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Table Of Contents

Part I : Knowledge 4 Step 1: Remove 80% of pain and discomfort by changing this… 7 Step 2: Targeting And Eliminating The Top Pain-Producing Behaviors 10 Reason #1: Work 11 Reason #2: Driving 13 Reason #3: Leisure 13 Sleep/Rest 15 Step 3: Listen To Your Natural Warning System 16

Part II: Action 18 Simple Exercises That Will Relieve Your Pain 18 Exercise 1: “Head Retraction In Sitting” 20 Exercise 2: “Neck Extension In Sitting” 21 Exercise 3: “Head Retraction In Lying” 22 Exercise 4: Neck Extension In Lying 23 Exercise 5: Sidebending Of The Neck 24 Exercise 6: Neck Rotation 25 Exercises 7: Neck Flexion In Sitting 26 Bonus: How To Dig Deeper And Eliminate The True Cause Of Neck Pain… 27Conclusion 29

The Illumination Group Copyright 2015 �3

Part I : Knowledge

Self treatment has been proven more effective in long term studies for neck pain problems than most medical treatment because ultimately, the proper alignment and positioning of your neck that avoids creating pain in the first place is your responsibility.

The #1 way to relieve, treat, remove and prevent neck pain long term is to make sure that proper neck alignment and posture are restored.

The truth is this: if you’re suffering from severe, chronic or even periodic neck pain, chances are you were not struck by some sudden “neck pain” disease.

Of course, sometimes pain can be caused by a sudden trauma or injury (referred to as an “acute” injury in the medical field) but the methods described ahead may be effective in treating pain and discomfort from some those injuries (of course, you must always consult your doctor or therapist to make sure that the treatments are approved, and that nothing more serious is occurring).

In fact, if you have any of the following symptoms, it will be best to consult a doctor or physical/occupational therapist before beginning ANY self-treatment regimen:

• Pain, numbness or tingling in the wrists or hands• If you have neck problems after a severe or recent accident• If you’ve recently developed headaches• If you have severe headaches here and there, and they seem to be

getting worse• If you have headaches that come along with dizziness and nausea

Most likely, the cause of you neck pain has been a LONG process of improper posture while sitting, standing, or working, which over time has lead to strain on muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints in your neck area, which in turn leads to pain.


Pain is your body’s alarm mechanism. It does not happen for no reason. It happens because there is something wrong. You should think of pain as a GOOD thing because it’s signaling you that something is off.

When your body sends pain signals, it’s trying to get you to DO SOMETHING. To take action…and that doesn’t just include popping a pill to alter your brains chemicals and create the “illusion” of being pain-free. Besides, this is a temporary solution that has many associated health risks if used too often.

The real effective treatment is much easier, much more empowering and much more effective.

Here’s the main problem at the core of your neck pain (after you’ve checked with your doctor to see if something more serious is going on, of course), and what’s causing your sleepless nights, nagging, chronic pain, fatigue, numbness, and pins and needles…

Misalignment and poor posture, over long periods of time, cause 99% of neck pain, and self-treating for correcting these issues is simple, straightforward and highly effective.


You’re about to learn how to systematically self-treat, correct, relieve, prevent, and eliminate moderate, mild, or even severe neck pain simply by changing a couple habits, and using a few very simple exercises that take less than 5 minutes day, and will drastically and quickly begin to provide you with relief, greater flexibility, and with a little time and a little effort, resilience to further injuries down the road.

Wave goodbye to neck pain, and greet your newfound physical flexibility and freedom.

To your health!

Brad O. The Illumination Groupwww.illuminationgrouppublishing.org


http://www.illuminationgrouppublishing.org

Step 1: Remove 80% of pain and discomfort by changing this…

The #1 cause of neck pain for most people comes down to a simple choice you make every single day…and it’s probably something that nobody’s ever really informed you about. I know I had no idea about how much of my own aches and pains were simply caused by this one factor.

That factor? Well, turns out grandma was right….having good posture isn’t just for good etiquette…

It’s absolutely essential for a pain-free life, especially when it comes to neck pain and irritation.

