Book Review: Treat Your Own Neck

The first 3 chapters are really helpful in understanding how the neck functions and moves. And Dr. McKenzie describes what movement or position may be causing the problems. Head position and posture will effect how the neck works. One of the goals of this method is to centralize pain. Problems coming from the neck may be felt not only in the neck and head but could also show up in the shoulder, shoulder blade, elbow, wrist and hand. Through practicing the simple exercise shown and described the goal is to centralize the pain to where it originates and then to help the neck heal.

The Exercises

There are 7 exercises that Dr. McKenzie shows. You will want to read the whole booklet before trying them. Several of the exercises are in pairs. After describing how to accomplish the exercises, a paragraph is given to describing what symptoms this pair of exercises helps and in what order to do the exercises. For example, if you are having neck pain or your neck is stiff, you start with exercises 1 and 2. If those are too difficult you move to exercises 3 and 4. After you do exercises 3 and 4 for several days, if the pain or stiffness improves, then you move back to exercises 1 and 2. If you can do exercise 1 and 2 at first, you may never do exercises 3 and 4. 

The main point of these exercises is to pull the head back into a neutral position and help the overstretched neck muscles return to their neutral position. This allows the vertebrae and discs in the neck to be in their proper alignment. These are gentle easy exercises that anyone can do.

Related to the Violin

What I found after reading Treat Your Own Neck and practicing these exercises was that my head is often too far forward. In daily life I found that looking at my phone, driving my car, working at the computer, reading a book, because my head is forward, my neck muscles work hard to hold my head all day long.  As I became more aware of my head and neck positioning throughout the day, when I picked up my violin I was more aware of where my head was in relation to my neck. While this may seem obvious, even a small degree of forward motion can make the neck muscles work extra. I was thinking of my head as being tall and sitting tall, but I was still tilting forward more than I needed to. Moving the violin back and my the weight of my head have helped me feel some of my neck muscles release. 

Because of exercises 1 and 2 have helped me feel the retraction of the neck muscles. Now as I play I work to balance my head on top of my shoulders rather than letting it rest forward on the violin. Things that moved or changed when I did this:

1. I sat taller in my chair. My ribs lifted up.

2. My stand needed to be raised a bit.

3. My violin balanced more on the clavicle bone.

Conclusion

You may or may not have neck pain, but I would recommend Treat  Your Own Neck for the reason that it help us develop good posture and postural awareness. And It aids us with our body mapping as instrumentalists. These can be used as preventative exercises. Or if you are experiencing pain they can help you heal as you learn to use your body how it was made to move and function. Statistics tell us that more and more people are playing in pain. Nike says that pain is “weakness leaving the body.” But I would say in violin playing, pain is not using your body correctly. The exercises have been tested by physical therapists around the world for over 3 decades. And they are simple and safe. There is nothing crazy that they have you doing with your neck. In fact at first I wondered if these small motions were doing any good. But I began to get some relief from the tingling and numbness. I would say that is a win!