From the https://www.spine.org/KnowYourBack/Prevention/Exercise/CervicalExercise website.

Also,
below this article, are a couple of videos that demonstrate 2 more cervi related exercises. Worth
checking out!!

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Cervical Exercise: The Backbone of Spine

Treatment
Exercise Committee

Updated 2012

Important: If you have had an accident that started your neck pain or if you have pain,
numbness, tingling or weakness in your arm that is worsening, you should see your physician
before starting any exercises.

The Importance of Exercise for the Neck

Spine experts agree that physical activity is important for people with neck pain. This brochure
will show you how to stay active without making your pain worse. You can even reduce your
pain by being active. Activity can also then protect you against your neck pain returning in the
future.

So how do you stay physically active without making your pain worse? Many people are
surprised that carefully selected exercises can actually reduce pain. The exercises described in
this brochure can often provide quick and significant relief, speed your recovery as well as keep
your pain from returning.

Once pain lessens or disappears, other exercises can help restore neck movement and muscle
strength. These exercises will help you gain optimal recovery and help protect you against future
episodes. If it is difficult to reduce your pain, many doctors believe returning to your activities is
worthwhile. Even if pain increases, as long as that increase ceases as soon as the activity stops,
that temporary additional pain is acceptable. So try to stay active.

Selecting Exercises to Relieve Pain

It is important to choose exercises carefully to avoid making your neck pain worse. One way to
know if your neck problem is getting worse is if your symptoms spread away from the neck itself
and into your shoulder or down your arm.This can happen during certain exercises or common
activities such as driving, reading or using a computer for a prolonged period of time.

The good news is that the opposite is also true!Symptoms can move out of your arm or shoulder
so they are felt closer to the center or midline of your neck (called symptom "centralization").
When this happens, you are improving and moving toward recovery! You may be able to
identify exercises and positions that can intentionally make that happen. When that is the case,
once all symptoms have returned to the center of your neck, they will often decrease and
disappear with continued exercise.Or if you only have pain in your neck, these same exercises
will often eliminate that pain. Numbness or tingling usually recovers as well, but sometimes
more slowly than the pain.

Four simple exercises often help centralize and reduce neck-related symptoms. When doing
these exercises, as well as any other activities, monitor your pain and any numbness and tingling.
Make sure they are moving toward the middle of your neck (centralizing), becoming less intense,
or at least remaining the same. If they are moving further away from your neck, stop the
exercise.Continue with those that help your pain the most; abandon those that aggravate your
pain.

Walking erectly with "neutral" head position (Figure 1): Make an effort to "walk tall" (chest
up, shoulders back) and with your head positioned in "neutral." This means your ears are aligned
directly over your shoulders when viewed from the side. Allowing your head to fall into a
forward position is a bad habit worth breaking because it so often contributes to neck pain and
prolongs recovery. It initially requires an effort to consistently draw your head backward but,
over time, this neutral position will become your new habit.

Figure 1. Neutral head position

Supine neutral head position (Figure 2): This exercise enables you to establish and maintain
the "neutral" head position with very little effort, while resting. By lying on your back with as
thin a pillow as is comfortable, or ideally with no pillow, let your head fall backward so your
ears move toward being aligned with your shoulders and hips as much as you comfortably can.
Spending 5-10 minutes in this position, perhaps every couple hours if necessary, often decreases
or helps eliminate neck pain and allows your head to move further and further into that ideal
alignment.

Figure 2. Supine neutral head position

Supine retraction (Figure 3): While lying on your back with your head in neutral position,
place your fingers on your chin and push downward so your chin tucks and your head is pushed
downward into its resting surface. Be sure to feel a stretch in the back of your neck and a sense
of "crowding" in the front of your neck. Repeat that stretch 8-10 times while monitoring your
pain for either improvement or worsening.Stop the exercise if your pain is worsens as a result.

Figure 3. Supine retraction

Sitting or standing neck retraction (Figure 4): This exercise often reduces or eliminates pain
by taking your head as far backward as possible, often well past the "neutral" position (Figure 1).
Place your fingers on the front of your chin to help push your head backward as far as it will go,
but maintain your face in a forward-direction. You will again feel a stretch in the back of your
neck and a sense of "crowding" your throat in front. Hold that "retracted" stretching position for
1-2 seconds and then release, allowing your head to return to neutral. Repeat that movement 8-10
times and perform 3-4 such sessions each day, especially if you are finding it is reducing your
pain. Often, as pain reduces, your head will retract further and further backward, making the
exercise even more beneficial. Even after your pain is eliminated, continue this exercise 3-4
times daily for another two weeks to help prevent your pain from returning, or return to it any
time your pain does begin again.

Figure 4. Sitting or standing neck retraction

Posture Is Very Important Too

If your symptoms worsen while sitting, meaning they intensify or move away from your neck,
toward or into your shoulder, or down your arm, it's likely related to your posture. Most of us
have a habit of slouching and letting our head protrude forward (Figure 5). A forward head
position, especially when maintained for an extended period of time, commonly produces and
aggravates painful neck conditions. To your painful lower neck, it is the equivalent of forward
bending at the waist that so commonly aggravates a painful low back.

Figure 5. Forward head position

Good neck posture means placing and maintaining your head in a "neutral" position so, looking
from the side, your ears are aligned directly over your shoulders (Figure 6). When you are
unaccustomed to this position, it initially can feel awkward, like a chin-tucking position. But this
new position places the weight of your head directly over your supporting spine, like a golf ball
nicely sitting on a small golf tee. That minimizes the stresses on the discs and supporting
ligaments in your neck. It is helpful to sit with the same hollow in our lower back that we have
with standing and walking (Figure 6). The use of a lumbar roll or support for that hollow can
make sitting erectly much easier, especially if the buttocks are positioned against the back of an
upright chair. Avoiding deep soft chairs also assists in sitting erectly.