If you JUST correct your posture…then over a few short weeks, your pain will begin to dissolve…you’ll forget you were ever even plagued by aches and pains.

See, most people walk around with OK…or mediocre…or more often than not, TERRIBLE posture. Specifically, they stand, sit and walk in a way that creates an abnormal positioning for the part of your spine that supports your head, and it removes the nice, gentle curve from the top of your spine to the base of your skull that with good posture is called cervical lordosis.

The difference between good posture that will relieve and prevent neck pains and strains…and POOR posture that will create, magnify, and prolong chronic neck pain…comes down to “cervical lordosis” according to physiotherapist Robin McKenzie in his book “Treat Your Own Neck”.

How do you have a proper, healthy cervical lordosis?

It’s simple, really.

While standing, sitting and even walking…you want to make sure that your head is as upright and straight as possible. This will create a nice, small little curve between the top of your spine and the bottom of your head, and that nice, gentle curve is called cervical lordosis.


Why is this proper alignment of your spine, neck, head and back so important? Well, like Dr. Jerry Kennedy says…“It’s like driving your car with the tires out of alignment. Yeah, you may get away with it for a few days. Maybe even a few weeks. But if you keep driving on tires that are not properly aligned you will eventually tear up your tires. Instead of getting 40-50,000 miles on a tire, you might get 15,000. Your body is the same way.”

According to Dr. Kennedy, this “imbalance” of our posture can cause a myriad of problems like degeneration, stress, and increased injuries.

To create the shape that you need to prevent and alleviate neck pain, you want to start by changing how you position your head.

To create good, pain-free posture, make sure to keep your head upright. To help you in doing this on a regular basis, you can use something called the “Alexander Technique”.

This is the technique that asks you to simply remind yourself whenever you notice your posture slipping, to imagine that a string is coming out of the top of your head.

And to correct your posture, you simply have to imagine that you take one of your hands, bring it to the top of your head, and “pull” the imaginary string, and imagining that your body is like a puppet or marionette, use this to pull your posture into the correct position, straight up, with your head pulled back a bit so that the curve of the back of your neck above your spine is slight.

Use the alexander technique for 45 days, and your brain will ingrain it in your behavior as a new habit. Then you will no longer have to think about it, and your neck pain will be reduced or may disappear entirely.

As an additional bonus…behavioral psychology studies have proven many times over that adopting this posture actually has positive psychological effects too…

You will feel more confident, more assertive, happier, and you will actually appear more respectable, more confident, and more attractive to everyone around you (plus you’ll instantly “grow taller” by a couple of inches, and


“look slimmer” by adopting this straight up posture, by naturally pulling in your tummy).

So there’s really no reason not to use this technique to correct your posture. It yields so many positive effects, and ultimately will help to alleviate 80% of your neck pain.

Remember that it will take 45 days to form the new habit, and at first your brain and body will resist the change in routine, especially if you’ve been using a poor or mediocre posture for years, or decades.

If your brain is resisting in the beginning…if you feel thoughts of stress, concern, or annoyance…that’s a GOOD SIGN. That means you are RE-WIRING your thoughts and behaviors. It will be uncomfortable for the first few days, but soon your wiring will re-organize and your brain will start REWARDING you for using this new posture. Then you’ll get happy chemicals released whenever you adjust your posture with the alexander technique.

These happy chemicals will help to relieve pain, will dissolve stress, and will make you feel happier and more confident too.

How do you know if your posture is poor? Pretty simple.

Many, many people (myself included) are never taught about posture, so they default to a couple “bad habits” that actually end up creating neck pain.

Bad habit #1 - Keeping your chin forward, which creates a large curve at the back of your neck and top of your spine…which eliminates the nice “cervical lordosis” that we’re aiming for.

Bad habit #1 - Carrying your head in front of your body. This has the same effect as keeping your chin forward. Not to mention psychologically, it creates feelings of inadequacy, stress, powerlessness, and lack of confidence.

Lastly…you must do this at ALL times. At least, as often as you possibly can. That means sitting…even while you’re working, reading, or using the computer. Plus standing, and even while you’re walking. Use the alexander


technique while you’re walking, remember to imagine pulling yourself up by the imaginary string at the top of your head and it will automatically correct your posture.

