Occasional neck pain and stiff neck are some common problems for students and office goers. From long hours of sitting, excessive stress and peering at the computer to bad sleeping posture, the neck pain reasons can be endless.
In most cases, neck pain stems from a bad posture that puts excessive stress on the neck muscles and thus, irritates joints and causes pain. However, exercises can relieve your neck pain by improving your mobility and strengthening your neck and postural musculature. When done regularly, exercises can reduce your neck tension by enhancing the range of movement in the neck.
Before you start practicing neck pain relief exercises, it's important to learn about the common causes of neck pain. Identifying the exact causes might help you to choose the exercise that suits your condition the best. Remember, when experiencing severe neck pain, you must not attempt any exercises. Instead, you should seek professional help.
Some of the common causes of neck pain include:
- Degenerative Disc- Degenerative disc in the cervical region might cause severe neck pain. The condition arises when the cushioning discs of your cervical spine start to deteriorate. When these cushioning discs break down, they stop absorbing shocks and thus, the cervical bones start to rub together. The reason for the degenerative disc can be either genetic or injury.
- Muscles Strains- Staying glued to your smartphone or overuse of your neck muscles might tighten and inflame them. This often strains the muscles and can result in neck pain.
- Whiplash- Sudden injury might strain the soft tissues that support both your head and neck. Injuries or accidents that stain these tissues might hinder the mobility of your neck. In most cases, this hindrance causes severe neck pain.
- Diseases- There are many diseases and illnesses like swollen lymph nodes, meningitis, and rheumatoid arthritis that can cause neck pain in patients. These diseases reduce the mobility of the neck muscles and kill strength, causing severe pain.
- Poor Posture- The natural alignment of our head and spine provide us with proper mobility. However, when this alignment gets distorted due to our sitting, sleeping and other habits, it might hamper the mobility of our neck, head and shoulder. Thus, poor posture is considered to be one of the main reasons behind neck discomfort.
Any of these causes of neck pain might hinder our overall body posture and mobility, and thus create problems for the rest of the body. If not treated on time, neck pain can cause severe health problems and adversely affect our personal and professional life.
Exercises to Treat Your Neck Pain
Although the cure of your neck pain depends entirely on its cause, exercises can greatly help to relieve your neck pain. However, if you are suffering from severe neck pain and its cause is due to some injury, consider consulting a doctor before exercising. If your doctor gives you the go-ahead, you can start exercising to ease the stiffness and pain. Exercises must be done on a regular basis as resting for too long can make it tougher to move the muscles again. Thus, exercises that promote strengthening and stretching of your muscles may alleviate your neck pain.
While engaging in exercise, it's important to learn about the source of your pain. Learning about your symptoms and source, a professional physiotherapist or chiropractor can suggest exercises with an aim to reduce pain by improving your postural strength, enhancing joint mobility and range of motion, diminishing neural tension, and enhancing muscle flexibility. One need not practice heavy exercises, as gentle yet regular exercises can relieve neck pain to a great extent.
Here are some neck pain relief exercises that you can incorporate into your daily routine to improve your neck pain.
Neck Turning
Looking straight ahead, slowly turn your neck towards the left. While doing so, ensure that your chin is at the same level throughout. Now hold onto the posture for 5–7 seconds. Gently turn your neck to the right and again hold onto the posture for 5–7 minutes. Repeat the exercise 5 times on each side.
Neck Tilt
Neck tilt is an easy yet effective exercise to relieve your neck pain. Here, you just need to tilt your neck downwards. While tilting your head down, try to touch your chest with your chin. Hold onto this position for 5 seconds and then return to the normal position gradually. To make it more effective, repeat the exercise at least 5 times.
Side-to-Side Neck Tilt
From a sitting position, tilt your neck towards your left shoulder. Hold onto the position for at least 5 seconds. Return to the starting position. Now, gently tilt your neck towards the right shoulder and again hold onto the posture for another 5 seconds. For better results, repeat this exercise 5 times on each side.
Shoulder Shrugs
Shoulder shrugs are great at improving your posture while relieving your neck pain. To practice this exercise, straighten up your body and shrug your shoulders up as high as they will go. Hold onto this position for 10 seconds then return to your original position. Do this exercise at least 5 times for more effectiveness. You can also modify this by tilting your head up whilst your shoulders are raised.
Neck Glide
Start with your neck straight then slowly slide your chin forward. Hold for a count of 6, and then slide your neck backwards tucking your chin slightly. Again hold for a count of 6. Repeat 5 to 10 times.
How the Yoback Can Help Reduce Neck Pain.
The Yoback is an excellent tool at reducing neck pain. Firstly, you can use the full wheel to get a whole body stretch from head to toe, and if you're able to drop your neck back when on the wheel, you'll definitely feel a great release in your neck and shoulders.
The two pieces can be used in a number of ways. You can simply lie down on the floor and rest your head back, trying to get the crown of your head to touch the ground. This is definitely one of my favourites and it's so comfortable I'll often nap in this position.
You can also use it in stretches such as child's pose or thread the needle. Although these are necessarily neck stretches, they will help to reduce the pressure on your shoulders and thus loosen your neck muscles.
With a 30 day money back guarantee, why not give it a try today?
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