How to Massage a Stiff Neck

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Sundae with Natural Sundae, and I'm going to show you a way to massage away a stiff neck. I'm going to give you two of my special moves. Now the first thing I like to do, is I like to place a hot pack on the neck of the client, because it's a really nice way to relax the tissue, and honestly, it makes my job easier. So the hot packs been on a couple minutes. I'm going to remove it. What I'm going to do is I'm just going to start with some nice, relaxing moves. Pushing the shoulders down and relaxing them. You're going to just push them down, you can do this together, or in alternate movements. Going over the shoulders and back up to the neck. One more time, down the shoulders and up the neck. Now, one of the moves I have is kind of funny...it's..I call the lawnmower, because it emulates the...the...what you do when you pull a lawnmower string. What you're going to do is, you're going to take this part of your forearm on this part of the client, right here. Let me get some oil, a little bit on my forearm, and you're going to just gently press and use your body weight all the way down. Now, I know this looks like your shoulder, but underneath there is the main culprit when you have a stiff neck. It's your neck muscle, and it's called your levator scapula. And it's used to elevate your scapula. And you actually use this muscle for almost everything. And it's the muscle that gets sore when you can't turn your neck to the side. So you're going to do your lawnmower. And what you're going to do is, you're going to rotate your palm down. You're going to use this part, right on the thick part....meaty part of their shoulder, and you're going to go all the way down. You're going to do this a couple times, rotating that palm down, like you're pulling a lawnmower string. One more time. Go up the neck right there, and then we're going to repeat this on the other side using this part of your forearm on the meaty part of their shoulder. Rotating the palm down. There we go, relaxing the shoulders down, and going up the neck. Then my second move will actually...really don't have a name for it, but....I use my fists, and I put them right here, right in the neck, right in the crevice. And I rotate my fists up the neck and over the shoulders. This is really good for relaxing all the muscles in the neck. You're kneading and loosening those muscles, as well as the shoulder muscles. You're coming down over the shoulders, up the neck, and rotating those fists. And those are two really great moves for a stiff neck. I hope you've learned a little something. I'm Sundae with Natural Sundae."