Neck pain workout
Hi, I'm Carly, one of the physiotherapists here at Bupa.
If you've got a sore neck from sitting at the computer all day or looking down at devices or just from stress in general, then you're not alone. We're going to go through some gentle neck exercises today to just help ease and manage that pain and make you feel a whole lot better. Let's get started.
So, the first place that's important to start is to reset your posture. What you want to do is you want to keep your shoulders back and down. Open your chest up, stand up nice and tall as if you're being pulled from a string at the top of your head, and keep your chin tucked in, not sitting forwards. This helps take pressure off your neck and your middle back.
To loosen up, we're going to start with some neck rolls. For these, I want you to gently bring your chin down to your chest as far as you're able, and then slowly rotate it around to one side, going up and back all the way around. Once you get to the middle, you're going to go back in the opposite direction. Same thing, rotating it gently around, making sure not to push through pain. And you want to do about 30 seconds to a minute's worth.
Neck pain is often caused by tightness in your shoulders as the muscles are interrelated. So, we're going to start with some shoulder rolls, lifting all the way up to the top of your neck and then roll them back and down. You want to breathe in as you come up and then out as you go down. After you've done 30 seconds to a minute in one direction, you want to reverse, come up and going forwards all the way again, lifting your shoulders all the way up towards your ears, coming all the way forwards and down. And then relax.
Now we're going to do some chin tucks, which are great for combating technique. So, when you've been sitting at a desk all day or looking down at your devices all day and your heads coming forwards, this helps to relieve that. Bringing your finger up towards your chin, taking your head straight back, tucking it in to make a double chin coming forwards. Instead of tilting your head up, you want to come straight back, keeping it nice and in line, shoulders down and relaxed. Do 30 seconds to a minute of these and it helps align the spine and strengthen the deep neck muscles.
Next, we're going to do some neck stretches to stretch out some of the big muscles in the side and the back of the neck. First things first, you're going to bring your ear down towards your shoulder, sitting on your opposite hand, keeping your shoulder down. Bring your ear to your shoulder, hand on your head and gently pull, holding for 10 to 20 seconds and then turning your chin down. Look underneath your armpit, hand on the back of your head and pull your chin down to your chest. Then you're going to switch and do the other side, so pulling all the way across, going as far as you're able, nice and gently. It shouldn't be painful at all. This can help relieve a lot of neck pain and stiffness.
These gentle neck stretches should help relieve pain and stiffness, especially if you do them regularly throughout the day and you're aware of your posture.
However, if your neck pain doesn't settle, please check in with your physio or your GP to make sure that it gets sorted. See you next time.
