Recent cross-sectional study between 20 people with neck pain & 20 people with no neck pain found that the first group tend to have “lower activity of scalene during flexion and extension, and a non-significant higher activity in sternocleidomastoids during rotation.” This occurs often during the end range of motion.
This contradicts the common belief that scalene muscles need to “relax” to alleviate pain. In some cases, people with neck pain need to strengthen the neck muscles (and perhaps shoulders, too) instead of stretching or other exercises to reduce muscle activity.
Conclusion: “In light of this, exercises that aim to minimise SA activity may not be appropriate treatment strategies for all patients with neck pain and different strategies may be required depending on the symptomatic presentation of the patient.
“Although not statistically significant, there was a tendency for increased activity in the contralateral SCM, especially at the end of RoM, which may be associated with pain or reflect a need for greater force i.e. increased muscle activity, to compensate for increased neck stiffness.
“We found no evidence of restricted RoM in participants with neck pain. Unlike joints in the body, movement associated pain in the neck is characterized by its appearance only as the neck approaches the end of RoM; this has implications for the study of neck pain and rehabilitation.”
High intensity training increases Achilles tendon thickness and growth, a recent Brazilian study found. Researchers used an isokinetic dynamometer for assisted ankle dorsiflexion and plantarflexion where subjects resist the pull of the machine eccentrically on each foot, targeting the triceps surae muscle. The study lasted 12 weeks with a total of 23 sessions.
While the authors stated, “Considering that tendinopathies and tendon ruptures produce tendon stiffness reduction, the proposed high-load triceps surae eccentric training program might be an effective and efficient tool to reestablish the Achilles tendon mechanical properties in these conditions, and even to prevent deterioration of the tendon to begin with,” tendinopathies could develop from overtraining and overstraining the tendon as well.
Future studies should include a low-intensity group to compare the effects between different intensities.
Restricted Neck Range of Motion Is Not Indicative of Presence or Absence of Neck Pain
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