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Did you know that 80% of people experience neck pain at least once in their lifetime? Further, 20–50% of people experience such pain on a daily basis.
Neck pain and stiffness can occur for various reasons; more often than not, it’s because you underutilize your neck muscles.
If you want to uncover how to get rid of a stiff neck in 10 seconds, you’re in the right place. Say goodbye to a stiff neck in 10 seconds using three simple exercises, along with some tips to prevent the stiffness from coming back.
What Are the Causes of Stiff Neck Muscles?
Stiff neck muscles can be caused by diseases, physical conditions, and bad habits.
If you suffer from neck stiffness, your best bet is to visit a physician to rule out diseases and health conditions. If all you’re left with is bad habits, then the causes of your neck stiffness can include:
- Sleeping in an awkward position
- Muscle strain resulting from an awkward movement
- Overstraining your head in a repeated motion during an activity (like swimming)
- Poor posture (prevalent with desk jobs and sedentary lifestyles)
- Excessive stress or anxiety, which may cause tension in your neck
3 Neck Pain Exercises to Relieve a Stiff Neck Quickly
The following exercises can loosen your neck muscles to reduce stiffness and pain, provided that you don’t have a medical condition and/or injury. Otherwise, they may exacerbate the existing medical condition.
That being said, you should do all three exercises in one go to get the maximum benefit: once in the morning and once before you sleep.
1. Lateral Neck Flexion
Lateral neck flexion is a fancy way of saying moving your neck from side to side. This exercise is especially helpful if your neck stiffness is arising from the trapezius shoulder muscles. It can loosen tight neck muscles and the muscle fibers surrounding the shoulder blades.
There are two levels of performing this exercise:
Level 1 (The Basic Stretch)
Stand up with your feet shoulder-width on a flat surface or sit down on a comfortable chair with your back straight, then slowly tilt your neck to your right side.
You should try to have your right ear touching your shoulder so you can get the proper motion. (Realistically, though, your ear won’t touch your shoulder unless you lift your shoulder up, so don’t force it; just aim for a stretch.)
When your neck is fully stretched, hold the position for 10 seconds, then switch to the left side. To finish the workout, give each side three sets of 10 seconds.
Note: To get the maximum stretch, make sure to keep your chin down.
Level 2 (The Overstretch)
The neck lateral flexion overstretch involves the same principle as the basic stretch, but you’ll require some assistance from your hand.
If you’re tilting to the right, place your right hand over your head from the left side and gently pull to the right.
It’s paramount that you don’t overdo it. A common mistake some people make is that they try to get their neck to pop, potentially injuring their neck muscles in the process.
Remember, you’re not looking for a pop; you’re only stretching your neck muscles to reduce stiffness and headaches caused by them.
2. Backward Neck Extension
Not being able to comfortably stretch your neck backward is a sign of stiffness in the splenius capitis and splenius cervicis neck muscles. The backward neck extension is one of the easiest exercises to reduce said stiffness.
To do this exercise, sit down on a comfortable seat and straighten your back. Slowly and controllably tilt your neck back as much as you can without stressing your muscles.
Hold that position for 10 seconds, and slowly get your neck back to its neutral position. You must avoid fast or jerky movements to prevent injury. Three sets of 10 seconds is enough for this exercise.
Note: We recommend against doing this exercise while standing up to avoid losing your balance.
3. Neck Rotation
If your work involves a considerable amount of time staring at a computer screen, you may find this exercise quite difficult in the beginning. The reason is that the muscles involved in rotating your neck could be underused, resulting in stiff neck rotation.
To provide relief, sit on a comfortable surface and rotate your neck to the right as much as possible without straining it. Hold the position for 10 seconds, and then do the same for the left side. Once again, three sets are enough.
The key to preventing injury is to avoid straining your neck. So, do the exercise with slow, controlled movements and keep your shoulders and back relaxed to avoid accidental tension.
How to Prevent Muscle-Related Neck Stiffness
Preventing neck stiffness is better than waiting until the condition happens before treating it.
If you have a lifestyle that makes your neck muscles susceptible to stiffness, go ahead and do the previous exercises even if you don’t feel any stiffness.
You should also improve the blood supply to your neck; here are three easy methods to do so:
Massage
Getting a gentle neck massage around your neck muscles is a fantastic method to relieve neck pain, soreness, and stiffness. According to studies, neck massage, and spinal manipulation can also reduce migraine headaches.
If you can’t have someone massage you, self-massage is still a viable technique to relieve pain. This can be done by spending five minutes every morning and every night gently massaging your neck and shoulders.
Warm Packs
Warm packs bring more blood to the area they’re applied to. They can also reduce muscle spasms and joint stiffness.
Apply a warm pack on your neck for 5–10 minutes as part of your morning routine to improve the blood supply to your neck.
Note: Don’t apply warm packs on your neck after a trauma or an injury. If there's injury-related swelling, warm packs will make it worse.
Thermo’s Recovery Garments
Wearing Thermo Recovery Wear garments is one of the simplest methods to improve blood supply and decrease neck pain and stiffness.
Such garments have the advantage of using your body's warmth to release healing elements into the body to activate infrared-induced healing. These garments require no active effort on your part (besides putting them on) for them to work, making them an easy solution.
Also, since multiple muscles are interconnected between your shoulders and neck, you can improve blood supply to all of them using the Thermo™ Lite Recovery Dual Shoulder Sleeve.
This non-compression bamboo charcoal dual sleeve can be worn all day to help reduce neck stiffness and pain by up to 62%.
Final Thoughts
Now you know how to get rid of a stiff neck in 10 seconds. Getting rid of the pain that troubled many for a long time feels like magic, so why don’t you try it yourself?
As long as your neck stiffness doesn’t stem from trauma, physical conditions, or injuries, the three exercises mentioned above will help you quickly decrease neck stiffness within seconds.
Each of the three exercises should take 60 seconds for both sides to complete. In other words, you only need 180 seconds in the morning and 180 in the evening, which equals six minutes of neck exercises a day!
Pair this with the most natural way of improving blood supply and relieving pain by using Thermo Recovery Wear, and you’ll say goodbye to stiff muscles in no time.
Sources
- Turn Away From Neck Pain | Harvard Health Publishing
- Stiff Neck: Common Causes and How to Treat Them | Cleveland Clinic
- Neck Muscles | Cleveland Clinic
- Trapezius | Physiopedia
- Stiff Neck Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment | Spine Health
- Health Risks of a Sedentary Lifestyle and How to Make Changes | Health Partners
- Anxiety and Neck Tension — Causing Neck Pain? | Central States Pain Clinic
- Ice Packs vs. Warm Compresses For Pain | Johns Hopkins Medicine
