In this video, I'm going to show you
my 4 best neck decompression stretches, so you can decompress your neck
or, self traction your neck, at home. You'll need no special equipment, no
devices, and you won't even need a Y-strap. My name is Dr. Jon Saunders. I'm a chiropractor
in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. If you like the content, I'm uploading show some support by
giving a thumbs up to this video. And maybe if you'd like, please hit the subscribe button
below and the notification bell so you can be informed when I upload a new video. All of us at
some point in time has suffered from neck pain, shoulder pain, and even mid back pain. Gravity is
constantly acting on us. And when we sit or move with poor posture, and you combine that with
gravity pushing down on us, it makes us feel hunched. It almost feels like our head is being
pushed down onto our thorax, squishing our neck, making us have that "turtle-neck" appearance and
causing significant tightness, pain and stiffness. In this video, I'm going to show you 4 self
tractions for your neck or, how to decompress your neck, in the comfort of your home. These
4 movements will address many different tissues in the neck, the joint capsules at the back, the
discs at the front. Even if you have a disc bulge, some of these can be beneficial for you, or
an irritated nerve. We're also going to show you how to stretch out a ligament that sits at the
front of the neck. We're also going to stretch out some muscles, both at the front, the back and the
sides. Once you've tried out all 4 self traction movements, you should gravitate to the one that
feels the best for you. Before I show you my 4 best neck decompression stretches, I need to put
a disclaimer here: your neck is a very sensitive area in your spine. And some of these will not be
appropriate for you. So if you know, you have an underlying spinal condition - degenerative disc
disease, a disc bulge, if you've had surgery or you have hardware in your neck, or if you have
rheumatoid arthritis, or even osteoporosis, some of these movements will not be for you. So
please check with your primary health provider before attempting any of these self traction
stretches. We're going to start with a very simple but effective neck decompression stretch. So first
we're going to make sure that we're sitting up nice and tall. So we don't want to have a slouch.
We're gonna sit up nice and tall. The first thing we're going to do with this neck elongation
stretch is we're gonna pull our shoulders back. The second thing we're gonna do is we're gonna
pull our shoulders down. So you need to visualize your shoulder blades coming back and down.
This in itself will start to traction the bottom of your neck, because you're going to
be pulling your shoulders and the lower neck, away from the upper part of your neck. So very
simply, we're going to pull our shoulders back, pull them down and hold. This is a very good
lower neck traction stretch. The next part of this stretch is we're going to take our chin and we're
going to pull and tuck pretend there's a string on the top of your head and it's being pulled
up and we're going to try to elongate our spine when we're doing this. So we're going to pull our
shoulders back down, tuck our chin and pull up. You gonna make yourself a double
chin there, but that's okay. You will even feel this down into the mid thoracic
spine, a fantastic neck decompression stretch. You're going to hold this for 10 to 15 seconds
and repeat between 5 and 10 sets. For the 2nd decompression neck stretch. We're going to do it
in two ways. The first part will be to stretch out the front of the neck and the discs deep inside.
This has done very easily on a bench like this, on a couch, or even your bed. You want to
start with your head securely on the surface and where to shift back slowly and just go to your
comfort level. So some of you might be comfortable just with slight extension. I prefer to come all
the way back and use the weight of your head to help elongate the muscles at the front and it
opens up the anterior part of the disc or the front of the discs in the neck. And you hold this
for 15 to 30 seconds, maybe even up to a minute. We want to note though, is when you get off,
you want to just come back up again very slowly and just rest a minute before you sit up. A good
thing to mention right now is if any of these decompression stretches, give you any discomfort
or cause any dizziness, then you should stop immediately. The second way to do the neck hang
decompression stretch is we're going to be on our stomachs or we will be lying prone. This is
going to stretch the back of the neck. And this is really good for people that have cervicogenic
headaches or headaches that stem in the neck. So we're going to start on our stomachs. We're going
to come with our arms back and we're going to shift slowly up. And again, we're going to use the
weight of our head and we're just going to slowly come down, relax the tissues, breathe nice
and slowly and deeply. And you will feel a stretch. You should feel the stretch
as I say in the back of your neck, hold this for 15 seconds up to 60 seconds.
And when it's rest time, again, you're going to come up very slowly. And for the 3rd at home
self neck traction, we're going to need a towel, a towel just outside shoulder width apart. Very
simply, we're going to take the back of the towel, place it around the neck. And what you're
going to do is you're going to feel it will sit in basically in the mid part, to
the upper part of your neck. You're going to slightly extend your head like this. And
all we're going to do Is traction up.
You have to you'll find the best groove kind of at
the back of your neck as to where it will fit. But again, you're going to hold this for 15 to 30
seconds. You can do this up to five sets. This towel traction stretch will help stretch the back
of the neck. It's going to pull the discs apart, pull the joints apart, and you might even feel
it deep in the neck. Again, as long as there's no pain or any dizziness elicited when you do
this, then you're OK. In order to traction the side of the neck, the towel works perfectly.
What you are going to do is going to keep it in the same spot but we're going to shorten one end.
Actually, let me take my glasses off for this one. I'm going to shorten one end. So we're going
to be stretching the right side of the neck. We're going to pull this up, just on our ear over
our forehead. We're going to pull it with a top arm around, fix the short end of the hand.
I'm going to pull it slightly around. Don't be compressing yourself. Uh, you're going to
cut the blood supply off, uh, to your brain. That would not be a good thing. You're not twisting.
You're just slightly coming in. And most of the pressure is on the top of the forehead and
just let your neck move in to that stretch. This stretch you're going to feel on
the side and even the back of the upper part of the neck on the side you're
stretching. Now for the opposite side, we're going to shorten it on the opposite
side. Again, it's fixed here. We're going to bring this up over the ear on the forehead and
we're gonna come round and just keep that fixed. So you're going to get a little
bit of rotation and traction. This one feels really good. Again, there's
no jerking. It's very slow and controlled. You're not compressing anything. It's more of
a rotation with a little bit of up pressure and you'll feel it really opened up the
side of the neck that you're stretching. And finally, the last one is using your elbows
as a fulcrum, to be able to have some neck decompression in the comfort of your home.
One of the best surfaces I find is your bed and being on your knees. It's very soft.
So the very first thing we're gonna do, we're gonna take the back of our hands.
We're going to cup the back of our skull. Arms rested, and as we come up, we're gonna drop
down and pull up like a tricep extension almost, and just very gently traction your neck. So you just leaning down and the function of your
arms pushing up is just going to gently traction your neck. And there's, there's a variety of
ways you can put your hands, find the most comfortable for you. Some people will use the,
the meaty part of their thumbs or their fingers. Just whatever you can get into a comfortable
position that you can just gently traction up. And an alternative is we can get our towel out and
again, make sure it's wrapped appropriately Again, let's just put it behind our neck and we're
just going to slowly sit down as we pull up. You'll know you're doing it properly
because you're going to get a great stretch in your neck. So, which of these do you find
the most helpful or which one did you like the best? My personal favorites: #1) the neck
elongation stretch. And #3) the towel stretch. And if you have a question about any of the
neck decompression stretches I've just shown you ask it in the comments, I promise I'll answer
your question. If you enjoyed this video, check this video right here. This video shows you a
great stretch that can help decompress your neck, open up your shoulders and reduce forward head
posture, and even reduce the hump in the back of your neck. Thanks for watching stay well.
And I can't wait to see you on my next video.
