In this post, we go over one of the staples of Mckenzie method treatment for neck pain - the retraction and extension exercise. This, combined with chiropractic and manual therapy, helps resolve many neck problems quickly.
If you've followed our social media or blog, you've probably saw us write about the "McKenzie Method," "Mechanical Diagnosis and therapy," or "MDT." You've probably thought to yourself "What the heck is that?"
If you want to know what the McKenzie institute says, you can go here. In our own words, the McKenzie method is an approach to Low back, neck, and joint pain that stresses a thorough assessment to classify pain syndromes so that clinicians can educate patients how to manage and abolish their pain on their own.
So, that's it in a nutshell: Teaching patients what pain really is and how to get rid of it. But if you want to know more, read on to hear what the McKenzie method is and why we utilize it with every patient who has a problem with Low back pain, neck pain, or joint pains.
Why is it called Mckenzie? Well, it was started by a therapist in New Zealand named Robin Mckenzie. As the legend goes, he had a patient named "Mr. Smith" back in the 50's suffering from low back pain radiating into his leg, a common symptom known as sciatica. He was double booked, and asked "Mr. Smith" to go lie on his stomach on a table in his next open room. Unbeknownst to him, the table in that room was folded up to support someone sitting upright. When he walked in and saw Mr. lying on his stomach folded up into a backbend, he initially thought to himself that he would be in trouble as this was traditionally thought of as a bad position for your back. To his surprise, Mr. Smith told McKenzie that after lying that way, he felt the best he had in weeks and his leg pain was gone completely. Robin used this experience to start experimenting with postions, repeated movements, and discovered most back problems can resolve rapidly by adopting a simple movement or posture regimen.
Now that's a fun story, but it doesn't explain ALL the benefits of the McKenzie Method. So, let's go over some of the reasons why it's the first tool for solving back pain in our office.
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