If you are a woman know what I’m talking about as far as the head towel wrap on the top of your head, then you would know that it adds extra weight to your head. This added weight on the top of your head will give you a good neck workout by strengthening your neck muscles. This also makes you go slow to control the towel from unraveling and dropping it onto the floor. Going slow will let your muscle gain control and build neck muscle strength.

I did the head movements back and forth and side to side with the towel as a gentle neck workout. You can actually do a bunch of different neck exercises with the towel wrap on top of your head. For example, leave the towel wrap on your head while brushing your teeth and do a chin tuck when you are over the sink. You may feel a bit more resistance in the back of your neck when doing this neck exercise. This would be a good neck workout in the morning or evening after taking a shower or bath.
See if you can do a face or head clock with the towel on your head or even try some upper trapezius stretch exercises as part of your now towel wrap neck workout. Get creative and see what you can do with this added resistance as a morning or evening neck workout. You can maintain neck flexibility along with the neck strengthening.

As always, there should be no pain with any neck exercises or sudden movements. I don’t recommend whipping your head around to make you dizzy as a neck workout. Have fun and let me know about your new routine with the towel wrap.

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As you can tell, even the most trained athlete can have devastating injuries. I caution you that a good strong neck from doing neck exercises can protect the spinal cord, spinal column and the spine itself. The neck can be injured quite quickly and damaging when the neck is not strengthened. Neck injuries can occur on any side with life threatening results.

In a previous post that I wrote on why you need strong neck muscles – Stafon Johnson the USC football player sustained a crushing front throat neck injury. His throat and neck muscles where strong and protected him from death because of doing neck exercises. Compare this injury to the way the luger athlete where his neck was bent forward might have sustained a whiplash, concussion and back of the neck injury amongst other bodily injuries.

Although, we may not participate in hard core sports – doing neck exercises in general still help to keep your neck strong. You also want your neck to be responsive and cushion any injury blow at the neck. The different neck exercises described throughout the blog should help to keep your neck healthy. Try different neck exercises out every day to protect your neck. You only have one neck – be good and stay healthy. My prayers go to the luge athlete’s family, friends and the other Olympic athletes.

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The tilting of the head opens up the opposite side of the neck and relieves pressure off the cervical or neck joints. The diagonal movements help to keep your head and neck flexible. These diagonal neck exercises can also help with neck tension relief by making sure your neck muscles are loose.

There are two ways to do these diagonal neck exercises – one way is to tilt your head 45 degrees and move your head or to draw an ‘X’ with your nose. I’ll describe the diagonal neck exercise in just a moment and you can do them in sitting, standing, while at the computer or even driving, like I did.

Diagonal Neck Exercises:

• Breathe in
• Perform a chin tuck by bringing your chin towards your shoulder blades
• Be sure to look straight ahead
• Tilt your right ear towards your shoulders at a 45 degree angle
• Maintain your glance straight ahead
• With the tip of your nose – lead the head towards the top left corner of the ceiling
• Then bring your nose and bring your head towards your right under arm
• Breathe out
• Have your eyes follow the direction up and to the corner, then down and in
• Switch to the left and reverse the movements
• Repeat each side 10 times

There should be no pain in any direction with these head and neck movements. These diagonal neck exercises should be slow, smooth and controlled. If you begin to get dizzy, avoid tilting your head as far. Be sure that your jaw is relaxed and that your shoulders are down to get the maximum effect. The ‘X’ neck exercises will be described at a later time. Enjoy and try these out.

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We first started working on his neck muscles after he was
born. We would put him on the Boppy pillow and get him to raise his head up. I
also had him work on the head up or neck extension neck exercises while he was
on his stomach on the bed. These were easy head up neck exercises for our son.
We just kept increasing the amount of time to have him build his endurance.

One way you can work on a baby’s neck muscles is to practice
how high the baby can raise the head up. You can start off the head up neck
exercises with barely off the bed/floor (like the picture); then increase to an inch off the
floor; then a couple inches off the floor. You can try to increase the neck
range of motion and endurance with any upper body support for the baby.

Another way to help get the baby to raise the head up and do
neck exercises is to gently stroke the back. You want to stroke with your palm
starting from the neck and all down the back. This will help facilitate the
baby’s neck and back muscles to work on neck and back extension. This is a
simple trick to do for head up neck exercises.

Babies are not too young to have benefits of strong neck
muscles by doing head up neck exercises. These neck exercises could help the
baby be sure to lift the head while sleeping and avoid the sudden infant death
syndrome (SIDS) as much as possible. Other baby neck exercises will be
described at a later time. Enjoy looking up!

