Hey everyone, Dr. Roger Saias, your chiropractor for whiplash here at PA Pain & Rehab, in Philadelphia. In today’s video, I wanna go over two key stretches that we teach all of our patients here at PA Pain & Rehab.
So, as I’ve stated in numerous videos, bed rest after, especially a car accident, it’s not always the best advice. Now, sometimes you’re really injured, and you really do need to rest, but the sooner we can get your spine and the soft tissue moving, the better.
Chiropractic Care for Whiplash, Philadelphia, PA
We talked about, in the previous video, that chiropractic adjustments help put movement back into the joints of your spine, which will affect your nervous system, which will affect every system, including the muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
But to really stretch out those muscles, tendons, and ligaments, you need to stretch them out. So we try to teach our patients in the office, what they could be doing at home. It’s very important that patients continue on when they’re not in our office, because those patients that are proactive, that are stretching at home, that are really doing the things that we’re teaching them to do, get a much better outcome than those that don’t stretch.
I mean, hands down, the people that stretch at home and are regular with it, get much better results than patients who don’t. The spine is designed to move, so it’s not moving, we have to figure out different ways to get movement back into the joints that are stuck.
Chiropractic Whiplash Stretches, Philadelphia, PA
So one of the first strategies that we teach our patients is very simple. It’s gonna look so basic, you can’t even believe it’s a stretch, because it’s something that we do every single day, which is just turning your head, from one side to the other.
A nice, slow movement. We wanna try to grease the wheels, if you will. So the more stretching you do, it ultimately will keep increasing your mobility. So if you’re doing this stretch and you get to about right here and it hurts, and it’s exacerbating your symptoms, don’t push beyond that.
And in some cases, if you’re doing a stretch, and it’s causing symptoms you didn’t have before, discontinue altogether and seek professional advice.
So, again, you’re gonna go to the side and hold. You can hold for a couple of seconds, you can hold for as long as you want, but three to five seconds is pretty sufficient, and then you’re gonna
go to the other side.
And, again, the more you do this, the more mobility you’re gonna gain in the cervical region.
Chiropractic Stretch Techniques for Whiplash Philadelphia, PA
Now the other stretch we show is the upper trapezius stretch. So that’s gonna stretch this upper back muscle, and these muscles also tie into the neck and attached to every vertebrae in your neck.
Actually, the trapezius muscle attaches to your entire spine, but in this case, we wanna
focus on the upper region. So it’s a very, again, a very subtle, simple movement. You’re just going side-to-side. Nice, easy movement, slow, easy movement.
Again, it shouldn’t hurt. You may feel this opening up and you might feel a stretch in this area when you go to the right, and you’re gonna feel the stretch on the right when you go to the left.
Now, if you wanna increase the stretch, you could put your arm behind your back, take your hand and gently just pull. This is a little bit more advanced, so if you’re in a lot of pain, you really just wanna take it to a comfortable limit, which is just side-to-side.
Another thing you can do if you’re able, is simply just put your hands behind your back, which will anchor the shoulders down so that you’re not going to get this action when you go from one side.
Whiplash Injury Chiropractic Care in Philadelphia, PA
So if you’re trying to stretch, but your whole body’s moving, you’re not isolating the upper trapezius muscle. And, again, this is a muscle that is absolutely damaged, every single time in a whiplash injury.
So again, side-to-side, and side-to-side. Now, people often ask, “How often should you be stretching? How many repetitions should you do?” I am of the belief that most people don’t do any stretching, so if you just start out with 30 seconds here, a minute there, just getting into the habit, it’s all about the habit.
It’s about incorporating these stretches into your daily routine to help support the treatment that you’re receiving in the office. And this is treatment that you can do to yourself, outside the office, so that you can continue on the care when you’re not with us.
That’s what we’re trying to do. We wanna teach our patients what to do on their own without us, so that they get the best results they possibly can get.
Car Accident Chiropractic Care, Philadelphia, PA
So if you’re watching this video and you’ve been injured in a car accident, and you’re still feeling terrible and you still don’t have the mobility you think you should have, and only thing you’ve done is taken some over-the-counter pain relievers or muscle relaxers, or maybe you’ve slapped some ice on it or a heat pack, and you’re still nowhere, still not getting anywhere with your care, and you’re still experiencing symptoms from your accident, give our office a call, send us an email.
Let’s have a consultation and see if we can help you. You have absolutely nothing to lose in this matter and you have everything to gain. So I appreciate you watching this video and I hope this message finds you well.
If you have any questions about this video, drop us a line, send us a comment on this video, and I appreciate you and thank you for watching, and we’ll see you in the next video.
