The neck stretches are basically like nodding the head “yes” and “no” and moving the ear towards the shoulders. The muscles of the neck and shoulders are commonly very tense, so only holding gentle stretches for 2-3 seconds at a time, and progressing a little further with each one until the muscles feel stretched is the best way to go.
It’s best rotate the head down and up using the auricle of the ear as the horizontal axis point, to avoid crunching down on the atlas and axis (C1 & 2) and get a small stretch in the back of the neck when looking down; before we let gravity take our head down. Using gravity is best, if we use muscles to pull we can pull to hard and cause the spindle cells to stop the stretch and create a proverbial game of tug-o-war and possibly strain the muscles.
To stretch the back of the head, neck and even shoulders, we can relax and let gravity take the head forward and down, using the auricle of the ear as the horizontal axis point. After the back of the head raises up as the front of the head goes down, let gravity continue to take the head forward and down until you feel a good easy stretch. The best way to recover or return to our beginning/zero posture, can sometimes be tilting the spine backward to let the head roll out of the stretch; instead of using already aggravated and stretched muscles to pull a heavy back to position. To stretch the front of the neck, which is important, we can look directly up toward the sky or ceiling and extend our head vertically. It’s very important to release a stretch slowly.
We can also look to sides at 45′ angles and or over each shoulder to stretch the sides of the back of the neck, by using the same down and up looking motions, of course rotating from the auricle of the ear and the spine. To stretch the front sides of the neck, we can look up instead of down at 45′ angles then let gravity take the rear facing ear towards the back of the shoulder. Again, it may be easier to tilt the spine to help the head roll back to zero position instead of using the stretched muscles to pull the head.
To stretch the sides of the neck directly, we can of course act as if, we are going to touch our ear to our shoulder with the head looking straight ahead. And again it’s best to only use gentle stretches for 2-3 seconds each proceeding a little further each time until the neck feels stretched. As always, it is best to use slow, gentle stretching using gravity to take the head down instead of muscles, and returning to zero posture slowly by tilting the spine if necessary.
I hope you enjoy these stretches and that they help you become and stay more relaxed. And more stretches and good advice is on the way.
Enjoy the weather out there and I’ll see you soon!