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• Breathe in
• Perform a chin tuck by bringing your chin back towards your shoulder blades
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together as if you were pinching them together
• Relax your jaw
• Use the tip of your nose to draw the figure 8
• Breathe out
• Reverse the figure 8 direction
• Now draw the infinity symbol with the tip of your nose
• Reverse the infinity symbol
• Do each direction 10 times each
• Repeat for 3 sets

These figure 8 and infinity neck exercises will help keep your neck muscles from stiffening up after a long day. Do these and other neck exercises from this blog to maintain flexibility and less neck tension. Try these new neck exercises and let me know how your day goes!

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What is a proper neck exercises routine? There’s no one way
for the right neck exercises routine. These neck exercises on the blog help
different areas of concern in the neck. What’s right for a stiff neck will vary
for someone who has neck pain. Please use these neck exercises on the blog as a
guide and to help relieve any neck discomfort you may have.

In general, a good routine will start off with a warm up of
doing range of motion neck exercises, stretch exercises for flexibility and end
with strengthening exercises for neck. A good way to start off would to let the
hot water from the shower warm your neck by bringing more blood flow to your
neck muscles. When your neck muscles are warm, they become more flexible and
give you greater neck range of motion.

The more neck range of motion you have, the more relaxed
your neck muscles are in the morning. When you have less neck tension, your
posture and jaw are relaxed. The benefits of neck exercises will improve your
posture as well as breathing mechanics. You will breathe bigger and easier than
when tensed.

When doing stretch exercises, these neck exercises will also
give you range of motion. These neck exercises will help you get a little more
range at the end of your motion. This will lengthen your muscles and give you
motion.

Once you perform these stretches, you want to strengthen
your neck muscles at the new range you have acquired. This will may sure that
you are able to use the full range with stability and less discomfort. After
strengthening, you want to cool down again by doing range of motion neck
exercises.

If you become sore, putting ice or a cold pack will relieve
your neck discomfort. All neck exercises should be done in a slow, smooth and
controlled motion within your tolerance. There should be no pushing beyond your
discomfort level or you actually can hurt yourself.

Try some neck exercises and let me know which ones you do
and how well they work. One thing to keep in mind, is that these neck exercises
are meant to be part of your daily routine to help your health overall. So
enjoy and don’t forget to do some neck exercises once you are done reading this
post!

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Would you like to know how to loosen up your neck after a
long day or even in the middle of the day? Want to be able to keep your neck
range of motions and muscles from tightening up? Ever feel you need to shake
your head from side to side? Try doing some head up wobble neck exercises to
loosen your neck muscles and joints.

These head up wobble neck exercises are similar to other
side to side (lateral flexion) neck exercises. The added motion of tilting your
head up while doing a head up wobble neck exercises will loosen up the sides of
your neck. The first couple of levels in the neck or cervical spine are the focus
of these head up wobbles neck exercises.

These head up wobble neck exercises are good for releasing
shoulder and neck tension. These neck exercises can be done sitting or
standing. I’ll describe these head up wobble neck exercises in sitting to avoid
any balance deficits. These can also be done on a ball or on the bed. Let’s
begin!

Sitting Position:

• Feet flat on to the floor
• Sit up tall
• Bring your chest up and toward the facing wall
• Relax your hands in your lap
• Bring your shoulders down from your ears
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together
• Perform a chin tuck by bring your chin back towards your
  shoulders
• Relax your jaw, by keeping your lips together but teeth
  apart
• Eyes looking straight ahead

Head Up Wobble Neck Exercises:

• Breathe in
• Tilt the top of your head back by 45 degrees
• Have your eyes look up at the ceiling
• Breathe out
• Bring your left ear towards your left shoulder
• Then tilt your right ear towards your right shoulder
• Be sure that your head doesn’t twist away from the facing
  wall
• Repeat 10 times

There should be no pain or discomfort with these head up
wobble neck exercises. Begin with slow, smooth and controlled motions. You can
start with small tilts and then big tilts to the side when your neck is warmed
up. Avoid clenching your teeth with these neck exercises. These head up wobble
neck exercises can be done a couple of times a day to keep your neck range of
motion and limited neck tension. Other neck exercises will be described at a
later time.

Technorati Tags: cervical spine, chin tuck, head up, lateral flexion, neck exercises, neck muscles, neck tension, shoulder blades