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Therapeutic Exercises for Neck Pain

Chances are you will experience neck pain at some point in your life. Most people do, according to the Mayo Clinic. Acute neck pain lasts a short time while chronic neck pain will last weeks or even longer. Stress, poor posture and injury all can cause neck pain. Before you combat neck pain with therapeutic exercises, check with your doctor to rule out a serious condition.

  1. Therapeutic Exercises

    • Start with a basic therapeutic exercise for neck pain. According to NeckSolutions.com, a beginning exercise is to sit up straight with your head in line with your shoulders. Bring your head forward in a nodding motion. Raise your head to the starting position, and repeat. This exercise, a cranio-cervical flexion, helps alleviate pain by exercising the deep flexors in the neck.

      Sit down with your hand over your mouth then pull your face away from your hand as if you are making a nodding motion. You should feel a slight pull in the back of your neck because this stretch is working the muscles back there. Repeat this neck exercise often when sitting for long periods of time.

      Stand with your back against a wall and put a ball behind your head to perform an advanced version of the nodding exercise. Perform the same motion, nodding forward, and concentrate on keeping the ball behind your head as it rolls against the wall.

      For a neck-pain exercise that also works on posture, begin by standing about a foot away from a wall. Roll your shoulders around going backward first with your palms facing outward. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and gently bring your chin to your neck. You should feel a nice stretch throughout your neck and back and through your shoulder blades. Be sure you aren't looking downward yet, just motioning your chin toward your neck.

      From the end of the last exercise segue into another therapeutic exercise for neck pain. Begin with your chin drawn toward your neck. Gently extend your head back, in an upward-looking move, until you feel a slight stretch in your neck muscles. Hold this position, and then turn your head slightly to the right. Hold this position, and turn your head slightly to the left.

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