'The spine just wants to move': How to strengthen your neck

The modern world is a challenging place for necks. These five exercises will help you cope.

Sometimes it pays to consider the weight of the human head.

When you're sat or stood upright, the mechanical load that your head places on the neck is only about 12 pounds (5.4kg), says Anthony Ghosh, a NHS consultant spinal neurosurgeon at Queen's Hospital in London. This is not a problem.

But across the planet, billions of us are spending large portions of our day with our bodies hunched over. And as we stoop over our laptops and smartphones, we're radically changing the distribution of weight on our necks. 

In this uncomfortable, downward-looking position, the load the head places on the neck goes up to about 60 pounds (27.2kg), says Ghosh. "So, it's quite a lot of strain that your neck is trying to put up with."

In short, modern life is terrible for our necks. But there are five simple exercises you can try to keep your neck healthy and prevent problems down the line, whatever your age.

Some neck problems are a natural consequence of changes which play out across our musculoskeletal system as we age, resulting in diminishing elasticity and increasing stiffness within the neck's supportive tissues.

"Nobody above the age of 40 has a normal MRI scan when it comes to their spine," says Ghosh. "Everybody will have some worn discs, the cushions between vertebrae. The joints at the back of the neck also thicken up a little bit and get stiff."

Then there's the impact of technology. When we pore over electronic devices, we adopt a characteristic "flexed" posture. The upper back rounds into an exaggerated hunch or hump, and the chin and head push forward instead of aligning directly over the shoulders. This puts a large amount of strain on both the neck muscles and the vertebrae joints in the upper spine.

Anywhere between 60% and 80% of people will suffer from neck pain during their lifetime, with nearly 50% experiencing it as a frequent or recurring issue. These problems might begin with an increasing sense of stiffness and lack of mobility in your upper spine, followed by growing and persistent levels of discomfort.

Alarmingly, research suggests that neck and upper back-related problems are beginning to arise earlier in life. The prevalence of scoliosis has steadily increased in children and adolescents over the past three decades, for example. This medical condition involves developing an abnormal curvature of the spine, forcing the neck muscles to strain and compensate to keep the head level. 

But there is plenty that we can do to mitigate the onset of neck problems. Rather than investing in upper chairs or other ergonomic aids, Ghosh simply recommends moving more and ensuring that you take more breaks from looking at screens. "The spine just wants to move," he says. "It means that the circulation flows through it, and the muscles get more tone in them."

In particular, the below exercises can help loosen the joints,........

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