In this instructional video Dr. David Koivuranta (Dr. Dave) addresses viewers who are working from home or spending long periods on the couch and may be experiencing neck stiffness, soreness, or tension‑type headaches. He reminds them of the personalized ChiroUp exercises they may have received and then demonstrates a quick, repeatable neck‑mobility routine that can be done 2‑3 times a day. The routine consists of gentle range‑of‑motion movements in the six anatomical directions (turning left/right, side‑bending, flexion/extension) performed without hands, followed by light resisted pulls held for 10‑15 seconds with a focus on relaxed breathing. Dr. Dave emphasizes that the movements should never be painful, advises avoiding painful directions, and explains the therapeutic rationale of nurturing functional motion rather than forcing painful ranges. He describes a “developmental stretch” – a second set of the same stretch that reinforces length and lasting benefit. The video concludes with a reminder to consult the individualized ChiroUp program, contact the clinic via 24/7 reception or email for any concerns, and a friendly encouragement to stay well.
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Hey everyone, it's Dr. Dave. Hope you're all doing well, taking care of each other, trying to create some great experiences in your day, even though that might be a little bit of a challenge right now with everything that's going on. Wanted to reach out to you and see if you've been working from home or if you've been watching some, binging some movies on Netflix on the couch and you're getting some neck stiffness or soreness, maybe even some tension headache coming from that neck. I know we've taught you the range of motion or the yoga for cheaters, you might remember that. We may have sent you some specific exercises by email from our ChiroUp system that were customized to you. You still have access to those, so I want to remind you to check into that. But I just wanted to show you a few different things that you can do to loosen up that neck area if you're getting some tension. If I was having a sore neck, these are the things that I would briefly do throughout the day 2 or 3 times because they don't take long. But you can certainly do them every day or 2 and kind of hold them longer as actual stretches. But I like repetition and short duration. It's just kind of in my nature to go that way. Plus the research and literature says that's a great way to deal with things in real time. And you don't have to necessarily set aside a big chunk of time to get them done. So you could find somewhere comfortable to sit, hopefully not too soft because you want to be in a good upright position. And without using your hands, you just want to remember that— remind the neck the 6 different ways that it can move. So you would look one way, Look the other way, and you can repeat that 10 times each direction, and you're just encouraging it at the end gently. You're not forcing it, you're just going easy, but you want to encourage some movement in those parts. So the idea would be the same then with side to side. You just go back and forth, just encouraging that endpoint, and then with forward and back as well, just encouraging some movement. And that'll help warm it up because we might stretch it a bit after. I'm going to show you how to do those. So none of this should ever be painful. Don't force into any pain, don't go into any pain, but just go as far as you comfortably can. If one of them is worse, just avoid that one. A lot of times the thinking is, if that's the painful direction, that's the one I need to be working the most. But your body will actually give you more if you encourage the ones that you can get and just feed into those. That's going to help get that area functional again, and then it'll probably give you more into the painful area in a day or two. As long as you nurture and you don't aggravate the movement that's causing a problem. So quite often in therapy, they may try to push it further or try to go into that pain to try and get that function back, but the body usually protects and it actually delays sometimes the recovery. It just depends on the approach, but we like to nurture what you can do, and then what you can't do starts to participate more because it just all falls into alignment. All right, so should never be painful as far as you comfortably can. Now each of those movements, turning left and right, side to side, left and right, and looking forward and back, you can also add a little bit of pull behind and hold it for a count of 10 or 15, and just a gentle pull. So a lot of times with stretching, people have the idea that more is better, I'm really going to get in there and create some length. You know, for some people that may work, but for everybody what would work is if you just go easy and you feel the pull and you hold that 10 or 15, And then you go to the other side, hold that 10 or 15, and then you repeat it on the other side again. Always do them twice when you're doing those stretches. The first one will warm it up a bit. The second one is what we call the developmental stretch. It'll maybe give you a little more length or give you a result that will be a little more longer lasting because you reinforced it. All right? So turning is a little bit harder, but you just put your hand on your temple and you can turn it. You don't have to turn it hard. It doesn't have to be forceful. You just give it a little bit of pull. The key thing with this is that when you've turned, you're now going to relax. You might even slump. I know it's not about your posture, but you really just want your body to relax and just the turning to come from the effort from your hand. And as you're holding it, it's again the focus with the breathing so that you can push it a bit and your body relaxes as it turns more. And that's also going to help change the firing pattern, the neurology with whatever's going on with the tightness, stiffness, or discomfort in your neck. And that's important. So if you can breathe and relax while you're doing that little stretch, there's benefit beyond just the stretching of the muscle. And then you do the same thing the other way, same thing with sideways, ear to the shoulder, just a gentle pull. And then same thing with forward, you can cross your hands behind your neck and give that a pull downward gently. And then same thing with backwards, just the finger on your forehead and you pull that back a little bit, never into any pain, shouldn't be uncomfortable, just go as far as you can and encourage it a little bit more. All right, so just some range of motion to warm it up, a little bit of stretching to loosen it up, and that may help with some of the neck tension or aches that you're having. Otherwise, look into some of the things that we may have sent you already that are specific to you. And if you have any questions or any concerns, some aches are building up, you're having some issues, reach out to the clinic. You know, we have 24/7 reception. They'll send me an email, I'll get back to you as soon as I can. You can send an email, I'll also reply to that. And happy to help no matter what, even though we may not see you as much right now, we still want to help you as much as we can. So don't hesitate to reach out, we're here to help for sure. Otherwise, take care of each other, stay well, and I'll catch you soon.
