This is Dr. David of El Paso Manual Physical Therapy.

I’ve got 5 natural neck treatments that you can try before ever considering having neck surgery or taking pain medication on a regular basis for your neck.

#1 – MASSAGE

You can of course massage and rub your own neck if you’ve got neck pain, but I would really recommend taking it a step further and going to see a massage therapist.

Somebody who massages people all the time.

It makes the world of a difference.

And even if you’re not the massage type, just communicate with your massage therapist. If you’ve never been to a massage therapist, they will encourage you to talk to them about what you’re feeling and how you’d like your massage done before they start. They’ll ask if you want a forceful or more gentle massage.

You could just tell them sort of gentle and you can tolerate getting some deeper massage.

Be sure to talk to somebody who’s experienced, somebody who maybe even works with people that have pain or your type of problems because they’re going to be more sensitive to working with your type of problem.

If you need a recommendation please reach out to us.

#2 – STRETCHING

A lot of people do neck stretches already and there’s tons out there on Google.

They might work for you if you try them out.

But here’s my expert recommendation and we get these clients sometimes just because they’re pretty effective.

I’m not a fan of stretching as hard as you possibly can and holding it.

Especially using overpressure from your hands, I really don’t like it.

The reason is that there’s actual research (and we see it happen in person too) where when you apply a heart forceful stress for a long period of time a muscle it actually gets weaker.

What we tend to see is that people that have neck problems also have weak neck muscles.

So if you’re doing big long forceful stretches, it could be feeding into the neck problem by making your neck muscles weaker.

Here’s how we recommend you do a neck stretch.

First off get a double chin.

Just a ½ double chin (or a baby double chin) and start from there because that’s going to line the neck correctly.

And then just go through the normal motions that your neck should be able to do.

Bend your neck forward, sideways left, sideways right, rotate or turn left and right.

Do between 5 and 10 reps.

Go as far as you can comfortably go as long as it doesn’t hurt you.

You might even get some pops and clicks as long as they’re not painful. That’s OK and it’s normal when doing this type of motion.

And the last one is looking up.

This is one I rarely tell people to do.

There are certain occasions where it’s appropriate.

Start with the chin tucked in again, then you lean your head back.

Begin to look up and always go slow.

Don’t just throw your head back there. That could cause some problems in your neck, especially if you’ve got an active neck problem right now.

#3 – POSTURE

We get asked about posture all the time. Especially by our clients that have desk jobs – like those in the medical field, in law or in finance. We have a lot of those clients.

They want to know “what’s the best posture that I should be in for my neck because I have to work at a desk and at a computer?”

Before I talk about the specific position that your neck should be in, I just want you to understand that sitting or standing for long periods of time is just not a good thing.

It’s not the actual sitting or the standing – it is just being still.

We have people that have a transitional desk where they can stand and say yes it’s absolutely better it’s helpful but if you’re stuck in front of that desk for 30, 60, 90 or more minutes at a time it is just not good.

You need to build some breaks in your work doesn’t have to be long maybe 10, 20, 30 seconds where you just do some stretching to do like those neck stretches and I showed you get up and move around go to the bathroom go get a glass of water.

Do some movement.

The thing about posture is even if you’re in THE PERFECT, GOOD posture that you’re that you should be in your neck….

…if you’re there for a long period of time in a good posture it can still cause problems.

Our bodies are meant to move and if you’re sitting still (even if you’re in a good posture) it is not good for you.

With that being said, understand that movement is key but here’s the neck posture that you should try to take as much as possible.

You’re going to do a max double chin so that you can use muscles to the front of your neck (the ones behind your throat working and then back off about 50 percent.

You might feel a stretch in the back of your neck that’s OK.

You should feel the muscles behind your throat very lightly working.

It’s the same muscles that fire when you do that maximum double chin.

Try to take that posture whenever you’re working at the desk.

Driving is another time that people don’t keep up a good neck posture.

#4 – MOBILE DEVICES

Making sure you use your smartphone or tablet appropriately is a big deal.

There’s a lot of people that have neck problems associated with this.

They’re even coming out with a term called “text neck” where you know you’re texting so long or sometimes that your neck starts to hurt.

There’s a very simple solution that we tell our clients and it may make your arms tired but I’d rather take tired arms than a sore & stiff neck any day.

Typically, when you’re holding your phone, your head will be looking down at it.

What you’ve got to do is bring the phone or tablet up to about face level and work on it from there.

Yes, your arms are probably going to get tired. That’s OK!

What you can do to help that out is sit or stand somewhere you are you can rest your elbows on something like a table or armrest.

That way you’re not having to support the weight of your arm and the tablet or the smartphone for too long, while you keep up that good neck posture.

Don’t sacrifice your neck posture with what you’re doing.

Your shoulder is designed to move in many directions through a lot of movement compared to your neck. Your neck is not designed to move through as much motion and cannot tolerate being in these bad positions for too long before problems begin.

So make sure you bring the screen up to about face.

#5 – TALK TO A NECK EXPERT

I mean somebody like myself, especially somebody that specializes in helping people avoid surgery & get off pain killers.

What we can offer you is a very pinpointed solution for your neck problem.

When people come and talk to us about their neck problems, we get to the bottom of it really fast and we can tell them exactly what they should and shouldn’t be doing.

We also give them the time frames to know how long this problem should be there and by when it should be gone.

This can save people a lot of time a lot of trouble.

More importantly, it prevents surgeries and prevents having to take medications that destroy your liver and other organs in our body.

What we do here is a combination of all kinds of different treatment methods that are all natural.

We don’t we don’t do anything invasive – honestly that’s just not our training.

And even if you’ve got a small neck problem that isn’t bothering you a whole lot -> That’s actually the best time to get it addressed by a neck specialist because it won’t take that many treatments or that much time to address that problem.

What you’ll learn here you’ll be able to carry with you for the rest of your life.

If you’ve got a more chronic neck problem something that’s been there for months & months or even years & years then we are absolutely the best medical professionals to see before you consider surgery.

Just understand that it may take more time to recover, but I’ll take that if I can avoid having surgery.

Talk to somebody like us who specializes in helping people with neck problems using natural solutions.

I hope this field was helpful.

Reach out to us if you have any questions we’re happy to help.

Have a wonderful day.