Neck pain is something that everyone deals with. As I am writing this article, I am ironically enough dealing with a small bout of neck pain that has truly made the last week difficult for myself. In addition to personal experience, many of the individuals I work with often suffer from neck pain and look for different ways to address the pain for themselves. Much of the advice I give them is related to different actions that they can take on a day to day basis that either relaxes the tense muscles around the neck, while strengthening others. The individuals I help often regret not doing these actions sooner, as usually at least one of the things I show them helps to alleviate some of the pain. If you have some neck pain, let’s address a few things you can do to treat it. You will regret you didn’t do these sooner! If you have questions on any of the content below, feel free to check out the YouTube video we linked addressing the topic.
Fix Neck Pain Quick
Massage
When you are dealing with neck pain, many of the muscles in your shoulders, upper back, and even running up your neck are very tight and overworked. Simply spending some time to massage these muscles helps tremendously in reducing tension in the area and helping with pain. In the video, we use a massage gun to help massage our upper shoulder region. A massage gun helps as you don’t have to deal with your hand getting tired. If you would like to check out the massage gun we use in the video, feel free to click here to see the product on Amazon.
Chin Tucks
After you have calmed down the muscles, you can begin doing some strength and posture exercises for your neck. The first exercise is a chin tuck. This is a very simple exercise, where you are essentially making a “double chin.” Sitting up in a good posture position, bring your chin back into your neck and hold for a few seconds. You will immediately notice some relief in your neck pain.
Shoulder Blade Pinches
Shoulder blade pinches help to strengthen the muscles in your back, which are often weak and underused due to bad posture. Go ahead and find your good posture position again, and then pinch your shoulder blades for a couple seconds, before relaxing. You will do at least 15-20 of these before breaking. Make sure you aren’t shrugging your shoulders and are actually pushing your shoulder straight back behind you.
Pressure Point Stretch
This is similar to the first massage, but slightly different. Find any of the tight areas around your shoulder and neck region that are tender. Next, you will press one of your fingers in that tender area. While holding your finger, you will then pull your head towards the opposite shoulder you are pressing with your hand. This will help to get rid of the pressure point knot in your shoulder. Beware that this does cause quite a bit of “good” pain, so do as much as you can tolerate.
Upper Back Extension
For the upper back extension, you need a sturdy chair and a squishy ball. In the video, we use a medicine ball. To check out the one we recommend, feel free to view the product on Amazon by clicking here. Once you have a squishy ball, you will place it behind your upper back, pinning it against the chair. Next, place your hands on your head, and slowly lean back onto the chair, opening up your chest and upper back. Hold this position for about 30 seconds, before relaxing.
Hopefully after trying out a few of these your upper neck pain will be reduced. Stay consistent with these exercises to help you on your pain-free journey in life!
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