Sebastian Brosche · 15 min · 1,702 words
Previously titled: Video 3 - Neck Rehab
Welcome back and welcome to day three of our Net Paying Programme. Today I'm going to be using the step or bench that I was using yesterday. And we're going to look at a couple of new exercises today. So I'm going to start out just by doing a few repetitions of the basic net mobility that we've started on the other days as well.
So we're going to do forwards and back. This is also a really good way of assessing how your neck is getting on. Do you find that if you can move, if you're getting more movement or the same amount of movement with less pain, as on the previous days, that's always a really good sign. It's a good way to measure your progress.
I'm going to go side to side. What you'll start to feel a lot of these at is that your neck, it's not just one joint. It doesn't all move in the same way. You've got a number of different joints in the neck.
It's basically a stack of bones on top of each other. And it's the wobbly thing that connects your upper back to your head. So you've got this heavy thing sitting on top of the wobbly thing. And this is one of the reasons why doing some work on neck strength and also just being aware of the position of your neck in space, it's a really helpful thing for grapplers.
When I've done a few of those, I'm going to take my arms out to the side. And this is more of an upper back exercise. I'm going to work on dropping my shoulder blades down and into the middle of my back. I'm just going to make small backward circles with my arms.
Now, as I mentioned when we were doing the shoulder program, there's a lot of connection between the upper back and the neck. Very often, if there's something going on in the shoulders, for example, that will have a knock-on effect on the neck and vice versa. Sometimes people with neck pain will then start to develop shoulder pain as a result. I'm just going to pause, take a rest, do maybe a few shoulder circles, just move the head around, and I'm going to just do a few more.
So I think maintaining good shoulder health and the connection between the shoulder and the upper back and the shoulder and the neck, that's all really important when it comes to recovering from and preventing injuries. The idea is you just want to keep making these small circles, keeping the shoulder blades back and together and the shoulders dropped down. And rest there. Okay.
So from there, I'm going to go into the upper back, and I'm going to do a couple of shoulder circles. So from there, I'm going to grab my step. I'm going to do the same thing again. I'm just going to lie back on it with my head just over the edge.
Now, this is a reasonably challenging exercise, so if you find this one difficult, do feel free to go back to the earlier version, just the static version, or even the static version with your head on the step itself. Okay. So what I'm going to do from here is I'm going to go through the full range of mobility, flexion to extension. I'm just going to let the head go back, just really slowly taking it back into extension, only as far as it's comfortable again.
I'm making sure to come back via neutral, so I want to tuck my chin in first before I come back up. What I don't want to do, I'm going to do it wrong one time. What I don't want to do is to lift up here leading with my chin first, because that uses an entirely different set of muscles, and it's not the one that we want to work on here. So I'm keeping my chin tucked in, and then I slowly just let the chin out as my head goes back.
So I tuck the chin in first, I come back to neutral, and I'm just going to curl the head up. And this can be surprisingly hard work. Now if you're finding that it's starting to become painful or you're fatiguing quickly, do feel free to stop. It's one of these exercises that very often takes a little bit of time to build into before it becomes comfortable.
Just going to do a couple more now. I'm going to rest there. So from there, I'm going to go grab my foam roller, and we're going to go straight into some more upper back mobilisation. So again, this is another one of these exercises that you almost can't do too much of.
So I'm making sure I take the weight of my head, support that on my hands, so my neck may be quite fatigued from that exercise that we did just now, so I don't want to be carrying the weight of my head. As before, we're just going to work our way up the upper back, mobilising into extension. And again, we've talked about the importance of the upper back mobility, and it being a really good way to reduce the neck pain. This is one of the first things that I'll work on with people if they're coming with neck pain, is that I'll focus on upper back mobility.
I'm really taking my time, especially up at the top of the upper back here, really trying to extend backwards over that roller. As much movement as I can in those upper vertebrae. I'm just finishing with rolling into the muscles. And from there, I drop the roller out to one side, just going to lie onto your back, and we're going to do that chin tuck again.
This should be feeling quite easy by now, hopefully. And while I'm doing the chin tuck, I'm also going to push my head back against the floor. So I'm using both the muscles on the front and the back of the neck together. Try to keep breathing when you do this.
It's easy to start holding your breath with these. I don't want to push as hard as I possibly can. And now I'm holding at a level that's really comfortable that I can hold and breathe at the same time. And relax.
We're going to do one more of those. And relax. And relax. And finally, sitting up.
So yesterday, when we did the isometrics, we were doing it with the head slightly out of line. So what we're going to do now is we're going to take the head in front of you, and we're going to do the chin tuck. So today, we're going to do the head slightly out of line. So what we're going to do now is we're going to take the head even further towards the end of the movement.
So I'm going to take my head down towards the shoulder, as far as is comfortable. I'm going to just place my hand on the head, and then I'm going to push back. So I'm not pulling on the head at all. I'm just placing the hand, and I'm going to push back with the neck.
Now, if that's painful in that position, do take the neck back towards the middle a little bit further. So I want you only take it as far as you can, with maybe a little bit of mild discomfort, but certainly no more than that. I'm just pushing back against the hand. I'm going to take the head off to the other side, again, as far as is comfortable, and then I push back.
I'm not pulling. It's really important that you make a deliberate effort not to pull on the head there. So I'm actively using the muscles in the neck. And then I'm going to drop the head forwards and down.
So I'm going to, in this case, towards my right side, I'm going to grab the... There's a nice little handle there on the back of my head. I'm going to put my hand there. And same thing again.
I'm not going to yank my head forwards. A lot of people use that as a stretch. I don't like that because in some cases that can make things a little bit more difficult. A lot of people use that as a stretch.
I don't like that because in some cases that can make things worse. I'm going to just push back gently against the hand. So I feel like that muscle that runs down my shoulder blade, I will feel that activating. And again, by doing these isometrics, it will help to settle the pain down, because it directly inhibits the pain.
But we're also working on the strength of those muscles and on improving that mobility, but doing it in a very safe way. There again. And as always, keep breathing with one of these things. And then rest.
We're going to come back up the middle and we're going to do that sequence again. So I'm taking the head off to the right, pushing back. And then pushing back the other way. It is important to remember that the right amount, to do the right amount for you, will be, it will depend on your individual circumstances and what's going on with your neck.
So for some people, the amount that we're doing in one of these sessions, maybe it may be just right. It may be a bit too much in some cases, in which case, if you're finding that any of the exercises are becoming sore, as I keep saying, do feel free to cut them short. And then to the other side. So you're really going to listen to your body with this.
And as always with neck, if you have any doubts at all, do talk to a professional, talk to a healthcare practitioner, a therapist, and ask them for individual advice. Okay, so we're back tomorrow for day four and we'll continue to progress.
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