Muscles

Lateral Neck Flexors

Exercises that target the lateral neck flexors, grouped by whether they stretch or strengthen it.

Content last reviewed: 2026-07-18

The lateral neck flexors are the muscles on the side of the neck (including the scalenes and parts of the sternocleidomastoid) that tilt the head toward the shoulder and stabilize the neck against sideways forces.

When they are tight or unbalanced side-to-side they can pull the head into a slight tilt and contribute to one-sided neck tension — common with habitual phone-cradling or an asymmetric workstation.

They respond to gentle side-bending stretches, evening out left-right differences, combined with deep-neck-flexor control. See the neck exercises.

Lateral Neck Flexors — anatomical illustration
Anatomical illustration derived from BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, licensed under CC BY-SA.

Stretch the lateral neck flexors

Strengthen the lateral neck flexors