4 Simple Neck Pain Stretches | Chiropractor for Neck Pain in Spokane Valley, WA
So here’s the four common stretches that we do to help alleviate neck pain and some of these headaches.
So the first one that we’re going to do is our year to shoulder stretch, and Alyssa here is going to demonstrate it for us. So really what this is doing is getting a really good stretch on the scalene muscles that are going to help release that tension from that neck to alleviate some of that pain. And you want to kind of hold these for about 30 seconds. And I always say just to do both sides.
And then our second stretch that we’d like to do is a muscle called that levator scapulae muscle, this muscle actually comes from back here, from the shoulder blade, and then it wraps around up into the top of your neck. The muscle, I like to call it the forehand, the forearm and hand muscle is basically the the attachment is the form. And as it gets close to your neck, it actually shoots out five tendons and those tendons attached to your upper five vertebrae. And the purpose of the muscle is to give you a rotation and flexion of your neck, which a lot of the tension headache stems from and you cervicogenic headaches. So for this for this stretch, Alyssa is going to demonstrate here, you want to rotate your neck to about 45 degrees, and you want to look down towards your foot. And you’re going to apply pressure to the same site you’re looking that’s the same hand you’ll use and you’ll put direct pressure down, you don’t want to tilt your head, you want to have direct distraction on the neck. Because if you go to the side, sometimes it can cause a little bit of pain. Again, you want to hold 30 seconds and then do both sides.
The third stretch is our mid back stretch. With this stretch, we call it reach an arch. So Alyssa is going to show us this, there’s three steps to the stretch is going to get your middle trap your lower trap and your upper trap. So this one, we’re going to go to 90 degrees first. And this is going to get your middle trap. So it’s going to stretch right in between your shoulder blades. And same thing you want to reach forward. And when you get to the end, you want to push your mid back the opposite direction. And you want to feel the nice stretch at the end range. So then the second part of this stretch is going to get the lower trap. So your arms are going to come up to about 120 degrees, and you’re going to reach forward and then you’re going to arch back and it’s going to stretch the lower part of that trap. And the third part of the stretch is to get your upper trap. So in this one, you’re going to reach forward again but at 45 degrees and same concept you’re going to stretch forward and then you’re going to arch your back into tension that you’re going to feel is going to be more up here on the upper trap area.
And the fourth stretch is our pecs. So our pecs actually play a huge role in a neck tightness and with these headaches, as our shoulder starts to round forward, it creates a lot of pressure you head tends to go forward, which in turn causes some of these tension headaches or those Sabra congenic headaches. So the stretcher we’re going to do here first one, we’re going to do the peck major. So with the pec major, we’re going to go to 90 degrees. little lower here, and then we’ll we’re going to do is whatever arm is up, that leg is going to go forward and as that leg goes forward, you want to stay upright. And the only thing that moves is actually your knee, your knees going to slide forward and then you’re going to feel the stretch on the right pec. So go ahead and slide forward from it. And then right there, you should feel a nice lockout on the muscle. Once you feel that nice lockout, you want to go like another 10% Just to add a little bit more tension. And again, hold for 30 seconds and always do both sides. And the second part of the stretch is actually the same movement, but we’re just going to mobilize the arm up to 120 degrees. And again, she’s going to move that right leg forward, keeping her body upright and just shifting that knee forward. And then once you feel that again that tightness or enrage push it like another 10% until you feel the nice deep stretch and hold for 30 seconds and then always do both sides.
So these are some of the stretches that we do for our patients for when they’re having neck tightness or headaches. But these are great tools for you to have a home as well that you can try on your own