Here are 5 Basic WB Exercises for cervical rapid responders.
As usual, all of your magic hands hocus pocus means nothing if the patient cannot keep the improvements between visits. Here are 5 ways to self treat the cervical spine.
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| start |
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| Don't think double chin, think triple chin! |
1) The Good Ole Chin Tuck
- for central or bilateral complaints
- headaches in to the frontal cranium
- bilateral neck pain radiating to upper traps
- end range is sternal elevation
- last year a little old lady asked me if this exercise would make her double chin worse
- I said, "I don't know, but at least it helps your headaches and neck pain."
- I saw her just this past summer for a completely different condition, the first thing she showed me was the lack of a double chin, she was so happy the chin tucks tightened everything up!
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| start |
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| cervical neutral, "yes sir!" |
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| Unilateral nod variation for right sided HA or upper cervical pain |
2) The Good Ole Chin Tuck Part 2
- For those who do not tolerate cervical retraction, possibly due to tighter upper cervical spine
- this works a bit better for headaches than retractions
- a variation for unilateral headaches is the same light nod with neutral cervical spine with a slight 5-10 deg rotation to the ipsilateral side of involvement
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| starting position, the retracting dead |
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| rotation with self overpressure to end range, rotate toward the pain |
3) Cervical retraction with rotation
- If the above unilateral nod variation does not work with upper cervical pain or unilateral HA, try this
- make sure to rotate but keep the contralateral shoulder from moving anteriorly too early
- this works very well to restore lost rotation or keep it after your manual techniques
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| stock starting photo... "brains...." |
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| end range overpressure to the painful/limited side, welcome to the gun show! |
4) Cervical retraction with sidebending overpressure
- it's the too simple to work for many upper quarter problems self treatment!
- as always, end range is key here, remember to slack the contralateral upper trap if needed by passively elevating the scapula
- try for any hand, forearm, elbow, shoulder, scapula, thoracic pain that is unilateral and not responding to traditional treatments
- better yet, try this first for any of the above to rule out cervical involvement
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| start, triple chin! |
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| finish, forehead parallel to ceiling |
5) Cervical retraction with extension
- a progression for improvement or plateau for central or bilateral complaints
- I do not give this one out too often in lieu of self generated overpressure into cervical retraction
- this may also work for Sx that are radiating to mid thoracic spine or scapula
- make sure they get to end range, which normally is forehead parallel to the ceiling!
- also check out this clinical pearl on this very technique!
Keeping it Eclectic!
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