• Feet flat on the floor
• Rest your hands on your lap or by your side
• Relax your shoulders
• Bring your chin back towards your shoulders like a chin tuck
• Eyes looking straight ahead
• Single Shoulder Shrug Neck Exercises: (will focus on the right side)
• Take a breath in

• Raise your right shoulder up to your right ear
• Breathe out
• Lower your right shoulder
• Have your right hand reach toward the floor
• Repeat 10 times
• Bring your head back to the starting position
• Reverse directions to focus on the left side
• Repeat 3 sets

Are you feeling the front of your neck could use some toning
up? Tired of the double chin or the unpleasant increase in the neck area? Want
to do a quick and simple neck toning exercise? Then the front neck exercise toning
for the platysma muscle will be described.

Lately, I have been noticing the front of my neck and chin
area been being flabby. I noticed that after giving birth to my son nearly a
year ago that under my chin has not been as shapely as I would like. I have
decided it’s time for a neck exercise that will tone the front of the neck and
under the chin.

The front neck exercise will tone the platysma muscle. This facial
expression neck muscle starts over the front of the neck and chest area and
ends along the bottom of the jaw. The platysma muscle is a big broad flat muscle
that is responsible in bringing the mouth down and draws the lower lip down. The
neck exercise toning will help to tighten this front neck muscle.

Toning the platysma will help reduce the double chin look.
While doing chin tuck neck exercises will bring the unsightly double chin
appearance they will help strengthen the neck muscles. Both of these neck
exercises will help your neck overall. This front neck exercise will be
described in sitting.

Sitting
Position:

·        
Feet flat on the floor

·        
Rest your hands on your lap or by your
side

·        
Relax your shoulders

·        
Bring your chin back towards your
shoulders like a chin tuck

·        
Relax your jaw

·        
Eyes looking straight ahead

Front Neck Exercise:
·        
Take a breath in
·        
Tilt your head back and have your eyes look up
at the ceiling
·        
Press the tip of your tongue on the roof of your
mouth
·        
Breathe out
·        
Bring your bottom lip up and over your top lip
·        
Repeat 10 times and do 3 sets
·        
Be sure to bring your head back to neutral after
each set

There should be no pain with this neck exercise. If you
begin to feel dizzy, don’t tilt your head back as much.  When doing this neck toning exercise, you
should feel the front neck muscle working as your lift your bottom lip over
your top lip. To feel more try bringing your lip out more by protruding your
bottom jaw towards the ceiling. Enjoy this quick neck muscle toning exercise.

Do you feel like you are saying “yes” to everything these days? Make saying “yes” a neck exercise to help relieve neck tension. I know that doing head nods as neck exercises can be really easy to incorporate throughout your day and on a daily basis. The back of the neck will benefit from small gentle stretching motions. Doing head nods neck exercises will also help improve your neck posture.

No one will ever know that your nods are actually neck exercises and relieving stress on the neck. Make your head nods mean different yeses when you do say “yes” to someone. A small nod for “uhuh”, a moderate head nod for “oh ok”, a big head nod for “oh yea.” We tend to nod anyways during our conversations, now let’s consciously try to help our necks be pain free.

I’ll describe the head nods neck exercises as part of a clock, where the nose starts at 3 o’clock, the ceiling is 12 o’clock and the floor is 6 o’clock. Imagine your nose as the hand of the clock. These head nods neck exercises will be in the sitting position.

Sitting Position:
·         Feet flat on the floor
·         Rest your hands on your lap or by your side
·         Relax your shoulders
·         Bring your chin back towards your shoulders like a chin tuck
·         Eyes looking straight ahead
·         Your nose should be pointing at the wall straight ahead at 3 o’clock

Head Nod Neck Exercises:
·         Take a breath in and breath out with each movement
·         Lead your nose up towards to 2 o’clock and lower your nose to 4 o’clock
·         Raise your nose to 1 o’clock and bring your nose towards 5 o’clock
·         Bring your nose and head up towards 12 o’clock and then down to 6 o’clock
·         Lastly, bring your head back towards 11 o’clock and then towards your chest to 7 o’clock
·         Repeat 10 times with each movement

These head nods neck exercises should be slow, smooth and controlled motions. There should not be any pain or discomfort in the neck while doing any neck exercises. When doing these head nods neck exercises, relax the jaw and avoid clenching your teeth. You should feel your neck looser and less tense after this head nod neck exercises.

