Tonight as I was putting my 1 year-old son to bed after his
regular night time routine, I realized that we could all benefit from a night
time routine to reduce any stress from the day’s activities. Do you find that
after a busy day, your muscles in your neck feel tight, tired or stiff? Have
you ever thought about taking 10 minutes of your evening or night time to focus
on yourself and eliminate any stress that may have accumulated throughout the
day? No? How about starting one now?

Starting a night time routine that includes a simple neck
workout can help to relieve the day’s stresses. How do you relieve some neck
tension, stress or muscle tightness? One of the easiest ways to reduce stress is
to breathe deeply and slowly, this is also known as diaphragmatic breathing.
You get the most oxygen for your muscles and brain. This will be described at a
later time.

Other ways to reduce neck stress are to take a warm bath, read
and do some neck exercises. A quick but thorough neck workout that includes neck
range of motion, flexibility, strengthening and stretch exercises are great to
reduce built up neck tension. A simple neck workout can also help improve your
posture.

Doing a neck workout can also benefit you to a good night
sleep. Be sure your neck is properly supported by a pillow to avoid any neck
pain when you wake up. Also be sure to avoid clenching your teeth at night, not
only does this keep your face and jaw muscles tight but can grind your teeth
and cause temporomandibular joint (TMJ) problems. When you do strengthening
neck exercises, you can also tone your neck to avoid snoring at night.

On this blog there are many different neck exercises that
help with neck and head range of motions, stretch exercises to help with
flexibility and stress reduction and strengthening neck exercises. Other
exercises for neck include jaw and face as well as relief from headaches. With
these neck exercises to choose from, you can develop your own night time neck
workout just for you. Let me know what works for you.

Do you have a night time routine that includes a neck workout? If so, share here and let us know what works. What are some other stress relieving methods you do?

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 Ever feel the front of your chest and shoulders need loosening up? How about trying some neck exercises by doing arm circles? These arm circles neck exercises are focusing on the movement in the front of your chest. Think of arm circles as propellers of the airplane engines. These arm circle neck exercises movements will help loosen the shoulder and chest muscles.

When the shoulder and chest muscles are flexible, they are able to maintain good posture, mobility and good breathing mechanics. These front arm circles neck exercises are simple to do and great when waking up. The shoulder muscles that being focused are the rotator cuff muscles: supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis. These shoulder muscles hold the shoulder in place.

The chest muscles that are being focused on are the pectoralis minor and major. These chest muscles attach to the shoulder and upper arm. By maintaining flexibility in the chest, you are able to maintain proper posture. The front arm circles neck exercises help to keep the chest flexible near the shoulder area. 

The front arm circles neck exercises can be done sitting or standing. I’ll describe them in standing. Give yourself plenty of room so you don’t hit anything or anyone! You’ll need your arm length for space on each side. Let’s get started!

Standing Position:

• Stand with your feet shoulder width apart
• Knees slightly bent
• Your pelvis tucked in
• Be upright with your chest towards the wall in front
• Relax your shoulders
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together
• Do a chin tuck by bringing your chin towards the back of your shoulders
• Look straight ahead

Front Arm Circles Neck Exercises:

• Breathe in
• Keep your arms straight
• Starting from your left side – raise your left arm 
• Lead with your thumb and your palm facing away from you
• Make a clock circle with your left arm
• Breathe out
• Breathe in
• Start with your right arm at the side
• Raise your right arm up
• Lead with your right thumb and your palm facing away from you
• Make a counter clock circle with your right arm
• Breathe out
• Count to 10 with each circle
• Repeat 10 times on each side

There should be no pain with these arm movements. These front arm circle neck exercises should be done in a slow, smooth and controlled motion. You should feel looser in the arms, neck and shoulders after these neck exercises. You should feel less shoulder and neck tension. Other arm circles will be described at a later time.

Technorati Tags: arm circles, chest muscles, chin tuck, flexibility, neck exercises, neck tension, shoulder circles, shoulder muscles