Case history: watch out for five-year-olds
Ronnie, a Californian, plays lead guitar in a well-known rock band. He is 52. Due to an auto accident whiplash injury, he had a recurring neck condition that most of the time caused him no pain. Two physical therapists who had treated him had shown him the McKenzie exercises. One evening he was standing near his five-year-old daughter. She expressed her affection by giving him a hug. Unfortunately, she chose to do this by jumping up and grabbing him around the neck, briefly suspending her 45 pounds from that fragile body part.
The guitar player had immediate pain. That evening he tried the McKenzie exercises as he remembered them, plus rest, ibuprofen, and ice. All helped some, none helped enough.
The next day he went to his office, where he had a copy of the McKenzie exercises. He realized that he had forgotten all about Exercise 2, Neck Extension in Sitting. He marveled at how the small point of moving the head left and right about a half-inch from the midline permitted him to make his head go back farther and farther.
In the first session of this exercise, Ronnie’s pain was 70 percent better. He had improved so much that he could return to all his normal activ
ities. The next session brought the improvement to about 80 percent. The next day, he was about 90 percent better. All due to one exercise and to doing it exactly as McKenzie instructs patients to do it. Within two weeks, his symptoms were entirely gone.
