Kung Fu Head & Neck Exercises

Video Transcript

"Hello, I'm Sifu Mallan with the Clearwater Kung Fu Center. This is my assistant, Melissa, and this is "Kung Fu For Health". So this warm up exercise is designed to go ahead and warm up your neck muscles. This will help release the tension in your shoulders and also help release the tension of your compressed vertebrae. This will allow the blood to flow easier to your brain. Bring your hands up to your waist. Now, keeping your shoulders relaxed, you're going to turn your head slowly to the left. Bring your head back to the center, and then slowly to the right. Now as you do this you want to maintain your shoulders pushing downward. Turn forward, back to your left. And you want to hold each position a few seconds. You want to make sure to move smoothly through these and not to jerk your head because it's very easy to pinch a nerve or to pull a muscle in your neck. So these are very important and you want to concentrate as you move, keeping your mouth closed, and remember to breathe. As you turn your head, (so if you stay in this position Melissa), you'll feel a little bit of tension on the opposite shoulder. You want to make sure to keep your mind here and kind of push the shoulder down, and you'll the stretching throughout the side of your neck. (Turn the opposite way as well). As you do this, you don't want your head to lean back, but to stay vertically this way. One more time from one side to the other, and forward. This is "Neck Warm Ups - Kung Fu For Health"."