can cause pain and weakness going down into the arm. These exercises should help.
My favorite exercise for the shoulder area is a shoulder or scapular squeeze. It’s great for the shoulders, neck, and upper back. This exercise is performed in real-time, so it’s easy to follow along if you want.