Weekly Wisdom – What A Pain In The Neck

Do you suffer from stiffness? Is it commonly located in your neck and shoulders?

Guess what? You are not alone.

Some of the most common areas for men to have aches and stiffness is their lower back, shoulders and neck area.

Now, some of this can actually be from injury to a specific location. But, for the most part, many of us have stiff muscles, joints that are not lubricated enough, stress and inflammation which cause the aches.

We have discussed how to deal with stress before as well as eating the right foods and staying away from the wrong ones and how that helps reduce inflammation. Here are links to those posts:

Stress > https://www.facebook.com/MensFitnessAfter40/posts/963606777521304

Proper Diet > https://www.facebook.com/MensFitnessAfter40/posts/913984342483548

We even covered stretching, which will help with stuff muscles and unlubricated joints > https://www.facebook.com/MensFitnessAfter40/posts/955051255043523

But, today, we are specifically going to target the neck and one simple stretch that you can do no matter where you are.

Performing this every day should help with the tension, stiffness and aches in your neck area. Also, if you are feeling your stress in your neck and shoulders (at work), just stop for a few minutes, do this and it should help.

You can do this in your chair or sitting on the floor. Either is fine. But you must have your back straight. We will share doing this in a chair.

Sit up straight. Shoulders back. Do the following:

1) Look down. Touch your chin to your chest.

2) Look up. Push your head as far back as you can.

Do that 5 times slowly and really try to stretch the muscles. Then:

1) Tilt head to the right. Try to touch your ear to your shoulder.

2) Tilt head to the left. Try to touch your ear to our shoulder.

Do that 5 times slowly and really try to stretch the muscles. Next we are going to combine the moves.

1) Touch your chin to your chest. Now we are going to rotate to the left trying to touch your ear to your shoulder. Continue to rotate around by pushing the head back and looking up, followed

by more rotation to try and touch your right ear to your right shoulder. And return to the position of the chin to the chest.

2) Go in the opposite direction, rotating to the right.

You are basically rotating your head in a slow circle one way and back to the other.

Do that 5 times slowly.

Some feel immediate relief. Others may not. But doing this consistently will keep the neck and trap area stretched out which will lead to less aches, less tension headaches and a greater mobility.

Remember, if you do not take care of your body, it will not take care of you.