Exercises for Cervical Degenerative Disk Disease

Cervical degenerative disk disease (DDD) is a condition in which one or more of the disks that are located in the neck start to break down. This can put pressure on the nerves and disks and cause pain and inflammation. Your doctor can order an MRI or X-ray to diagnose this condition. Your treatment plan will be multidisciplinary and will include gentle exercise. Check with your health care provider before beginning any new exercise program to ensure the exercises are appropriate for your situation.

General Guidelines

• When exercising with cervical DDD, listen to your body. Stop any exercise that causes sharp pain or makes your symptoms worse. Every case of cervical DDD is different, so while one exercise may help certain patients, the same exercise may be contraindicated in another patient.

Neck Stretch

• Sit up straight and drop your right ear to your right shoulder. Do not twist the head, look straight forward. Hold for 5 to 10 deep breaths and focus on dropping the shoulders. Repeat other side.

Neck Rotation

• Sit up straight and turn your head to look over your right shoulder. Press the left shoulder back. Hold for 5 to 10 deep breaths and focus on dropping the shoulders. Repeat on the left side.

Chin Drop

• Sit up straight and press your chin down to your chest, then come back up straight. It is not recommended to drop the head backward because this can compress the disks even more, which you do not want to do if you have cervical DDD. Do 8 to 12 times, then hold the chin down for 5 to 10 deep breaths and focus on dropping the shoulders.

Shoulder Rolls

• If you have chronic neck pain due to cervical DDD, you may be carrying excess tension in your shoulders. This exercise should help. Sit up straight and shrug the shoulders up to the ears. Then roll the shoulders down and back. Do 8 to 12 repetitions.