4 ideal exercises to relieve cervical pain

Surely on more than one occasion you have noticed some pain in the cervical. The cervical pain is known by the medical name of cervicalgia and is located in the area between the occipital area or superior nuchal line to the first dorsal vertebra.

Commonly to this condition we call it Pain in the neck and in addition to noticing the painful area we also feel it stiff. When we even let this pain settle and the seizure increase, the area becomes contracted.

Many times we do not realize it and we tend to adopt bad postures, which will end up provoking those annoyances.

In addition to bad postures other causes also influence when suffering from cervical pain such as worry, stress, mood, the weight we carry in our personal bag, some daily tasks such as ironing, sewing, being at the computer , in general the tasks in which we have to keep our heads still.

When we adopt bad postures little by little tension is generated in the trapezius and the levator scapula, this will hinder the blood flow does not flow correctly through these muscles and the contracture will appear.

But it is very easy to adopt a series of postures or exercises that we can perform at the end of the day that will help us relax all the tension that we have accumulated throughout the day in the neck area. They are simple exercises to perform that consist of stretching the area, unlocking the shoulder blades by raising and lowering the shoulders, exercises to remove the stiffness of the area, and finally relax the shoulders with what the area will be relaxed.

These are the most suitable exercises to relieve cervical pain

1. Stretching exercises

With these stretching exercises we will notice how the painful musculature unlocks, we just need to pay attention to these indications and steps to perform the exercise.

  1. Find a stool or bench without a back and sit with your knees slightly apart and your back straight.
  2. Relax the shoulders.
  3. Pass the side arm that hurts your back and tilt your head to the opposite side, we will control that the shoulder does not rise.
  4. Tilt the head gently, we can help the opposite hand, for this we will put the hand on the head and push gently until you notice that the muscle is tense.
  5. We keep this stretch position about 10 seconds.

These stretching exercises we can repeat 2 or 3 times a day when we have the need to stretch to relieve tension in the painful area and only for 10 seconds.

These exercises are intended to provide relief, relax the muscles, never pain, if you feel pain that is reflected in the arm, notice nausea or dizziness, stop performing the exercises and consult with the specialist.

2. Exercises for shoulders and discomfort in the shoulder blades

Both the shoulders and the muscles that are between the shoulder blades are usually contracted especially when we adopt bad postures, at the end of the day we noticed how the shoulders are overloaded as if we had loaded bags of cement on top.

With the bad postures we tense the area and end up with pain and tension in the neck, the exercises to unlock these muscles consist of stretches of the area that we can do whenever we need it.

  1. We stand up and slightly spread our legs, about the width of our hips.
  2. The knees slightly bent.
  3. We join the two hands, we intertwine our fingers.
  4. With fingers interlaced, we stretch our arms turning our hands inward.
  5. We extend the arms well forward, without the shoulders rising until we notice that the scapulae move, we should also note that the area of ​​the vertebrae are slightly curved.
  6. We will tilt the head slightly down to stretch the muscles and the lats.

We will do this exercise with a duration of 10 seconds and we will repeat it 3 times.

3. Exercises to relieve neck stiffness

These exercises are extension and flexion and will help us improve the stiffness that occurs in the neck when tension has lodged in these muscles.

These are exercises that we must do in a very soft way without forcing the area since the cervical area is a very sensitive and delicate area.

We will do the extension exercises first:

  1. We sit on a stool with our legs slightly apart and our back straight.
  2. We take a towel and pass it behind the head just where the neck begins.
  3. We grab the towel with both arms at the ends and tilt the head back slightly and look towards the ceiling.
  4. We keep this position for 5 seconds and repeat up to 3 times.

We must bear in mind that with this exercise we should not feel pain.

Now we will give way to the bending exercises:

  1. Sitting on the same stool and same position, we will keep the lumbar straight, legs slightly separated.
  2. We put our hands behind our heads and cross our fingers holding our heads.
  3. In this position we approach the elbows so that the two parallels remain.
  4. Now we will lower our heads by helping our hands and trying to get the chin towards the chest.
  5. We maintain this position of flexion for 10 seconds and we can repeat it 3 times.

4. Exercises to relax the shoulders

When we adopt bad postures not only our neck also suffers tension and shoulders.

Bad postures are not only adopted by being badly seated doing our work, also when we walk badly, as they say with their backs hunched, their heads down, or when we adopt bad positions when sleeping.

With these exercises in addition to relaxing the entire affected area we will also stretch and correct those bad postures.

  1. We will stand with our legs slightly apart to the width of our hips.
  2. We bend our knees slightly.
  3. We put our hands behind our backs, we draw chest to open the thorax.
  4. We raise our arms gently as far as we can without pushing as high as we can get.
  5. In this position we must have the back straight and the head also.
  6. With the lumbar straight, we contract the abdomen and take the pelvis forward.
  7. We do this exercise for 10 seconds and we can repeat it up to 3 times.

As we have said before during the development of these exercises, at no time should we feel pain, or some other discomforts such as dizziness, nausea or any other illness.

These exercises are intended to relax the tension in the affected areas, as well as relieve pain.

We must go to the specialist doctor in case we do not notice improvement or any of the aforementioned symptoms. This article is published for informational purposes only. It can not and should not replace the consultation with a Physician. We advise you to consult your Trusted Doctor.

Physio Neck Exercises Stretch & Relieve Routine (April 2024)