How To Strengthen Neck Muscles At Home - Neck Physical Therapy Exercises

8 of the best physical therapy exercises to strengthen the muscles in your neck, back, and shoulders, alleviate pain, and improve neck posture. These are the exercises I recommend to my physical therapy patients all the time with awesome results.

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OTHER HELPFUL VIDEOS MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO

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(Please note - these exercises are intended for information purposes only and should not be taken as recommendations for your unique needs. You're encouraged to consult a local doctor or physical therapist for the exercises that will be best for you.)

Neck pain. It happens to all of us at some point in our lives and it can be a real... well... pain in the neck. In fact I would say that aside from lower back pain, neck pain is the most common condition that I treat as a physical therapist.

Luckily there's a lot that stretching the right areas and strengthening the right muscles can do to alleviate this neck pain and help you feel better. Today I'm sharing 8 of my go-to home exercises to strengthen the muscles of your neck and upper shoulders to help improve your posture and alleviate your neck pain.

WHAT CAUSES NECK PAIN?
Pain in our necks most often comes from the muscles, joints, or discs. Muscle pain is stiffness and soreness and most often caused by poor posture or traumatic incident (car wreck, slip and fall, etc). Joint pain can be sharp and stabbing and is often elicited with certain motions and movements. Cervical disc pain is typically categorized as either sharp or dull and may or may not be accompanied by numbness, tingling, and/or weakness in one or both arms.

WHAT IS MECHANICAL NECK PAIN?
Most of the neck pain that I see in my clinic can be classified as "mechanical" neck pain. This is neck pain that can't always be attributed to anything directly specific (no accident or injury). It comes on slowly over time and gradually intensifies. The most common causes of mechanical neck pain that I see are poor posture and degenerative changes (arthritis and degenerative discs).

WHAT ARE THE BEST STRETCHES FOR NECK PAIN?
The most-common symptom that accompanies the majority of neck pain that I see is stiffness. When there's damage/an injury to an area, your body sends the surrounding muscles into spasm; tightening them up to prevent further injury. Often this neck stiffness lingers and intensifies, thereby causing more pain in the neck. You can see it's an ugly spiral to get into.

WHAT ARE THE BEST EXERCISES TO STRENGTHEN MY NECK AT HOME?
When we talk about neck strengthening, the most important thing you can do is to make the muscles strong in the right way. We don't want to do anything that would further exacerbate or perpetuate the problem. You have to not only strengthen the right muscles in your neck, you have to do it the right way in order to maximize your outcomes.

The exercises demonstrated in this video to strengthen your neck and postural muscles are:

HOME EXERCISES TO STRENGTHEN YOUR NECK

0:00 INTRODUCTION
0:24 WHY DOES YOUR NECK HURT
3:18 EXERCISE INTRODUCTION
4:06 CHIN TUCKS
5:12 CERVICAL FLEXION
6:20 CERVICAL SIDEBEND
7:11 CERVICAL EXTENSION
8:54 YTI'S
11:23 WALL ANGELS

When it comes to correcting neck pain, one of the most important things you can do is strengthen the postural muscles that support your neck and head.

Performing these exercises can be a great benefit to increasing neck and postural strength and help you to feel better.

[BlueCR]

1. 4:10 Chin Tucks.
2. 5:16 Cervical Flexion.
3. 6:22 Lateral Flexion.
4. 7:20 Cervical Extension
5. 9:32 Y T I
6. 11:30 Wall Angels

[Abornazine]

For anyone how doesn't want to listen to the preamble fast forward to 3:18.

I found these exercisers very beneficial. Thank you for posting.

[mamtas]

I am doing this neck exercise regularly since a couple of weeks. It helped me to get rid of my long time neck pain and headache. I feel much better now. Thank you so much for sharing this video and keep up the good work.👏👏

[DixieAnthony]

These exercises are a GOD send, they have relieved my pain and returned me to normal living!

