In addition to fear for the health and safety of ourselves and our families, the inability to leave home is an added source of anxiety. We tend to carry stress in the muscles of our neck, causing neck pain to radiate up into the head, as well as throughout the upper body. Try these exercises today to alleviate some of your discomfort.
Exercises to Stretch Your Neck
- Forward and backward tilts should be slowly completed while seated or standing and should be repeated several times each day.
- Side tilts should be completed while standing with feet hip-width apart and arms at sides. Repeat for several sets, working your way up to ten.
- Side rotations should be completed while seated or standing and repeated in a set of ten.
- Shoulder rolls should be completed while standing and repeated six times forward, then six times backward.
- Upper trapezius stretches should be completed until a comfortable stretch is felt on the opposite side of the neck. Repeat on each side three times and perform twice daily.
- Levator scapular stretches should be completed until a comfortable stretch is felt on the opposite side of the neck. Repeat on each side three times and perform twice daily.
- Doorway stretches should be completed until feeling a comfortable stretch in your chest region. Repeat on each side three times and perform twice daily.
Exercises to Strengthen Your Neck
- Shoulder scapular squeezes should be performed hard enough to support good posture, but not hard enough to induce pain.
- Wall push-ups should be repeated ten times with one-two sets and performed twice daily.
- Prone rows should be repeated twenty times and performed twice daily.
- Theraband rows should be completed by squeezing the shoulder blades without lifting the shoulders toward the ears. Repeat twenty times and perform twice daily.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do to control what’s going on in the world, but you can try these easy exercises to help improve your neck pain. Practice this set frequently and feel some of your stress start to melt away. If you need help with your neck pain, talk to the team at Metropolitan Institute of Pain.
