There’s been lots of debate over the years about what physical therapy strategies are best for neck pain relief. While many still think of static stretching as the gold-standard method, I’d argue that it’s got little to no effect on your long-term neck health. While it might feel good in the moment, it doesn’t improve blood flow much and it certainly doesn’t make your muscles stronger and more resilient to fatigue.
Surprising right?
If you’ve got neck issues, one of the best things you can do is to start doing deep neck flexor endurance and neck strengthening exercises. These are movements that truly challenge the tissues in this area to become more robust and functional for everyday life activities. The best part?
You can do it all from the comfort of your own home.
While many of these exercises look slightly ridiculous, the benefits are too vast to ignore. Throughout university, I had years of neck pain, and I can confidently tell you that it was movements like these that got the job done and provided me with sustainable relief. Not only are you looking at better perfusion of blood to tissues and improved strength capacity at the neck, but these movements have the potential to take the load off the mid-lower back and upper body as well.
If you want to bulletproof your neck and enhance your upper-body health, look no further than this 3-minute routine!
Training the Neck as It Was Designed To Move
Before we dive into the interesting stuff, I want to clarify a couple of things. One, as I mentioned above, neck pain is complex. I’m by no means claiming that this routine will completely rid you of discomfort, but rather that it will help you start moving in the right direction.
Two, please be aware that this is targeted towards individuals looking to prevent neck pain or those who have minor complications. If you’re currently rehabbing a major injury or have any other conditions that may put you at risk during…