Stiff neck?

Ther are a number of neck stretching exercises you can do. My physio got me doing some, and I invented a few of my own. I made up my own silly names for them.

WARNING:

Do all small movements with small pressure, especially at first or you might snap your neck off or out of place. Slow gentle movements please. Consult your physio fo details.

1) Chook strut.

There was a rock star that used to strut like a chicken in his stage show. You walk like that. Hold your arms up to shoulder height and pull your shoulders back as you poke your neck forward. Then go back to your starting position or do the reverse movement. Repeat five or six times.

2) Turtle

You poke your head back and forward and stretch forward-left and front-right, like a turtle poking its head out of its shell and looking around.

3) Boxer

Gently stretch your head up and to the left and right. You can hold or guide with your alternate hands. Most boxers do variations of this head wobble when they first jump into the ring so their muscles are not stiff when they get wacked in the side of the head or they have to bend their necks sideways to avoid such a whack.

4) Standard Neck Roll/Bends

This is the name I give to the more common neck streches and rolling movements usually taught in sports warmups.

I also developed my own exercise:

6) The rack

Here I either hold my toes undrr a bar and pull myself up by pushing down on a table top or chair OR cup my hand around my neck with thumbs resting in shoulder blades, then bend my neck left and right such that my neck gets pulled upwards to the left and right.

It might be hard to visualize but it does stretch the neck upwards on either side.

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There are also muscle strengthening exercises.

A common one is to get some elastic and pull it slowly back and forward in your hand with arm straight at full extension. Hip turn shoul also normally be used. This exercises muscled in mid back which prevent pain associated with "pulling you shoulder and/or neck muscles".

You really should see a physio at least once to decide which exercises suit you and to show you how to do them correctly.

Hang in there for a day or two. Stay out of drafts, and sleep straight with very little elevation to the head.

You can try these neck exercises, maybe it will help give you more mobility and to decrease some of the pain.

massage, use herbal oil to massage your neck or you can get one of those little massager machine that vibrate to massage it, i got one of those for my husband's parents and it works wonders