Neck Pain Relief Tricks
traction and decompression tricks
Here’s a few neck pain relief tricks I’ve been using with clients and myself lately.
They are all versions of traction that are great for treating symptoms associated with degenerative disc disease or a herniated disc.
I wrote about DDD for the low back, it’s similar for the neck.
Typical things you’ll feel will be
pain
stiffness
radiating pain into the shoulder or hand/fingers
These are a great to use in conjunction with our neck program, which I’ll attach at the end of the post for paid subscribers.
#1 Cervical Traction
They make several brands of these, I personally have the Saunders home unit. You can get this brand or any of the others on Ebay or Amazon (Affiliate Link).
I like to use it before bed.
#2 Self Traction
I like this for quick relief and don’t feel like setting up any equipment.
To perform it:
put the webspace of your hands right below your ears
pull up
perform 10-20 breath cycles (FULL exhales)
You can probably get the same result from a doorway home traction unit. A low risk, relative low price option you can also get on Amazon (affiliate link).
#3 Decompression
This one is a little more risky, so make you don’t have pain looking up.
Just lay off the edge of something that will support you and let your head lean all the way back. Take 3-5 exhales to start, see how that affects you. Tuck the chin and life you head about parallel to the ground, and try 3-5 sets.
Do that method a few times before you increase the breath hold to 5-10 breaths.
Less scary/aggressive version is towel supported.
Sitting is better, and have the towel higher so it covers your ears to give more support.
Summary
I’ve given several options here because I find the one that’s the EASIEST to use will be the one you will be the MOST consistent with.
If you’ve not neck pain this can help reduce the pain associated with with it, and give relief to tight muscles. If you are experience nerve related pain, it can also help reduce that. All worth a shot.