7 Days to a Better Neck

Back pain and sciatica belong to your lower-body system; your shoulders, neck, and headaches belong to your upper-body system. There is some crossover, but doing both at once is usually too much — so pick the one bothering you most and start there.

If back pain or sciatica is your main problem, start with 7 Days to a Better Back. That program tests the lower-body chain and often picks up factors contributing to your neck pain along the way.

If shoulder pain is your primary complaint, start right here. This program already tests and helps resolve the shoulder-system problems that feed shoulder pain, neck pain, and headaches alike — which is exactly why there is no separate shoulder program.

If neck pain or headaches are what limit you most, start here too. This program tests the whole shoulder–neck–head chain, including the shoulder-blade contributors most approaches miss.

Often, yes — in fact, this is where the whole approach began for me. I first discovered it while treating a migraine sufferer who had endured years of pain after an auto accident. Neck involvement and headaches travel together for most people: in one international study of more than 51,000 people, 68% of migraine sufferers reported neck pain during their attacks, and neck pain is present in the large majority of people with tension-type and mixed headaches.

This program does not treat the headache directly. It addresses the excessive loading on the head and neck — driven by the levator scapulae and the shoulder system. For many people, calming that down changes the headaches too. It is not a substitute for medical care for migraine; if you have new, severe, or changing headaches, see your physician.

Those treat the site of the pain — the tight muscle, the stiff joint. This program addresses why that site is under enough stress to hurt in the first place. Most people who have done previous therapies find something genuinely new here — because this program tests the shoulder-blade mechanics and the levator scapulae that nobody else has been looking for.

You may have real changes on your scan. But disc bulging and degeneration are extremely common findings in people with no pain at all — they show up in the majority of pain-free adults on cervical MRI. So the finding on the scan is often not what is making your neck painful.

What is usually making it painful is the loading — how the upper neck is being pulled and compressed every hour of the day. Addressing the shoulder system and the levator scapulae changes that loading, which often changes the pain, regardless of what shows up on the MRI. If you have signs of nerve compression — progressive weakness, numbness, or coordination changes — check with your physician before starting.

Yes. The assessment identifies what is likely creating that pain — which often is not the site of the pain itself. If it were, simply massaging that spot would calm it down for good. Because it doesn't, something else that no one has addressed is continually stressing that area — and it is often the shoulder-blade system. The location of your pain is a clue, not the diagnosis.

Probably. The fact that you are reading this page at all means the chin tucks and posture training are not addressing the primary problem behind your pain — so this program will likely offer you something new, and that is exactly the point. Chin tucks strengthen a few muscles. They do not resolve a levator scapulae that is being pulled tight by a shoulder blade that is not tracking correctly. Posture work and real shoulder-system mechanics are not the same thing.

The habit recommendations take no extra time — they ask you to do your normal things differently, in a way that reduces the load on your neck every hour of every day.

The exercises typically involve up to 5 movements that take about 1 to 2 minutes each. Once a day is fine — but 3 to 5 times a day in the first week gets faster results. Most people see a significant change when they do.

Yes. The program runs in any web browser on any device — phone, tablet, or computer. No downloads, no apps, no accounts to create. If you can watch a YouTube video, you can use this program.

YouTube videos give everyone the same exercises — because they are based on the site that hurts, not on why that site hurts. This program gives you the assessment first, then builds your plan around what it finds.

The difference is the same as the difference between a prescription and a pharmacy shelf. One is for you. The other is for everyone.

For most people who complete the assessment and follow their plan consistently, it works. But if you give it 7 days and do not feel this approach is genuinely different from anything you have tried before — email support@rickolderman.com for a full refund. No questions asked.