oh hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and the
pups, and today I'm going to show you my five minutes stretching routine for neck
pain, in real time. so let's get started. so with the real time stretching routine,
just five minutes is all you need. I have my patients a lot of times say I don't
have 30 to 45 minutes throughout the day to do my home exercise program. with a
home exercise program it's really about the quality of the stretches and
exercises, not necessarily the quantity. so I say 5 minutes a couple times
throughout the day just really should be doable, something that you can do.
since these neck pain stretches are in real time, if you'd like to follow along
with me you can because I'm gonna do them for the full time that you need to
stretch. the way I have it set up on my timer is I'm gonna do a 45 second
warm-up, and then I'm gonna do a stretch on each side for 30 seconds. I know if
you've seen some of my videos I always say do the 30 seconds three times on
each side, but again I'd rather you get the quality stretch for a short amount
of reps versus trying to just get three but not do the thirty second full thirty
Seconds. so we're gonna do 30 seconds stretch on each side, take a little
10-second break in between, and then go into the next stretches. so a total it'll
be a little bit more than five minutes, but the actual stretches will just be a
quick 5 minutes that you should easily be able to do. so we're gonna start off
with the 45 second just warm up in general. and with a warm up, you don't
have to do anything crazy. we're just gonna start getting some movement. so I'm
just going to start turning my head side to side. you don't really have to hold
this because you're just trying to warm up those muscles before you go into the
stretches. so maybe just 5 on each side. you don't have to be specific with the
numbers, but again just getting the movements a little bit. then you can kind
of go into a side Bend. when you're doing the side Bend, you want to bring your ear
down. you don't want to bring your shoulder up. so again this is just a
continuous movement to try and get everything loosened up and ready to go
into those stretches. so again maybe just 5 on each side. you don't have to really
count. your shoulders are also those muscles and your shoulders are connected
to your neck, so just a couple rolls where you get started. so now we're gonna
go into the first stretch. so an upper trap stretch is the one I like. I'm gonna
go ahead and go into the motion and just talk to you about it a little bit. so I'm
sitting on my hand and that's just to help hold my shoulder down to get the
extra stretch. you don't have to do that, but you're gonna get a better stretch if
you can keep that shoulder down. and then I'm just bringing my ear over pulling to
the opposite side and getting that stretch through that upper trap right
there. and so you don't want it to be painful, you just want to have that nice
stretch. so see 30 seconds goes pretty fast and then we're gonna switch over to
the other side. so same thing just sitting on that hand and pulling over. if
you don't want to sit on it, you can put your hand behind your back
like this, and you'll still get a good stretch just trying to pull that elbow
down towards the chair while you're going over you're gonna get that nice
stretch through that upper trap muscle right there. and so that's a big stressor
muscle when it's tight it can cause a lot of neck pain, and so this is just a
good way to kind of get it all nice and stretched out. so after this one, we're
gonna take a quick little 10-second break to kind of reset all those muscles,
and then we're gonna go into a levator scapulae stretch. and so that one's where
a lot of our stress comes in when we're working throughout the day, so I'm just
gonna bring my elbow up like this and then I'm taking my nose towards the
opposite knee. so I'm just holding this stretch right here. if your elbow is
uncomfortable in this position, you can just bring your arm up for the stretch.
and then if both of those are uncomfortable, you can bring it down but
again with my arm up like this I'm pushing that shoulder blade down to get
a better stretch. now make sure that you're turning your nose towards the
opposite side there. so now I'm going to switch sides bringing that elbow up.
that's the one I prefer turning my head and then pulling it down towards that
opposite knee. so I'm not bending my head sideways, I'm not looking down and
turning it over, I'm I'm rotating it over and pulling behind my head down where my
nose is going towards that opposite knee and getting that nice stretch in there.
so then once you get this stretch again just take a little 10-second break to
kind of reach set everything, and then we're gonna go
into the anterior scalene muscles which are again a lot of the ones that cause
that neck pain. take your hand and pull down on that collarbone or clavicle, and
turn that way and then bring your chin up. so you should feel the stretch kind
of through here. now that's where those those muscles are and again you don't
have to pull down on that collar bone that clavicle bone, but this will give
you an extra stretch. so you can just turn and go up like that, but I feel a
much better stretch if I just kind of pull down gently that way. and so I have
one of my patients say this is this is like a portrait pose like you're gazing
too out into nothingness. so again then pulling down here bringing my chin over
and then look pulling my head up that way. so just getting that nice stretch in
there again turning and pulling up. so a nice good hold there. again I'm feeling
that kind of through there. the stretches shouldn't be painful, you should just be
feeling some tension on there and that's really what you should be feeling. so
again after that stretch, take that little 10-second break and then shake it
out. so the next one's going to be a chin tuck. so it's a little bit different
because you're not going to actually hold for 30 seconds. so if you've seen a
lot of my stuff, the chin tuck is bringing it back this way. so I'm not
tucking in this way, I'm taking my chin and pulling back, and just maybe holding
for about five seconds and relaxing. so we're going to do a couple sets of these
through the 30 second period. so again pulling back, keeping that chin level
almost like if you're sitting in a tall chair. you're trying to push your head
into the back of the chair .you can also do this against the wall if you need a
target, and then just push your head into the wall. so again you only have to hold
it for maybe three to five seconds. we're going to keep on going because this one
would be the full minute of the chin tuck. so again just pulling in. you can
see I got lots of little Chin's right there, but you should feel the muscles
working and stretching at the same time. so this is kind of a combination of a
stretch and an exercise. remember make sure you're not holding it for 30
seconds for this one you're just holding it for about three
to five seconds and kind of doing those continuously. so you should
definitely get a couple in there and then just take that break. so now with
that last break. the last stretch is going to be coming in and this is going
to be using a towel to get this big stretch. so I'm taking my opposite hand
and grabbing here and then bringing this up over my ear and not over my neck, but
up and over. I'm pulling down here and I'm pulling up towards the ceiling.
this just helps you get a stretch a little bit more, what I would call it seg
mentally of your of your cervical spine because you're stabilizing the lower
part, and then you're rotating up the other one. so this one's a really nice
way to get a really good stretch, and it's is it sometimes helps kind of
mobilize the spine as well. so now I'm grabbing this side bringing it up over
where my ear is. so I'm actually going up towards the ceiling and over, and then
down with this one, and getting that nice pull in there. so don't bring it down low
where you're choking yourself. we don't want that, but getting that nice stretch
in there. and this is one of my favorite stretches because I really feel like it
isolates out that stretch, gets that neck stretch. so if you're having that pain in
there it's really gonna get a good stretch. so there you have it. that's my
five-minute stretching routine for neck pain. 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 Remy? yeah down there. and remember be safe,
have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.
