Neck Pain & How Physiotherapy Can Help

Neck pain is very common is today’s society and people regularly attend physiotherapy to help resolve this pain. This article will explain what we do and how we do it at ReSync Physiotherapy by using an example of a patient that was treated in the clinic.

We treat people differently than other physio’s.

We find the source of the problem not just the symptoms of the problem.

I had a very interesting patient the other day who had woken up with neck pain 2 months ago and had been managing the pain with painkillers when it was bad. She reported it flaring up every few weeks but never regained full movement in her neck, especially rotation. She  was also guilty of placing all her weight on the left leg when standing still.

WE ASSESS DIFFERENTLY

At ReSync Physio we assess the entire body to see how the muscles are interacting with each other. Your muscles work in pairs called agonists and antagonists. Think of bicep and triceps, the bicep bends the elbow and the tricep straightens the elbow. By tests muscle pairs and testing systems of muscles through functional patterning we get a good idea of what muscle or system is not working. Check out our blog on Functional Patterns  to learn more.

So once I assessed her, I found a muscle in the right side of her neck, that connects her collar bone to just behind her ear (Sternocleidomastoid), was over working for a weak bum (Glute) muscle. All on the same side.

If you look at the picture below, of the Lateral Line, you will see the muscle in the neck is part of this Lateral Line which works as a system. All the muscles in that line are connected by fascia. Fascia has a high density of nerve endings that allow our muscles to communicate with each other so they can function as one system.

I released the neck muscle and fired up her gluteal muscle. This along with some minor joint mobilisations, really made a difference. Her pain was gone, she felt much less tension and had regained full rotation.

Her homework for the week was to gentle release that muscles and then do some glute exercises twice a day.

ReSync Physio assess the underlying cause of the problem.

We don’t just treat the symptoms.