5 Simple Exercises For Spondylitis

Spondylitis is one of those dragging and nagging pains that happen in the neck and when left unattended / untreated for a while, can actually become your constant pain in the posterior. If bad roads have spared you the risk of developing the condition, bad posture is always up and about to give you what you fortunately missed. If bad posture is not your style, then perhaps bad sleeping posture could take its toll. For all you know, there is very little that you can do for the sake of your posture when you are sleeping.

At the same time, these days you can never be too careful about the mattresses and pillows to prop the length of your spine. Too soft or too rigid, too high or just too low can take and equal toll on your neck. The bad news usually comes when you diagnose yourself too late and thus, have to tread the difficult line of medications and treatments. On the brighter side, if you are aware of developing pains in its initial stages, it may only take a few good exercises to relieve your pain while strengthening your neck to prevent easy deterioration of the same.

Here are 5 of the very basic and highly effective exercises that you can perform on a daily basis to counter the early stages of cervical Spondylitis…

Neck Extension with Pressure – In this exercise, you will have to place your palms at the base of your skull and apply forward pressure slowly and steadily. At the same time, your head will have to resist this pressure backwards. Apply pressure for about 5 seconds and then release. Repeat up to 8 counts. This is a great exercise to strengthen your neck muscles.

Side Bends with Pressure – For this, you will have to place your palms at the side of your head, just above the ears and apply pressure gently. Your head at the same time will have to counter the pressure just as gently. This neck strengthening exercise has to be repeated on both sides of the head equally.

Neck Extension Movements – Here, you need to bend your neck in front so that your chin almost touches the beginning of your sternum. Then, gently roll your head back so that you feel a complete stretch from your chin to the base of your throat. Repeat at least 8 times.

Neck Rotation – Keeping your shoulders straight, turn your head to the right then tilt your ears to towards your right shoulder. Then turn to the left in a smooth uniform motion and repeat the tilting movement. Do not however, try to rotate your head while tilting. This can cause strain on your neck.

Yoga Postures – Besides these exercises, you can also try a number of yoga postures that are instrumental in relieving neck pains. Postures like the Serpent raising its hood and boat posture can help tremendously. However, you will have to ensure that you don’t attempt any of these postures without professional guidance.