When I Turn My Neck It Hurts!
How To Relieve Pain When Turning Neck

Help! When I Turn My Neck It Hurts!

Have you ever woken up with a stiff neck, seemingly for no reason?  Then as you go about your morning routine, you notice that when you turn your neck, it hurts.

Fast forward to getting in the car and you have pain when turning your neck to back the car out of the garage.

Then your neck hurts again when checking your blind spot while driving.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were a quick, easy way to keep your neck from hurting when you turn it?

The 3 Exercises On This Page Will Help You Relieve Pain When Turning your Neck

They're by no means a magic bullet.  But by doing these exercises consistently, you can avoid pain when turning your neck. (Don't worry, they only take a few minutes per day 😃)

The 3 Exercises Are:

1. Proper Neck and Shoulder Posture
2. Neck Turning With Towel Exercise
3. Neck Turning Proprioception Exercise

They're super-simple to do and you can do them just about anywhere with minimal equipment.  All you need is a towel.

But first you need to know:

Why Does My Neck Hurt When Turning It?

If you're like a typical American, you don't sit with proper posture all day long.

I'd venture to bet it's less than half of the time.
(or is that being too generous?)

Compound that with staring at a computer screen all day, looking down at a phone, or sitting in the car gazing at the traffic ahead with a death grip on the steering wheel, and your neck muscles are bound to get stiff!

But why do stiff muscles make my neck hurt when turning it?

There are a few reasons why stiff muscles can make your neck hurt when turning it.

1. If the muscles in your neck are stiff, or if the muscles connecting your neck to your shoulder blade are stiff, they can cause compression of the vertebrae when you turn your neck. This in turn can cause pain and/or cracking, grinding, or crunching sounder when turning your neck.
2. Muscles can be a source of pain on their own. You can develop trigger points or "knots" in muscles that make the muscles inflexible. Trigger points are at least 4 times as sensitive as normal muscles, so they get aggravated easily when they're stretched, such as when turning your neck.

How Do These Exercises Stop My Neck From Hurting When I Turn It?

1. Neck Turning With Towel - this exercises is a self-mobilization of the joints in the neck. It helps get the vertebrae moving better.  This helps prolong the effect of joint mobilizations or manipulations that you receive in your therapy.
2. Neck Rotation Proprioception - This helps teach your brain the correct pattern of movement to turn your neck without it hurting.
3. Proper Neck and Shoulder Posture - If you want to keep the pain from coming back in the future, proper posture is a vital component to that.  We believe in helping our clients find the underlying causes of their problems, so they can get long-term relief.  For many people with neck pain, posture is ONE of these underlying causes.

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Proper Neck And Shoulder Posture

1. Tip your shoulder blades down and back
2. Tuck your chin down toward your throat slightly

This "exercise" isn't really an exercise at all. If anything, it's more of an isometric exercise.

But really, it's more of a habit. It may seem too simple to even be worthwhile, but I can promise you it is!

The more often you can maintain this posture throughout the day (along with getting arm support when able), the less your neck will hurt.

Neck Turning With Towel Exercise

Stretch To Relieve Neck Pain When Turning Your Head To The Right

1. Reach across your body with your left hand and grab the towel on the opposite side
2. Reach over the top and across your body with your right hand and grab the towel on the opposite side
3. Pull towel with your right hand across your chin (lower neck pain) or your cheek bone (higher neck pain) and turn your chin toward your right shoulder

Stretch To Relieve Neck Pain When Turning Your Head To The Left

1. Reach across your body with your right hand and grab the towel on the opposite side
2. Reach over top and across your body with your left hand and grab the towel
3. Pull towel with your left hand across your chin (lower neck pain) or your cheek bone (higher neck pain) and turn your chin to the left shoulder

Neck Turning Proprioception Exercise

1. Start with proper neck and shoulder posture with your shoulders tipped down and back and chin tucked.
2. Keep your chin tucked and slowly turn your chin toward one shoulder.
3. Return to the center keeping your chin tucked.
4. Repeat to the opposite side.
5. As you turn, imagine a rod that runs vertically through your head, and you just want to rotate around that axis.

Hopefully these exercise help if your neck hurts when turning it. If you need additional help, just click the button below, and we'd be happy to arrange time to talk with you to see how we can help.

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