Figure 6. Neutral head position while sitting

It also helps at first to approach this new erect sitting posture as an exercise. That helps you
practice finding this new head position as well as build the necessary stamina to hold this posture
for longer and longer periods of time. Many also find pain relief by creating that same neutral
head position by lying on their back using as thin a pillow as possible, or even no pillow at all.

Establishing and maintaining the neutral head position is challenging at first, but can be a key to
both recovery and preventing the return of your pain. You can determine the usefulness of these
posture modifications by monitoring your own pain: specifically whether you are able to
diminish, centralize or even eliminate it. If no exercise, movement or posture is found that will
cause your pain to centralize, you may need further evaluation to determine your other treatment
options.

Exercising Once Pain Has Lessened

In many cases, it may take only one or two days to control or eliminate symptoms. Once your
pain is much better or gone, gradually and carefully return to any activities you've temporarily
avoided and start some simple exercises. Continue as long as your symptoms do not return, get
worse, or move away from the center of the back.

Establishing that habit of sitting more erectly with your head in a neutral position, thus avoiding
the protruded head position, is often necessary and valuable to establish long-term comfort.

Strengthening Exercises
Many people with neck pain also have weak muscles in the neck, upper back and core. By
strengthening and stretching those muscles, more blood flow comes to the area to help repair
injury. Your ability to function in your daily activities also improves. Stronger muscles provide
greater stability to the neck and trunk to help establish and maintain good posture and enhance
all body movements. Increasing strength helps protect you from future problems. Moderate
strength training is one of the most valuable things you can do for your overall health and is
especially important if you have neck pain. Continue exercises as long as your symptoms do not
return, get worse, or move away from the center of the back.

Special equipment and gyms can be helpful, but there are good, low-tech, inexpensive ways to
strengthen neck muscles at home. Five simple exercises can help strengthen the muscles in your
neck and upper back:

Strengthening Can Help

Isometric strengthening:
1. Sit in a chair with your back supported and your head in the neutral position (Figure 6). Place
your hand across your forehead. Push your head and neck forward as hard as you are able while
firmly resisting any movement of your head with your hand (Figure 7). Push for 10 seconds, then
relax, and repeat three times.

2. Similarly, place your hand against the back of your head as you try to push your head
backward (Figure 8) against the resistance of your hand. Push as hard as you are able for 10
seconds, relax, and repeat three times.

3. Do the same by bending your neck to either side, again pushing as hard as you can against the
resistance of your hand that is placed against the side of your head (Figure 9). Push for 10
seconds, relax, and repeat three times.
Figure 7. Forward isometric strengthening

Figure 8.Backward isometric strengthening

Figure 9.Sideward isometric strengthening

Perform one set of each of these exercises twice a day. As you repeat them over time, you can
vary the position of your head and neck as your hand resists your movement, bending slightly
forward, backward, or to each side. These exercises will increase your neck strength in all
directions of motion.

Prone Head Lifts (Figure 10): Lying face down on a firm surface, raise your chest, shoulders
and head up by resting on your elbows. Let your head hang fully downward so your chin is on or
near your chest. Lift your head upward to the head-neutral position, being sure to retract your
head (tuck your chin) as you move (Figure 6). Then continue lifting your head upward and
backward as far as it will go in an attempt to look skyward. Hold that position for 5 seconds
before slowly returning through that head-neutral position to the original downward head-
hanging position. Repeat that exercise 5 times, twice a day.

Figure 10.Prone head lift

Supine Head Lifts (Figure 11): Lying on your back on a firm surface, raise your head fully off
the surface, taking your chin to your chest, and hold for 5 seconds before returning to your
starting position. Repeat that lift 8-10 times, twice a day.

Figure 11.Supine head lift

Scapular Retraction (Figure 12): Stand with your arms at your sides. Keep your head and neck
in neutral position (Figure 1). With chest lifted, gently but firmly pull both shoulders backward
while squeezing both shoulder blades backward and downward. Hold for 10 seconds and work
up to 30 seconds. Perform one set of 5 repetitions, twice a day. You may add some resistance by
stretching a towel or an elastic band across your chest while you pull your shoulders backward.

Figure 12.Scapular retraction

Neck Rotation (Figure 13): While sitting or standing with your head and neck in neutral
position (Figure 6), slowly turn your head to the left as far as you comfortably can and hold for
five seconds. Similarly, slowly turn the head to the right and hold for 5 seconds. Perform one set
of 5 repetitions each direction, twice a day.
Figure 13.Neck rotation

Summary
Exercising your neck is a very good thing to do, whether you are having pain or wishing to avoid
it. Good neck care includes pain-relieving exercises that also help restore full neck movement,
attention to head and neck posture, followed by moderate strengthening. These techniques can
help you recover and provide a good defense against future symptoms.

Disclaimer
This brochure is for general information and understanding only and is not intended to represent
official policy of the North American Spine Society. Please consult your physician for specific
information about your condition.

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And, here are the two videos mentioned up top. This first one is the “Genie Exercise” …

https://youtu.be/npQCSQCjc24

The second is the Levator Scapulae Stretch … also includes a brief discussion of the tendons and muscles
involved to help you relate to how the movement helps …

https://youtu.be/lKXCJATdiEE