Physiotherapists in Harwich treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Simple Neck and Shoulder Girdle Exercises

Slow performance of the exercises is important, taking up to five seconds to get to the end of each individual direction of movement. The neck should be moved in each of the standard directions which are: turning the head left and right; side flexing left and right (ear down to same shoulder with face facing forward); bending head forward and back; tucking the head in (a bit like a chicken). It is important to do each movement separately so the maximum range is obtained as the ends of the movement are where the value is in exercising.

Shoulder movements are useful as they may be stiff or the shoulder girdle may not be moving well, and shoulder movements stress the neck to some extent. Shrugging shoulders and rolling them backwards are an example of this movements as are circling of the arms either backwards or forwards. Once the movements are easy then some auto-resisted neck strengthening can be performed with the neck being held in place as one of the hands tries to push it out of position. Holding this for about ten seconds forces the muscles to work hard to maintain the neck position.

Muscle

Human muscle is classified into three types, smooth, striated and cardiac. Striated or skeletal muscle is the type we think about when we consider muscle, allowing us to contract with force, maintain posture and produce movement. Muscle is well supplied with blood and also with nerve endings which are able to continuously monitor the stresses and strains through the tissue. Pain nerve endings are present mainly in the fibrous sheaths which surround the muscle. The muscle is structured in bundles of fibres, each surrounded by a fibrous sheath which join together at the ends into tendinous tissue on its way to attachment to bone.

Muscle fibres can be orientated in various directions which gives the muscles different abilities as contractile structures. If the fibres are arranged longitudinally along the muscle it tends to be longer and to be able to contract more in length terms, while muscles in different configurations such as the fibres on a feather can generate higher degrees of force. Higher forces may be required in muscles which have to work against gravity and move the weight of the body. Muscles have three different types of fibres, named Type 1, 2A and 2B, with different functions.