Therapeutic Exercises After Cervical Fusion

The University of Maryland's Spine Program released a report in 2003 that said most neck pain is due to the wearing down of the intervertebral discs of the cervical spine and the joints between each vertebra. Cervical fusions are when problem-causing vertebrae are taken out and new vertebrae are fused together. While this alleviates a lot of pain and eases mobility, specific exercises and physical therapy are still needed in addition to surgery.

Evaluating What You Need

• Before taking part in any sort of therapeutic exercise, it's important to answer the following questions with your physician: What makes the pain better or worse? How long have you been experiencing pain? Are there headaches associated with the pain? Is any other part of your body affected when experiencing neck pain? When you get pain, how long does it last?

  Depending on the answers to these questions, therapeutic exercise may not even be necessary. Some physical therapists may simply advise bed rest. Others may suggest keeping certain postures when sitting, standing and laying down. The most important thing to do is be sure of what is needed for your situation and follow through with it.

Aerobic Exercises

• An online message board for patients to ask professional therapists and licensed doctors medicine-related questions, MedHelp.org, has a wealth of cervical fusion-related questions. Dr. Stephen Ryu says that some of the best exercises for post-cervical fusion surgery, no matter where it was done, is light aerobic workouts. As long as it's done consistently, includes little resistance and you make sure to progress very cautiously, exercises such as biking, speed walking and swimming do wonders for patients after surgery.

  Try committing yourself to 30 minutes of exercise a day, four days a week after surgery. If you have a pool, swimming is the most effective exercise for therapy after most surgeries as it works out the most muscles with the least resistance. The point of exercising isn't to build muscle, it's to tone the muscle that is there and increase flexibility in the vertebrae that have been recently fused together. Only after you feel very comfortable with working out four days a week, 30 minutes a day, should you graduate any further.

  For speed walking, try three days a week at 45 minutes a day. There is more resistance to speed walking and therefore should be done with less frequency than swimming. After three months of gradually increasing aerobic exercises, try graduating to weight-bearing exercises.

Weight-Bearing Exercises

• The more serious the cervical fusion surgery, the longer you need to stretch out each step of your recovery. Bed rest, normal activity and purposeful aerobic exercise is the key to getting neck strength back to normal once physical therapy is needed. But more strenuous, weight-bearing exercises are important for improving flexibility and making sure you won't need surgery again. Dr. Ryu approves of starting a regiment of push-ups, sit-ups and crunches but only after you have cautiously and conservatively gone through the baby steps of getting your neck back to pre-surgery strength. Start mixing these weight-bearing exercises into your four-a-week aerobic routine and you'll have a healthy mix of neck muscle toning, strengthening and flexibility.