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

Simple Neck Exercises

Neck problems are very common with neck, head, upper back, shoulder and arm pain all possibly referred from the cervical spine discs, joints, ligaments and muscles. The cervical spine is a long column with a heavy weight (the head) balanced at one end, a process that demands good movements and strong muscular control to achieve effectively without pain. Neck pain is commonly secondary to poor posture over a long period of time such as working at an office desk or kitchen worktop, where the neck has to maintain one posture for much longer than is helpful.

It can be helpful to perform simple neck exercises every day to maintain the ranges of motion of all the cervical joints and other structures within normal limits. Different parts of the cervical spine are specialised for different movements and it is important to make sure that the specific movements for each joint are practised daily. The upper neck vertebrae are specialised for rotation as moving the head round to look at something is a very important ability, and there is a small amount of a nodding movement here also. Further down the neck the focus is more on forward and back movements functionally adapted for looking up and down.

Good and Bad Lumbar Posture

Good and bad lumbar posture has often been decided on grounds that are not sufficiently scientific and future recommendations need to be based on solid research. Early research on the effects of different spinal postures indicated that maintaining a lumbar lordosis reduced the pressures inside the disc nucleus. This seemed fine until it was realised that these pressures were being transferred to the rear disc walls and the facet joints. As the facet joints are known to be frequent causes of low back pain and the nucleus of the disc is not a source of pain the idea that a lordosis is desirable in all circumstances does not stand up to examination.

Overall having some flexion in the spine is better in static positions whilst a slight lordotic posture is better when walking. Too much flexion interferes with the ability of the muscles of the back to protect the spine, so a moderate position should be taken between too much flexion and too much extension. The benefits of slight flexion are mirrored in the typical habits of people in postures, such as crossing the legs or putting a leg up on something at a bar, both actions which increase the flexion of the lumbar spine.