Sections of my book: Maintaining Body Balance, Flexibility and Stability FREE TO DOWNLOAD (SEE A SMALL SAMPLE OF ONE OF THE CHAPTERS BELOW - NECK SELF-TREATMENT USING MET) Front Matter & Foreword FREE 1. The different forms of muscle energy technique FREE 2. Testing for shortness in muscles 3. Muscle energy techniques: treatment and self-treatment methods 4. Trigger points and their importance in pain control 5. Self-mobilization methods FREE 6. Strength plus endurance equals stability 7. Balance, agility and breathing 8. Introducing positional release technique and strain and counterstrain Exercise Cards FREE Index THE BOOK AS A WHOLE CAN BE PURCHASED BY GOING TO: leonchaitow/maintaining-body-balance-flexibility-stability-e-book-download/#sthash.7TWbGgxQ.dpuf MET self-treatment neck sequence MUSCLES INVOLVED Sternomastoid, scalenes, posterior cervicals, upper trapezius, semispinalis, longissimus, longus capitus, longus coli and other smaller muscles of the neck. These support and move the head and neck in various directions. ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS Headache, neck stiffness and pain. These muscles should be searched for trigger points which are often involved in referred pain and other symptoms related to the head, eyes and face (see Chapter 4). WHAT MIGHT STRESS THESE MUSCLES? Sleeping with the head and neck in an unsupported position. Reading a book or computing with your head and neck in a stressed position. Working with arms above your head. Carrying heavy or awkward loads. See the following tests in Chapter 2: functional tests 3, 5, 6; shortness tests 28, 30 MET POSITIONS AND METHODS • After each of the following six isometric exercises you should take your head/neck as far as is comfortable (that is, move it gently toward a new barrier). • If you are using RI, you should move the head/neck in the direction towards which you were isometrically pushing, in order to gain an increased range of motion, where stiffness was previously felt. • If you are utilizing the release of PIR, you should move the head/neck in the opposite direction to the isometric push, in order to gain an increased range of motion, where stiffness was previously felt. • Unlike the methods listed later in this chapter, for specific muscles, these six exercises are aimed at general mobility improvement. 1. MET (RI) to release side of neck muscles (sternomastoid, scalenes, upper trapezius) • Sit at a table with your elbows resting on it. • Tilt your head to the left (in this example), taking your ear toward your shoulder, as far as is comfortable. • Place a hand (left hand in this example) on the side of your head/face. • Stabilizing your head with your open hand, try to take your head further sideways against your hand – without any movement being allowed – using only about a quarter of the available strength in the muscles on the left side of your neck (see Fig. 3.1). • Hold this isometric contraction for 5–7 seconds. • Relax the effort, breathe in and out slowly and as you release your breath, ease your head further to the left. • Hold this new position for approximately 30 seconds before repeating the contraction one more time, using the same degree of effort. • This method uses RI to release the muscles on the right of the neck. You could equally well have placed your restraining hand on the right side of your neck (while the head/neck was tilted left) and introduced a contraction of the muscles on the right, in order to release these by PIR. • Perform the same isometric contraction but this time with the head/neck tilted to the right, restraining hand on the right (for RI effect) or left (for PIR effect), for the same length of time. Repeat this once. Pulsed MET. As an alternative to the MET methods described above you could introduce a series of rhythmic pulsations (20 in 10 seconds) against your firmly restraining hands, after which you should be able to take the area to a new barrier before repeating the process. This is pulsed MET, as described in Chapter 1. For more detail see the note at the end of the next method. .....and the chapter continues.......some chapters are free to download (or purchase whole book) leonchaitow/maintaining-body-balance-flexibility-stability-e-book-download/
Posted on: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 05:13:26 +0000
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