Other related neck exercises from the blog:
Neck Flexibility
Basic Neck Strengthening
Mid Range Isometric Strengthening
Deep Neck Flexors Strengthening

Do you have stiff neck muscles from sitting too long in one position? Relieve neck muscle tension with the face clock neck exercise. This simple and basic neck exercise is great in keeping your neck flexible. The face clock is the same as the lying down head clock but just in a sitting position.

The face clock neck exercise focuses on the first two cervical (neck) vertebrae spine the atlas and the axis. The atlas holds your head and the axis allows your head and atlas to turn side to side. The axis also allows the head nod with controlled neck movements. These two cervical spines are what give your head the ability to go in all directions.

Let’s begin by sitting up straight in the chair.

• Feet flat on the floor

• Rest your hands on your lap or by your side

• Relax your shoulders

• Bring your chin back towards your shoulders like a chin tuck

• Eyes looking straight ahead

Face Clock Neck Exercise:

• Take a breath in and have your nose go towards the 12 o’clock position

• Go through each number on the clock and slowly breathe out

• Let the tip of your nose be the clock hand and 

• Keep your eyes open and follow the direction your nose points to

Repeat 10 times clockwise and 10 counter clockwise.

Start with small head circle movements and then to large head circle movements. All neck movements and neck exercises should be done in a pain free zone. The face clock neck exercise motion should be slow and controlled. If you begin to feel dizzy go stop and then go slow.

The head and neck motion should make your neck muscles more mobile and flexible. There shouldn’t be any pull in the neck muscles in any direction. This face clock neck exercise and other neck exercises should relieve neck tension. The standing face or head clock will be described at a later time.

Other neck pain relief exercises from the blog:

Shoulder rolls

Neck Range of Motion

Upper Trapezius Stretch

Ever feel the back of your neck tight while looking down? Are you able to bring your chin towards your chest without pain? Here’s a good neck exercise to do for the back of the head. The neck extensor stretch exercises are great to loosen the small muscles in the back of the neck. This behind the head stretch exercises is also good for those who golf and want to be able to look down at the ball without pain.

This neck extensor stretch with the following lower cervical / upper thoracic and bicep / chest stretch exercises are a great neck exercises warm up. For a more complete neck workout be sure to include the chin down semi circle, shoulder shrugs and neck rotations. These exercises for neck will make looking down easier and pain free.

The behind the head or neck extensor stretch exercises can be done sitting or standing. I’ll describe these behind the head stretch exercises standing. You want to stand upright with your feet shoulders width apart, knees slightly bent, your shoulders relaxed, bring your chin towards back for a chin tuck and look straight ahead. Interlock your fingers and place your palms on the top part of the back of your head. Your elbows should be open towards the front and pinch your shoulder blades together. 

Take a breath in and slowly exhale while bringing your chin towards your chest. As you bring your chin down, have your hands guide your head down. Let your elbows come in towards your ears and let your shoulder blades separate from each other. Hold this position 30 seconds. Slowly bring your head back up and return to the starting position. Repeat this behind the head stretch exercises three times.

Be sure to keep your shoulders down while performing these stretch exercises otherwise you will lose the tension in the back of the neck. When you bring your head forward and down with your hands do so gently without straining the back of the neck. You should feel tension behind your head and neck release and dissipate. There should be no pain with any neck exercises or stretch exercises. 

Try this neck extensor stretch exercises and see if this improves your golf game. At the very least, you should be able to relieve neck tension and keep your neck flexible. I’ll describe other neck exercises to help with the golf game later on.

Ever feel the back of your neck tight? Maybe you even feel neck stiffness. Neck tension in the back of your head and shoulders could lead to muscle fatigue and neck pain. The neck extensor and upper trapezius muscles when tight will raise your shoulders towards your ears. Doing chin down semi circle neck exercises with other exercises for neck will help relieve neck tension. This neck exercise is similar to the head circles to help with neck range of motion.

The emphasis of chin down semi circle neck exercises is help with the deep neck extensor muscles be flexible. There are little neck muscles along the spine that connects from the base of the head and along the spine at various levels. These small neck muscles help with your neck range of motion. This neck exercise will also focus on the main neck extensors muscles for stretching and strengthening.

This chin down semi circle neck exercises will be described while sitting down. The key in these neck exercises is to have good posture. Be sure to sit up straight with your feet flat on the floor. Relax your hands in your lap and be sure your shoulders are down. Your chest should be pointing towards the wall while bringing your chin towards the back of your shoulders as a chin tuck. Your eyes start off by looking straight ahead.

