Tight neck? Here is how to stretch!
Stretching is important! Stretching helps prevent injury, keeps your muscles flexible and keeps your joints moving how they normally would. Why wouldn’t you want to stretch? Neck stretches are a great excuse to take a break at your desk.
Firstly start with good posture, roll your shoulders around to loosen them and then imagine you are putting your shoulder blades into your back pockets.
1. Levator scapulae - This little muscle does a big job. It is responsible for lifting your shoulder blades, allowing you to tilt your head left and right and stabilises your spine when you look over your shoulder. When we have forward head posture this poor little muscle is under increased tension as it tries to hold the weight of your head away from your body. This can lead to headaches.
To stretch this muscle look over your shoulder and tilt your chin towards your collar bone. With the same hand as the way you are facing (so if you are looking over your right shoulder, use your right hand) gently pull your head towards the collarbone. You can start turning your chin away from your collarbone to stretch along the muscle in different places.
2. Upper trapezius
This muscle is part of 3 trapezius muscles (upper, middle and lower… creative right). It is responsible for allowing you to extend and rotate your neck (cervical spine) and upper back (thoracic spine). More importantly it acts as a counterbalance against the pull of gravity on your head. Our heads tend to be pulled into forward flexion due to the centre of gravity being more forward. I like to think it’s because of our big brains. So as you can imagine this muscle is working a lot harder if we also have a forward head posture.
To stretch this muscle tilt your ear towards your shoulder then using the same hand as the way your head is tilting (so if you are tilting your head to the right use your right hand) gently pull your head further into the tilt. For an increased stretch you can push against your hand then stop and gently pull your head further into the stretch again, you might be able to stretch a bit further.
3 Neck extensor muscles - This group of muscles help prevent a forward head posture!
To stretch these muscles simply tuck your chin towards your chest, place your hands on the back of your head and gently push into the stretch. To deepen the stretch try pushing against your hands, release and gently pull into the stretch again. You may be able to stretch further each time you do it!
Always remember to hold each stretch for 30 seconds, and never “bounce” into a stretch!
This advice, as always, is general. Please ask us at your next visit for advice specific to you, or speak to your health care provider!