Neural Tension

What happens when your athlete has movement difficulties? Sometimes you simply need a different cue and other times you need to give them some manual feedback. Then for others, they simply need to practice.

For some, however, neural tension may be at issue. I want to first say that anyone suffering from even just one symptom such as radiating pain, numbness or tingling should see a health care practitioner. And if you're unsure, I would play the safe card and refer them out anyway.

Here are more informational resources on neural tension and neuromobilization.

• Manual Medicine - Neurodynamics / Neuromobilization - a blog with dozens and dozens of related articles.
• Journal of Sport Rehabilitation - Assessing Adverse Neural Tension in Athletes - an old paper for medical professionals demonstrating basic tests for assessing neural tension (i.e. slump and femoral nerve tension tests). Remember, this is an old paper
• Hand Clinics - Pathophysiology of Nerve Compression - a more scientific paper but appropriate for those wanting to geek it out.
• Manual Therapy - Do sliders slide and tensioners tension. Just a note that Dr. Shawn Thistle wrote a great review on Research Review Service several years ago

There are some simple exercises that can be performed to effectively release some neural tension: