Deep suboccipital rotation
I’ve found this stretch very effective to relieve constant pain in the neck. And moreover, it is so easy to do.
What this stretch does, is increase the range of motion in the suboccipital triangle and suboccipital muscle group.
Go down to all fours, keep your neck neutral and look at the floor.
Perform small movements of rotation with your neck, rotating your neck no more than two inches each side.
Upper back stretch with isometric hold
This isometric contraction exercise aims to stretch / soften the muscles of the upper back.
When the muscles of the upper back are tense, they cause stress and a series of muscle and joint pain in the upper part of the body: the muscles of the neck being on the trajectory, they also find themselves tense, and can cause severe pain. neck pain, and / or headache (tension headache) that can be chronic or even permanent.
One of the exercises for neck pain offered in isometric physiotherapy is to apply a force with the arms on an object that will not move (in the video, the coach uses a foam roller), but can be any stable object located at a height of about one meter.
Kneeling in front of the object, we press with the arms, we put the head between the arms and we apply the isometric contraction while trying to raise the upper back while we press with the arms so as not to be able to go up upper back.
The isometric contraction must last 30 seconds and repeated regularly to be effective and relieve neckache.
Do this stretch as much as you want (unless it hurts of course), and be sure to take a good pause between two stretches.
