hey everybody it's doctor jo and sleepy
Kali and today i'm going to show you my 20 minute real time neck stretches and
exercise routine. so let's get started. so i'm going to go ahead and get this started
with a warm-up, and then i'll tell you a little bit more about the timer as we go. so let's just
start off with some side bends to kind of loosen up the neck a little bit, and again we're going to
warm up for about a minute and then we're going to go in 30 second sets for the stretches and the
exercises. so we don't have to count the reps, we'll just do a 30 second then we'll take a short
break and then between each stretch or exercise will take a little bit longer break. now do a
little bit of rotation. again this is just to kind of get everything loosened up nothing wild
and crazy just getting those muscles a little bit warmer. only go into your pain-free motion right
now if you have pain or if you're just trying to keep everything nice and healthy, then you can go
a little bit further into the stretch. and then maybe just some shoulder circles. you know again
this is with the shoulder, but a lot of those neck muscles and shoulder muscles um connect to each
side so those neck muscles, go down the shoulder, and those shoulder muscles go up to the
neck. and then reverse it just a little bit. so now that we got that warm up, we're going to
take a quick little break and then we're going to go into chin tucks. chin tucks are my favorite. if
you've watched any of my videos about the neck and shoulder, you know they're my favorites. so with
a chin tuck, you're just keeping the chin in this kind of neutral position and you're tucking it in.
that's what you're doing. so you're not tucking down, but you're tucking back and in. this is kind
of an exercise and a stretch, so maybe just start off with trying to hold for three to five seconds.
sometimes i like to put my finger here, leave it there, and then move back. once you hold it for
a little bit, if you come back sometimes you'll have a little space in between and that just maybe
shows that you need to do this to kind of stretch out those neck muscles a little bit. they're also
great for posture because a lot of times, we're you know going forward like this, and the chin
tuck is a great way to reset that and really help the neck nice and loosened up. so again when
you're going back into that chin tuck, you can see i can go pretty far, but i do chin tucks every
day. i even do them in my car going to work, all that kind of stuff. so if you're only able to
do this much right now, that's okay. don't force it. don't go to where it hurts. if you're doing a
chin tuck and it hurts, you shouldn't be doing it. you know whatever motion you can do and then kind
of hold it for a little bit. so even if it doesn't feel like it's moving a lot, if you keep trying
it, it'll get there. so after those chin tucks, then you can add on to the chin tucks to make
it into a little bit more of an exercise. so we're just going to add shoulder squeezes into the
chin tuck, which makes those muscles start working together a little bit, the neck and the shoulder
muscles, which is going to help kind of with the neck in general, especially if you're having some
pain. so you're going to go into the chin tuck, hold that tuck, and then just kind of shrug
your shoulders up this way. so again chin tuck, shrug up those shoulders, come down. you can
also do chin tuck and a shoulder squeeze, whichever one you want. or if you want to
alternate, but you're just kind of adding those movements together. so usually i say don't
kind of come up like this, but if it's an actual exercise where you're tucking and shifting up,
you can do that. you can also do those shoulder squeezes, or if you want to do your first set
with the shrugs and then the second set with the squeezes, you can. so again going into that
chin tuck. now i'm squeezing back, but i'm trying to keep that chin tuck the whole time. so
if i'm squeezing this way, or if i'm shrugging up this way. now if you have to reset every time,
you know do one come down and stop kind of like i did, the beginning that's fine, but eventually
you want to hold that chin tuck and be able to do the other exercise while you're holding that
chin tuck. that makes it a lot harder, but that makes those muscles work together a lot better
.and again it's a lot tougher than it looks. so make sure you're not doing a whole lot and then
getting yourself sore. so now that we've kind of gotten those muscles working a little bit,
we're going to go into a couple stretches. so one of my favorite stretches is an upper
trap stretch. again it's great for the neck, and it's great for the shoulders as well. so if
i'm stretching my left side, i'm going to sit on my left hand and then bring my right hand up
and over and just gently pull to the side. so for this one i'm keeping my head in a fairly neutral
position. when i'm pulling over, sometimes you can get different stretches if you look down or
if you look up, but right now i really just want to go over to this side. this is a full 30 second
stretch, so i'm just kind of you know sitting up tall and getting that nice stretch right through
there. you can do this a couple different ways, placement of your hand. i've always learned
sitting on my hand, but you can also place it behind your back. so for this side i'm going to
have it behind my back. going into that stretch, you might feel a little bit different stretch. it
holds down that shoulder blade a little bit more, and so it's going to give you a really nice
stretch in there. and again you know if you've done this for a while and you want to kind of
turn your head a little bit one way or kind of look down a little bit the other way, just to get
a little bit of a stretch um in a different way, that's good. but usually just starting over
to the side to get that stretch is going to be good enough to get everything right through there
and really get that neck loosened up and feeling better. now if it's a little bit uncomfortable
to sit on it or put behind your back, you can just stretch over without putting
your other hand anywhere. but what this does is this keeps that shoulder down. so usually
you'll get a better stretch with it but again you know if that's uncomfortable, or it feels
weird, if you just want to place your hand or just kind of let it hang down off of the side.
