• Lean your head forward and to the left while using the ipsilateral arm to gently pull down; as seen in the image.

• Perform 5 repetitions, alternating between right and left sides while holding for 20-30 seconds.

• To gain a maximal stretch in the muscle, allow yourself to fully exhale into the stretch while continuing to keep strong intra-abdominal pressure.

• If, at any time, you feel neck pain or pain referral elsewhere, stop the stretches. These stretches should be performed prior to the strengthening exercises daily.

• Placing one hand at the back of your head and gazing straight ahead, tuck your chin to your throat while keeping your head pulled towards the ceiling to lengthen the spine.

• If this is difficult to execute, you may place one finger on your chin to help push it back until you are able to coordinate the movement.

• Perform deep diaphragmatic breathing as these reps are performed, maintaining strong intra-abdominal pressure.

• Try to avoid allowing your head to fall back into extension, avoid rolling your shoulders up towards your ears, and stop as soon as form begins to degrade or movements become painful.

• Perform 10 repetitions 8x daily.

Snapping scapula syndrome is defined as an audible or palpable clicking, grinding or crepitus noise of the scapula during movements which involve the scapulothoracic joint. It is often accompanied by a history of pain, discomfort, and weakness with overhead movements, possibly stemming from sport activities or overuse.

Symptoms of Snapping scapula syndrome may be insidious or due to a result of trauma or excessive grinding of the scapula and the thorax lying beneath. Pain is typically not reproducible with isometric movements, and the clicking/popping as well as pain tends to decrease when crossing the arm across the chest, allowing the scapula to lift from the rib cage,

• Sit or stand with your back straight.

• Drop your right ear toward your right shoulder, keeping your shoulders relaxed and down.

• Use your right hand to guide your head closer to your shoulder gently. Avoid pulling forcefully.

• Hold this stretch for 20-30 seconds while taking deep breaths, calming the body, and then slowly release.

Perform this 2-3 times daily, beginning in the morning for a week. If it increases the symptoms, back off or stop completely.

1. Sit upright in a chair with your shoulders relaxed.

2. Tilt your head to the right as much as possible, without pain.

3. Rotate your head to the left and tilt it backward slightly, as if you are looking at the ceiling over your left shoulder.

4. Use your right hand to stabilize your left collarbone by gently pressing down.

5. Ensure you are taking deep belly breaths as you are holding this stretch as you try to relax these muscles.

6. Hold this stretch for 20-30 seconds

Perform this 2-3 times daily, beginning in the morning for a week. If it increases the symptoms, back off or stop completely.

Adding strengthening exercises is just as important. Strengthening builds muscle control, endurance, and balance, preventing spasms and improving stability in the neck. It retrains weak or inhibited muscles to work properly, supporting better posture and reducing strain on cervical joints.

For torticollis, combining stretching and strengthening:

• Relaxes tight muscles while strengthening weak ones to restore balance.

• Improves neck mobility for more natural, pain-free movement.

• Supports posture and stability, reducing strain and preventing future issues.

Together, these strategies ease symptoms and promote long-term recovery.

• Sit upright with good posture, turn your head to the left as close as possible to 45 degrees, and gently press your fingertips against your forehead.

• Push your head forward against your fingertips, engaging the front of your neck, while your hands resist the motion. Avoid tilting or straining your head.

• Hold the contraction for 5-8 seconds, then release.

• Perform 2-3 sets of 8-10 repetitions on each side, ensuring smooth and controlled effort.

Perform this 1-2 times daily, if it increases your symptoms, back off in intensity or stop completely.

• Place your arms outstretched behind you, allowing your chest to open up.

• Keep your shoulders back and down.

• Lean forward with your whole body as a unit.

• Drop your pelvis down to increase the stretch in your chest.

• Repeat 5x twice daily.

• Wrap the towel around the base of your skull

• Look upwards towards the ceiling.

• Apply slight overpressure with the towel to pull your head into a stretch.

• Hold for 5-8 seconds while breathing deeply and controlled. Repeat

If this is uncomfortable, you can also lie prone and hang your head off a bed in a controlled, slow manner to also execute a stretch of the intrinsic cervical extensors.

• Lie face down with arms extended in front and legs straight, palms down.

• I Position: Lift arms straight in front, palms down, and lift chest slightly off the floor. Hold for 3–5 seconds.

• Y Position: Move arms to a 45-degree angle (forming a "Y") and lift chest and arms. Hold for 3–5 seconds.

• T Position: Move arms out to the sides (forming a "T") and lift chest and arms. Hold for 3–5 seconds.

• Perform 5–10 repetitions of the I-Y-T sequence.

• Keep core tight to protect your lower back.

• Move slowly and focus on activating the upper back muscles.

Doing this exercise with no weight, bands, or dumbbells is a great way to progress the exercise to strengthen the mid-lower back.

• Stand with your back against a wall. 

• Place your feet shoulder-width apart, about 1.5–2 feet from the wall. 

• Bend your knees slightly, keeping your knees behind your toes. 

• Lean your mid-back on the wall, flattening your lower back. 

• Tuck your chin in slightly and place the back of your head against the wall. 

• Move your shoulders away from your ears and down. 

• Place the backs of your hands and elbows against the wall, with your palms facing out. 

• Slowly raise your arms up the wall in a "W" pattern, keeping your body in contact with the wall. 

• Slowly lower your arms back to the starting position. 

• Repeat 8x three times daily.

