In this article, we’re going to show you how to neck pain relief.
This article will cover various traction or pulling exercises into the neck to relieve pressure on a pinched nerve that a bulging or herniated disc might cause.
All of these exercises can be done at home. They’re very safe. They’re very effective and may give quick relief in as little as thirty seconds. So, let’s get started and get rid of that nerve pain in the neck and arm right now.
Neck Pain Relief Exercise
This neck pain relief exercise is what we’d like to call the anywhere stretch because you can do it at home, at work, standing, or seated — it doesn’t require any equipment either.
What we’re gonna do is start with a good upright posture. Let’s make a fist, and turn it upside down to the point where the thumb faces down toward the floor. We’ll take the flat edge of that fist and place it directly underneath our chin. From there, we’ll lower my chin and our head until the bottom of the first right makes contact with the top of the chest.
Press down until you feel an excellent activation of the muscles in the neck. Once we hit that point, let’s take the hand on the other side and place it on the back side of the head, and then we’re going to pull forward while we press down into our fists into our chest with my chin.
Doing this should feel like a perfect stretch from the base of the neck to the base of the skull. Focus on that. If this does cause discomfort, too, please discontinue immediately. You want to hold this stretch for about twenty to 30 seconds.
You can hold it longer if you feel comfortable but from there, take a breather and then on the next repetition, drive further into your fist and try to bring the head forward even more for five complete repetitions.
What you also want to do from there is then build into the rotation to target this just a little bit differently. So, we’re going to make that fist. We’re going to repeat this, but instead of going straight down, we will go just a little bit toward one particular side.
We’re going to turn a little bit towards my left, and then I’m going to repeat. You’ll notice that this hits the muscles and hits the neck just a little bit differently. So, go all the way through those motions, all the way towards the left, go all the way towards the right.
If you notice one spot that just offers more pain relief, we want to note that, throw more repetitions in, and target that spot because it’s only going to focus on the areas that need it the most. Give that a try, and we hope it gives a lot of quick pain relief.
Daily Routine Plans to Fix Forward Head Posture
The Neck Pump Exercise in Neck Pain Relief
With this pain relief exercise, we call it the neck pump and pull because we’re going to do pumping and pulling motions to help release pressure into the neck. This one is best done on the floor. We’re gonna start on our backs.
You can use a foam roller if you have one. You can also use a water bottle. We just want something large enough to place right at the back of the neck over the curve and allow it where our head does not touch the floor. From here, we want to just allow our heads to be taken backwards into extension.
Allow it to relax as much as you can. If this feels good and relieves pain, you can hold this position for several minutes. Grab a book, an iPhone, iPad, and just relax as much as possible.
But we want to do the first part of this exercise, which is the pumping motion. So, we’re going to take two fingers, put them on the chin, and we’re going to do a simple chin tuck. Hold this for a couple of seconds, and then we’ll go back into extension.
So, we’re going into flexion and extension as much as possible. This pumping motion will help put more range of motion into the neck and hopefully start to relieve pressure onto those spinal discs again; if it causes discomfort, please discontinue immediately. You can do this over and over again for about twenty complete repetitions and if it feels good, throw some more repetitions in there.
For the next part, we’ll focus a little more on a pulling motion and traction to help open up the joints. So, what we’re going to do is feel off to the backside of our ears. You’ll find, right at the base of the skull, two bony points.
They’re pretty much right behind the ears, right at the bottom. That is the contact point that we want. We’ll use the mini portion of the palm right here, right in the middle, to hook over that spot and then pull over our head.
We’re going to start by pulling again this way which you should feel a friendly, comfortable stretch. Allow the head to relax towards the floor while you do this and into extension.
From here, we’re going to take it to the next level by taking our heels and driving our body weight downwards while we resist it with our hands like this, and it feels like a perfect stretch into the neck into the upper back. Only go to your comfort level.
Hold this position for about twenty to thirty seconds. Do nice, slow, and control breathing too. Let the tension out.
From there, you’re going to relax, take a breather, and repeat this up to five times. With each repetition, cup the spot and also try to cup around the ears too not for not to cause any discomfort but pull forward as much as you can and then use your heel weight to also pull down with this exercise because it’s only going to help reduce pressure into the neck. Give that a try, and we hope it gives a lot of quick pain relief.
WHAT HAPPENS IF THE Nerve Pain DOESN’T GO AWAY in Neck Pain Relief?
It has been recommended that people suffering from cervical radiculopathy for more than a few days should seek medical attention.
A neck doctor is the right person to help you figure out what is causing this pain and how to relieve it quickly.
