The SCM stretch lengthens the long muscle on each side of your neck that runs from behind your ear down to your breastbone and collarbone (sternocleidomastoid, or SCM). Sitting in a chair, you hold the breastbone and collarbone down with one hand, tuck your chin, tilt your head away, turn it back toward the tight side and then ease it slightly backward. Physios often give it for a tight or sore feeling along the front and side of the neck.

How to do the scm stretch

Sit upright on a chair with a backrest, your feet flat on the floor and your back supported.
Take the hand on your tight side across your chest and lay it flat just below your collarbones, with the heel of the hand on your breastbone. That hand keeps the breastbone and collarbone anchored while the muscle lengthens.
Gently draw your chin in, as if making a small double chin, and keep that tuck for the rest of the stretch.
Tilt your head away from the tight side, ear toward the far shoulder, then turn your face toward the tight side.
Keeping the chin tucked, ease your head slightly backward until you feel a pull down the front of your neck. Hold, then come slowly back to the middle and relax before the next one.
For a little more stretch, the video shows the other hand reaching over the top of the head to guide it gently further away from the tight side and back. Add this only once the stretch without it feels comfortable and causes no dizziness. Let the hand rest there and steer, without tugging.

What you should feel

A stretch down the front and side of your neck, from just behind the ear toward your breastbone and collarbone.

Common mistakes

Letting the chin poke forward as you tip back. Keep the tuck so the movement stays small and controlled.
Dropping the head a long way back. A slight backward tilt is all this stretch needs.
Letting the hand on the chest slide away or the shoulder creep up, so the collarbone is no longer held down.
Yanking the head with the top hand instead of letting it rest and steer.

How often

Many programs use a 15 to 30 second hold, 2 to 3 times on the tight side, once or twice a day. Your physio will adjust this.

Stop and check with your physio if

You feel dizzy, faint or unsteady. Stop and get medical advice the same day. If you faint, it does not settle within a few minutes of sitting still, or you cannot stand or walk steadily, call emergency services.
Things look double, your vision suddenly blurs or goes, your speech slurs or becomes muddled, swallowing becomes hard, your face or lips go numb, one side of your face droops or one side of your body goes weak or numb, you suddenly become so dizzy or unsteady that you fall or cannot stand or walk, your legs suddenly give way but you do not black out (a drop attack), or you get a sudden severe headache. Stop and call emergency services, even if it goes away.
Tingling, numbness or pain travels down into your arm or hand, or the pull at the front of your neck turns sharp.

From the clinic

Do it in order: tuck, tilt, turn, and only then tip back a little. Without the tuck, the head tends to just hang backward and the muscle at the front hardly lengthens. If the tuck feels unfamiliar, practice the plain chin tuck on its own first. The scalene stretch works the neighboring muscles at the side of the neck.

Tipping the head back while it is turned is the part to take slowly. If a neck movement makes you dizzy, stop, sit still until it settles, and get medical advice the same day before you try again. After neck surgery or a broken bone in the neck, if you have been told the top of your neck is unstable, for example with rheumatoid arthritis, or if you have been told you have a problem with the blood vessels in your neck, check with your surgeon or physio before you start.

If your neck pain started after a recent car accident or fall, get it checked by a doctor or physio before you begin. Keep still and call emergency services if the pain came straight after a high-speed crash, a car that rolled over, being thrown from a vehicle, being hit by a vehicle while walking or cycling, a motorbike or quad bike accident, a horse riding accident, a diving injury or a fall from a height or down several stairs, or if you have numbness, tingling or weakness in an arm or leg. If you hit your head and were knocked out, cannot remember what happened, have had a headache ever since, are being sick, or take medicine that thins your blood other than aspirin on its own, go to an emergency department, and do not drive yourself.

If you have a condition that stiffens the spine, such as ankylosing spondylitis, new neck pain after even a minor fall, knock or jolt is an emergency: keep still and call emergency services if it started straight after the injury, or go to an emergency department straight away, without driving yourself, if it started later. See a doctor the same day, before any exercise, if you are 65 or over, have low bone density (osteoporosis) or have taken steroid tablets for a long time, if your neck pain is severe, if you cannot turn your head halfway toward each shoulder, or if it hurts when you press on the bony middle of the back of your neck. Having none of these does not rule out an injury.

Written and checked by the PocketPhysio editorial team. Last updated 2026-09-28.

This page is general education, not a diagnosis or a personal treatment plan. If you have pain, an injury or a health condition, see a physiotherapist or doctor before starting new exercises.

SCM stretch