Elbow Flares

1) Stand up nice and tall

2) Position Scapula in proper position by performing posterior tilt, retraction, and elevation movements

3) Place both hands on side of head with elbows facing forward, like shown in the picture.

4) Maintaining abdominal bracing and good standing posture, bring elbows back. Not allowing shoulders to tip forward.

5) Maintain contraction between shoulders blades and hold for 5 seconds.

6) Perform this exercise 10-20 times daily

This will allow the use of proper muscles during the exercise and improve strength

Chest Stretch

1) Find a comfortable area up against a wall or door frame.

2) Place forearm on door frame

3) With a split leg stance, lunge forward while maintaining forearm contact on door frame.

4) Focus on not arching lower back and keeping lower rib cage down by maintaining normal breathing using abdominal bracing technique

5) Stretch should focus on chest area

6) Hold stretch for 20-30 seconds 2-3 times daily

Perform the exercise to allow shoulder blade more movement and decrease pull on area.

1) Find a comfortable chair to sit

2) Slouch upper back as much as possible while focusing on bending back at the level of lower shoulder blade

3) Shrug shoulders up

4) Take a deep breath while maintaining slight abdominal bracing

5) Attempt to feel stretch in lower shoulder blade area

6) Hold for 20-30 second 2-3 times daily or as needed

This exercise will decrease pull on shoulder blade and increase mobility

Stretching the levator scapulae muscle allows for improvements in scapular mobility and reducing muscle tightness/hypertonicity that may be affecting the normal kinetics of the scapula leading to dysfunctional movement patterns. To avoid these effects, a levator scapulae stretch may prove beneficial

To perform

1. Get into position - start by standing or sitting with a straight spine, finding a neutral pelvis

2. Head tilt - identify the target side before gently tilting your head toward the opposite side, as if moving your ear closer to your shoulder

3. Rotate your head - turn your head further to the opposite side, looking over your shoulder in order to better isolate the muscle

4. Nose to armpit - slowly bring your nose toward your armpit on the same side. You should be able to feel a stretch along your neck and upper shoulder

5. Hold and breath - maintain this position for 20-30 seconds, focusing on breathing deeply through the belly to help muscles relax

6. Repeat on the other side - be sure to switch and repeat on the other side

Strengthening scapular stabilizers such as the rhomboids and middle trapezius may be beneficial due to their key role in scapular stability and controlled movement

In order to perform IYT's (aka WYTs) either lying prone or on a bench;

• Lie face down with arms extended in front and legs straight, palms down.

• I Position: Lift arms straight in front, palms down, and lift chest slightly off the floor. Hold for 3–5 seconds.

• Y Position: Move arms to a 45-degree angle (forming a "Y") and lift chest and arms. Hold for 3–5 seconds.

• T Position: Move arms out to the sides (forming a "T") and lift chest and arms. Hold for 3–5 seconds.

• Perform 5–10 repetitions of the I-Y-T sequence.

• Keep core tight to protect your lower back.

• Move slowly and focus on activating the upper back muscles.

  
  

This exercise can also be progressed to using resistance bands or weights to allow progressive overload for further strengthening

By activating and strengthening the serratus anterior, another key muscle for scapular stability and movement control, can also be beneficial for addressing poor scapular kinetics and may assist in reducing friction between the scapula and ribcage.

To Perform

1. Start by going on your hands and knees in a tabletop position, ensuring your hands are directly under your shoulders and knees underneath your hips. Find a neutral pelvis with a flat back and keep core engaged

2. Lockout elbows and without bending them, push your chest away from the floor. You should feel you shoulder blades move apart

3. Hold this position at the top before slowly allowing your chest to lower back down, bringing your shoulder blades back together.

4. Repeat this movement 10-15 times for 2-3 sets ensuring slow movements to activate the right muscles and maintain belly breathing

1) Hold child facing away from you in side lying position

2) Have left ear resting against your left forearm

3) Place forearm between child’s ear and left shoulder to help stretch tight muscles

4) Place right arm between child’s legs to support body

5) Grasp left shoulder with right hand

6) Use forearm as lever to left child’s head away from shoulder, allowing for side bending stretch

Perform this stretch on infant 4-5 times daily or for 30 seconds to help relieve tight muscles.

Chin tucks strengthen the deep neck flexors (longus colli and longus capitis), which help improve cervical stability and posture. In acute non-traumatic torticollis, these muscles can reduce compensatory overuse of the superficial neck muscles (like SCM and upper trapezius)

Performing -

• Lay on your back on a stable surface, prop the back of your head up on a towel

• Perform a chin tuck as if making a double chin and maintain chin tuck as you lift head 1 inch.

• Hold the chin tuck for 5 seconds, keeping the chin tucked as you lower head back down and then release chin tuck

• Focus on the deep neck flexors and try to keep superficial muscles as relaxed as possible

• Repeat this for 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions, 3x a day as tolerable

• Progress to performing from a flat surface once tolerable

1. Sit upright with a neutral spine, shoulders relaxed.

2. Slowly tilt your ear toward your shoulder on the less restricted side first, moving within a comfortable range. Hold for 2–3 seconds, then return to neutral.

3. Repeat on the more restricted side, only going to mild resistance without forcing the motion. Keep your shoulders level and avoid shrugging. Breathe deeply and keep your jaw relaxed.

4. Repeat 8–10 times per side. Stop if pain increases or if movement becomes strained.

This exercise helps improve neck mobility, reduce muscle tightness, and gently activate stabilizing muscles, providing relief of discomfort from acute non-traumatic torticollis.