Now march in place and move your head from side to side while moving your legs from side to side in order to pump more blood into the head and loosen the neck. If you have good balance, then as you move your legs up and down and move your head from side to side, massage your hands. Especially massage the place in the palm that is between the thumb and the second finger. If it’s hard for you to do three things at once (moving your head from side to side all the way gently and steadily, moving your legs up and down, and massaging your palm, all at the same time), then you can do two things. Massage your hand and move your head from side to side, or move your head from side to side and just move your legs up and down. Those are things that can help you to bring more blood flow and to calm your nervous system; don’t strain to do them.
After massaging your palm, and while moving your legs up and down, just simply move your head from side to side twenty or thirty times; then go indoors and palm for eight minutes. When you relax from the palming, you will have time to loosen up your neck.
Before doing neck exercises, determine how well your neck moves from side to side. Once you have an idea of the range of motion available to you, begin these exercises so that, at first, you stay within your comfortable range of motion. Gradually, this range of motion should increase over time. Also, with all these neck exercises, you should strive for fifteen to twenty repetitions on each side for each exercise.
Now lie on your back, bend your knees, stretch your arms, and look at one hand; let’s say the right hand. Take the left hand and bring it all the way to the right and, in fact, surpass it. Stay there for one deep breath. Keep your head looking at the right while bringing the left hand all the way to the left. The shoulder will then stretch in two ways. For one, it will stretch in the back muscles, the trapezius and the rhomboids, in order to bring the arm forward. The second time, when you bring your arm back to where it was, the pectoral muscles of the chest will stretch, and the chest muscles as well as the back muscles are directly connected to neck muscles.
Then move your head to the opposite side and do exactly the same exercise with your right hand reaching to the left. You can let your legs move after your arm if that’s what your body needs to do to complete the stretch. Repeat the exercise thirty-five times. Then move your head from side to side; 90 percent of people feel that the neck is looser when they do this exercise. Then put your hands behind your head and lift up your head without the neck helping you. Do this six or seven times. See if you can let go of your neck and just let your hands do the work. Then put one hand on your forehead and move your head from side to side, with your hand on your forehead and your neck loosening.
Figure 6.3. (a) Bend your knees, stretch out your arms, and turn to face your left hand. (b) Reach your right arm across to and past the left hand.
Another great exercise for the neck is to walk backward. Do that for 400 or 500 yards a day, every day. Look over your shoulder from time to time, which is also a great exercise to stretch your neck. At the same time, it’s good for you to work with a friend, at least once a week, although a few times a week is even better. While you lie on the floor, your friend will put his or her legs on your shoulders to hold you in place, put one hand cupped under your chin and the other cupped at the occipital bone, and gently pull, stretching and elongating your neck.
Another wonderful exercise for the neck is to sit on a chair, put your chin on your chest, and then slowly bend down until you touch the floor. Then straighten up with your legs first, and then with your whole back. Now do the same thing from a standing position. Bend over, putting your chin on your chest, and slowly bend down, vertebra by vertebra. Put your hand on the floor and, only after you do, sit on the chair while still bending. Then, keeping your chin on your chest and your hands on the floor, you straighten.
Next, if you do not have a tendency for retinal detachment, which many people with glaucoma do not, you can also sit cross-legged and move your whole body in a rotating motion. Sit on the floor with your legs crossed. Put your hands on your knees. Now bend forward and rotate your whole body in a broad circular motion, bending at the waist, rotating all the way around one way and then the other, feeling your spine elongate and your neck stretch. Go both directions: left, then right. Now put both hands on the right leg and lean forward so that your forehead touches your right knee. Lean forward, then straighten back up. Do this five times. Then put both hands on your left knee. Bend forward so your forehead touches your left knee, then straighten back up. Do this five times. Now bend at the waist and rotate your whole body again.
Figure 6.4. (a) Also sit cross-legged and move your whole body in a rotating motion. (b) Let the head roll loosely as your body rotates. (c) Make big, full circles with your body.
Next (as long as you don’t have retinal detachment), get down on all fours and put the crown of your head on the floor. Rotate your head to the left and to the right, keeping your forehead in contact with the floor. Go right and left slowly, gently breathing in and out. Now, keeping the crown of your head in contact with the floor, rotate your head in a circular motion on the floor. You might just feel your scalp coming to life! Move the crown of your head on the floor, in a rotating motion, breathing deeply and slowly. If this hurts, simply modify the pressure on your head by using your hands to support your weight. Go back to sitting cross-legged again and move your body once more in a rotating motion, bending at the waist. Take your time and breathe. Really feel how relaxed your neck is becoming.
Figure 6.5. Rotate your head to the left and to the right several times and then in a circular motion on the floor.
Next you will want to sit down on the floor with your back against a wall and your knees bent in front of you. If for any reason (i.e., a very large belly) you have a hard time bending your knees, sit cross-legged instead. Otherwise, bend your knees. If you want, you can put a small pillow behind the middle of your back, underneath the shoulders, to make it more comfortable.
First move your head all the way to the left so that you are stretching your neck muscles as you breathe deeply. Tap your fingers on the stretched muscles on the opposite side of your neck. Massage the neck muscles with your thumb and fingers. Now turn your head in the other direction, stretching the other side of your neck, and do the same thing on the opposite side, tapping the stretched muscles with your fingers and then massaging that side of the neck with your thumb and fingers.
Figure 6.6. Tap your fingers on the stretched muscles on the opposite side of your neck.
After several repetitions on both sides, interlace your fingers underneath your knees and bend forward so your forehead touches your knees about twenty times, which loosens up the middle of your back.
Put your hands on your knees and push your legs to one side and then the other, using only the strength of your hands, not your legs. Push your knees to the left and then to the right. You will feel yourself starting to scoot forward and to slip down on the wall; that’s okay. Just pause and scoot yourself back up into the seated position with which you had started. Start over again from the beginning, turning your head from side to side. You may find that your neck is much looser now.
Figure 6.7. Turn your head from side to side.