In this video, I'm going to
show you how to fix pinched nerve pain in your neck and shoulder.
Stay tuned. Hey, everyone. Dr. Rowe
coming to you from SpineCare in Saint Joseph, Michigan. In this
video, we're going to go over easy exercises that can give
instant relief for sharp pains in the neck and the shoulder
being caused from a pinched nerve. A note, all of these
exercises work just a little bit differently. To get the
best results, go through them all, use what works best for
you. As a bonus, all of the exercises can be done at home
require no equipment and they offer quick relief even within
30 seconds. So, with that being said, let's get started. So,
let's start with an overload cause of pinched nerve pain in
the neck and the shoulder which is a build up of tension and
tightness that leads to compression of nerve roots
causing sharp shooting pain. So, here's a really easy way to
knock out that tightness pretty much anytime, anywhere. We're
going to take our fingers, interlock them like this, point
our thumbs down towards the floor. We're then going to put
our hands right over the back of our head and position our
thumbs right at the base of the skull. What we want to do with
this exercise is focus on a light massage. We're only going
to go over muscles so avoid the spine or anything that feels
bony. I like to start right off to the side of the spine right
here and then do a light circular massage for about five
to 10 seconds and over that time, just kind of put a little
bit more pressure in there to deepen that self massage but
only to your comfort level. Afterwards, see how you feel.
If it feels pretty loose, just move over towards the side and
repeat. Doing this pretty much from the spine right here all
the way over towards the ears. If any spot feels like it needs
more tension, just keep doing this over and over again until
everything is nice and loose. You're probably going to find
that one certain spot might have a big muscle knot spasm
just feels really tight and aching. It won't release. If
you feel that, what you want to do is then attack the muscle
fibers at different angles. So, instead of doing a circular
massage with it, what you want to do is take your thumb and
hook right over that spot and then pull it towards your and
do that for about five to 10 repetitions. You may find it
finally will release at that point. You can also go up and
down with it diagonally. I would experiment with different
motions and go with what works best for you. So once we have
the top right here nice and relax. We're then going to do
the same thing and move down over the middle part of the
neck. Repeat and then go all the way towards the base of the
neck and then towards the top of the shoulders. Again,
focusing on any spot that just needs it a little bit more.
From there, I like to is one to the next level by putting some
more neck motions in that will allow us to dig deeper into
those spots and get some more relief. So, let's do the same
exercise but what we're going to do first is rotation. So,
we're going to turn our head towards one side. When you do
this, you're probably going to find that one certain movement
like let's say turning your head towards your left right
here is what causes pain or discomfort. So, what you want
to do is keep turning your head, build into it as much as
you can but stop before the point of pain or discomfort.
You're going to hold that position and now what you're
going to do is that self massage. You'll probably find
that one pinpoint spot pretty quickly that you need to focus
on. So, keep attacking that tightness until everything is
relaxed and then afterwards, do the same thing. What you're
probably going to notice is you can turn your head just a
little bit more with less pain because those muscles are
loosening up. So, just keep doing this over and over again
until everything is nice and loose or you're not getting
anymore improvement. So, the movements that I would focus on
while doing this, turning your head to look over one shoulder,
left and right and then, I would also do a bending motion.
So, keeping your nose straight, taking your ear towards your
shoulder. You should feel a deep opening stretch on the
other side and when you do this one, really focus on trying to
get into the top of the shoulder right here but it's
just a good way to knock out muscle tightness pretty much
anywhere and I hope that gives you a lot of relief. With this
exercise, we're going to on taking pressure off a pinch
nerve through a decompression traction exercise. Think
everything right now is getting compressed and at that point,
what we need to do is open it up with a deep pulling stretch.
