Acute & Chronic Neck Pain Patients Can benefit from Exercise

Doing neck exercises is very important not only when you are in pain, but also to keep your neck muscles strong and prevent any injuries. Neck exercises fall into two categories:

• Stretches
• Strengthening

Both types of neck exercises can be done easily at home. Even research has shown that doing neck exercises is very beneficial:

• Studies have shown that people who have osteoporosis can benefit from isometric exercises. The Study showed that muscle strength increased and so did bone mass.
  Swezey RL, Swezey A, Adams J. Isometric progressive resistive exercise for osteoporosis. Journal of Rheumatology 2000:27(5), pp1260-64.
• A study in 2002 showed that spinal manipulation therapy along with rehabilitation exercises for the neck is more benefical than doing just spinal manipulation alone.
  Evans R, Bronfort G, et al. Two-year follow-up of a randomized clinical trial of spinal manipulation and two types of exercise for patients with chronic neck pain. Spine 2002:27(21), pp. 2383-2389
• Patients who recieved active management of chronic neck pain including cervical muscle endurance and coordination training and relaxation training to reduce muscle tension reported less pain, and improvements in working ability.
  Taimela S, Takala E, Asklof T, et al. Active treatment of chronic neck pain: a prospective randomized intervention. Spine 2000:25(8), pp1021-27

Having weak neck muscles can be a cause for certain painful conditions. It can contribute to such things as:

• fatigue and overall tiredness
• Irritability and Moodiness
• Headaches
• loss of Sleep
• Low Quality Sleep

Neck Stretches

The 1st neck exercise is called Cervical Flexion and Cervical Extension and it can be done seated. You want to start by tucking your chin in and gently bringing your head foward and attempting to touch the chin to the chest. Next, gently bend the head backwards as far as it will go. Repeat this exercise 5 times. Forward head flexion is great for those patients who suffer from hypertonic parapinals in the neck- which means tightness and pain in the back of the neck. The cervical paraspinal muscles lie right next to the cervical spine.

The next neck exercise is called Lateral Flexion of the neck. Bring your left ear to your left shoulder as far as you are able to. Remember not to rotate or turn your head when you are doing this neck stretch, as you want to isolate the muscles involved in lateral flexion. Hold this position for 10-15 secionds. Repeat on the right side: Bring your right ear to the right shoulder. Repeat this for 5 times.

Next part of the stretching sequence is called Rotation of the Cervical Spine. In this neck exercise you want to turn your head to the right as far as you possibly can, trying to bring your chin over your shoulders. When you are doing this neck exercise, do not bring up your shoulders. Hold this position for 10-15 seconds. Next do this on the left side of the neck and repeat for 5 times.
**** If you are having acute neck pain, you may not be able to do this exercise fully. That is okay. Turn your head and neck as far as it will go without pain and hold it at that point. Each time you do the exercise you will find that you will be able to do more and more.

Indications for Neck Exercises

Neck exercises can be done easily at home and don't take very long. Anyone who suffers from neck pain or stiff due to a health condition (such as arthritis)or even an acute neck injury such as whiplash can benefit. So who can neck exercises help:

1. Neck Pain
2. Stiff Neck
3. Whiplash Injury to the Neck
4. Arthritis in the Neck
5. Degeneration in in the cervical spine
6. Headaches
7. Waking up after sleeping in an awkward position
8. Making ones neck muscles stronger
9. Decrease in range of motion in the cervical spine
10. Difficulty sleeping at night
11. for someone who works out regularly (lifting weights and resistance type exercises)
12. Military neck (aka hypolordosis in the cervical spine)

What Else Can One Do in Conjunction with Neck Exercises?

Neck exercises, whether strenthening or stretching are beneficial, but they are not the only thing that you can do.

• Using a supportive neck pillow at night can help to keep your head and neck in the proper position for sleeping. This can also decrease your chances of waking up with a stiff neck and headache. One of our most popular neck support pillows are the linear gravity neck pillow which has two different lobes for added neck support.This neck pillow comes in 3 different sizes for better support.
• Stretching your neck with a traction device. This can be done seated with a Trac Collar Neck Collar or lying down with a pronex pneumatic traction unit. NeckPainReliefKit.com carries a number of traction devices, each with its own benifits.
• Changing ones computer and desk set up to make sure it is ergonomically friendly to your neck. For example, your computer screen distance and angle are very important.
• Watching your neck posture while you work, play, even watching televion. Many people have a forward head posture which adds a lot of added strain to the neck muscles and spine. Doing traction and head retraction exercise can help with forward head posture. The posture pulley neck exercise device helps with forward head posture.
• Working on the muscles of the neck and upper back area. Muscle spams and tightness account for a lot of neck pain. While neck exercises do help with that, sometimes you need added help. Using a tens electrotherapy unit along with modalities of ice and heat can be benefical. Using ice for acute conditions and using heat for chronic neck pain conditions is ideal. Finally, using a topical gel such as biofreeze natural pain relief gel can help with muscle tightness and soreness.
• Warming up and cooling down after working out
• Muscle massage to work on neck muscles, and upper back muscles
• Supplements, herbs, and relaxation techniques to aid in muscle relaxation. Recently on the neck pain support support blog, we posted an article about how ginger aids in relieving muscle pain after exercise. Also using homeopathic remedies such as formula 303 can help to break the pain cycle and relieve tension and stress.

Doing exercises for the neck is very important. This includes stretching and strengthening. In fact, recent studies have shown that exercising in general plays a positive role in chronic pain.

Studies that Show that Exercising the Cervical Spine is beneficial
Who Can Benefit from Neck Exercises
Neck stretches
Neck strengthening exercises
Neck Posture
Forward head posture
Other things that you can do to have a healthier neck

Neck Strengthening Exercises

When doing exercises, they must be performed correctly, in order to avoid injury. They should be performed slowly, and you should stay within your “pain boundaries”. Never do an exercise to the point of pain. The purpose of neck exercises is to increase your range of motion, reduce stiffness/tightness, and strengthen your neck muscles.

The neck exercises below combine range of motion (ROM) against light/partial resistance in 4 directions (forwards, backwards, and left side bending and right side bending). To do these correctly follow these instructions: Pretend that you are involved in an arm wrestling contest:

1. Push your head into your hand while moving the head to the end of the range, “…letting the head win” (See A, C, E, G).
2. Repeat this going back in the opposite direction by “letting the hand win” (see B, D, F, H), again, moving through the entire range of motion.

ALWAYS push the head into the hands, Make sure you move the head against resistance in BOTH directions, 3 times each (A-B then B-A x3; C-D then D-C x3) then, (E-F then F-E x3, and lastly, G-H then H-G, x3 reps). It is very important to do these strengthening neck exercises slowly. This will aid tin building motor control and coordination. Move through the entire “comfortable” range of motion. Repeat this 3x slowly. If the pain worsens, lighten up on the amount of pressure used or, stop the movement just prior to the sharp pain onset. Don't do any neck exercise to the point of pain, as this can cause injury and more pain. If you can’t make it to the end of the movement due to pain, make a note of how many reps it took before the onset or increase of pain and how far you could move your head. Do 3 slow reps and then move to the next exercise direction. These neck strengthening exercises can be performed one to three times per day, according to tolerance. This strengthening exercises for the neck will do the following three functions all at the same time:

• increase Range of motion in the neck
• increase strength in the cervical musculature
• build coordination