Welcome back iMove PT community! Our last blog talked all about the why behind neck pain. Now that you have a better understanding of the cause of your neck pain, it is time to talk about just how our therapists treat that nagging neck pain.
The Initial Evaluation
I can’t even begin to tell you how many times during my career as a physical therapist a friend or family member has said to me “My neck is hurting, can you just give me a few exercises to do.” My answer is always the same…”I can’t give you exercises as I don’t know why your neck is hurting.”
High-quality physical therapy always starts with a thorough and detailed evaluation. This serves as the framework for all of our treatment. Put another way, it is the foundation of our house. How could we possibly perform any treatment or prescribe any treatment without knowing the problem (or problems) that is causing your neck pain in the first place?
So friends or family out there…please don’t ask for exercises to help your neck pain! Schedule an initial evaluation with iMove PT so the foundation can be laid. Ok, ok, ok, enough about that!
Now the fun part, let’s talk about what we do to help you with that persistent neck pain!
Manual Physical Therapy
A big part of iMove PT’s treatment of any physical issue is the use of manual physical therapy. Patients all the time say “You mean we are going to do more than just exercise?!”
Manual physical therapy is the skillful use of hands-on treatment to decrease pain and improve mobility of the area we are treating. This hands-on treatment consists of specific soft tissue treatment and mobilization of joints.
Let’s use a story of a recent patient of ours to better clarify what I am talking about. To prevent the HIPAA police from showing up at my door, we will say our patient is Mary Jo. Mary Jo is a very active and healthy 70-year-old who unfortunately 3 years ago was in a car accident where her car was rear-ended while at a stop sign. Since her car accident, Mary Jo’s life has been greatly affected. The simple pleasures of life, like moving her head and neck without pain, are now gone. Towards the end of her day her head now feels heavy. Her chronic pain is now controlling her life.
Shortly after the car accident, Mary Jo began to have neck pain. Our brain is very smart. Immediately our brain picks up on the pain and says…”Whoa Mary Jo, if you move your neck too much you will hurt yourself.” While this may be good for a day or two, when lack of movement continues, muscles of the neck will become weak and joints of the neck will become stiff.
This is where the iMove PT physical therapist swoops onto the scene to perform gentle, skillful, and specific hands-on treatment to decrease the stiffness of the muscles and joints of the neck and to improve the overall mobility of the neck.
Once the muscles and joints of the neck (and in any part of the body!) can do what they are supposed to do great things happen! The nerves that send signals to this area start working beautifully again. This allows the muscles to contract at the right time to support that 10-12 pound bowling that sits on top of your shoulders (your head!). This allows renewed blood flow to an area that needs to get rid of inflammation and bring fresh blood supply to allow healing to occur.
Wow, can you believe all this can happen with the hands of your iMove PT physical therapist?! Mary Jo believes it! And you will too!
Specific Therapeutic Exercise
Mary Jo’s neck deserved specific exercises. By the time we arrived at her house, her neck muscles had lost blood flow, endurance, strength, and posture. Just throwing a couple of general exercises at Mary Jo would not have done justice to her neck’s weakened state.
Initially, we started with very gentle neck range of motion exercises to her neck and upper back. No need to worry about getting her neck “stronger” until we regained most of the range of motion back in her neck. Think about it…what if you have the strongest bicep muscle in the world but for some reason, your elbow had become so stiff it couldn’t bend. Well, that wouldn’t serve you well!
Once we regained most of her range of motion and the pain was decreased, we started with some very lightweight neck exercises utilizing an amazing pulley system called the Therapulley. Many of the neck muscles are very small and quite honestly just can’t handle the significant weight. iMove PT therapists bring the Therapulley into our patient’s homes to take care of this. We can start at ¼ pound and move up from there to properly rehabilitate the neck.
Using the Therapulley to work many different types of motion allowed Mary Jo to have more control over her head and neck, develop muscle endurance (remember the 10-12 pound bowling bowl must be supported all day by these tiny muscles!), and gave her confidence to regain her life. One problem Mary Jo had was looking to her right while driving her car.
The exercise to improve her ability to rotate her head (Neck Rotation Exercise) was one we started with Mary Jo, beginning with extremely lightweight and many repetitions. As time progressed and Mary Jo’s neck became less painful and more mobile, the weight increased and the repetitions decreased to build more of the muscle strength and power.
Mary Jo, seeing the value of the Therapulley, then purchased one for home use. She felt confident using this piece of equipment after her physical therapist spent one on one time with her learning how to use the pulley on her own.
Care Continues Beyond a Few Weeks
We can’t expect Mary Jo’s neck pain to be gone in 2 weeks. After all, she had been experiencing pain and loss of mobility for 3 years before her first iMove PT appointment. Let’s keep in mind that after any neck injury the soft tissues of the neck can take up to a year to fully heal.
Don’t worry, even though full healing can take up to a year, your pain will begin to decrease once the right treatment is applied. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that you won’t have days where the pain is still noticeable. However, with each passing week and month, you will notice less and less pain, more and more mobility, and more smiles on your face!
In order to make sure you have all the tools necessary for a successful outcome, your physical therapist will provide you with extensive education and a home exercise program utilizing the easy-to-use iMove PT app! Our personalized app will allow you to always have access to easy-to-follow videos and instructions to help you stay compliant with your home program.
Part of our education program involves sending you links to iMove PT videos to remind you of proper posture, good sleeping positions for people with neck pain, and a discussion of proper computer set up for your home office, just to name a few. We understand just telling our patients something one time only is not enough. All of us need frequent reminders before an activity becomes a habit!
One final part of our long-term neck program is our commitment to your long-term health and wellness. We do not look at you as a patient for your course of physical therapy. We look at you as part of the iMove PT community, a community that encourages long-term wellness!
Because of this, iMove PT offers many additional services to keep your body in peak physical condition long term. Check out our services to learn more about our additional health and wellness services.
Now that you have learned about the one-on-one neck treatments at iMove PT, reach out and let us know how we can help. Mary Jo tells everybody how happy she is that she made the initial phone call to iMove PT. No, she isn’t 100% pain-free, but she is back to doing nearly all of her daily physical activity! She is finally enjoying life again!
iMove PT will go where you are and will give you a full 60 minutes of the specialized iMove PT care you deserve, the care you should receive every single physical therapy session.
To start receiving physical therapy with iMove PT please contact us at 636.893.8312 or email us at info@imovephysicaltherapy.com. We look forward to you joining our community! Thank you for reading and as always…Stay Home Stay Strong!