i'm still getting a stretch. i'm still getting a nice stretch through there, but i really do feel
like you'll get a little bit better stretch if you either sit on your hand or put it back behind you. and again you don't want to push these
stretches into pain. you want these to be a little bit of tension, slightly uncomfortable.
i'll go behind for this one, but it never should be painful. you shouldn't be sitting there
counting as fast as you can, you know one two three for five six seven. you know you
should be able to just sit here comfortably, get a stretch. if you want to do some nice deep
breathing, maybe some diaphragmatic breathing, a lot of times that will help get a little bit
more of a stretch. once everything's relaxed, you can kind of feel that you can get that little
bit more of a stretch in there as you go. um so sometimes just taking those nice deep breaths,
put the mute uh button on, and just kind of do your own thing while you're following along with
the stretches. um so the next one is going to be an upper uh or excuse me a levator scap stretch.
and so with the levator scapulae stretch that's the muscle that kind of goes from your scapula or
your shoulder blade all the way into your neck. so this time i'm putting my hand up on the side i
want to stretch. i'm bringing my hand over almost like a helmet, and i'm pulling at an angle. so
i'm not forward. i'm not completely to the side. now i'm kind of at an angle about that 45 degrees.
i'm looking at my opposite knee, or i'm trying to tuck my nose into my armpit there. and so again
this is that full 30 30 second stretch, getting that nice stretch in there. now some people are
going to have a hard time bringing their elbow up, especially if they have some neck shoulder pain.
so again you can put your hand behind your back, just make sure you're still getting that angle
either that 45 degree angle, or even i'm tucking my nose into my armpit there. so again you know
this is how i learned it. this is my favorite way to do it, but if that's really uncomfortable,
you can just kind of place it behind your back and what that's doing is that stabilizing that
shoulder blade back there that scapula and preventing it from coming up when you stretch. so
you're just going to feel a better stretch. again if those are uncomfortable to do and you just feel
like you can't do a whole lot with the other arm, you can go into the stretch and you can do the
stretch without doing anything with the other arm. which is fine um but again, you can you know you
can sit on it, you can put it behind your back, but this is this is the way i learned. this is my
favorite way and i'm feeling that stretch right through here all the way down to that shoulder
blade where it attaches and all the way up to that cervical spine or in that neck area. so a
lot of times if that muscle is tight, it's pulling on that cervical spine or where the spine is in
your neck and causing pain, tightness, achiness, all those kind of things. and so
it's a really good one to stretch out and also that muscle that levator scapulae muscle
is the one that a lot of times if you're stressed out, and you sit like this a lot, and you're on
your computer, you're overworking that muscle, and it can cause again a lot of pain. a
lot of tightness. sometimes even headaches. so this stretch a lot of times people will
go oh yeah that's hitting the spot. you know sometimes people even have a trigger
point right there where it attaches to that shoulder blade. and you can when you can
get it stretched out, it feels really good. so the next one that we're going to do is we're
going to go into an anterior scalene stretch. and so there's there's different sets of the scalene
muscles, the anterior, middle, and the posterior. some people call them different things, but front,
middle, and back is basically what it is. and so i like to call this the portrait pose. one of
my patients called it that once. so you're just taking the hand of the opposite side and you're
going to just kind of push down on that collarbone a little bit. that's again just to stabilize it.
