Seattle Chiropractor Discusses Neck Stretches Part 2

Hey everyone, it’s Dr. Zapata with Emerald City Spinal Care and am a chiropractor in Seattle. This week I will be covering part two of our two part series on neck stretches. If you missed the first part, go back and check out last week’s blog post and video! As I mentioned last week, the topic is neck stretches, and as a chiropractor I have patients ask me all the time what sort of neck stretches they should be doing in order to increase mobility in the neck.

Did you know that neck pain is commonly caused by repetitive strain from prolonged sitting postures, and that regular stretching can help increase blood flow to areas of injury to increase mobility and healing? So, with that in mind, I am going to share two more stretches that you can do for your neck.

1. This first one is for your posterior cervicals, which are muscles along the back of your neck. To stretch those muscles, you are going to want to bend your head forward until you feel a gentle stretch along the muscles in the back of your neck, and hold this for ten seconds.
2. The second group of muscles you are going to stretch out are your anterior cervical muscles, which are along the front of your neck. For this stretch, you are going to need to find your collar bone, which is underneath your neck and very close to your sternum. The video does highlight this stretch quite well, so if you have any trouble figuring out what I’m talking about, I would encourage you to watch the video that goes along with this blog post.

At any rate, once you find your collar bone, you will bend your head back and gently pull down on your collar bone. Hold this position for 10 seconds and release!

That’s it! Easy, right? That wraps up part two of this two part series on neck stretches. Try these stretches to increase mobility in your neck! As a chiropractor in Seattle, I know how important neck mobility can be when it comes to keeping people active…and let’s face it, in the northwest we are all about being active and outdoors! Be sure to check out the blog post and video last week in case you missed part 1! If you like what you read, and want more original content like this, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on Facebook.

From all of us at Emerald City Spinal Care, thank and have an amazing week!

- Dr. Zapata and the Emerald City Spinal Care Team