So step 1 to eliminating your neck pain for good is to ELIMINATE these bad behaviors, and replace them with GOOD behaviors.

Replacing bad posture with GOOD posture will begin to affect your life in many positive ways, and will eliminate 80% of neck pain within a few short days, weeks, or months depending on the level of your current pain.

In the next step, we’re going to target specific behaviors that will create 80% of chronic neck pain, and talk about specific effective strategies for treating, eliminating and preventing them.

Step 2: Targeting And Eliminating The Top Pain-Producing Behaviors

To begin finding the causes of your neck pain, we’re going to start by eliminating the statistically most likely causes, and designing your life to eliminate them so that the pain will soon disappear too, as soon as you make a few simple adjustments to your lifestyle.

We’ve already discussed that poor posture is at fault for 80% of neck pain problems.

And 80% of bad posture…is caused by our habit of SITTING in a position of bad posture. This includes a protruding head (your chin is stretched out in front of your body) and head bent forward.

If you don’t have neck strain or pain, poor sitting posture will cause it. If you already have it, bad posture will continue to make it worse.

If you’re having neck pain currently, it is more likely caused by your posture during one of the following parts of your day.

This happens for many different reasons.


Reason #1: Work

Many of us have jobs where we are forced to sit all day long. We are either bent over a desk, reading papers, documents or books, writing in notebooks, or we’re staring at a computer screen.

With all of these cases, we have a tendency to want to relax while we’re doing it, and we tend to spend much more of our focus and attention on the work we’re doing than how we’re sitting while we do it.

If you’re sitting at a desk all day, there are a few things you can do to correct the problems that bad sitting posture will cause with neck pain.

First, remember the Alexander technique to keep checking in with yourself throughout the day (for the minimum of 45 days that it will require to re-wire your brain and form a new habit). If you need to, set up calendar reminders on your computer, on your watch, or on a phone to remind you.

There are also cool devices cool biofeedback devices that can help you to remind you by buzzing you whenever your posture stoops below a certain level of acceptable posture.

Some can find these devices to be quite annoying, since they do not allow any leniency. But they are effective, and if you love gadgets to help you form new habits, give them a shot!

The other things you can do is find a simple back support roll or device that will help you keep a straight up posture in your back and spin while you’re at your desk.

Remember that even though a slumped down, slouched posture can FEEL like you’re relaxing…your body is actually getting very strained and stressed, particularly in the muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons that are being overstretched by this pseudo-relaxed posture. With enough time, this over-stretching of these areas will cause pain to develop.

The other thing that you can remember to do while you’re at your desk working or otherwise sitting for long periods of time…is to…


Take periodic breaks to stretch out your neck. Keeping the same posture for hours on end will be very likely to create tension in your neck, and over days, weeks or months this tension will turn into pain. To avoid this or relieve it, take breaks every 15-20 minutes to stand up, stretch out or you can perform any of the sitting exercises that are going to be covered later in the book, while you’re still at your desk.

Throughout the day, keep the alexander technique in mind and continually remind yourself to adjust your head so that it’s aligned straight on top of your spine, and your spine is aligned straight up too.

Dr. Kennedy also suggests that you take a couple pictures of yourself in the mirror standing and sitting in natural postures, then you print out those pictures, draw a straight line up the middle of your body, and see how closely your head and back “line up” with the line.

As you progress in stretching and strengthening and correcting your posture, you can take more photos and keep comparing to the original.

It’s also worth mentioning that many offices will gladly support their employees being happier and healthier, because happy employees produce better work, so feel free to ask your company if they’d be willing to invest in ergonomic seating options that will provide you with lower back support, which in turn will help you in maintaining the proper posture.

Another option that many offices are adopting nowadays is some version of a standing desk. This can be helpful in getting you to keep a good posture, especially when working at a computer.

For those of us who don’t work at desks or in offices, work can still create opportunities to create intense neck strain and pain. This typically occurs if our work requires us to maintain a strained position for a long period of time, like stretching to work on the underside of an automobile, or painting, lifting, or similar motions.

