How We Fix Necks and Improve Posture

Neck pain is the second most common complaint that we work with. This is because many adults experience chronic neck pain from sustained poor posture and traumatic injuries. The majority of the cases that we see are due to poor posture, and not due to serious traumas like car accidents or falls (although we work with those patients too, just differently).

There are three main pain generators in the neck: The muscles, the joints, and the discs. Posture tends to affect the muscles and joints. Disc injuries need to be treated prior to correcting posture, see our previous post on disc decompression therapy. But why does posture lead to tight muscles and tender joints? The answer is biomechanics. When the head is centered about the body, the muscles do not have to do much to keep it upright, and the joints have a nice full range of motion. When we have poor posture, the muscles will be constantly active to stabilize the neck and this will lead to chronic tight and tender muscles.

Try this: Stick your head forward as far as you can. Now try to look left and right. Next, pull your head back over your body and look left and right. You'll see that you lose the ability to look left and right as your head goes forward. Let's take a look at how we evaluate posture here in our office.

We use a program called PostureScreen to digitally measure posture, and compare it after treatment to see the improvement. PostureScreen was recently tested by UCLA and found to be reliable and accurate ( source ). After a physical exam has been performed, we analyze posture. This let's us visualize where posture has broken down, so we can prescribe corrective exercises. But we take it one step further by analyzing the curvature of the spine with x-rays.

X-ray analysis gives critical information about the curvature of the neck. If you don't have an x-ray you only have half of the required information! There are two important factors when looking at the neck from the side. First, we want to minimize the amount of forward head carriage. A little bit is fine, but excessive amounts cause problems. Second, we want to ensure that the neck has a normal "lordotic" curve. This normal curve is represented by the green line in the image above. We can see that this patient has a reversed curve, called a "kyphotic" neck. After care, the patient's neck is not perfect, but we've improved the curvature substantially, and symptoms improved substantially as well.

Now that we have a detailed analysis, we can use adjustments, specific exercises, and spinal traction to correct posture and the curvature of the spine at the same time. Adjustments are great at improving range of motion and reducing pain. Unfortunately studies have shown that adjustments alone do not  change the shape of the spine. To do that, we need exercise and traction.

We use "mirror-image" exercises to correct poor posture towards normal. Let's say a patient had a head that was shifted to the left. Our simple exercise to correct that is by having them shift their head to the right. This sounds easy, but it can be tricky. Patients are used to their posture, and it feels unnatural to correct. By only performing the exercises in one direction, the body slowly moves towards being centered. This same concept applies to forward head carriage, we have patients retract their head. We use various methods to add resistance to these exercises, like the bands in the above image.

But our most effective treatment is spinal traction.

Spinal traction is a sustained stretch while the muscles are relaxed. It is very important to relax the muscles, since we are not trying to stretch them, we are trying to stretch ligaments that have slowly tightened over time and are holding the neck in poor posture. Ligaments are tough. They need to be held under tension for 10-20 minutes to make a measurable change in shape. We utilize a variety of methods to traction the spine, the most simple of which is the Denneroll. Dennerolls are specially shaped foam blocks that stretch the neck in the right areas without stretching the wrong areas. In the image above, you can see how the neck Denneroll works. You simply lie on the block, and it stretches the tight ligaments in the front of the spine. When used regularly, this can force the spine back into the normal and proper shape.

Spines that have proper alignment are less likely to have pain, and more importantly do not degenerate as fast. Improper curvature is what causes degeneration, its that simple.

We hope this has been helpful! We put posture in our name because we are passionate and serious about correcting it! Please give us a call if you think that you might be a candidate for this type of care.224-656-5778

We are located at:
6021 Washington St., Unit B
Gurnee, IL 60031