Do you have neck pain? Do your shoulders and head hurt after sitting at a desk all day? If the answer is yes, then there are 3 stretches that can help relieve some of your tension. By stretching out those tight muscles in our necks, we can alleviate some of the stress on our fragile cervical spine. Make sure you stretch your upper body from time to time as those tight chest muscles coupled with tightness in the upper back can wreak havoc your body’s alignment. Did you know that when your neck is in a extended position due to poor posture, the load on your shoulders increases by 10 pounds due to gravity and biomechanics.
Here are 3 simple stretches you can do everyday to improve your neck posture and alleviate pain:
Side Stretch:
This one’s easy. Just turn your head to the opposite side that you’re bending, and hold for 30 seconds. Repeat on other side. Make sure you are not harsh with your movement as overdoing it or doing it aggressively can only lead to a sprain or an injury.
Neck Rotations:
To perform this dynamic stretch, tilt your head to one side and hold for five seconds before tilting it up, over the opposite shoulder. Then lower down slowly and repeat with other side. Perform this exercise multiple times a day to relieve the built-up tension in your neck muscles from working all day long and relieve some of that neck pain
Chin Tucks:
Working for long hours coupled with using your mobile phones by looking down causes your neck to hyper-extend leading to a “text neck” and neck pain. To deal with this you need to counter act the extended position of the neck by performing chin tucks. To perform this stretch, simply tuck your chin down toward your chest. Hold it for five seconds and release slowly. Repeat until tension seeps out of the neck muscles.