The best way to combat the strain on your neck from these positions is to remember to take breaks to straighten out your posture, and specifically to do some of the simple exercises outlined later in the program every 30


minutes or so if you’re feeling a lot of strain, otherwise 6-8 times throughout the day.

Reason #2: Driving

While driving, it’s also essential to remember your good posture habits. We all have a tendency to sit back in the driver’s seat, because it initially “feels” more “relaxed”. Even though if you could hear your spine and neck, you would hear it screaming “this isn’t relaxed at all!!!! I’m being stretched far beyond what I’m built to!”

Again, watch your posture whenever you get into your vehicle and make sure that your head is not protruding in front of your body, that your chin is not pointing out in front of your body, and that the “string” is pulled all the way up.

Just like every other area of life, this will feel uncomfortable at first, and may even cause a slight increase in pain temporarily. But if you stick with it, your brain will re-wire, and your body will eventually relax because you will be sitting in a position that you're naturally built to assume and then it won’t feel the need to send the “pain” signals to tell you to stop.

The best way to automatically adopt good posture while driving is to provide some sort of lower back support, and keep your head against the back of the seat.

Reason #3: Leisure

It makes sense that when we sit down to watch television, read the newspaper, magazines or books, we want to relax.

And most home furniture is made for this type of “melt into the chair” sort of comfort and “relaxation”.


However, it’s this very posture-destroying behavior that very likely has created your neck strain and pain.

“Comfy” furniture often encourages our poor posture…which in turn aggravates our pain. If you happen to notice that reading the newspaper, or watching television is causing you neck pain…it’s almost certainly your posture that’s causing you pain.

And even though you may have been sitting in the same position, in the same chair or doing the same activity for many years without pain, you absolutely must cease this behavior and adopt new habits as soon as possible.

Just like with the work environment, to proactively manage posture during leisure activities, do the following 2 steps:

1) Sit correctly (remember the alexander technique, or add supporting tools to help you)

2) Remind yourself every 15-20 minutes to either get up and stretch, or to use one of the 2 sitting exercises we’ll discuss later.

Remember: For the first few days of creating your new posture, you will most likely experience a new type of “pain”. However, if you maintain your new good posture, the pain will subside after a few days, and your previous neck pains will disappear and will stay gone as long as you maintain your good posture.


Sleep/Rest

The next most common posture problems occurs when you’re lying down, sleeping or resting.

Unfortunately, this problem is a bit tricker and will take some experimentation for everyone to find their optimal positioning.

You’ll want to experiment with different positions to sleep in, and different pillows that allow various forms of support.

If you wake up with a stiff neck or pains even while maintaining good posture throughout the day and after doing the exercises outlined later in this book, then the most likely culprit is your sleeping surface or position.

Lying face down is the most likely position to cause problems, and mattresses and pillows that are too soft will cause most problems.

Try using just 1 pillow instead of multiple pillows, and try sleeping in various positions to see which one helps the most.


Step 3: Listen To Your Natural Warning System

Finally, to round out your new education in the workings of your neck and spine, we’ll briefly discuss WHY you’re feeling any sort of pain in the first place.

And the first, most important lesson to understand which will help you take proper action more often for the rest of your life, is to get that…

Pain has a purpose.

This may seem obvious, but I find it’s useful to remind myself and others that pain isn’t just some random affliction doled out by your body and brain just to make you suffer.

In fact, your body and brain are CONSTANTLY doing their best, working hard on billions of different areas to make sure that you DON’T experience pain, because the things that cause you pain are the things that are BAD for your survival, and our entire body and brain are designed to keep us alive as long as possible.

So, what is the purpose of pain? It is a warning.

When your body experiences something that it knows it cannot sustain for a long time without breaking in some way, it communicates to your brain to send in stress signals. This is done by releasing a hormone called cortisol.

Cortisol is there to warn us of any danger to our survival…giant sabertooth tigers, steep edges of cliffs…and even prolonged strain on our muscles, tendons and joints.

