Are you feeling stiffness in your upper neck? Do you have neck tension and maybe even a headache? Try doing head clock neck exercises to relieve your neck discomfort. This neck exercise will help loosen the back of the neck muscles and also keep your head and neck mobile. The flexibility in the neck will reduce any neck tension that you encounter throughout the whole day. When you do these head clock neck exercises, you should be able to keep your head and neck range of motion without pain.

You can do these head clock neck exercises lying down, sitting or standing. I would first recommend doing them either lying down or sitting in order to prevent any falls or becoming dizzy while doing the neck exercise. I will start you off with the lying down head clock neck exercise.

Start while lying on the bed or floor. You should be on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the surface. Have your arms be by your side or crossed on your stomach. Relax your shoulders. You can support your head with a pillow. You head position should start with a chin tuck and your eyes should be looking up at the ceiling. This is your starting position for this neck exercise.

Think as your head as a clock and that your nose is the clock’s hands. Your nose will guide you through the different hours of the clock. Take a breath in. Start the neck exercises at 12 o’clock. You will tilt your head a little to reach for that number with your nose. Keep your eyes open and look in the same direction as where your nose is going. Breathe out as you go through the head clock. Now go to the next hour with your nose after a couple of seconds. Continue until you reach 12 o’clock again. Repeat this 10 times. Reverse the direction and go counter-clockwise. Do these neck exercises twice a day.

The head and neck motion should be slow and controlled. There should be no pain or discomfort with these neck exercises. After you have done these neck exercises, be sure to rise from the bed or floor slowly in order to avoid any dizziness. These head motions should relieve neck tension and let your neck muscles be a lot more flexible throughout the day.  This will also keep the head and neck loose which will reduce any neck pain or discomfort. The sitting and standing head clocks will be described at a later time.

Do you feel that your front neck muscles are weak? Here’s a quick neck exercise that you can do in the morning and evening. By doing the front neck exercise with the chin tucks will have a good neck workout. These neck exercises will help to strengthen the deep front neck muscles and help eliminate neck pain.

You can do this in any position – lying down, sitting or standing. I’ll tell you how to do them in sitting. Your starting position should be sitting up straight, feet flat on the floor, shoulders relaxed, head should be up, eyes looking straight ahead and the chin is parallel to the floor. Make loose fists and put your palms together. Your elbows will be bent and close to your body. Now place your fists under your chin.

Take a breath in and bring your chin towards your fists. Breathe out and hold the position for 10 seconds. Relax your chin by gently lifting off your fists. Repeat this neck exercise 10 times. Do this twice daily. 

You should feel the front neck muscles work and the back neck muscles begin to stretch. There should be no pain when you do these neck exercises. Be careful not to clench your teeth or push really hard on the bottom jaw. Your fists should just match the resistance of your chin and not over power the chin.

Try this neck exercise now and feel release from neck tension. This neck exercise will help with posture and the looks of the front of the neck. This will help you from having a forward head posture that causes neck pain. 

Feeling some tightness along the lower part of your neck and upper back? Feel like you need to feel a “pop” or release some tension there? I’ll show you some stretch exercises that you can do to help relieve neck and upper back tension. The focus will be on the lower part of your neck and upper back. These stretch exercises will help loosen the muscles and keep your neck more flexible.

The lower cervical and upper thoracic spine stretch will focus on the muscles from the back of your head all the way to where your shoulder blades are. This stretch exercise will also help keep the spine mobile when stiff. This neck exercise you can do either sitting or standing. I’ll start you off when you are sitting for these stretch exercises.

Sit up tall, feet on the floor, shoulders in a relaxed position, your arms are by your side, perform a chin tuck, and have your eyes look straight ahead. Bring your hands in front of you and interlock your fingers together and have your palms touch each other. Keep your arms straight in front of you near your lap. This is your starting position.

Take a breath in. While breathing out, slowly bring your chin towards your chest and have your arms rise from your lap. Focus on spreading your shoulder blades away from each other. Have your arms be at angle close to 45 degrees, where your hands are pointing down towards the floor. Be sure to have your eyes focus on your outstretched hands. Hold this position for 30 seconds. Release the position and bring your head back up and arms back down to your lap. Repeat these stretch exercises three times.

You should start to feel a warm and stretching feeling along the back of your neck towards your shoulder blades. Readjust yourself if you are feeling pain. Slowly raise your head up to avoid any dizziness that may occur. Be sure not to hold your breath while doing this stretch exercise.

When doing these stretch exercises standing, be sure that your feet are shoulder width apart and that your knees have a slight bend to them. Perform everything the same as above. There should be no pain when you perform these neck exercises. 

 Neck Exercises: Standing Chin Tucks 

This is the neck exercise progression from the lying down chin tucks and the sitting chin tucks. This natural progression of the standing chin tucks will make these neck exercises easier to do throughout the day. The standing chin tucks will challenge your neck muscles to just be isolated without having to move other shoulder and upper body muscles. These chin tuck neck exercises will help correct the forward head and forward rounded shoulder posture.

Just like the sitting chin tucks, I will have you first stand up against a wall or door to have the proper neck exercises techniques. If you have a small kitchen towel, roll it up to make a cushion for your head. A small soft ball will work as well. Both of these either the towel or the ball will be behind the top of your head to do these neck exercises.

To begin the standing chin tuck neck exercises, have your back up against the wall or door, your feet should be shoulder width apart, arms by your side, the ball or towel roll behind your head  towards the top of your head and be sure to have your chin parallel to the floor and looking straight ahead. You should have your shoulders down and back, you can practice the shoulder blade pinch exercise. Take a deep breath in and bring your chin back towards the door or wall. As you hold this position for 10 seconds and breathe out slowly. Bring your chin back to starting position. Repeat this neck exercise 10 times. 

Avoid bringing your chin and neck too forward with any of the chin tucks neck exercises. The focus is to stretch the back of the neck muscles and strengthen the front neck muscles. By protruding the neck forward you are enforcing the forward posture. The towel or ball is to help you feel that you are pressing the right direction. You should feel some stretch but no pain with these neck exercises.

Once this standing chin tuck neck exercise is mastered, you can remove the towel or ball and stand away from the wall. Then any of the chin tucks can be done anywhere at any time without anything equipment. By doing any of the chin tucks throughout the day you will improve your posture and relieve neck tension. The next progression of the chin tucks with resistance will be described at a later time.