Neck exercise 2
Neck Extension in Sitting
Extension means ward, as if you were looking bending backward, up at the sky. This exercise should always follow Exercise 1. Remain seated, repeat Exercise 1 a few times, then hold your head in the retracted position. Now you are ready to start Exercise 2.
Lift your chin up and tilt your head backward, as if you were looking up at the sky . As you do this, do not allow your neck to move forward. With your head tilted back as far as possible, repeatedly turn your nose just half an inch (about two centimeters) to the right and then to the left of the midline, all the time attempting to move your head and neck even farther backward. Once you have done this for a few seconds, return your head to the starting position. Again, each time you repeat this cycle of movements, make sure your neck is extended as far as possible.
This exercise can be used both in the treatment and prevention of neck pain. Exercise 2 is to be performed 10 times per session, and the sessions should be spread evenly six to eight times throughout the day. If your pain is too acute to tolerate Exercise 2, you should replace it with Exercise 3, Head Retraction in Lying.
Once you are fully practiced in Exercises 1 and 2 separately from one another, you can combine these two exercises successfully into one exercise.
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 activities. 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.