When we get surged with cortisol, all sorts of “stress” activities are triggered…increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, storage of fat, a dulling of our intellect, and we are constantly put “on alert”.


And this is all a signal to us…that we need to change SOMETHING about what we’re doing…NOW.

And if we don’t take action to remove the cause of stress, then the brain steps up the warning signal, and starts ringing all the alarm bells…That’s when we experience PAIN.

Pain is the result of a behavior that is UNSUSTAINABLE to our body’s well-being.

The most important thing to realize is that pain is usually not the CAUSE of your problems, it’s the RESULT of your behaviors that are actually a problem for your body.

This makes it much easier to realize that the #1 way to combat chronic neck pain is to proactively switch from doing the WRONG thing for your body (bad posture, over-stretching of muscles, ligaments and tendons, and putting stress on your joints) and start doing the RIGHT things for your body (good posture, stretching, strengthening muscles, ligaments and tendons, and taking care of your joints).

So next time you feel an ache or pain emerging (of course, if it’s severe pain, consult your doctor or physical therapist immediately) remember that it’s more than likely a signal from your brain that something you’re doing, or something that you’ve BEEN doing is not going to work for much longer. If you keep it up, it’s going to cause severe harm to your body, so it’s telling your brain to send in the pain signals to make you ACT QUICKLY.

Now that you know WHY you’re experiencing pain…

When you heed these alarm bells from your brain, what can you do to FIX the issue?That’s what we’re going to cover in part 2.


Part II: Action

Simple Exercises That Will Relieve Your Pain

To begin alleviating your neck pain immediately, as well as offering you a way to prevent future pain, we’re going to follow the advice of the McKenzie System, developed by Robin McKenzie, the accomplished physiotherapist. His brilliant book “Treat Your Own Neck” outlines a succinct, simple and immediately effective system based on 40,000 patients and forty years of practicing, helping people alleviate neck pain. I highly recommend you go and purchase the book.

Here is a brief summary of his brilliant system that if followed, will produce incredible pain-relieving results and help you regain your freedom of motion and enjoyment of hobbies in no time.

First, McKenzie points out that the exercises (which only take about 30 seconds to 1 minute to complete) will be effective in relieving chronic neck pain even if you’ve been suffering for weeks, months or years, and using it will help you to prevent future neck injuries or strain.

One of the things you may notice about the program is that though pain may start in one area of the back, neck, spine, or shoulders…once you begin doing the exercises, it may relocate to the center of your body.

This is called centralization, and it is a GOOD thing.

If your pain is severe, we are looking to centralize that pain quickly. If your pain centralizes, then you’re doing the exercises correctly.

Another thing that you should know is that often when you begin doing these exercises, your pain will dissolve immediately, or at least be greatly reduced immediately. But depending on how long or how severely your pain has been going on, you may find that it’s replaced by a new type of pain.


This pains should be less intense, but it is simply resulting from doing exercises that you’re not used to doing yet. This new pain will subside in 3 or 4 days.

If the pain doesn’t subside and instead you find that it gets more intense, then you will want to stop doing the exercises and consult your doctor before proceeding.

Similarly, if you feel a numbness in your hands or below your elbows, you should stop the exercises and consult your doctor.

You must be the judge of the intensity of your pain, and make sure to err on the side of caution.

Having said that, while performing the exercises keep in mind that if your pain is severe, you will want to stretch the level that you’re comfortable, which should ideally be the “beginning threshold” of your current pain. If it’s excruciating, then you’ve gone too far.

But if you feel just a little bit of pain as you’re doing the exercises properly, then you’re probably performing it perfectly.

Just make sure to relax fully in between exercises. With a few repetitions your pain will very likely decrease a great deal, or begin to disappear. With a few days or practice, most of your pain is very likely to be gone.

Of course, to prevent it from returning you must maintain good posture based on the concepts that we discussed earlier. Even with these exercises, without good posture pain will likely return.

Ready to remove your pain with a few simple exercises?

Without further adieu, here is the famed “McKenzie System” for relieving neck pain.


