Are you noticing your jaw getting a bit tired lately? The holiday season is going strong and I suspect that your mouth has been doing a bit more over time than usual. Am I right? You have been opening your mouth more now with food and talking the past couple of weeks. What’s opening your mouth a few more times for a jaw and neck exercises going to do to you? 

The facial muscles responsible for closing your mouth are the temporalis, masseter and medial pterygold. The temporalis muscle starts from the side of your head on the temporal bone and ends on the mandible, around the top of the jaw bone. The masseter muscle originates along the side of your cheek bone or zygomatic arch and ends on the mandible, the bottom of the jaw bone. The medial pterygold muscle starts at the pterygold plate on the inside surface and ends on the inside bottom of the mandible.

The back of the neck muscles help to bring back the head and open up the mouth when the bottom jaw is not moving. The small neck extensor muscles are semispinalis capitis and cervicis and splenius capitis and cervicis. When these neck muscles work together they extend the head back. There are other neck extensor muscles but the ones mentioned previously are the focus for these jaw and neck exercises.

The opening of the jaw neck exercises will help release tension along the side of the head. When the facial muscles that close the mouth are tight, you may develop a headache. These chewing muscles can also make you clench your teeth or even grind your teeth. Releasing the tightness in these jaw muscles with neck exercises will provide relief to your mouth.

The open mouth jaw and neck exercises can be done sitting, standing or even lying down. The purpose of these open mouth jaw and neck exercises is to balance the muscles and be pain free. When using your neck extensor muscles to open your mouth is to balance the top of the jaw muscles. I’ll describe the open mouth jaw and neck exercises in sitting. Let’s begin!

Sitting Position: 

• Feet flat on the floor
• Hands in your lap
• Relax your shoulders
• Do a chin tuck by bringing your chin back towards your shoulders
• Relax your mouth
• Have your eyes looking straight ahead

Open Mouth Jaw and Neck Exercises:

• Breathe in
• Open your mouth by moving your bottom jaw down
• Close your mouth by bringing your jaw up
• Breathe out
• Breathe in
• Begin to tilt the top of your head back
• Let the top of your mouth open up
• Leave your bottom jaw in place
• Close your mouth as you bring your head back to starting position
• Breathe out
• Repeat this 10 times

There should be no pain or discomfort with these neck exercises. The movements with the jaw and neck should be slow, smooth and controlled. Avoid clenching your teeth or biting down hard when closing the mouth. You should feel a slight stretch in your jaw muscles as you open and close. If you have pain with these movements, limit the motion of opening and closing or stop all together. Other mouth and jaw neck exercises will be described at a later time. 

Do you ever find yourself tilting your head from your ear to your shoulder and back? Are you doing this position while talking on the phone and then having neck stiffness?  The side head tilt neck exercises will work on your neck range of motion as well as neck muscle flexibility. These head tilt neck exercises are good for warm ups and also for while on breaks from being on the computer.

The side neck muscles that are being used for the head tilt neck exercises are the scalene and the sternocleidomastoid (SCM). There are three parts to the scalene muscles: anterior, medius and posterior portions. The scalene neck muscles start from the sides of the spine (transverse processes) and attaches to the first two ribs. The brachial plexus passes in-between the anterior and medius portion of the scalenes. 

These head tilt neck exercises are good to loosen up the neck at each level of the cervical spine. The head tilt motions will be described as half of a clock where your right shoulder will be 12 o’clock and your left shoulder is 6 o’clock. Your head will be starting from 9 o ‘clock. The head tilt neck exercises can be done sitting or standing. I’ll be describing the head tilt in sitting. 

Sitting Position:

Head Tilt Neck Exercises:

These head tilt neck exercises should be done in a slow, smooth and controlled motion. No pain or discomfort should be felt when doing these neck exercises. If you begin to feel dizzy or numbness and tingling, don’t move your head as far. The motions should be done in a pain free zone. Other neck exercises will be described at a later time. 

Pciture provided by weconverse on flickr.

Do you like to stretch when you first wake up in the
morning? Do you reach for the sky or ceiling when raising your arms up? How about
just adding a few more moves with your arm raising stretch in the morning as
neck exercises? This morning when I got up and stretched, I raised my shoulders
up and squeezed my shoulder blades together. So, this will be today’s neck
exercises.

The motions for these neck exercises are a combination of
moves: shoulder blade pinches, shoulder raises and chin tucks. These neck
exercises help with breathing and having good posture. A benefit of these neck
exercises are that they reduce neck tension and improve neck flexibility. These
extra motions are simple to implement into your everyday movements. You can do
these neck exercises sitting or standing. I’ll describe them standing.

Standing Position:

• Feet shoulders width apart
• Knees slightly bent
• Arms by your side
• Relax your shoulders
• Bring your chin back towards your shoulder blades
• Your eyes should be looking straight ahead

Arms Up Neck Exercises:

• Breathe in
• With your hands, raise your arms up towards the ceiling
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together
• Tilt your head back
• With your palms, reach towards the ceiling while raising
  your shoulders up
• Breathe out
• Bring your shoulders down with a slight bend in the elbows
• Raise your arms up again
• Repeat 10 times

These neck exercises should feel good and be relaxing. These
movements should help relieve any neck stress or stiffness. There should be no
pain with any neck exercises or stretch exercises done. Other neck exercises
will be described at a later time. Enjoy Christmas today!

Feel like you have been nodding your head a lot? No, not of nodding off to sleep head nod but more like the head nod yes. Head nods are great for head and neck mobility. They are also good as a neck exercises. The simple motion of bringing your head forward and back keeps your neck flexible.

The neck exercise is an extension of a head nod by adding a roll part. The forward head roll will increase neck mobility and flexibility. This neck exercise will keep the neck muscle from becoming stiff and tense. When your neck muscles are flexible, they will be less likely to cause a headache in the back of the neck.

This head nod and roll neck exercise will focus on the motion itself and stretch the back neck muscles. This head mobility neck exercise will be described in sitting but can also be done standing. The simple motions can be done throughout the day.

Sitting Position:

• Have your feet flat on the floor
• Rest your hands on your lap
• Relax your shoulders
• Retract your chin towards your shoulders
• Be sure to keep you chin parallel to the ground
• Keep your eyes look straight ahead

Head Nod Neck Exercise:

• Take a breath in
• Bring your chin down towards your chest
• Your eyes should be looking at the top of your thighs
• Roll your head down and forward even more
• Breathe out and hold for 10 seconds
• Roll your head back up to the start
• Breathe in
• Tilt your head back 
• Your eyes should be looking at the ceiling
• Bring your lower lip over the top lip to feel a stretch in the front neck portion
• Breathe out and hold for 10 seconds 
• Return to starting position
• Repeat 10 times

There should be no pain with this neck exercise. The head motions should be slow, smooth and controlled. You want to make sure your shoulders don’t rise towards your ears as you are tilting your head back. If you begin to get dizzy, don’t hold as long or go to the end of range of motion. Similar neck exercises will be described at a later time.