Neck Rotation
Overview
This is a neurological assessment, meaning that if your brain likes what you are doing or did immediately before this assessment, you performance will noticeably improve. In this case by allowing more pain-free range of motion.
This assessment is particularly useful because you can do it almost anywhere and in a number of positions. However, it is critical to be able to keep your shoulders from rotating and isn’t very useful if you can’t close one eye and keep the other one open. Try to find a location with some distinct visual landmarks on the wall or in the distance.
Preparation
- Find a spot on the floor that you can return to repeatedly and use tape, a floor board, a carpet stain, etc. to make sure you can return to the same spot and orientation for every assessment.
- Assume a body position you can repeat each time also
- Perform the assessment, rotating to just one side
- Move at moderate speed with minimal tension, until you reach a point where you can hold the position for at least 2 seconds.
- Note what is the limit of what you can see just past your noose – perhaps a landmark on the wall or in the distance.
- Do 2-3 more rotations until you are consistently seeing the same spot each time.
- Note: At this point, we’ve eliminated any assessment variation due to warm-up.
Baseline Assessment
- During this assessment, it is important not to rotate your shoulders at all.
You may want to use the floor, back of the chair or a wall as an anchoring point for your shoulder blades if it’s appropriate
Otherwise, just be mindful not to move your shoulder position
Close whichever eye is easiest for you
Keeping your chin level, rotate your neck toward the closed eye,
Your nose should be blocking a portion of your view with your open eye.
Look just past your nose and find a landmark in the distance
That is your assessment result.
Reassess
- Repeat the assessment rotating to the same side as your prior assessments.
- Note where you are pointing relative to your baseline assessment.
- Rotate more = Better
- Rotate less = Worse
- No change = Same
- Significantly more = Much better
- Significantly less = Much worse