Exercise 1: “Head Retraction In Sitting”

• Sit on a chair or stool, look straight ahead and allow yourself to relax completely. Your head will protrude a little as you do this. Now you are ready to start the first and most important exercise.

• Move your head slowly but steadily backward until it is pulled back as far as you can manage. It is important to keep your chin tucked down and in as you do this In other words, remain looking straight ahead, being careful not to tilt the head backward as in looking up. When your head is pulled back as far as possible, you have assumed the retracted head posture.

• Once you have maintained this position for a few seconds, relax, and automatically your head and neck will protrude again.

• Each time you repeat this movement cycle make sure that the backward movement of head and neck is performed to the maximum possible degree.

• The exercise can be made more effective by adding overpressure. This is done by placing hands on the chin and firmly pushing the head back even farther.

• This exercise is used mainly in the treatment of neck pain.• When used in the treatment of neck pain, repeat the exercise 10 times

per session and spread the sessions evenly six to eight times throughout the day until you go to bed at night. This means that you are repeating the sessions about every two hours. When used in the prevention of neck pain, repeat the exercise 5 or 6 times, as often as required.

• Should you experience severe pain on attempting this exercise, you must replace it with Exercise 3: “Head Retraction In Lying”


Exercise 2: “Neck Extension In Sitting”

• “Extension” means bending backward. This exercise should always follow Exercise 1

• Remain seated, repeat Exercise 1 a few times, and then hold your head in the retracted position. Now you are ready to start Exercise 2.

• Lift your chin up and title your head backward as in looking up at the sky. Do not allow your neck to move forward as you do this.

• With your head tilted back as far as possible, you must rotate your head from side-to-side so that your nose moves just half an inch to the right and then to the left of the midline, all the time attempting to move head and neck even farther backward. Repeat this movement quite rhythmically and not too slowly.

• Once you have done this for a few seconds, return your head to the starting position. Again, each time you repeat this movement cycle make sure that neck extension is performed to the maximum possible degree.

• This exercise can be used both in the treatment and in the prevention of back pain

• Exercise 2 is to be performed 10 times per session and the sessions spread evenly six to eight times per day until you go to bed. If your pain is too severe to tolerate exercise 2, replace it with Exercise 3: “Head Retraction In Lying”.

• Once you are fully practiced in exercise 1 and 2 separately, you can combine these two exercises successfully into one exercise.


Exercise 3: “Head Retraction In Lying”

• Lie face up with your head at a free-standing edge of the bed - for example, lie across a double bed or with your head at the foot-end of a single bed. Rest your head and shoulders flat on the bed and do not use a pillow. Now you are ready to start Exercise 3

• Push the back of your head into the mattress and at the same time pull your chin in. The overall effect should be that your head and neck move backward as far as possible while you keep facing the ceiling.

• Once you have maintained this position for a few seconds, you should relax and automatically the head and neck return to the starting position. Each time you repeat this movement cycle, make sure that the backward movement of head and neck is carried out to the maximum possible degree.

• This exercise is used mainly in the treatment of severe neck pain. • When you have completed 10 head retractions, it is important to evaluate

the effects of this exercise on the pain. If the pain has centralized or decreased in intensity, you can safely continue this procedure. In this case repeat the exercise 10 times per session and spread the sessions evenly six to eight times throughout the day or night.

• However, if the pain has increased considerably or extends farther away from the spin, or if you have developed pins and needles or numbness in the fingers, then you must stop the exercise and seek advice.


Exercise 4: Neck Extension In Lying

• This exercise should always follow exercise 3. Again, you must lie face up on the bed.

• Before you start exercise 4, place one hand under your head and move up along the bed until the head, neck and the top of your shoulders are extended over the edge of the bed

• While supporting your head with one hand, lower it slowly down toward the floor

• Now remove your hand, tilt your head and neck as far backward as you can and try to see as much as possible of the floor directly under you

• In this position repeatedly rotate your head from side to side so that your nose moves just half an inch to the right and then to the left of the midline, attempting to move your head and neck farther backward as you do this. Repeat this movement quite rhythmically and not too slowly.

