The Top 2 Exercises To Relieve A Pinched Nerve In The Neck & Shoulder

Are you suffering from a pinched nerve problem in the neck, possibly into the shoulder area? I help people with this kind of problem all the time. There are two main exercises that I start people out with, whenever they see me in person for a pinched nerve problem in the neck and shoulder area.

I’ve been helping people with pinched nerve problems for years and years. We do it successfully, where they get to avoid taking pain medications, they skip out on appointments where they are supposed to get injections with their doctors, and they cancel their potential surgeries, that they were going to have in their neck because their problems get better and they can live life normally again.

I’m going to detail with you today the top two exercises that I start my clients out with when they have a pinched nerve problem. But before I go into these, just a quick disclaimer. This pinched nerve issue can lead to a lot of other problems, and if it’s real serious for you, I highly suggest you go get help immediately. I’ll tell you more about this as we go through the exercises. But it’s possible that this pinched nerve problem, in the neck and shoulder, can lead to other more serious conditions that people get surgery for a lot of times.

Things like carpal tunnel syndrome in the in the hand or wrist area. You can pinch a nerve up in the neck and the pain can transfer into the wrist and hand, because of the way that the nerves pass into the shoulder and arm. It can also affect rotator cuffs. Some people have rotator cuff tears in their shoulder, and they don’t realize that it’s related to a pinched nerve problem up in the neck area.

Because there isn’t really a whole lot of great diagnostic tools like MRIs and x-rays that can tell us what to do about these neck and shoulder problems where the nerve is pinched. So just be aware of that. If you have other associated symptoms, your pinched nerve problem might be more widespread than you initially think. It may be a good idea to go get some help, or go get some diagnostic imaging, if you think that it’s that bad.

If you want to try out these exercises, proceed with caution. They are the best ones to start out with in most circumstances, but not all. So just want to give you that quick disclaimer.

The first exercise is a chin retraction.

This is really simple, at first glance when you see it, or when we have patients do it, they mess it up often. Let me simplify it for you even more though, they call it chin retraction, but what I want you to do is make a double chin. Everybody knows how to do that. That’s the same as the chin retraction, making a double chin.

There are different ways to do this. Some people will hold it for 10, 20, 30 seconds, and what you’ll feel is the muscles behind your throat working. That’s good, you need that. You’ll also feel some stretching on the back of your head and neck area. That’s good too. Now the intensity at which you go, should be what you can tolerate. If you are having a lot of pain when you do it, you push back about 50% and it’s starting to hurt your neck and shoulder area, then don’t go more than that and just hold it there. Get your muscles work in there, it’ll loosen up your joints.

I would do this for three to four minutes at a time. You can do this frequently throughout the day, even up to every hour while you are awake. Of course, just use caution, use common sense if this is starting to hurt you over time, then do not continue to do this. Because chances are, your problem is a little bit more serious than you might think.

Again, just review that you are doing a double chin or a chin retraction. Hold it for 10, 20, 30 seconds. Go as far as you can without setting off any sort of pain. Get your muscles working in there. Stretching in the back of the head and neck is okay too. But if you start getting pain down into the shoulder, down in your arm or hand, definitely not a good thing to keep going with this exercise. You need to back off.

The next exercise, to relieve a pinched nerve in your neck and sore area, is a shrug.

Everybody thinks it’s straightforward, but what I actually want you to work on, is raising your arms up as you shrug. You might start out at just this level right here, where you just hold your arms in front of you. I like to have the hand the palms facing each other. You just shrug up, while still keeping a little bit of a double chin, a minor one, you would have to go really hard, maybe like 25% of what you can maximally do.

What you are trying to do is shrug your shoulders as high as you possibly can, as if you are trying to get to your ears, your shoulders, hold this for about 10 seconds. To the point where you are shaking a little bit, because you are putting that much effort into it. That’s how high you should go.

As long as it doesn’t bother anything, your neck and shoulders, besides muscles getting tired and fatigued. But if you don’t have any numbness, tingling or pain that goes in into your arm, then you are clear to proceed. What I’d like you to do, so that you can get more relief from the pinched nerve problem, is raise your arm up higher when you shrug the next time. Eventually your arms are straight, all the way up and down. That’s a harder version of that shrug.

The thing I want to caution you about is, if you do have some nervousness in your arm, some numbness or tingling going down into the arm, the higher you go up with your hands. Generally, the more tension you’ll put through your nerves, and you may or may not, be that comfortable. Find the sweet spot where you think you can shrug from, while getting your arms up as high as you can without more problems in the arm.

Work on this for several days and see if it gives you some relief. If it’s just not working out for you, chances are your neck and shoulder pinched nerve problem is probably worse than you might think. It’s a good idea to go get some expert help. Giving you exercises beyond this requires some more expert attention. So, I strongly suggest that you go get in touch with a specialist physical therapist, or somebody who’s specializing in helping you avoid medications, injections and escaping surgery so that you can get this pinched nerve problem addressed.

Doing these exercises inside the spine, the neck bones, it actually opens up the space and allows more space for the nerve to pass through. It gives it some breathing room so that it can flare down and give you some relief throughout the day. If you don’t take that pressure off and it stays pinched long term, you can suffer some nerve damage, you can get weaker muscles over time.

Like I said at the beginning of the video that might affect your rotator cuff, it might turn into carpal tunnel. There are a lot of other conditions, tennis elbow, pain on the elbow can be contributed to from neck and shoulder problems, pinched nerves up in the neck and shoulder area.

I hope this video was helpful for you. Like I said, please be careful using these exercises. Don’t do anything crazy. If they hurt, don’t continue doing them. All you should feel is just like the muscles are working. Like you are getting a little bit tired, and over the course of a few days you should be getting relief from this pinched nerve problem that you are having in your neck and shoulder area.

I hope these two exercises were helpful for you. Try them out. If you want, you can download our FREE eBook on the side, that has more tips and advice from neck and shoulder problems, and other options as well.

If you want to get more information about us, and how we work, if you are considering possibly hiring us to help you with your neck and shoulder problem. Hit the button around below that says inquire about cost and availability, and we’ll send you more information right away. Thanks, and I hope you have the best day.