Seated Neck Mobility & Stretches

Unless there is a known medical reason for you not to perform these neck stretches, keeping the muscles of your neck and upper back flexible and feeling good is really important. It can help resolve headaches, muscle pain, stiffness, and improves your posture. Obviously if any of these stretches cause discomfort, hold off on them for now.

First, simply rotate your head from side to side, trying to get your chin in line with your shoulder as much as you can and keeping your head straight and nose forward as you turn to each side. Next, look down and then up, as far as you comfortably can in each direction, trying to get the chin to the chest, and the back of the neck to the back.

Now, bring your ear as close as you can towards your shoulder. Use the hand on that side to gently pull the ear closer to the shoulder. Your nose should still be pointing straight ahead. You’ll feel this on the side of your neck and upper shoulder. Hold for at least 15 to 30 seconds on each side, 2 to 4 times.

This next one can be tricky. Point your chin towards your armpit, and then look up and away. You can use your hand to add some additional stretch, and you’ll feel this in the front and side of your neck. Keeping that angle, you can turn your head a little to get different muscles and parts of muscles. And to increase the stretch, you can keep that other hand at your collarbone to hold the skin down as you find the best angle for you. Hold 15 to 30 seconds, and again, repeat 2 to 4 times.

Now point your chin towards your armpit again. Put the arm on that side diagonally across your head and gently pull towards your armpit. You can change the angle of the stretch by adjusting the position of your chin, and you might find a slightly different angle feels better or gets you a better stretch. As before, to get a true change in the length of the muscle, hold the stretch for 15 to 30 seconds and repeat 2 to 4 times, even though I didn’t do that in the video.

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