If you’ve worked a desk job, you’re likely familiar with an aching neck. Whether it’s from hunching over a computer screen or slumping in a chair, neck pain is hard to deal with.
With neck pain affecting 50 to 70 percent of people, you’re not alone if you’re aching. Here’s how to get better before it becomes debilitating: physical activity. Taking regular stretch breaks can help you strengthen your muscles, and physical activity can increase blood flow to pained areas of the body.
There are some easy-to-do stretches that can make help prevent or alleviate pain:
- Scalenes: Your scalenes are the muscles on the side of the neck that can feel as tough as concrete when they get tense. Doing the seated neck release helps to stretch these. By holding your opposite hand out, you can also feel a stretch down your arm. This exercise can be done from your office chair, by holding your chair seat and bending your neck to the side.
- Anterior Scalenes: This stretch is pretty similar to the one above––you just angle your head back to the opposite side.
- Upper Trapezius: This muscle goes from the upper back to the base of the skull. Hold the bottom of your seat with your right hand. Nod to the left and turn your chin slightly to the right. With your left hand, gently push the back of your head downward.
This infographic has a few more stretches – Try them along with these simple neck exercises to see what works for you! The best thing you can do is try a little bit every day.
