Question
Hello Mr Leatherman first i wanna thank you for taking your time answering our questions inspite of your busy schedule. I am 25 yr old Male from india, a bodybuilder and My question to you is, I injured my neck in a weird accident when a guy weighing around 180lbs landed right on top of my head when i was comming out of the pool. the force at which he landed cud have easily snapped my neck into two. Only by gods grace am still alive. However it did distort something in my neck i had severe spasm for abt 2 weeks.i used (MYOSPAZ FORTE tablets) the spasm as gone down but i have pain at the right base of the skull where the neck muscle joins the base of the skull & in the left the pain in not in the neck part but down the neck deep inside the trapezius parallel to the shoulder and when i take a deep breath i can feel something give away like a pop sound at the upper back parallel to the shoulder blade..i also felt soreness at the back of both the shoulders n i can also hear poping sounds frm shoulders & elbows very often which wasnt usual. For the past few days i feel like its gettin better. the headache & dizziness has gone down..but still thr is some pain in the traps n the base of the skull..soreness in the shoulders has gone down but not completly... all i wanna know is
1)How serious is my injury ???
2)Can i use electronic muscle stimulation to strengthen my neck & trap muscles ?
3)How long should i wait to get back to my workout routine
4)Do u advice an specific exercise to strengthen my neck muscles

Answer
Dear Dino,

Your injury is a soft tissue injury to the musculature of the upper neck and back, along with a probable fixation of the joints in the upper cervical spine.  Therefore the injury does not seem serious in the nature of life threatening, but it can be very serious as far as spinal and nerve complications if the disks or nerve roots have been compromised in any way.

Electronic muscle stimulation is unlikely to strengthen the muscle of the upper neck and back unless it is utilized in a Russian Current format.  You can perform neuro-muscular stimulation and interferrential stimulation to improve mobility, increase blood flow and lymphatic drainage of the tissue which will help to alleviate inflammation as well.

If I were you, I would not doing any serious workouts until  you get the joints of the upper neck and back examined to include x-rays, and a possible MRI if testing warrants.  A chiropractic physician is the best doctor to perform this examination due to the specialized training we have in relation the movements and structure of the spine.

I have no specific advice concerning the musculature at this point, because you need to get an appropriate diagnostic opinion about the complete nature of the injury.  Compression injuries of the spine can be quite serious even without major pain.  this need to be evaluated first before you try to rehab the neck.  If there is an injury that goes untreated, the chance for further injury and accelerated degeneration of the spine is high.  Get to the doctor first, have the neck looked at closely to include functional orthopedic tests, and get treated first.  Then worry about rehabilitation and the return to normal workouts.  Good Luck Dino!

Respectfully,
Dr. J. Shawn Leatherman
www.suncoasthealthcare.net