The doctor may want you to receive an MRI or CT scan so that they can have a better look at the neck muscles, nerve root, spinal canal, and the affected nerve. The doctor may complete this course of treatment depending on the condition of your nerve roots.
Great Traction Exercise that You Can Do in Bed for Neck Pain Relief
Here is a great traction exercise that you can do right in bed. We’re going to be using a hand-drying towel. So, just roll it up, and place it on the back of your neck. We’re going to start in bed, on our back, and slide off until our heads can rest comfortably off the edge of that bed.
Allow gravity to take it into extension or a backwards movement just. What we want to do is a head retraction. That is just driving our heads down toward the floor.
This will intensify that stretch but only go to your comfort level. From there, let’s take the two ends of the towel, and pull up towards the ceiling for an initial amount of tension over the spot into the neck.
We’re going to then lower the two ends down just like this and then pull on it overhead until that towel slides up and then hooks right at the base of the skull. Pull forward as much as you can with those two ends.
You should feel a very comfortable stretch throughout the neck. From the top to the base of the neck. Focus on that. Once we hit that very comfortable stretch, let’s try to hold this one for at least twenty seconds. Do nice, slow, controlled breathing too. Let the tension out. If you do feel comfortable, you can hold the position for longer.
Half a minute, a minute, whatever feels comfortable to you but when you need a breather, relax, take one, and then on the next repetition, try to lower the head even further, bring the head back into that retraction and then pull even more with the two ends.
Challenge yourself to open up those disc spaces because it’s only going to take more pressure off of those bulging discs. Hopefully, relieving that nerve pain in the neck and the arm.
Do this for five complete repetitions. To take this one to the next level, what I’m going to do is start in this position but I’m going to raise the two ends towards the ceiling. Let’s pull up just a little bit to cause some initial traction.
What we’re gonna do from there is we’re going to take one end, keep it locked. So, in this case, it’s going to be our right. We’re going to keep this locked but we’re going to take the other end, and then we’re going to go 45° towards the opposite direction.
So, we’re pulling up on the left end, taking it 45° up like this. Almost kinda like towards our other side’s eye and then we’re going to pull into it.
When you do this, you’re going to feel it hook right there on the left and the head is going to turn towards the right. It just hits that area a little bit differently so try to pull into it as much as you can if this feels comfortable.
It’s releasing pain hold this one for up to 20 seconds relax take a breather and then repeat this up to five times try it on the other side also and see if that helps out just a little bit more experimental with it and if it feels like it helps more throw more repetitions in and tries to focus on relieving pressure by always pulling into it with a towel even more.
Great Neck Traction Exercise
Here is a great neck traction exercise in which we can let our body weight do all of the hard work for us. We just need a couple of things. The first is a flat elevated surface.
Depending on your height, you can use the edge of a couch, your bed, a desk, or a chair, it all works. The other thing that we’re going to be using is a medium-sized hand-drying towel.
We’ll also start on my knees. So, let’s put something underneath it like a pillow or towel for extra comfort. Let’s go up to the edge of that flat surface. We’re going to roll up a towel and place it over the center of the spot where we’re having pain in our neck. From there, the back side of our arms, pretty much the elbows are going to rest comfortably on the edge of that flat surface.
We want to take the two ends, pull forward to create an initial tension over that uh painful spot in the neck and then we’re just going to do a slight chin tuck. The movement is very simple. We’re going to pull forward on the as much as we can and then we’re going to start to lower our butt down towards our heels.
When you do this, you’re going to feel the towel hook right over that spot in the neck and you’re going to feel a gentle pulling motion happen throughout pretty much the whole neck into the upper back. Focus on feeling that. But once we have a very comfortable stretch, we’ve lowered the butt down towards the heels as much as we can, we want to hold this position for about twenty to thirty seconds.
Do nice, slow, controlled breathing also. Let as much tension out as From there, you’re going to relax, take a breather, and then on the next repetition, pull with the ends just a little bit more and try to lower the butt down even further.
Challenge yourself to get a better stretch with each repetition because it’s only going to help take more pressure out of the neck and hopefully get more pain relief.
Do this for five complete repetitions. To take this one to the next level, what we can do is incorporate a turning or rotation into this exercise to target it just a little bit differently. So, what we’re going to do is get back into that position but in this case, what we’re going to do is then turn our head just slightly up towards the left while I do it. You’ll notice that this traction, hits it just a little bit differently.
So, go through different motions. Go all the way towards your left and go all the way towards your right. If you do notice that one certain spot just hits it a little bit more and you’re getting more pain relief. Make note of that. Throw more repetitions in because it’s only going to help take pressure off where it is needed most.
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