• Once you have reached the maximum amount of extension, try to relax in this position for about 30 seconds

• In order to return to the resting position, first place one hand behind your head, then assist your head back to the horizontal position and move down along the bed until your head is lying on the bed again.

• Following this exercise, it is important that you do not rise immediately but rest for a few minutes with your head flat on the bed. Do not use a pillow.

• As in exercise 3, this exercise is used mainly in the treatment of severe neck pain

• Until the acute symptoms have subsided, exercise 4 is to follow exercise 3 and should be done only once per session. Once you no longer have severe pain, replace exercises 3 and 4 with exercises 1 and 2. By now you will have noticed that, except for the position in which they are performed, exercises 3 and 4 are really the same as exercises 1 and 2.


Exercise 5: Sidebending Of The Neck

• Sit on a chair, repeat exercise 1 a few times, and then hold your head in the retracted position. Now you are ready to start exercise 5.

• Bend your neck sideways and move your head toward the side on which you feel most of the pain. Do not allow the head to turn so that your nose moves toward your shoulder; in other words, keep looking straight ahead and bring your ear toward your shoulder. It is important that you keep the head well retracted as you do this.

• The exercise can be made more effective by placing the hand of your most painful side over the top of your head and gently but firmly pulling your head even farther toward the painful side

• Once you have maintained this position for a few seconds, return the head to the starting position.

• This exercise is used specifically for the treatment of pain felt only to one side of the neck that does not improve with exercises 1 and 2, or for the treatment of pain felt much more to the one side rather than to the other.

• Until the symptoms have centralized, repeat exercise 5 to 10 times per session, spread evenly six to 8 times through ought the day until you go to bed.


Exercise 6: Neck Rotation

• Sit on a chair, repeat exercise 1 a few times, and then hold your head in the retracted position. Now you are ready to start exercise 6.

• While still retracted, turn your head far to the right and then far to the left. It is important that you keep the head well retracted as you do this. If you experience more pain on turning to the one side than to the other, continue to exercise by rotation to the most painful side; on repetition the pain should gradually centralize or decrease in intensity. However, should the pain increase and fail to centralize, continue to exercise by rotating to the least painful side. Once you have the same amount of pain or no pain and only stiffness when turning to either side, continue to exercise by rotating to both sides.

• The exercise can be made more effective by using both hands and gently but firmly pushing your head even farther into rotation.

• Once you have maintained the position of the maximum rotation for a few seconds, return your head to the starting position

• This exercise can be used in the treatment as well as the prevention of neck pain.

• When used in the treatment of pain or stiffness of the neck, the exercise is to be performed 10 times per session and the sessions are to be spread evenly six to 8 times throughout the day. Whether centralization or reduction of the pain has taken place or not, exercise 6 must always be followed by exercises 1 and 2. When used in the prevention of neck problems, repeat the exercise 5 or 6 times every once in a while or as often as required (for example, when stiffness is first felt).

• Note that in the majority of cases, stiffness on rotation is caused by a blockage at the back of the joint that must be dealt with by performing exercises 1 and 2. Only do exercise 6 if your neck pain or headache is not helped by exercises 1 and 2.


Exercises 7: Neck Flexion In Sitting

• Flexion means bending forward• Sit on a chair, look straight ahead and allow yourself to relax completely. • Drop you head forward and let it rest with the chin as close as possible to

the chest• Place your hands behind the back of your head and interlock your

fingers. Let your arms relax so that the elbows point down toward the floor. In this position the weight of the arms will pull your head down farther and bring your chin closer to the chest.

• The exercise can be made more effective by using your hands to gently but firmly pull your head onto your chest

• Once you have maintained the position of maximum neck flexion for a few seconds, return your head to the starting position.

• This exercise is used specifically for the treatment of headaches, but can also be applied to resolve residual neck pain or stiffness once the acute symptoms have subsided.

• In both cases is should be repeated only two or three times per session, with the sessions spread evenly six to eight times throughout the day.

• When used in the treatment of headaches, exercise 7 should be performed in conjunction with exercise 1.

• When used in the treatment of neck pain or stiffness, exercise 7 must always be followed by exercises 1 and 2.


