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

Simple Neck Exercises . Two

Performing routine simple neck exercises every day fulfils a number of functions. It moves the joints through their normal ranges of movement and to the ends of the movement each time, an area where movement can be easily lost without us being aware of it. Movement also stretches out and maintains the length of the annulus of the cervical discs, pulling on the collagen and cartilage fibres of the disc walls. Muscles normally shorten when they are contracting and moving the joints of our bodies and if they are called upon to contract a lot in a particular position they can become more permanently shortened.

Range of movement exercises fully in the opposite direction can stretch out over tight muscles and allow them and the joints to return to more appropriate postural positions as part of a therapy programme. Since much of the use of the neck muscles is to maintain static posture of the head and shoulder area this exposes the head and neck area to long periods in poor positions with unhelpful patterns of muscle contraction. Neck exercises can be done routinely such as three times a day for a certain period or can be done regularly throughout the day to correct poor posture.

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.