Daily Neck Care Routine for Singers

Why is neck care a priority for singers and how to actually look after your neck?

That’s what this video is about. I strongly believe neck care is a priority for all singers and here’s why.

Some 20 years ago well before I started singing and became a Voice Physio I had a patient who requested neck treatment because he was losing his voice.

I thought what? But I rolled with it and treated his neck and lo and behold his voice cleared up! I was intrigued.

Then after I became a Voice Physio I noticed that every single voice patients I have also had neck issues but not every patients with neck pain had voice issues. Interesting, but not surprising.

It’s not a surprise because your voice literally lives inside your neck so of course they can affect one another. It’s kind of like Batman and Robin when they ride together on the bike, whatever happens to Batman will affect Robin and vice versa.

So how does one look after the neck?

It’s very simple really, a happy and healthy neck needs good mobility and good strength and here is a demonstration of an easy daily neck care routine.

A friendly reminder that what you see on the internet may not be suitable for you, so if you’re unsure make sure you check with your own physio first.

I also have a bonus tip for you so make sure you stick around after the demo.

Mobility can be as simple as mindfully moving your neck five times in each direction of movement. Here I am slowly turning my neck to both sides, taking my ear to shoulder on both sides, taking chin to chest and looking up.

When we look up we want to make sure we are not hinging in the middle of the neck, we want to be lengthening up and take the ears behind the shoulders and only going as far as we have the strength to support the movement without collapsing and grinding the neck back up.

Pro tip: going through your range of movement helps you keep what movement you have, it also tells you your brain that these spaces are safe so your brain is less likely to freak out and lock you up when you turn too quickly for any reasons.

Strengthening the neck can begin with simple isometric exercises where you are pretend moving against the resistance of your own hand.

Here I am pretending to turn my neck to my left and gently resisting with my hand. I hold this for 5 seconds, rest for 5 seconds and do five times on both sides.

Then I pretend to tip my ear to my shoulder and gently resisting with my hand, 5 seconds on, 5 seconds rest, five times on each side.

Lastly I cup my hand at the base of my skull and gently tucked my chin in keeping my jaw and throat relaxed, hold for 5 seconds, rest for 5 seconds, and repeat five times.

And that’s it! A super easy starter routine for neck care and it only takes 5 to 6 minutes to do.

Here’s the bonus tip I promised.

One common reason singers have chronic neck tension is because their Breath Support is inadequate and they compensate with the neck when they sing.

Your Breath Support comes from your core which means the solution is to build a strong core so you don’t compensate with your neck when you sing.

How to build a strong core? You can check out my FREE mini course “Introduction to Breath Support” where I walk you through the first steps to developing effortless Breath Support, the link is in the description.

I’m Selina, a physio and a singer. I help singers build strong bodies to enhance their vocal efficiency and performance, if you like the sound of that make sure you subscribe.

And this playlist here has more videos I have made just for singers so make sure you check it out after you have grabbed your freebie.

Thank you for watching, until next time, Be Free In Your Movement.™