Sunday, April 20, 2014

The Various Neck Rehab Exercises

By Essie Osborn


With a constant neck pain, even enjoying the little things in life can be hard. When in such a situation, an individual will need to see a doctor for treatment. Part of the treatment program will encompass a rehabilitation program which will entail exercising the neck until it gets back to normal.

However before the individual is placed into the rehabilitation program, medications will be given to ease the pain and also a person will be required to take enough rest. After the pain reduces, a person is then taken through posture lessons and neck rehab exercises which will ensure to stretch and strengthen neck muscles and ensuring that the pain goes away for good.

The rehabilitation process may take a few weeks to several months depending on severity of the problem. Persons should not worry in case they have a slow rehab process as it is proven that a gradual process lessens the healing time also prevents chances of re injury. Once this process is over, a person will be armed with knowledge that will be useful in preventing re occurrence of the problem again.

Most of the activities involve stretching and strengthening of the muscles. As mentioned above the purpose of these exercises is to reduce the pain. They do this by increasing the blood flow to the neck muscles, prevent further stress to neck muscles through building stamina and also spasm reduction through stretching activities for the muscles. Below are examples of these exercises.

To start the exercises are the motion activities and examples of these are; neck extension and flexion, chin tucks, head rolls shoulder rolls among other processes. A person begins with a shoulder roll which is like a warm up activity. This is done by placing both arms on the side lifting the shoulder then rolls them in a circular way ten times. During the head roll, the arms are also at the side and head rolled sideways ten times in a repeated manner.

When it comes to the extension activity, one has his chin pointing upwards to the ceiling and down repeatedly, a number of times. The flexion process is the opposite of extension as one will be having his chin pointing downwards towards his chest. This is repeated 10 times after which one takes breaks and then continues with the repetition. As for the chin tuck, an individual stares straight forward and uses the fingertips to push the head back and forth repeatedly.

Stretching activities are also numerous. For instance there is the upper trapezius stretch targeting trapezius muscle which connects the head and shoulder. To do this a person will have to sit in upright posture and place the right arm at the back. Then using the left arm, a person gently tilts to the left his right side the head. The stretch should be held for 15 to 30secs and repeated to the other side of the head several times.

Other examples include scalene stretch, head curls, and also there are hands and knees extensions. All these activities stretch the muscles and in the long run strengthening them. Even after recovering from the pain, an individual should engage in safe aerobic activities that stretch and strengthen neck muscles awhile ensuring one stays fit.




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