Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Neck wrong at 3 movement planes (so all of them!) plus TMJ

K writes, "Basically, your neck is not moving in the correct planes.  Your head is too far forward on your neck (neck protraction), your neck is rotated to the right, your upper cervical spine is extended.  Your TMJ is symptomatic and your eyes are not tracking correctly.  We gave you increased ROM to your left shoulder as requested and this has led in part to your lack of stability elsewhere, the left side being the weaker side.  The fact that your lower body has held is a real breakthrough. 

We need to get neck in a neutrally stable position with eyes and TMJ working more efficiently before these neck symptoms ease.  We have succeeded in the past, but only with compromises.  Once TMJ was stable, things were better, but TMJ was only stable when neck was still protracted and extended, the rotational dysfunction had corrected.  We have never addressed eye tracking as this is totally new to me, but we will work it into our treatment plan.  Mid-scapular function has improved, but only when you concentrate on an exercise, when not 'exercising' your upper cervical spine extends and protracts.

You will have to work out the lesser of all the evils, stabilise/correct one component and work to modify another.  There will have to be undesirable compensations, but again, I will reassess how far 'wrong' these are and we progress.  Your pelvis and lumbar spine followed just the same path, but the ill effects were tight left ITB, neural left calf and left abdominal pain.  These were not as alarming for you as the neck symptoms you experience, but it is the same pattern of gradual correction
."

More work and exercises to do....!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

With abdominal exercises. Calorie control is important. Crunches can’t help much as well, crunches can tone abs or strengthen abdominal muscles but it can’t really help in losing belly fats.