Neck Release Exercise

We will show you a simple exercise for rebalancing one of the most common reactive muscle conditions. These are based on the original Touch for Health technique for rebalancing reactive muscles when you know the location of the overly strong muscles in the reactive combination. The technique we use here is to gently squeeze the belly of the muscle in the direction of the muscle fiber orientation. This also squeezes the spindle cell proprioceptors embedded in the muscle tissue and causes them to send a signal to the brain that the muscle is too tight. In response the brain sends a message back to the muscle fibers to relax. As these muscle groups relax, the reactive relationship with the weakened muscles is broken, and they regain their normal tone (strength). See Brain-Muscle Communication for more information on how this works.

We carry much of our stress in our neck muscles. When these muscles tighten up, they cause other muscles in the body to weaken whenever you move your head (i.e., activate your neck muscles). In other words other muscles in your body tend to become reactive to your neck muscles when you are under stress. This stress can be reduced with our simple Neck Release Exercise.

Do some gentle neck rolls to activate the stiffness in your neck. Notice how it feels.

Gently squeeze the neck muscles together in an up and down direction with your thumb and index finger by grasping a horizontal fold in the skin. Keep your thumb on the bottom; sideways doesn't work. Do not squeeze so hard that you create black and blue bruises on your neck. Work along each side of your neck from alongside the windpipe to the back. Tilting your head back a little helps make this easier when you are doing the back of your neck.

Repeat the neck movements and notice the difference. Perhaps your shoulders will feel looser as well as your neck. Do the exercise several times a day and whenever you feel stressed.

Typical Benefits:

• Helpful for computer operators as they look from their display down to their keyboard or over to material to be copied.
• Reduces hyperactivity in school children as they look up and down from their desks and around the room.
• Helpful in reducing vertigo and balance problems, particularly in older people, by eliminating weak muscles in legs when looking down.
• Improves perfomance in sports requiring looking down and up: golf, baskeball, tennis, etc.

These unique exercises, developed by us from the principles of Touch for Health, are described and taught in our books, and also in our classes and lectures.