Post by @drjoedamiani

🔥 Neck pain for 3+ months? Try moving your BODY instead of your HEAD! If traditional neck exercises keep aggravating your symptoms, changing how you introduce movement may help. 💡 It starts with the vestibulocollic reflex (VCR). The vestibulocollic reflex is an automatic response that helps stabilize your head in space when your body moves underneath it. Your inner-ear vestibular system detects movement and triggers neck muscles to help keep your head stable. So instead of: ❌ Head moving on body We flip it: ✅ Body moving underneath a relatively stable head 🔥 Why could this help with persistent neck pain? After months of pain, some people develop fear, guarding, and sensitivity around movements they associate with symptoms. Rather than immediately repeating an aggravating head movement, these exercises keep the head supported while introducing relative movement between the head, neck, and trunk in a different way. 🛠️ Try this progression: ✅ STEP 1: Ball behind your head Maintain gentle pressure into the ball while rotating your shoulders side to side. Then add controlled side-to-side shoulder shifts. ✅ STEP 2: Ball on the side Keep your head supported against the ball and repeat the rotation + side-bending movements with your body. ✅ STEP 3: Ball in front Maintain gentle forward pressure into the ball while repeating the same controlled body movements. ✅ STEP 4: Add instability Once those are comfortable, stand on an unstable surface and repeat the progression to increase the balance and stabilization challenge. The goal here is to give your nervous system a different, controlled way to experience neck movement, gradually build tolerance, and eventually work back toward comfortable head-on-body movement. Bird video credit: The Avian Reconditioning Center #NeckPain #ChronicNeckPain #VestibularRehab #NeckExercises #NeckMobility