Physical therapy exercises for neck pain
There are a lot of physical therapy exercises for neck pain, as we are about to find out. However, before we tell you about these exercises for neck pain, we want to say that these exercises will only help you if you have a diagnosis for what is causing your neck pain. Without a diagnosis, you cannot perform the right exercises for the condition you have. In fact, you may make the neck condition worse if you try exercises that are not suitable for the neck condition you have. So, before trying any neck exercises, seek a diagnosis and find out the correct treatments for your neck pain.
One of the most common examples of an inappropriate neck exercise would be the flexion stretch whereby, you tuck your chin to your chest to stretch the muscles on the back of your neck and shoulders. This exercise may work well in the short term, but we see too many patients doing this stretch not knowing it is the complete opposite of what they should be doing to provide more lasting relief!
The benefits of neck exercises
When your neck and back muscles are weakened, this can put more strain on your shoulders. This causes poor posture and puts more pressure on the spine. This increased pressure on the spine results in more pain in the neck and the back. So, neck pain may lead to further neck pain if left untreated.
Poor posture can also result in shoulder, back and chest pain. You may also experience stiff joints and headaches just because your neck and back are weakened and other areas of the body are trying to take up the slack. Fortunately, there are some neck exercises that you can do at home that help strengthen the neck and correct most of these symptoms, as long as there isn’t an underlying cause of your neck pain.
Neck exercises that help with neck pain
Neck stretches
Neck stretches are great for slowly loosening tight neck muscles. Stretches are a source of flexibility and stabilisation for the neck, both equally important in stopping neck and back pain. A few good neck stretches throughout the day can bring back the elasticity in your neck and help you gain a full range of motion again. You see, as we age, we lose the range of motion in our neck which can be a very simple cause of neck pain with a very simple fix. Just do a few neck stretches a day, you can do them at home or work and see if they don’t help to take your neck pain away.
By loosening these tight muscles, you can take pressure off the joints in the neck, this in turn helps free up the neck! Make sure that you stretch in a balanced way to ensure that all the muscles around the neck are equally supple; front, sides and back.
Neck strengthening exercises
Neck strengthening exercises differ from stretches because they can involve weights and resistance bands and are designed to increase the power of your muscles. They are a great way of building up the strength of the muscles in your neck to better support the joints, more effortlessly. As a general rule, neck strengthening should be done every day or every other day, in line with your tollerance. This gives the neck muscles time to heal. However, listen to your body, if your neck muscles are still a little sore from the workout after a few days, don’t push yourself too hard otherwise you’ll damage your neck even more and that kind of ruins the whole of idea of doing neck exercises to stop neck pain!
Aerobic conditioning
Aerobic conditioning, or cardio as it’s most commonly known, keeps your heart rate above normal and increases your oxygen intake. The increased heart rate and oxygen mean that you have an increased blood flow to muscles, ligaments and joints. This can help heal things like neck pain quickly. One of the treatments we use at The Mayfair Clinic mimics this increased natural healing process, laser therapy. Also, if you do aerobic conditioning exercises for 30 minutes or more, you also get the added benefit of some painkillers. After this point, endorphins start to be released, and so these can help with your neck pain too.
Just be careful when doing such exercise, with neck pain the movement is good to help reduce inflammatory build up, but too much can be counter productive. A light walk or cross-trainer would be preferable to running for obvious reasons.
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The benefits of diagnosis
As we said above, a diagnosis for your neck pain is vital. It helps you understand the cause of your neck pain, first and foremost, but it also helps you understand which exercises you can do to help manage the pain. For example, if you have a herniated disc in your neck, some of the exercises above may increase the pain rather than stop it. Before you begin any neck exercises, get a diagnosis for your neck pain!
Neck pain should be treated as serious until proven otherwise. The neck is a very important part of the body and holds nerves that travel to your arms, hands, bum, hips, legs and feet. If there is a serious issue with your neck, all of these places may be affected too. If you would like The Mayfair Clinic’s help diagnosing your neck pain, get in touch. We are always happy to help with neck pain and get you back to full health.
What if neck exercises do not help with my neck pain?
Well, if neck exercises do not help with your neck pain, there may be a more serious underlying cause to your neck pain. You see, a lot of people go to their GP with neck pain expecting that they will know exactly the cause. However, a GP is a General Practitioner, so while they can identify a lot of diseases and conditions, they cannot diagnosis them all. A GP may look at your symptoms and decide that your neck pain is because you slept funny a few nights ago, for example. However, the actual condition is far more complex than that, and not something that should be ignored or “worked through”
If your GP has given you neck exercises and they haven’t helped with the pain, come and see us at The Mayfair Clinic. Our diagnostic techniques are far more advanced than a GP’s and so we can identify the cause of any kind of neck pain and, using the most advanced technology available to us, we can treat it very effectively.
Do not put neck pain off and hope it will heal. If you have neck pain for more than a week without recovery, get it seen to. It can save you months of pain that can stop you from working or enjoying life. To find out more about the neck conditions that we treat at The Mayfair Clinic, please explore our website further. For our help with your neck pain, use the contact form on this page to contact The Mayfair Clinic today.
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