Hi. I'm Natalie, and today Veritas Health is bringing you a seven-minute exercise routine for neck pain relief. We are going to do this exercise routine in real time together. Repetitive posture or poor posture can cause tightening of the muscles of the front of your neck and chest. This can lead to increased neck pain. The stretches will do today will help loosen up those muscles and can help reduce your pain. If any of these poses increase your symptoms or cause new symptoms, please discontinue and consult with your medical provider. The first stretch we're going to do is a flexion stretch. You will stand up or sit up tall, put your hands behind your head, and just gently bring your chin towards your chest. Hold this stretch for 10 seconds.
You might feel a stretch through the back of your head or the back of your neck while doing this stretch. Let's do it four more times.
Good. Three more.
Good. And one more time.
If you have any pain or discomfort or if any of these stretches worsen your symptoms, please stop doing your exercises and reach out to your provider. The next stretch I'm going to show you is a lateral flexion stretch. You're going to sit up tall or stand tall. And keeping your nose and eyes and line, tip your ear to one shoulder. Hold this stretch for 10 seconds. And if you need a little bit more of a stretch, you can use your hand to provide a little bit of gentle pressure.
Good. You should be feeling this stretch through one side of your neck. Let's go through that four more times.
Good. Two more times.
Good. We'll then do that stretch for the other side of your neck. So you'll bring your ear towards your opposite shoulder and use a little bit of pressure from your opposite hand.
Good. You're, once again, looking for a stretch through this part of your neck.
Good. Let's do that three more times.
Good. And once more.
Good. The next stretch will do is a levator scapular stretch, which is for another neck muscle that goes from your shoulder blade to the back of your head. For this stretch, I'm going to have you head over to a wall or a doorway. Bend your elbow to about 90 degrees and place it along the wall. You're then going to look down towards your opposite collarbone and let your head go down into a nice stretch for the opposite side of your neck, holding for 10 seconds.
Good. Let's go through four more of those. If you need a little bit of pressure, you can use your opposite hand to pull down.
Good. And one more.
Good. And then we'll switch to the other side.
Look down towards your opposite collarbone, and then let your head go down into a nice stretch through the back of your neck.
Good. And then once again, you can use your hand for a little bit of extra pressure into the stretch.
Good. And then one more.
Good. The next stretch we're going to do is a corner stretch or a doorway stretch. We'll head over to a corner for this. You're going to head to a corner and place both arms just a little less than 90 degrees from your shoulders. Lean into it until you feel a gentle stretch through your chest. I'm going to have you guys hold this for 10 seconds.
Good. In between stretches, you can step away to give your muscles a break.
And if it's easier for your balance, you can have one foot in front of the other to give you a little more stability.
Thank you for watching this exercise routine for neck pain relief. To learn more about neck pain, please visit us at Spine Health, and be sure to subscribe to our channel for more videos like this.
