Neck Exercises for Neck Pain in Chicago
Cervical pain or neck pain is one of the most common pain in the population. Next, we are going to look at possible causes, prevention, and general guidelines to alleviate symptoms.
Causes and origin of neck pain
There are many causes that could influence the appearance of neck pain. Of course, these must be evaluated by a health professional. However, if we discard certain factors we could establish, by generalizing a lot, a common origin.
Exercises to relieve neck pain in Chicago
We are going to try to establish a general protocol of exercises that we can perform to relieve neck pain, detailing each of them as much as possible to do them correctly:
Passive Self-Stretching: these are passive stretches when we do the movement with the help of our own hand, and not actively. There are two typical passive stretches that we can perform. We test each one of them, and if we notice muscle stretching in one of the areas with pain, we hold it for 30 seconds, being able to do it up to 3 times, with a 30-second rest between each repetition.
With one hand, we pass over the head, and we support it on the opposite temple (side of the head), pulling the head towards the side of the arm that we use. We keep the shoulders without raising. For example, with the left hand, we pull from the right side of the head to the left side.
The second stretch is very similar, although in this case, we place the hand above the head slightly towards the occipital (back) part of the head, and we pull it towards the armpit of the pulling arm. We direct the nose towards the armpit. For example, with the left hand placed between the right and back, we bring the nose towards the left armpit.
Active Self-Stretching: we refer to it as active stretching, which we perform by actively moving a part of the body, to put a body structure in a stretching position. In this case, we are going to evaluate three gestures where the head moves to one side and the other, and on the side where the pain appears less, we do it 10 times. The gestures we make are based on saying with the head “Yes / No / Maybe”:
Say “Yes”: we actively look at the ceiling and the floor, and if, for example, we have pain when looking at the ceiling, we look at the floor slowly 10 times, so that when we reach the end of the movement, we force a little more movement, to stretch the muscles.
Say “No”: we actively look to the right side and left side, and if for example, we have pain when looking to the right, we look to the left side 10 times slowly, forcing the movement slightly at the end of the range.
Say “Maybe”: we bring the left ear to the left shoulder, and repeat with the right side, without raising the shoulders. If more pain appears when going to the left side, we go 10 times to the right side, forcing the movement slightly at the end.
Conclusion
If you have questions or would like to meet with one of our doctors, please contact our chiropractors in Chicago to get the appropriate treatment for you. Call or contact us today to schedule an appointment.