Take a breath in and bring your chin down towards your chest while still maintaining your chin tuck. You should start to feel the back of your neck feeling a stretch. Your eyes should be looking towards the top of your knees. While maintaining your chin towards your chest, roll your left ear towards your left shoulder and hold for 10 seconds. You should feel a stretch feeling on the right side of your neck and the back of your neck.

Breathe out and semi circle roll your head towards the right shoulder. You will feel a stretch on the left side of your neck. Remember to keep your shoulders down for these neck exercises. Hold for 10 seconds and roll towards the left shoulder. Repeat this chin down semi circle neck exercises 10 times.

Doing these neck exercises as well as other stretch exercises will keep your neck from being stiff or tense. Combine this chin down semi circle with shoulder shrugs and the upper trapezius towel pull down stretch as a neck workout. Other neck tension neck exercises will be described at a later time.

Ever feel the side of your neck is tight or have neck pain? Do you find talking on the phone while holding the phone between your ear and shoulder and looking the opposite way difficult? Let’s learn to loosen the neck muscles up by doing head up rotation neck exercises with a twist! We are going to go through the head and neck motions as if you were talking on the phone without the neck pain. 

These head up rotation neck exercises will help to loosen up those neck muscles and give you more flexibility in the neck. This neck exercise will reduce tension on the Sternocleidomastoid muscle also known as SCM. Other muscles in these head rotation neck exercises are the upper trapezius, and splenius capitis and splenius cervicis. The splenius capitis and cervicis extend the neck when both muscles are activated and side bend and rotate to the same side when done on one side only. These splenius neck muscles are deep and also connected with the SCM.

The head up rotation neck exercises, SCM stretch exercises, and neck range of motion exercises are a great neck workout. These neck exercises will help to keep neck tension or stress down and reduce the forward head posture. Reducing neck tension in the SCM will prevent numbness and tingling sensation or even dizziness. I’ll teach the head up rotation neck exercises sitting.

Having the correct and good posture helps the neck motions and eliminates any other neck pain. Sit up straight with your feet flat on the floor, relax your arms by your side or on your lap, bring your chin back towards your shoulders for chin tucks, relax your shoulders and look straight ahead. This is your starting position.

Take a breath in and bring your right ear towards the right shoulder while maintaining the chin tuck. Your eyes and nose should still be towards the wall in front of you. Now turn your head towards the left upper corner of the ceiling while still maintaining the right side towards the shoulder. Your eyes and nose should follow to the left. Breathe out and bring your nose and head towards the right chest/shoulder. Repeat the head up rotation neck exercises motion 10 times. You will feel the stretch and movement from the left SCM. Now bring your head back to starting position and reverse direction for the right side of head and neck motions and repeat for 10 repetitions.

There should be no pain, dizziness or numbness and tingling with the head up rotation neck exercises. There should be a gentle stretch. The neck motions should be slow and controlled with ease. You should feel looser when moving your head from shoulder to shoulder now. Other head rotation neck exercises will be described at a later time. Try this head up rotation neck exercise now and repeat daily until the head feels completely loose.

Do you feel hunched over? Do your shoulders roll forward and your chest caves in? Let’s reverse the forward hunch posture and open up your chest area out by doing stretch exercises. These chest stretch exercises focus on the pectoralis muscles especially the pectoralis minor. This stretch exercise will lengthen your muscles in the front and shorten the muscles in the shoulder blade area. These towel stretch exercises will also help with mobility of the spine especially the thoracic spine.

I like to have you start off with a rolled up towel, either a beach or bath towel. The towel should be folded in half length wise and then tightly rolled up. You can put string or rubber bands to hold the towel from unrolling. This towel will be underneath you when you lie down to do these stretch exercises. The towel should be along your spine from the base of your head down the middle of the spine towards your low back. 

These towel chest stretch exercises are best done on the floor. To position yourself for these stretch exercises, the main part of the towel needs to be under your mid back spine area. The back of your head also should be on the towel. Your feet flat on the floor, knees bent, your back pressed up against the towel, the back of your hands touching the floor, your chin tucked and towards the towel and eyes looking straight up at the ceiling.

Take a breath in and let your arms touch the floor where your fingers are going towards your feet. Press your shoulders back and perform a shoulder blade pinch. Maintain your chin tuck position and breathe out. Hold this position for one minute. Relax by crossing your arms across your chest. Repeat these chest stretch exercises three times. These stretch exercises will help to improve your posture and relieve neck tension.

