Neck pain stretches and mobility exercises
Senior Physiotherapist, Founder and Director · Registered with the AHPRA (PHY0002060505)
Sports Rehabilitation · Musculoskeletal Problems · Sport Injuries · Neck pain, headaches, dizziness, jaw related neck pain
Kenny is a physiotherapist with over 18 years’ experience in musculoskeletal and sports rehabilitation. He has a focus on identifying the contributing factors behind pain and treating complex presentations including chronic spine pain, neck and headache disorders, jaw dysfunction, and persistent sports injuries. His approach combines manual therapy, dry needling, and active rehabilitation with strong emphasis on education and patient outcomes. He is also a GEMt dry needling teacher and demonstrator. As an endurance athlete with experience in marathons, Ironman, CrossFit, basketball, and ultra endurance events, he brings a performance athlete's perspective to rehabilitation and load management.
Last reviewed: 03 September 2025
In the above video, we will run you through a neck mobility program, targeted at increasing your movement during the early stages of neck pain.
1. Gentle range of motion exercises.
Standing up or sitting down, bringing your chin down towards your chest, then coming back up looking up towards the roof and then coming back down to eye level. Then, try to rotate across to the right and to the left. The last one is side bending or lateral flexion of the neck: taking your ear down towards the shoulder on the right hand side and then coming back again towards the other side. When you're performing these exercises we generally get you to do it for about 10 times per day and you really can't get enough of these; especially during those early stages of neck pain.
2. Upper trap stretch
For this one here, we have you sitting right on top of your right hand, reaching over your head with your left hand and gently pulling your left ear down towards that shoulder. Now as you're doing this exercise, you'll get a nice stretch through your upper trap muscle, that's exactly what we're looking for. You're going to hold this stretch for 30 seconds and repeat that three times.
Should you have any issues with these exercises, please feel free to come in and visit us at the clinic or give us a call.