Doing more prone exercises can prevent cervical spondylosis

The M-shaped exercise, crawling therapy, yoga exercises to stretch the neck... As the number of white-collar workers suffering from cervical spondylosis grows increasingly large, various health exercises and cervical exercises for preventing cervical spondylosis that are circulating on the Internet are becoming more and more popular among cervical patients. In this regard, He Erxing, chief of orthopedic surgery at the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College, pointed out that patients with cervical spondylosis should choose treatment methods based on the type of disease and the severity of the condition, and not just rely on daily "cervical exercises." When a person's body is in a prone position, the force that the neck needs to bear is dozens or even a hundred times that when standing. Therefore, doing more prone exercises can exercise the neck muscles and prevent cervical diseases.

Don’t randomly choose the “cervical spine exercises” that are popular on the Internet

He Erxing said that since cervical spondylosis has gradually become an "epidemic" among young people, there are also many kinds of "health exercises" and "cervical exercises" circulating on the Internet to prevent cervical spondylosis. Out of the "herd" mentality, many patients with cervical spondylosis nowadays often ignore their own condition and choose "self-treatment" at will - if the "M-shaped exercise" doesn't work, they change the pillow; if changing the pillow doesn't work, they try crawling therapy; if that doesn't work, they practice yoga... As a result, the condition becomes more and more serious.

"Nowadays, the Internet is well developed, and the mixed quality of online information has conveyed a lot of incorrect health knowledge to patients. And many patients only have a partial understanding of cervical spine diseases." He Erxing said, "The neck does not have other movement functions except support and rotation, so the human neck muscles are relatively weak, especially not suitable for excessive exercise and some violent movements. Therefore, some cervical spine exercises on the Internet teach people to shake their heads violently to increase flexibility, such as head shaking exercises, or turn the head too frequently, such as turning the head 360 degrees, or turning the head in a large range, such as the rice character exercise, which are all very inappropriate."

He Erxing specifically pointed out that many people now hope to alleviate cervical problems by practicing yoga, but patients with cervical spondylosis also need to be special when practicing yoga. Gentle and slow movements can indeed help relax the neck muscles, but the neck should not be stretched too much. Be aware of your limits. If you are not careful, the already damaged neck muscles will be worse.

Use a railing table to do push-ups

He Erxing said that to completely cure cervical spondylosis, we must first find out the cause and then prescribe the right medicine. Nowadays, many young people like to keep their heads down playing with their mobile phones and posting on Weibo on the subway, or lying on the bed playing with iPad and watching movies. These habits can easily lead to overuse of the neck muscles and cause pain.

"To prevent and treat mild cervical spondylosis, we must first do a good job of daily health care, such as promptly changing the habit of long-term bending over a desk, long-term reading with the head raised, or lying or half-lying in bed." He said, in addition, patients should also choose health care methods according to their own physical condition. Young and strong patients with good physical fitness can choose push-ups, breaststroke and other exercises to strengthen their neck muscles; patients with weaker physical fitness can choose half push-ups, that is, using railings, tables and other objects to perform push-ups at 45 to 60 degrees.

He Erxing introduced that when a person's body is in a prone position, the force that the neck needs to bear is dozens or even a hundred times that when standing, so doing more prone exercises can exercise the neck muscles and prevent cervical diseases.