[headline style=”1″ align=”center” headline_tag=”h2″]The 3 Things You’ll Need To Master….

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Manual therapy often times gets a bad rap because it is taught incorrectly or done poorly. This is especially common in the mid-cervical spine.

Here are the most common mistakes clinicians make when mobilizing the mid-cervical spine:

  1. Not Knowing the Biomechanics
  2. Improper Positioning of Hands
  3. Mobilizing In The Wrong Facet Plane

 

Now- lets take a look at each of these individually with review.

At the end I will show you a video of everything pieced together…

[headline style=”1″ align=”center” headline_tag=”h2″]Biomechanics of Mid-Cervical Spine

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When rotating your neck to the right, the right facet moves down and back while the the left facet moves up and forward at a 45 degree angle.

By the way, these are same mechanics for side bending 🙂

Meanwhile, for flexion the facets move up and forward bilaterally while extension they move down and back.

To see this in action be sure to watch the video at end of BLOG….

 

[headline style=”1″ align=”center” headline_tag=”h2″]Hand Positioning

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To ensure that you can mobilize the mid-cervical spine you need to ensure that you are actually on the articular pillar of the cervical spine.

Believe it or not, many students and even clinicians that have been practicing for some time struggle with this. You are not alone!

Again- see video below for full details 🙂

[headline style=”1″ align=”center” headline_tag=”h2″]Mobilizing In The Cervical Facet Plane

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Last but not least when mobilizing the hand that is providing the manipulation needs to be in the plane of the facet joint.

Since the facet joint’s of the cervical spine are primarily 45 degrees from the horizontal they need to mobilized in that same direction.

For instance, when up gliding on the left the mobilizing hand should aim for the right eye ball.

Conversely, when down gliding on the left the manipulating hand needs to aim for the right shoulder.

 

[headline style=”1″ align=”center” headline_tag=”h2″]Putting It All Together…

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