Bonus: How To Dig Deeper And Eliminate The True Cause Of Neck Pain…

According to Physical Therapist Sean Summer in his excellent book “Neck Check: Chronic Neck Pain Relief Once and For All (Super Spine)”, over 80% of neck pain (even the poor posture that we’ve discussed which leads to pain) is actually…on a much deeper level… caused by mental stress.

And Summer says that “If you neglect to treat the stress you are only working on part of the problem” because of all the severe physical effects that stress has on amplifying pain, weakening your body’s defenses, and sparking up inflammation that wreaks havoc on your body and brain.

This has been proven again and again by hundreds of studies from biology, psychology and nutrition.

Mental stress triggers the release of a chemical called Cortisol, as we mentioned earlier. And Cortisol triggers your body’s defensive reactions…storing fat (for energy), dimming down your ability to think (so that you can focus on the “threat” to your survival), and basically, the process of inflammation triggered by cortisol makes your body start to eat itself alive.

Physically, stress does things like constricting the smaller blood vessels, causing high blood pressure and decreased blood flow to the muscles, which increases pain and slows down recovery. Mentally, it makes you sluggish, less intelligent, makes your memory much worse, and chronic stress has been linked to developing all sorts of diseases, including Alzheimers. It also impairs your immune system and can cause lack of sleep, which is another domino effect problem that can create problems everywhere else in your life.

So how do you relieve stress?

This is a topic beyond the scope of this book, but there are many proven methods to relieve stress.


#1) Physical exercise is ALWAYS proven to relieve stress, because you release happy chemicals like endorphins, dopamine, and maybe serotonin.

#2) Meditation has been proven in study after study to physically re-wire and re-organize your brain. It calms down the fear-centered amygdala, helps to clear your mind, improve your concentration, and sort through the problems of your day that lead to stress in the first place.

Meditation doesn’t have to be some hokey spiritual practice, it’s just an effective, scientifically proven method of releasing, relieving, and reducing stress consistently, plus organizing your brain better (making you smarter), making you sleep better, and generally making you better at life.

You can look up Transcendental meditation, take a yoga class, or use a smartphone app called “Headspace” that can guide you through simple (non-spiritual) guided meditations.

#3) Another easy trick to relieving stress is using what’s called a “Nature Bath” by some. A nature bath simply means that you take the time to walk outside into a place where there is real nature surrounding you. That can be trees, grass, water, desert, whatever. But i has to be REAL nature.

The reason? We are psychologically wired to relax when we’re in our natural habitat. Studies have shown that taking a walk on a sidewalk in a crowded city has much less restorative effect than walking the same distance in a park with real trees and water in the same city.

Your brain is hard-wired to reward you for finding peaceful, nourishing nature.

#4) Laughter is a great medicine. Laughter releases endorphins, which flood your brain with happiness and get rid of the harmful cortisol that causes stress.

#5) Building social connections. When we build social alliances, our brain rewards us with oxytocin, which drives away harmful cortisol. If you’re feeling stressed, set up a time to go hang out with a good friend and just bond. Your brain will reward you with relieving stress. We’re also programmed to build social alliances, so the more opportunities we have


to spend time with people who are meaningful to us, the less stressed we will feel.

Conclusion

Hopefully by now you’ve seen that if you’re suffering from neck pain, there are simple solutions that can be helpful.

Intelligent people will find a way to build movement, activity, and stretching into a regular activity. Finding hobbies that involve movement, exercise, social interaction and flexibility training are a great choice.

Yoga, for example combines all of these things and helps with lowering stress, increasing flexibility and strength, increasing blood flow, etc. etc. Dancing is another fantastic activity that can be completely catered to your own unique abilities, pace, and desires.

If you have any further questions, comments, or results, feel free to share them at www.illuminationpublishinggroup.org/neck

And if you have 30 seconds, it would be HIGHLY appreciated if you would take time to fill out a few questions in a very brief survey here:

www.illuminationgrouppublishing.org/necksurvey


http://www.illuminationgrouppublishing.org/neckhelp

http://www.illuminationgrouppublishing.org/necksurvey

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