2 Minute Neck Foam Rolling Routine to Ease a Sore Neck
2 Minute Neck Foam Rolling Routine to Ease a Sore Neck
Your neck may not be something you normally think about foam rolling - but man it can feel good! If you’ve got a tight neck from craning your head all day, or if it’s sore from doing lots of backbending and neck extension work (looking at you, fellow contortionists!) using a foam roller to help give it a stretch and gentle massage can feel quite nice.
An important clarification on proper/safe foam rolling technique for the neck - you don’t actually want to place the roller on your neck - your cervical spine, like your lumbar spine, does not have anything else to support it, so we never want to directly smoosh those vertebrae into a foam roller (too much pressure!). Instead we want to place the roller at the base of our skull on our occipital bone - this is the attachment site for several muscles in the back of our neck that can get tight. So aim for the boney lump at the bottom of your head - not your neck!
The 4 Neck Foam Rolling Exercises:
Nod Your Head Yes (30 seconds)
With the base of your skull on the foam roller, tuck your chin toward your chest (as if you were giving yourself a double chin), then lift your chin and your nose
Nod Your Head No (30 seconds)
Keeping your chin slightly tucked, slowly nod your head side to side, as if shaking your head no. Make sure the roller is supporting the bottom of your head (and not actually touching your neck vertebrae)
Nose Infinities (30 seconds)
Keeping the roller at the base of your skull, trace an infinity sign with your nose, lightly pressing the roller into one side of the base of your skull, then the other side. Do 15 seconds in one direction, then 15 seconds in the other direction
Nose Circles (30 seconds)
Slightly lean to one side so you have the roller on the side-bottom edge of the base of your skull. Trace a circle with your nose - 5 times in one direction, 5 times in the other direction, then switch sides