This one can be done standing or seated. It's very easy to
do. So, we're going to take two fingers, put them right on our
chin and gently press our head backward like this as much as
we can. As you do this, you're going to feel a really good
activation of the muscles in the neck. The key with this
exercise, don't to the point of pain or discomfort. If you
start to feel that, back off slightly. You're then going to
hold this position, take your other hand, put it right on the
back of your head. Now, gently push your head backward and
then also with the other hand, hook and pull your chin forward
towards your chest as much as you can. You should feel a
really light, gentle stretch in the neck starting at the top
right here, the base of the skull that works towards the
middle towards the base of the neck. Keep doing this as much
as you can. Once you feel that deep but comfortable stretch,
you're going to hold this for 20 to 30 seconds but if it
feels good, you can hold it for longer. From there, you're
going to relax and then, you're going to repeat this three to
five times and with each repetition, try to build into
it just a little bit more. So, this is how we can take it to
the next level and try to find some relief positions that will
give us more pain relief. So, for this one, what I like to do
is instead of keeping my nose straight, turn your head
slightly towards one side then repeat. You're going to notice
it opens up the neck just a little bit differently. So, go
all the way towards the left. Go all the way towards the
right. If you find that one certain spot just offers the
most relief, that is your relief position and that's one
that you want to make a note of and throw more repetitions in
at that point. Here's another decompression exercise that can
quickly take pressure off a pinch nerve in the neck. This
one's going to focus more on bending or tilting motions so
if that movement offers you a lot of relief, give this one a
try. You can do it standing or seated. So, a quick note about
this exercise. Whatever side that you have pain, you're
going to tilt away from the painful side only. So, if you
have a lot on your right, bend towards the left only and vice
versa. Let's say I have a lot on my right side. To get into
position, we're going to take the painful side's arm, bend
our elbow at 90 degrees, and now slide it across our lower
back as much as we can. You should feel a gentle activation
of the muscle on the top of the shoulder going to the side of
the neck. This is the upper trapezius. Let's hold this
position. Now, we're going to take our hand on the other
side, hook the side of our head and now slowly, you want to do
this one slowly. Pull your ear towards the other side
shoulder. As you do this, you should feel a deep stretch form
on the painful side into the side of the neck towards the
shoulder. It usually feels pretty good. You only want to
go towards a deep but comfortable stretch. If you
feel any pain or discomfort back off slightly. At this
point, you to hold it for 20 to 30 seconds but if it feels good
you can hold it for longer and do nice slow control breathing
let out as much tension as you can relax take a breather and
then repeat this three to five times and with each repetition
try to build into it just a little bit more you should
notice that you have more pain free range of motion every time
that you do it if you want to take this one to the next level
and give a more intense stretch give this a try get back into
the original stretch but now turn your chin upward towards
the ceiling. So, it's kind of like rotating your head towards
the painful side. Do this one slowly. It really intensifies
the stretch but if this position offers more relief at
that point, throw more repetitions in. With this
exercise, we're going to focus on nerve gliding. Think opening
up the pathways where the nerves travel to break up
adhesions and tightness that maybe compressing or pinching a
nerve causing pain. You can do this exercise standing or
seated. To get into position, outstretch your off your side
like this, have your palms facing towards the floor. This
is a two-part movement. The first movement, we're going to
slowly rotate one hand so our palm is facing towards the
ceiling. The second movement, we're going to turn our head
towards the side where the palm is facing towards the floor.
You're going to hold this position for a second or two
and build into it as much as you can but not to the point of
pain or discomfort. So, if you're turning your head, you
feel any pain or discomfort, stop before that point. Can
hold this for a second or two and then you're just going to
switch the place of the hands right here and then turn the
head towards the other side. You want to do this nice and
slowly for 15 repetitions in both directions and build into
it just a little bit more with each repetition. Afterwards,
see how you feel. If it feels like it's offering relief but
you need a little bit more, you can always throw in more
repetitions. Another note about this exercise, you can do this
multiple times throughout the day. Just scale back with
improvement. If the exercise help, please support the
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If you have any comments or questions, please leave them
below. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks for
watching.