i'm going to turn my head towards that side and then lift my ear up towards the ceiling. so this
is a great way to stretch it. you should feel it right through there. and just kind of again
this is that 30 second stretch. holding it, but a lot of people will say take that little
pose, and then you can get that stretch. that way you can also turn your head the other way and
still get a pretty good stretch in your scalene. so i always tell people sometimes try turning both
ways. so if i was turning this way and looking up, i'm getting a stretch, but you can also turn
away and then stretch away, still taking that ear up towards the ceiling. so whichever way is more
comfortable. maybe try a little bit on each side, but getting that stretch i'm feeling that nice
stretch in through there. and so sometimes with something like thoracic outlet syndrome,
stretching those anterior scalenes because they put a lot of pressure on that first rib up
in there, is a really great way to get rid of some of that neck pain. but again you want these
stretches to be comfortable. if they're painful then you're either pushing too hard, or maybe not
quite doing it right. so again kind of getting on that uh collarbone or that clavicle, turning
towards that side, and then lifting that ear up towards the ceiling. again when you're doing this
if you want to just do that nice deep breathing, and then relaxing. sometimes you
can get a better stretch after you let that breath out. taking those nice deep
breaths either the diaphragmatic breathing, or even chest breathing just to get
that nice deep deep breaths in there. and then you can as you're going, you're
going to start feeling like you're loosening up a little bit more. sometimes you
might get a little pop or crack, that's pretty normal. people often say you know is
that normal? um you know that popping and cracking can be a couple different things. sometimes it is
you know the bone just kind of rubbing on the bone a little bit. maybe if you have some arthritic
changes, or it can just be the fluid shifting in the joints, and that's usually kind of that pop
that you'll you know hear when you get a good like pop in your spine or something. and it's really
just that that fluid shifting causing little um bubbles in there, and um it's nothing to be
worried about as long as it's not painful, um it's it's fine to to hear those pops
occasionally. i hear mine pop all the time. so we're going to go back into a chin tuck
but now we're going to activate the deep neck flexor muscles which are the ones that
often get stressed out again when you have bad posture and you're overworking them. so this
time what you're going to do, you're going into that chin tuck again, but now once i'm in that
chin tuck, i'm trying to take my chin down. i'm trying to bend it down towards my chest
area, but you can see it's not going very far. so this is going to be more of an exercise instead
of a stretch. so you can do it this way. you can either do one chin tuck go down come back up and
start over, or you can go into that chin tuck and just do some of those neck flexions or
bends. and again you can see with those deep flexor muscles you're not going to be able to go
very fa.r it's it's not a big movement because they're deep down in there, and it's hard
to really get to them. so again tucking in, bending down into that flexion,
coming back out if you need to, or keeping it in and just doing those tucks in
there. you can even hold the chin um the the flexion down a little bit if you want to. so you
can kind of do a couple different ways just to get the different exercises, but i can feel those
deep flexor muscles working when i do this. it doesn't take much to get them worked out, so
it's a great one just to kind of get everything once you stretch everything out to start
strengthening those muscles because if you have any neck pain, and if you're cleared
of all precautions, you really want to have that stability in your neck to help protect it, so
you don't have pain or any kind of arthritic changes in there. so the next one is going to be
a rhomboid stretch so i'm just going to clasp my hands in front of me. i'm punching forward
tucking in my chin and kind of arching back a little bit. you can even slouch down some. and
so you might say hey you know this isn't quite for the neck, but even those upper back muscles like
the rhomboids and the upper traps that we stretch those all kind of have a lot to do with the
neck area. so even though the rhomboids aren't technically connected to the neck area up there,
you really want to get those stretched out because if they're tight there and they're pulling
on those shoulder blades. all those muscles, those 20 plus muscles connected to the shoulder
blades, if they're not working how they're supposed to, that's going to cause neck pain.
