How to do a Neck Stretch for Gymnastics

Video Transcript

"Hi. I'm Mandy Butler, on behalf of Expert Village, and I'm going to take you through a gymnastics class stretch and warm-up. Now I'm going to stretch my neck. A lot of people forget to stretch their necks, and then they wonder why they're sore the next day after tumbling. So make sure you take those extra few seconds to really give your neck a good stretch. I start with my hands on my hips, and I look over my left shoulder to really stretch my neck. I hold that for twenty seconds, and then I reverse it and do the other direction. Then I look down. And this is all done very slowly. Whenever you're dealing with your neck, you don't want to rush it. You don't want to push it and go too fast. So I look down. And you may gently, with fingers, not your whole hand, push your neck forward and really stretch the back. Then, I look up at the ceiling. I'm going to put my ear to my shoulder. I tell my little ones to listen to their shoulder. You may gently push towards your shoulder. And I like to put my arm out straight and flex my wrist because that really streamlines the stretch, and I'm sure not to go too far to one side or the other. And then I'm going to switch it and slowly roll my neck around in both directions. And I'm going to shrug my shoulders and put them down. And now my neck is nice and stretched."