Clinical Orthopedic Manual Therapy - Level 1 - Neck

Clinical Orthopedic Manual Therapy (COMT) for the Neck covers the major clinical

orthopedic assessment and treatment techniques for the neck. This course is a 2-day hands-on workshop.

Day one begins with orthopedic assessment for the common neuromusculoskeletal conditions of the neck. We then cover body mechanics for deep pressure for working the neck in supine, prone, side-lying, ¾ side-lying, and seated positions. With proper body mechanics, you will learn how the neck can be worked deeply with little effort. We also learn how to palpate and safely and effectively work the scalene muscles and longus musculature of the anterior neck.

Day two covers stretching, including arthrofascial stretching (AFS) techniques. We

begin with basic stretching for the functional muscle groups of the neck and then learn how to target each specific neck muscle with multiplane stretching. We then

cover advanced neural inhibition stretching techniques, including Contract Relax

(PNF/PIR), Agonist Contract (the basis for AIS), and Contract Relax Agonist Contract stretching techniques. Day two concludes with AFS (soft tissue Grade IV joint mobilization for manual therapists), including traction, for the cervical spine. AFS is the only effective means of stretching specific hypomobilities of the neck.

Clinical treatment strategy as well as precautions and contraindications are also

covered. These manual therapy skills will empower you to do effective clinical orthopedic work. Throughout this hands-on workshop, Dr. Joe Muscolino reinforces the underlying mechanisms for each of the assessment and treatment techniques,

encouraging critical reasoning skills.

Clinical Orthopedic Manual Therapy for the Neck is part of larger Clinical Orthopedic Manual Therapy (COMT) Certification. The other hands-on workshops in this series cover the low back/pelvis, upper extremity, lower extremity, and AFS.