so again punching forward tucking in that chin, and kind of slouching back or pushing your upper
back away from your hands to really get that nice stretch in there. you might have seen me do this
where my legs are out in front of me, where i'm either on the on the couch with my legs in front
of me, or on the floor. you can do that too, it's going to be a bigger stretch, but sometimes you
might have a hard time getting on the floor, or you might not have an area to be able
to get down, so just sitting in a chair, you can do that as well. so now we're going
to finish up with some isometric exercises. isometric exercises are when you're activating the
muscle, but you're not making a movement with your with your head or your neck area. and so what that
does is it's a great way to get some strengthening in those muscles without causing a lot of pain.
so the one that we're going to start off with is a side bend. so the movement that we're
doing is this movement, but we're not going to go anywhere. i'm going to take my hand and
just kind of place it on my temple on the side, and i'm pushing into my hand. so again this is
the motion i'm doing, but my hand is stopping me from doing it. so you might see some
muscles over here activating a little bit, when you first start doing this i'm just
gonna do a three to five second hold, switch over to the other side. only push with
maybe thirty percent of what you can push. don't go try pushing a hundred percent and causing a lot
of pain, it doesn't take a lot to activate those muscles. and even sometimes if you push a little
bit less, you're getting those deeper muscles then if you're pushing hard you're getting
those those more superficial or surface bigger muscles. so sometimes it doesn't take much. but
again just maybe a three to five second push and hold, and then coming back to the other
side. three to five second push and hold, and getting that back and forth. um you can do a
little bit on each side, you can again start with that three to five and then work your way up. so
i'm doing a little bit more with these. this time i'm gonna hold maybe 10 seconds. this would be
something again you want to work up to. so you don't want to feel like these are easy because
they're working the muscles more than you think they are. so again just start off a little bit.
but as you can see now maybe i'm holding a little bit longer. i'm pushing just maybe a little bit
more, but again i'm not pushing with everything. i don't want to you know, i don't want to move my
head while i'm pushing in like this. i am stopping myself from making that movement. it might be
uncomfortable or painful at the time, so we're gonna do one more of those, and then we'll go into
some of the isometrics with a different movement. so again just kind of pushing in and again if
you want to do some deep breathing with this, that sometimes helps a little bit too. again you
might get a little bit of popping with this um you know those adjustments, which sometimes people
call them. um and as long as it's not painful, it's okay. it's just things kind of moving around
in there. some people will argue it's just the fluid moving. some people will argue that it
is the joint moving a little bit. either way, it usually gives some good relief when you
do it. so as long as that pops not painful, there's usually no issues with it. so the last
one is going to be still an isometric exercise, but this time it's going to be an extension
exercise. so you can use your hands, you can stand behind a wall, so you can
push your head into the wall, or if you have a tall chair. but what i'm
going to do, i'm just going to kind of hold the back of my head and now so this time i'm doing
this is the movement i want to do, but i'm just stopping myself from doing it and pushing into my
hands. so again starting off with just that three to five second push, holding it maybe you know
with about 30% of as hard as you think you can, and then relax. so again this is the movement,
but my hands are stopping me from doing it. so i'm just kind of pushing into my hands and relaxing.
if you feel any dizziness or anything with these exercises especially with the neck, make sure you
stop and check in with your doctor your physical therapist for sure. and again just kind of pushing
in. now i'm going to push just maybe a little bit harder maybe 50 percent .maybe a little bit longer
,maybe five to ten instead of the three to five. um and again you know, just going to where you
feel okay because if you're pushing and it's already hurting, you're probably going to be a
little bit sore later. so again just pushing in, relaxing, taking those nice
deep breaths if you want to, and that's it. so there you have it that was
my 20 minute real time neck stretches and exercise routine. if you'd like to help support my
channel, make sure and click on the link up there, and don't forget to subscribe where Kali?
yeah down there. and remember, be safe, have fun, and i hope you feel better soon.
