Our neck is a very vulnerable and important part of our body. It connects the brain and body, all vital vessels and nerves pass through it. Therefore, it is important to maintain the health of the cervical spine. And gymnastics for the neck, which includes a whole range of exercises, will help us with this.

Let’s prioritize
It is unlikely that many people do such gymnastics on purpose. People shake their heads and stretch. Often they unconsciously tilt their heads to the sides when they sit in one place for a long time. These are reflex actions aimed at warming up the neck.

If you know what exercises will best help stretch and strengthen the cervical region, it will be easier for us to understand at such moments what exactly to do. And we will not unconsciously turn our heads.

As we have said more than once, it is important to know why we do things. The complex of cervical gymnastics is very important, which is obvious:

When the weakness of the neck muscles is pronounced, the spine experiences an extra load under the weight of the head. This leads to cervical osteochondrosis, pinched nerves, that is, pain and stiffness in movements. If the muscles are weak, they must be strengthened without fail from an early age. This is pain prevention.
When you work for a long time (most do today, the 21st century is the age of sitting or lying down), the muscles become numb and impede blood flow to the head and back to the body. Fresh blood, saturated with oxygen, enters the brain in insufficient quantities – you get a headache, dizziness, darkening of the eyes, a powerful feeling of fatigue and a great desire to gape. It is at such moments that you need to get up and stretch. And if it is not possible, at least perform a series of exercises for the neck. This is stroke prevention.
Over the years, the mobility of the joints of the body becomes less. This can be avoided by regularly doing a treatment complex so that the joints do not forget about their mobility. Here is another important reason for you to knead your neck.
If you have pinching, or osteochondrosis, neck exercises will save you from pain and help you forget about dizziness and tinnitus. It’s already a cure.
And now let’s look at what exercises gymnastics for the neck consists of. The main load that the cervical region will experience is static. The main exercises for the cervical spine consist of 10 elements.

A set of exercises for the neck
Pendulum.
Spring.
Goose.
Looking in sky.
Frame.
Fakir.
Airplane.
Heron.
Tree.
Stretch complex.
We have been looking for the most effective set of exercises for strengthening the neck for a long time, and decided to stop at the option proposed by osteopaths and neurologists. The names of the exercises reflect their essence.

If during the performance of any of the exercises you experience pain, reduce the range of motion. If this does not help, then you should not do this exercise yet.

For a weak and sore neck, only a static load should be used. It’s too early to talk about dynamics. And in general, it is harmful in this case (except for stretching).

All exercises are performed while sitting, the back is straight. Everything is done slowly and smoothly. This is a treatment complex for strengthening the cervical spine. Their other role is neck exercises.

Pendulum
From the “head straight” position, we bend to the sides. In each extreme position, hold your head for 7-10 seconds. In this position, you need to stretch a little so that holding your head is not so easy.

Let’s tilt to the right. We return to the original, and without stopping we go to the left. We do this 3-5 times for each side.

Spring
From a straight position, we are trying to turn the chin inside to the Adam’s apple. At the same time, the head does not fall, but, as it were, turns in one place. Hold on like this for 10 seconds. Then we return to the starting position, stop there for 1 second and pull the chin up. The head is back in place.

Thus, the head simply scrolls up and down around its center. We do 3-5 times for each direction.

Goose
Pull the chin forward. The head follows him. Then from this position we pull the chin first to the left side of the chest, hold on for 10 seconds. We return to the starting position, there we freeze for 1 second, then we do the same towards the right side of the chest. So 3-5 times to each shoulder. All these turns are made from a position where the head is stretched forward. And each time we return to the starting position, straightening the head to its normal position.

Looking in небо
From the “head straight” position, we turn our heads to the side, as if we are looking around. We lift our heads a little, as if we saw a plane flying in the sky from behind. Let’s look at him. We fix the head in this position for up to 10 seconds. We return to the starting point, where we freeze for 1 second. We turn our heads to the other side. We do 3 turns in each of sides.

Frame
Sit straight, look ahead. We put the right hand on the left shoulder, the elbow is on the same level with the shoulder. We turn our head towards the right shoulder and put our chin on it. We sit like this for 10 seconds, then return to the starting position, lower our hand. Raise the other hand to the other shoulder. I put my chin on the other side. Thus, this is an exercise when the head rests on the shoulders.

In the starting position, freeze for 1 second. We do 3 repetitions in each direction.

Fakir
We raise our hands and bring them together with palms to each other exactly above the head. About 10-15 cm remain from the head to the base of the palm. In this position, turn the head to the left, with the nose resting on the biceps of the arm. We sit like this for 10 seconds. On the way to the other side, we linger in the “head straight” position for 1 second. Do 3 repetitions on each side for 10 seconds.

Airplane
We spread our arms to the sides like wings. We hold 10 seconds. We lower, wait a couple of seconds and straighten our arms again. We do this 3 times.

Then, “lay down on the wing”, first on the right – do 2 times for 10 seconds. Then to the left. Also 2 times. That is, first you tilt your hands so that the right hand is higher than the left (in this position the plane makes turns), then vice versa.

Heron
We spread our arms slightly back, palms turned to the hips, as if you are going to lean on them while sitting.

We lift our head up, with our chin we stretch there. We sit like this for 10 seconds. We return to the position when the hands are on the knees, and the head is straight – we rest for 3 seconds and again depict the heron. In this exercise, your task is to be like a heron 5 times.

Tree
Raise your hands above your head with your fingers facing each other. We keep our fingers at a distance of 10 cm from each other. At the same time, the head does not move, it looks straight. Hold on for 10 seconds 3 times. Do not forget to stop at the starting point – this is rest and restoration of blood flow.

All of the above exercises are performed for pain in the neck and as a preventive measure for its training. Static loading is a magically useful thing.

Stretching
In the starting position, with the right hand, we take the left side of the head and pull it to the right to the shoulder as far as possible. We fix the position for 10 seconds in the extended phase. We return to the original and do the same in the other direction with the second hand. Повторяем по 2-3 раза для каждой из sides.

Then we help our hands to reach forward, capturing the head in the back of the head. The task is to touch the chest with the chin. After that, gently and under control tilt the head back.

We help with our hands to tilt our head diagonally to the right and left. And finally, we turn our head as much as possible to the right and to the left.

Force load on the neck – is it necessary?
There are other exercises for the cervical spine associated with the use of weights. If you are not a professional athlete, they do not make sense. Why load the neck flexors with pancakes when you can do without it.

The neck is formed by those muscles that are additionally pumped during hyperextension, deadlift and other exercises.

Moreover, the static load is much more useful than the dynamic one. It allows you to strengthen the muscles of the neck without the risk of damaging them. But a neck injury is unacceptable. Especially if your cervical region already feels not the best way.

This concludes the main therapeutic exercises for the neck. Do it once a day and your neck will be fine!