Questions? Ready to start your project? Contact Us

12.10.2012

Rehabilitate The Head And Neck

 Looking At Degrees Of Freedom  

A man working out with Pendulum

Coupled cars pulled by a train engine have only one degree of freedom.  This limitation on the freedom to vary is because the positions of the cars behind the engine are constrained by the shape of the track.  The human head and neck has been portrayed in three dimensional mathematical models with degrees of freedom upwards of 50 degrees.  Modeling allows engineers to simulate a wide variety of situations regarding human movement and the effects of impacts upon the cranium.

The complexity of our structure is immense and mimicking our ability to move our head and neck is difficult even with a computer.  What makes modeling so difficult is that the number of muscles that generate the required force for a movement are far greater than necessary.  It is speculated that there is more musculature available for movement than degrees of freedom in the human head and neck.  Thus, there are infinite sets of muscle forces that can satisfy angular requirements and seemingly far greater than necessary.

Neck Cam

This means that our head and neck musculature has the ability to substitute if a muscle in a region is injured.  This is good and bad, good because if injured you have a tremendous capacity to quickly return to form, bad because injuries linger as we have the ability to substitute sets of muscle forces that can satisfy angular requirements.   Being able to perform movements efficiently if some tissue is damaged by using unaffected fibers may mislead doctors and trainers in diagnosing an injury.  Often these neck issues from trauma, once seemingly healed show up later, even years later.

It is imperative that once injured you rehabilitate the head and neck region.  Our ability to perform at high levels post injury is not always an indication that all is well.  It pays to keep strong and Get Strong.

A man working out with Pendulum

 

related

Manual Training Has Rules

In 1979 Manual Resistance was introduced at the National  Strength and Conditioning Convention. Weight training’s ability to enhance athletic performance had become accepted and coaches were beginning to be hired by major sports programs. Facilities everywhere were extremely limited or...

Powerful Hands

The hand is a complex anatomical system. This appendage is composed of twenty seven bones and fifteen joints. Having 30 degrees of rotational and translational freedom it’s able to grasp and apply force to objects of multivarious shapes and sizes....

Getting Back To Normal

The health practitioner’s return-to-play protocol after a concussion, whiplash, nerve or muscle trauma must contain a measurable strength component to restore each muscle to normalcy, redressing this tendency to substitute by the injured athlete.  The athlete, strength coach,  and/or trainer...