Hi. I'm going to show you seven McKenzie neck exercises to help treat neck pain and/or arm pain. These exercises can be extremely effective in helping improve your neck pain and arm pain and should be done in a way that helps load your spine in the correct direction. To know if its the correct direction or not you want to have your arm pain start to centralize or move closer to where it's coming from. So if you have pain in your hand, forearm it may move up into your upper arm. If you have upper arm pain, it may move more into your base of your neck or shoulder. If you just have neck pain, you should find that your neck pain gradually improves and your range of motion improves as well. What we don't want is that pain spreading farther down the arm or intensifying down your arm as you do this, or the pain in the neck becoming severe and losing range of motion in the movement as you go.
Neck exercise one. Cervical retraction in sitting with self overpressure modification. To do cervical retraction you're going to sit in the chair with upright posture. And then you're just going to move your head straight back. You're doing this correctly you may get a little double chin. While doing this exercise you should go as far back as can comfortably. And monitor if your arm pain, shoulder pain or neck pain is getting worse. If it’s worse please stop. If it’s unchanged or improving, keep going with this exercise. Try about ten. If you don't notice any change overall, then you can take your fingers and give yourself about 10% extra pressure. Try about ten with the self-over pressure and monitor what's happening in your arm, shoulder and or neck.
Neck exercise number two cervical retraction extension in sitting. To do cervical retraction plus extension you’re gonna sit in your chair nice and tall for upright posture. You then slide your chin straight back and then tilt your head to look up at the ceiling. You should go as far back as you, because it’s important in getting your spine into its end range position to really start to change both joint dysfunction and your symptoms. Try about ten in a row. And monitor what's happening both in your arm, shoulder and neck as you go. You should start to notice the symptoms lower in your arm start to move up and maybe pain in the neck start to improve. If you have a lot of pain in your arm you're going to find that the pain here gets more intense before it gets better, and that's ok, that’s part of the process.
Neck exercise number three. Cervical retraction in lying. If this exercise or this exercise is uncomfortable for your arm or your neck, you can do this exercise in lying as a modification. You can lie on the ground or on your bed. You can lie flat on the ground but if this is too much pressure for your neck you can always put a pillow under here to give yourself a little support. You are then going to do that retraction motion while lying down. So tuck your chin and relax. Try ten of those and monitor what happens both in your arm and neck. If your arm pain is moving up closer to your neck try a couple more sets. If you find your neck pain is improving as well, great. Try a couple more. If anything is going down farther down your arm please stop and discontinue.
Neck exercise number four cervical extension in lying. If doing cervical extension in sitting is too uncomfortable for the neck. This can be modified by lying down which uses less gravity for the neck. You’re gonna lie on your belly. Elbows out in front of you. Put your hands together. Put your chin in your hands. This is going to place your neck in a little bit of cervical extension, and you may feel some pressure throughout here. If you don't feel any pressure at all, walk your elbows forward just a little bit. Try to hold this position for about a minute to start and monitor what's happening within the arm and neck. If arm pain is moving up closer to your neck, that's great. If it starts to move farther away, please discontinue. If you just have neck pain, you may find that this temporarily increases your neck pain, but it should be tolerable.
Neck exercise number five. Neck flexion in sitting. To do neck flexion in sitting you want to sit in a chair sit up nice and tall and try and drop your chin as far towards your chest as you can go. Try about ten in a row and monitor what's happening both in the arm and your neck. If arms symptoms are moving up closer to the neck, that's great. If you just have neck pain and that pain is improving, that’s great If anything is spreading farther into the hand please stop and discontinue. Try about 10. If you don't feel much of a change, you can take your hands give yourself about 10% extra pressure into the movement. Try ten of those as well and monitor what happens both in your hand, arm and neck.
Number six is neck rotation in sitting. You are gonna sit in your chair nice and tall with good posture, and then you're going to turn your head towards the side that hurts. So you have neck pain on the right, turn to the right. If you have arm pain on the right turn to the right. Turn your head as far as you can go, come back. Try ten of those in a row. Monitor what happens both in the arm and the neck. If you find that your arm pain is moving closer to your neck, that's great. If I anything is moving farther down, you should discontinue. If you just have neck pain, you may have a temporary increase in neck pain that should be tolerable and relatively comfortable. And you should also find that your range of motion starts to improve. If you find your range of motion gets shorter or is harder to do as your pain is increasing, you should stop.
Neck exercise number seven is neck side bending in sitting. To do neck side bending in sitting, you are gonna sit up tall, you're going to side bend your neck towards the side that hurts. Try to make your ear to your shoulder and come back. Be mindful that your head doesn't also go into rotation with this. You should tilt purely in that sideways plane of motion. If you don't feel any change with this, this can be modified with just a little bit of self overpressure. To get a little bit more end range load. Try ten of those if you have arm pain you should find that starts to move closer to the neck. If you just have neck pain hopefully this pains improving and you’re find that end range of motion with each repetition.
To learn more about the McKenzie exercises to help treat cervical and arm pain please visit us at Spine-health.com and thanks for watching.
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