[cramptonschemistry]

Dear Jared. I am extremely grateful for these exercises. My neck is feeling a little better after one session. Thanks for taking the time to post these

[TheSager]

Jump to 4:06 for the Exercises. You're welcome !

[rairittu]

Oh my God!!! These exercises really helped me a lot!!! I have been doing for three days, and my severe neck pain is going away!!! Thanks a lot!!

[BallisticSollution]

This is quite possibly the solution to a problem I've had for about the last 2 years. I had a bad fall and injured my hips and lower back, after that I essentially lost all my back and neck strength and for the last 8-12 months I've been having serious headaches that I've never had before. I thought they were migraines, but the pain was in my lower neck area and massaging that area would alleviate the pain for at least a little bit. My neck was cracking like mad whenever I tilted from side to side and felt like it was getting caught on something during the movement. After just doing one full workout of these exercises my neck muscles actually feel like they are there again and the cracking is gone (at least for now anyway). It may take a while for the headaches to eventually go away completely, but seriously, thank you. This might be the first step in getting myself back to fighting fit and out of my spiraling semi-depression. Thank you so much!! - Now I just need to work on my shoulder issue!

[sandrawebb]

As I was watching your Video, I remembered these exercises from a few years ago when I was going to physical therapy for neck pain. I was told I have cervical degeneration which does not go away, but was told with strengthening exercises, it will help a lot with alleviating pain. These exercises worked wonderfully when I was doing them weekly. I’m gonna start doing them again I know it will help my neck pain, thank you so much for jogging my memory about these great exercises for your neck!

[fromproximab]

I can not thank you enough. I am 4, 5 months post op (micro discectomy) but of the physiotherapists I got therapies so far, none had showed me the exercises you demonstrated on this video. All I have been doing neck stretches, sometimes 5 x a day, but they were not as effective as your exercises were. Feels like I found an oasis for the plight in my neck . So huge thank you.

[isabelcosta]

I´ve seen a lot of videos on YouTube but this guy is by far the best!
He explains and demonstrates really well, exercises are very clear.
These exercises are the best thing that have happened to me... ever!

[islandbreeze]

I found this video after an achy and painful neck day. I followed along and did the exercises before going to bed and I felt such a relief. Thank you so very much for your kindness in taking the time to educate and teach us how to live pain free the natural way.

[tmenzies]

Thank you! These exercises have made a huge difference in my posture and also the range of motion in my neck and it didn’t really take that long! I’m amazed how much it has helped me.
Thank you thank you thank you!!!

[anp]

Hello doctor
people like you are making the world a better place to live
You explain the exercises in such simple and beautiful way
god bless you and your family

[zatch]

1.4:10-chin tucks
2. 5:16 cervical flextion
3. 6:22 lateral flextion
4. 7:20 cervical extension
5. 9:32 YTI
6. 11:20 Wall angels

[mardonametsch]

I used these in my Pilates mat class. So many clients complain of neck pain during exercise- working to make the neck stronger. thanks.

[permobilericky]

Long I have looked for a training that could help me with my neck and shoulders as I'm often stiff as anvil block (quote by friend), which doesn't mean that I should train hardcore. I've followed these steps just to try it out and OH MY GOD! It feels great! :D I'm gonna keep following these and the ones you made a link to! Thank you so much! <3

[JohnDoe-htvq]

I suffered with this neck pain in the beck left of my neck that came and went for 2 months.
Just this video alone with one try got rid of 70% of the pain and most of the stiffness. I cant thank you enough!

[DavidAlexanderAuthor]

I am a sailor, and an author. I just found what my insurance covers for this same treatment. My co-pay is $55 per visit with 35 visits suggested. Thank you for this easy to understand video.

[paxton]

i have had really bad posture ever since i was 12 or so. people would make fun of me and my posture would deteriorate even further, a vicious cycle.
i’ve now decided that i want to engage in more physical activity to combat the problem. thank you for this video, very helpful!