Neck and shoulders

Neck and shoulder complaints are the most common thing desk workers describe, and the most commonly mistreated. The instinct is to stretch the part that hurts. Usually the part that hurts is the part that’s already overworked.

The pattern

Your head drifts toward the screen. The muscles at the back of your neck hold it there all day, so they get tired and sore. Meanwhile the muscles at the front of your neck, which should be helping, do nothing.

So stretching the back of your neck gives thirty seconds of relief to a muscle that isn’t tight - it’s fatigued. What it needs is for the front to start contributing.

Chin nods

Lie on your back, no pillow. Gently nod your chin toward your chest, as if agreeing with something, without lifting your head off the floor. You should feel effort in the front of your neck. Hold five seconds, ten reps.

This is unglamorous and it does more for a sore neck than any stretch.

Wall slides

Stand with your back to a wall, arms up in a goalpost shape, backs of the hands touching the wall. Slide your arms up while keeping contact, then back down. If your hands leave the wall or your lower back arches, you’ve found your current limit - work just inside it.

Ten slow reps. This addresses the overhead reach that pinches.

Thread the needle

On all fours, slide one arm underneath your body and across, letting your shoulder and upper back rotate toward the floor. Then reverse, reaching that arm up toward the ceiling and following it with your eyes.

Eight each side. This is the upper-back rotation a chair completely removes.

Doorway pec stretch

Forearm on a doorframe at shoulder height, step through gently. Twenty to thirty seconds each side. Do this one after the wall slides, not instead of them.

What to stop doing

Cranking your own neck for the click. It provides brief relief and it isn’t addressing the reason the neck is unhappy. If you feel the need to do it several times a day, that’s a signal to do more chin nods rather than more cracking.