Cervical Mobility Lab - HVLA + Therapeutic Massage

75Participants, aged 20 to 60

12.36°Mean lateral-flexion gain

30minSingle session, one visit

3–23°Range of individual gains

About this study

Osteopathy

Neck pain and reduced range of motion are highly prevalent. This study tested whether combining HVLA manipulation of the cervical spine and shoulder with therapeutic massage improves neck lateral flexion, measured with a goniometer against a 90 degree reference.

Lateral flexion was recorded before and after a single 30 minute session. This console turns the results into interactive tools. Everything you enter stays in this browser only, and it is for education, not clinical decisions.

Open the Outcome Simulator to estimate a personalized gain, or the Cohort Explorer to read the study data.

The 30 minute session

Protocol

Each participant received one combined session, split between manipulation and soft-tissue work.

10 min HVLA

20 min massage

HVLA techniques targeted the C1 to C7 vertebral joints and the shoulder. Therapeutic massage then relaxed the trapezius, sternocleidomastoid, platysma, splenius and semispinalis muscles. No participant reported an adverse reaction.

Explore the console

Patient profile

Estimate

Set a profile to estimate the expected lateral-flexion gain from one combined session. The estimate follows the study's own patterns: lower starting mobility predicts a larger gain, with small adjustments by age group and gender.

Age group

Gender

Initial lateral flexion 75°

Normal reference is 90 degrees. In the study, 25% started at 60 to 70 degrees, 60% at 71 to 80, and 15% at 81 to 90.

Predicted outcome

Before 75° After 88°

0° gain

Predicted increase in lateral flexion

Set a profile to see the predicted outcome.

What moved the most?

Study data

The 75 participants can be sliced three ways. Switch the view to see where the largest gains appeared.

Average gain by initial flexion angle

Build the session

30 minutes

The protocol pairs manipulation with soft-tissue work. Toggle the components to see how a session is composed. Timing is fixed: 10 minutes of HVLA followed by 20 minutes of therapeutic massage.

10 min HVLA

20 min massage

HVLA techniques

Cervical & shoulder

Applied to the C1 to C7 joints and the shoulder, chosen per patient. Selected: 0 of 14.

Massage targets

Deep tissue

Relaxing, deep-tissue work on the neck and shoulder muscles. Selected: 0 of 5.

Select techniques and muscle groups to compose a session.

Correlations from the data

SPSS

The study ran a correlation analysis. The strongest signal: the lower the starting flexion, the larger the gain. Left and right sides moved together, and disability scores were internally consistent.

Safety and balance

0 adverse events

0/75Adverse reactions reported

0.29°Gender difference, not significant

Male participants gained 12.21 degrees on average and female participants 12.5 degrees. Across age groups the averages stayed close, from 11.92 to 13.07 degrees, so the benefit held at every age.

Build a clinical brief

Personalize

Select the findings to include, and the console assembles a short brief.

Select one or more findings to build the brief.

This brief summarizes study findings only. It is not medical advice.