A military neck occurs when the cervical spine straightens out. There is little curve or no curve at all. Also known as hypolordosis of the cervical curve or a cervical kyphosis. Can you change this curvature in your neck? YES you can. Keep in mind, it takes time. The great thing is that it can immensely help neck pain symptoms as well.
For many patients, it occurs after years and years of bad posture, a whiplash type of accident, and improper sleeping habits. It can cause muscles spasms, stiff neck, neck pain and headaches. More severe type of symptoms can be numbness and tingling, weakness and shooting pains.
Neck Traction is a great way to get the curve back in your neck. You may have tried neck traction in your chiropractors, or physical therapists office, and it may offered you relief of your symptoms. Neck traction is also a great way to train the cervical spine to help get the curve back in your neck.
Start by just using a towel roll to help stretch out your neck. This costs you nothing, and helps your muscles get used to this pulling type of motion.
Using a Towel Roll is the First Step in Doing Neck Traction
Second, get a gentle traction unit such as the omni cervical relief pillow (its not really a pillow) or the cervipedic neck support. Both of these units that I have mentioned basically cradle your neck in a comfortable type of foam. Your head and skull lay comfortably while your neck is being stretched. This is used by a lot of health practitioners in their offices to help patients stretch their necks out.
Third, get a traction unit such as the posture pump or the pronex pneumatic traction unit, which gives you a greater stretch that you can control.
Doing neck traction too quickly can create a lot of soreness. Frankly many patients get turned off because they decide to do a lot of stretching all at once which can cause a lot of pain and headaches.
If you start off with a towel roll, you can really start to notice a change in your symptoms. Do this for a few weeks. Little by little, start using a device like the omni or cervi pedic. Use this for a few weeks. Then move to a posture pump type of traction unit. Once you start with the posture pump, build up to using greater pressure. Again, its not an overnight thing - do this over a few months of time. Work up to 20-25 minutes to neck traction.
Not only will you feel better, but you will also notice a change in your actual spine.
Additional Reading:
- How to Use a Posture Pump Easily At Home
- Another Gentle way to do Traction: With a Pillow
- Choosing the Best Cervical Traction Device
- 5 Products You Can Use toe Stretch Your Neck for Pain Relief
- Neck Pain That Results from a C5, C6, C7, or C8 radiculopathy
