What Exercises Should You Do For Neck Pain? PT’Guide!

Do you often suffer from neck pain and wonder what exercises you can do to avoid or relieve it?

That’s my opinion and my experience as a physical therapist!

♻️ Last update: November 4, 2024.
👩‍⚖️ Declaration of financial interests: none directly related to the subject. My complete declaration of financial interests is in the legal notice section.
Written by Nelly Darbois, physiotherapist and scientific editor

The 3 neck exercises I do almost every day

Here are a few general guidelines.

Movements should be performed slowly enough for you to feel in control.

⚫ If you feel pain during an exercise, don’t panic, provided :

• the pain is mild to moderate; between 0 and 5 on a scale of 0 to 10 ;
• this pain disappears immediately at the end of the exercise.

⚫ Concerning the end of the session:

• if your post-workout pain is greater than your pre-workout pain, it should return to its original level within 30 minutes maximum.
• Your pain should not increase in the days following the session.

⚠️ If either of these conditions is not met :

• reduce the number of repetitions for each exercise by about half;
• Maintain this reduced workload for 3 or 4 sessions;
• then increase the number of repetitions back to the starting level.

If you can’t control your pain despite following these instructions, contact your physiotherapist!

All these rules apply equally if you’re taking painkillers.

It’s normal to feel the occasional crack as you do these exercises: plop!

Exercise 1: tucking in the head

➡️ Starting position : standing or sitting, looking far ahead.

➡️ Body language: tuck in your chin without lowering or raising it. A bit like the hen does when she walks.

➡️ Amount of work : repeat this movement 10 times (less if it’s painful or difficult the first few times). On the last repetition, you can try holding the position for 5 to 10 seconds.

If the pain is too great, try reducing the range of motion. In other words, throw your head back less each time.

➡️ Why this exercise: when you spend a lot of time in front of screens or driving, your head often feels like it’s in the starting position. Gravity also encourages this attitude.

It’s therefore a good idea to move into the opposite position to the one we often adopt without realizing it. The exercise stimulates the deep muscles of the neck, which play a role in supporting and stabilizing the head.

This also helps maintain good amplitude.

Exercise 2: tuck your head in, pull your shoulders in and move backwards

➡️ Instructions for movements: this is the same exercise, but with the addition that you’re going to raise your chin upwards, while trying to keep it tucked in.

I advise you to do this facing a mirror to get a good feel for it at first: we tend to relax the recoil of the chin as we move backwards.

➡️ Amount of work : repeat this movement 10 times (less if it’s painful or difficult the first few times). On the last repetition, you can try holding the position for 5 to 10 seconds.

If the pain is too great, try reducing the range of motion. In other words, throw your head backwards and upwards less each time.

It’s interesting because it allows you to go even further into unusual positions.

Exercise 3: Cervical rotations (a classic)

➡️ Instructions for movements: turn your head as far as possible to the left and then to the right, without tilting it or raising or lowering your chin.

➡️ Amount of work : repeat this gesture 10 times on each side.

➡️ Why this exercise: depending on our daily activities, we rarely rotate our neck. Yet we need extreme amplitudes of rotation, for example, when we have to parallel park in a car.

Good neck rotation is also a guarantee of better balance: without realizing it, our body uses rotation to avoid obstacles, walk more confidently and so on.

You realize this when you have to wear a neck brace: walking becomes much more difficult!

How do you set up an exercise routine?

Sometimes we want to exercise more often, but we can’t make it part of our routine.

Here’s how I suggest you proceed if you don’t feel like dedicating a specific time to it: you can choose a moment when you’re doing something else at the same time and combine it with 1 minute of neck exercise:

• during morning tooth brushing;
• while your coffee is brewing during the morning break;
• while you work on your laptop;
• when you watch your children play in the park;
• while waiting for your drive to be ready, in the car;
• in the first few minutes of watching your series in the evening, etc.

Personally, I do it when I’m sitting in front of the computer for a while, and while the water in my tea is boiling!

What can you expect from these neck pain exercises?

There are over 20 guides detailing what healthcare professionals need to do to treat and prevent neck pain. And what’s said in them is very different (Parikh 2019).

Experts find it hard to agree on what to do to diagnose, prevent and treat neck pain, whether temporary or long-lasting.

Here’s what a publication that attempts to synthesize these 20 guides (Parikh 2019) has to say about what to do in the event of neck pain, in the nape of the neck :

✅ all the guides (except 1) say that active exercises are beneficial (it doesn’t really matter which active exercises, as long as you’re active. There isn’t ONE or even a few “magic” exercises that you have to do to be sure you’ll get out of it).

✅ all guides (except 2) recommend handling and mobilization (by oneself or a third party);

✅ the majority of guides recommend informing/educating patients about the importance of not resting for more than 3 days and staying active; however, four guides state that education is not beneficial;

🤷🏼 half recommend the use of medication, either alone or in combination with other treatments (NSAIDs, paracetamol and opioids are the most frequently cited);

❌ the majority are against soft cervical collars (“minerves”).

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That’s all I wanted to say on the subject! Any questions or comments? See you in comments!