Name: Johnson Chiropractic
Address: USA

May 10, 2011

Your poor neck. It has to hold your head up all day long as you go about life in Richmond. The neck is like a golf tee holding up a 10 pound bowling ball. (The head weighs 8 to 12 pounds on average.) Sure the neck has muscles. It is designed quite well. But the neck muscles may be lazy or injured or out of shape. Tone up the neck muscles to get the most out of their design and prevent neck pain or alleviate the neck pain you have now. (Consider using our Neck Pain Symptom Analyzer to see what condition(s) may be complicating your neck pain as well.)

Neck Muscles Degenerate

No one thinks about the neck muscles until they don't work the way they are expected to work...well, no one except Johnson Chiropractic! We treat neck muscles carefully; Johnson Chiropractic does not take neck muscles for granted. If you suffer with an osteodegenerative spine, the anterior and posterior neck muscles are weaker. (1) If you suffer with chronic neck and head pain, fatty degeneration of the suboccipital neck muscles materializes. (2) Like anywhere else in the body, fatty tissue needs firming. For each new individual neck pain patient in Richmond Johnson Chiropractic sets a treatment plan that usually includes neck pain relief exercises. Johnson Chiropractic knows from spinal research literature that muscles degenerate just as spinal discs degenerate (3,4); fat actually replaces muscle (5). But the good news is that it doesn't take too much exercise to reverse muscle degeneration.

What Works in Treating Neck Pain? Exercise Ranks High.

In patients with non-specific neck pain, exercise improved patients 55% at discharge from care and 44% one year later. Poor outcome was predicted by pain-related medication intake in the short and long term and by catastrophizing in the long term. (6) In a study of office workers with non-specific neck pain, researchers compared exercise types. For prevention of non-specific neck pain, no singular exercise type was identified as being effective. For treating neck pain, strong evidence indicated the effectiveness of muscle strengthening and endurance exercises. For reducing neck pain disability, moderate evidence supported the use of muscle endurance exercise. (7) Therapies involving manual therapy and exercise are more effective than other alternative strategies for patients with neck pain. (8)

What Exercise is Good for Neck Muscle Strengthening?

In Richmond Johnson Chiropractic will work with you to determine the right neck exercise program. Simple neck exercises you can do anywhere require only your own hand-resistance. After your consultation with Johnson Chiropractic, do the neck pain relief strengthening exercises consistently and correctly to notice a difference.

For the neck pain patient who likes to work with equipment, simple headband resistance exercises are reported to increase neck muscle strength by 110%. (9)

In Richmond Discuss Neck Pain Relieving Exercise with Johnson Chiropractic

Whatever the neck exercise program, Johnson Chiropractic will show you how to exercise properly and check your progress toward improved neck muscle strength and neck muscle endurance. Be sure to discuss the neck pain exercises with Johnson Chiropractic first. Researchers wrote that too vigorous an exercise may aggravate rather than help low back pain patients.(10) That may apply to neck pain patients as well, so talk with us at your next appointment.

Contact Johnson Chiropractic to discuss your neck pain condition and set a neck pain relief exercise program that will benefit you most.

Click here for references to "Fatty" Neck Muscles? Yes! Tone them up.