Once you complete these stretch exercises, slowly rise up to avoid the blood flow rushing towards your feet and become dizzy. You will feel a stretching sensation throughout your chest and arms. There should be no pain with these or any neck exercises given. You can also do this neck exercise with a foam roll. Other towel stretch exercises will be described at a later time.  

Are you feeling stressed or tension in your neck and surrounding areas from sitting in front of the computer, driving or from less than optimal posture? Our shoulders and neck carry this stress in the upper trapezius muscle and can cause neck pain, discomfort and even numbness and tingling down the arm. Neck tension can cause headaches and improper neck posture. Stress and tension on the neck muscles can cause muscle imbalances that can lead to neck discomfort and pain. Neck exercises especially with the shoulders can relieve neck tension and improve posture. 

Shoulder neck exercises help to relieve neck tension by taking the pressure off the upper trapezius as well as stretching and strengthening the chest and mid back areas. The shoulder neck exercises help with the chest muscles by opening up the area when bringing the shoulders back just like the shoulder blade pinches. This neck exercise will correct your posture and avoid the forward head and rounded shoulders. 

The shoulder neck exercises that I will describe to you are just variations of shoulder shrugs and shoulder blade pinches. You can do these neck exercises sitting or standing. I’ll describe the shoulder neck exercises standing. Begin by standing up tall with your feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, arms and shoulders relaxed, perform a chin tuck by bringing your chin towards the back of your neck, and look straight ahead.

Be sure to maintain your balance with these shoulder neck exercises. Each direction for these neck exercises will be in three movements – low, medium and high. Each incremental direction is a small movement that should not cause any pain. There are four directions going up, going down, going forward and going backwards that will be covered with the shoulder neck exercises.

Raising the Shoulders: (Going up, up, up)

Take a breath in and bring your shoulders just a bit higher than the starting position, then up half way towards your ears and then all the way up towards your ears. Hold 10 seconds while up towards your ears and breathe out. Return your shoulders half way back down, then a little more and then finally relax your shoulders. Repeat this neck exercise 10 times. 

Dropping the Shoulders: (Going down, down, down) 

Take a breath in and drop your shoulders down a bit towards the floor, then a little more and then try to reach towards the floor with your hands to bring your shoulders down even more. Breathe out and hold at the bottom for 10 seconds. Reverse the direction and repeat 10 times.

Forward Shoulders: (Caving in,in,in) 

Take a breath in and bring your shoulders forward towards the wall a little bit, then a little more and then all the way so that your shoulders are in front of you. Hold this position for 10 seconds and breathe out. Reverse the direction to the starting position and repeat 10 times.

Backward Shoulders: (Opening up,up,up)

Take a breath in and bring your shoulders back towards the other wall a little bit, then some more and then all the way to open your chest. Hold this position for 10 seconds and breathe out. Reverse the directions to return to the starting position. Repeat for 10 times. 

These shoulder neck exercises should help relieve neck tension when this is done a couple of times a day. Combine these with other neck exercises to feel the full benefits of stress release in the neck. 

The standing shoulder shrugs are a progression from the sitting shoulder shrugs neck exercises described earlier on. The standing shoulder shrugs, shoulder rolls, shoulder blade pinches and chin tucks are a great neck workout that relieves neck tension. These are also great exercises for neck breaks. 

These standing shoulder shrugs neck exercises help to take off the upper trapezius muscle tension when raising the shoulders up. This upward motion puts slack into the neck muscles and therefore gives relief off the neck. The up and down motion of the shoulder shrugs will also give flexibility to the upper trapezius muscles and other neck muscles. These shoulder shrugs neck exercises also will help to indirectly improve your neck posture as well.

So let’s get started with the standing shoulder shrugs neck exercises! Begin with your feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, your arms dangling, perform a chin tuck, and looking straight ahead. Breathe in and slowly raise the top of your shoulders towards your ears. Hold for 10 seconds and slowly breathe out. Slowly, return to the starting position and repeat these neck exercises for 10 repetitions. 

Be sure that your shoulders are brought straight up and not angled towards the front or the back. There should be no pain or any symptoms with these standing shoulder shrugs neck exercises. The motion should be slow and controlled. You might feel some clicking in the shoulders and as long as it is not painful, you can continue with this neck exercise.

 Try these standing shoulder shrugs neck exercises as a break and see how you can relieve your neck tension. Do these exercises for neck a couple of times a day. To see the greatest benefits combine this neck exercise with other neck exercises and stretch exercises to relieve neck tension. Other shoulder shrugs neck exercises will be described at a later time.