Neck Exercise: Nodding

This neck exercise can help if you have neck pain. It is to remind you that you have a head-neck joint with 15 degrees of "nodding potential"!

If you wander down an average street in the UK or the US, you may notice that most people don't nod between their ears, but much further down their necks. This uses much smaller joints to do the nodding, and those tiny joints can suffer from wear and tear as a result if you use them all the time.

Some people find this neck exercise painful at first: if you do, be even more gentle and subtle in your movements. Whenever you are doing exercises that involve your neck, take great care and be very gentle. This is an important and sometimes vulnerable part of your body. It can get very stiff and sore in front of a computer, or hunched over a desk for many hours a day. Don't expect too much of it too quickly.

Sitting or Standing:

Stick your fingers in your ears and very slightly and very slowly nod your head. Keep your eyes open and interested. Think of rotating your head around your fingers (your fingers don't nod-- only your head does.)

With a mirror:

Face the mirror, stick your fingers in your ears, and nod. Keep eye contact.

With a friend:

Stand sideways on to your friend. Do the fingers in ears and the nodding. Ask your friend if you're nodding around your fingers, or from somewhere lower down on your neck. You should be nodding around your fingers, and your fingers shouldn't be moving as you nod.

How Often?

For 2 minutes twice a day. But as often as you like.

Why?

Reminds you where the top of your spine is, so that you use your whole spine properly. This exercise is an example of the imprinting technique. Another neck exercise to try is the Whispered "Ah".

Links

Whispered "Ah" neck exercise | Return to Neck Pain.