Exercises for a Pinched Cervical Nerve | Chiropractor in Philadelphia, PA
Hey, what’s up everybody, my name is Dr. Roger Saias, clinical director here at PA Pain & Rehab in Philadelphia. Today, I wanted to continue the conversation about pinched nerves or disc irritation or slip disc. There’s a lot of things that people call it. But anything that’s irritating the nerve that’s causing pain down the extremity, whether it’s the arm or down the leg, it’s not a good thing. It’s a serious problem for for some.
Chin Tuck Exercise to Alleviate Radiating Pain into Extremities
So if you’ve been in a car accident if you’ve been injured, and all of a sudden, you’ve got pain that radiates down in extremity, you absolutely should get that checked out by a healthcare provider. But in the meantime, there are always some things that you could do at home to try to give yourself relief. And this might be one of them. So this one is a pretty common stretch. A lot of people do, a lot of people are taught this exercise by a lot of different health care providers, especially chiropractors, it’s just simply a chin tuck. So what you’re going to do is you’re going to sit in a nice comfortable position, you can do on on a chair, you can even do this one line down, the goal is to bring the chin backwards towards the neck.
So for some you’re going to push take your fingers, you’re going to push your chin, you’re going to push your chin backwards, you’re going to create a double chin, like this, very hard to talk that way. But doing that chin tuck can help alleviate some of the strain that you’re experiencing. Because most people when they’re not driving, or if they weren’t in a car accent, a lot of people are looking down all day, which strains the neck, which strains the lower cervical vertebrae, and the nerves that come out of the lower cervical vertebrae go into the shoulder, down your arms down your fingers. So if you’re experiencing that type of symptom, a chin tuck is a really easy way to start. So again, you’re going to tuck your chin back, you can hold it for three seconds, and you can do repetitions of 10. Now, in the beginning, this might be difficult for you to do. So don’t push yourself, if it’s causing more symptoms, if it’s increasing the pain, or it’s just really difficult to do, and you’re not sure what to do, don’t do it, right. So chin tuck, chin backwards, hold and relax.
Chin Tuck Hold
Now, if you want to hold it for even longer periods of time, you can hold it for a little bit longer, whatever you’re comfortable with. Now, you can add on this little piece as well. So you can do your chin tuck. And then when you do your chin tuck, hold that chin tuck, but you’re going to just start to bring your chin up as well. So again, tuck your chin simply start looking up. And as a result of that, a lot of times you’re gonna get some not only relief in the neck, but you may get a decrease in symptoms down into your extremities. It shouldn’t hurt, it shouldn’t cause more symptoms. And if it does discontinue, all right, I’m going to show you another one, it’s kind of like a nerve glide, right? A lot of people that are injured, they’re very stiff to begin with, they don’t have good mobility and range of motion.
Nerve Pain Relief for Your Right Arm
So this one is really good for everybody to do. But if you’re having irritation, let’s say you’re getting pain down into your right arm. So what you’re going to do is you’re going to put your arm out like this, if you can extend it, some people can’t because they’re in so much pain, so just don’t. And you’re going to pull your fingers down like this. And you’re going to bend your head to the opposite side. So if your right arm is hurting, you’re going to stretch to the left, if you can extend your arm out like this even better. And you’re going to just tip your head to the opposite side, right, or you can just simply do this point your fingers down, and you can also just pull to the opposite side, you’re going to feel a stretch in the neck. And as a result, you may get some relief down the extremity that’s hurting, it’s the left side, same thing, pull your fingers down like this. Bend your head to the opposite side. Alright, but this is a good stretch. In general, just stretching this out in general, can open up a lot of the joints stretch out the muscles, sometimes the muscles are also irritated, and they can be you know, irritating nerves as well or referring pain down into the arm. Okay, so again, you’re going to do it to your target. So if you can only hold this for about three seconds, hold for three seconds and relax. Same thing hold for three seconds and relax and you can hold it a little bit longer great, but you’re doing this to your tolerance.
Again, it’s just you’re trying to prime it, most people don’t stretch at all. So this is a great place to start. Even just simple range of motion exercises are great for pinched nerves in the neck, right. So you can just simply just rotate. These are also really easy stretches to do forward, backward, side to side. These are just simple range of motion exercises. You can hold these for three to five seconds you can do you know reps have, you know rounds up you know just 10 times each way. Again, whatever is comfortable for you it most people don’t do any type of mobility, any type of stretching and then they get injured in a car accident. They’ve got symptoms like pain in the neck pain, low back pain down the extremities.
We’re Here to Help
So these are just some simple ways to start getting your body moving, try to bring some of the inflammation down and hopefully start feeling better. And again, if you’re injured you don’t know what to do you absolutely should call a health care provider. Give us a call. Again, if this video was helpful, this is just a starting place. Send us a comment like us, share it with others. We really appreciate your time taking the time to watch this. I know everybody’s got short attention spans and everybody’s got a lot of things going on. So we appreciate you watching this video. If you have any questions, give us a call, send us an email. Have a great day, everybody.
