My whiplash symptoms only started two days after the crash. Is that normal?

Yes, and it is the pattern we see most. Adrenaline masks a great deal at the scene, and the response to the sudden movement of the head builds over the following day or so. The stiffest morning after an uncomplicated whiplash injury is usually the second or third, not the first. Numbness, weakness or dizziness is a different matter and needs assessing the same day.

I woke up unable to turn my head. How long will it last?

Most settle noticeably inside one to two weeks, which is quicker than the first two days would have you believe. One or two small neck joints have become irritated and the muscle around them has splinted to keep you out of the painful range. Gentle movement, little and often, shortens it. Keeping completely still lengthens it.

Can neck problems cause headaches?

They can. A cervicogenic headache usually begins at the base of the skull on one side and spreads up over the back of the head, tends to favour the same side every time, and comes and goes with neck position rather than arriving in attacks. We can often reproduce it, and then ease it, by examining the top segments of your neck.

Will you click my neck?

Not unless you have asked for it, understood what it involves and consented, and not at all if screening says otherwise. Rotation can usually be restored with graded mobilisation instead: slower, firmer pressure, no thrust and no noise. Most of the necks treated at Megazee.com never need a manipulation, and saying no to one changes nothing else about your treatment.

Is my pillow or my desk causing this?

Rarely on their own. How long you hold a position matters more than which position it is. Aim for a pillow that fills the gap between your ear and the mattress without tipping your head up or letting it drop, and a screen high enough that you are not reading with your chin on your chest. Then move before the neck makes you.

Physiotherapy for Neck Pain and Whiplash

Two people tend to read this page. One woke on Tuesday unable to check a blind spot, with no idea what they did. The other was stationary at a junction on Saturday, felt fine giving their details, and by Monday had a stiff neck, a headache behind one eye and a growing suspicion that something is wrong.

Both are common, both are treatable, and each has its own section below. Between them sit the parts that apply to everyone: which symptoms mean a doctor rather than a physiotherapist, what an assessment at Megazee.com involves, and how long a neck takes. This page sits alongside the conditions we treat at our Manchester clinic.

Symptoms that need a doctor today, not a physiotherapist

Read this first, especially after a collision or a fall.

A&E before any physiotherapy, after a collision or fall: tenderness down the bony midline at the back of the neck, being unable to turn your head roughly 45 degrees to each side, any numbness, tingling or weakness in the arms or legs, being 65 or over, or a high-speed impact or a fall from height.
999: dizziness, double or blurred vision, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, drops or collapses, unsteadiness, or numbness of the face, particularly with neck or head pain unlike any you have had before. Also a sudden, severe, worst-ever headache, or a drooping face and weakness in one arm.
Urgent GP: symptoms in both arms or in the legs, growing clumsiness with buttons, keys or handwriting, unsteadiness on your feet or a change in the way you walk, or bladder changes. Together these can indicate pressure on the spinal cord in the neck.
Same day: neck stiffness with a fever, a rash, or dislike of bright light.
GP rather than a physiotherapy booking: a drooping eyelid with a smaller pupil on one side, or unexplained weight loss or night sweats alongside persistent neck pain.

That list is not exhaustive and none of it is a diagnosis. If you are unsure, ring NHS 111. Our medical disclaimer sets out what a website can and cannot do.

The neck that seized up on its own

Nothing happened. You slept at an angle, or sat through four hours of video calls, and now the neck turns one way and refuses the other, with a hot ache over the shoulder blade on the restricted side.

Usually one or two of the small joints at the back and side of the neck have become irritated, and the muscle around them has splinted to keep you away from the painful range. That guarding is why the block feels so absolute. It is protective and temporary, and it lets go as movement returns.

An ache spreading into the shoulder blade, the upper arm or the base of the skull is ordinary with an irritated joint, not evidence of a trapped nerve. These necks usually improve markedly inside a week or two, faster than day two suggests.

Whiplash: why the symptoms arrive on day two

This is the question we field most after a collision, and real fear sits behind it. You walked away. You drove home. Then you woke on Monday unable to lift your head off the pillow, wondering what had been missed.

Delayed onset is typical rather than sinister. Adrenaline hides a lot at the roadside, and the response to a sudden back-and-forth movement of the head builds over the next day or so. Alongside neck pain and stiffness you may get headache from the base of the skull, a sore jaw, disturbed sleep and a few foggy, short-tempered days. All of that belongs to the picture.

Two things then matter more than anything we do with our hands. Move the neck within comfort from the first days, in small frequent doses rather than one determined session. And stay out of a collar unless a doctor has issued one after imaging; we do not hand them out for ordinary whiplash at Megazee.com, because a neck held still gets stiffer and more sensitive, not safer. Most people we see are substantially better over several weeks. A minority take months, and those who move early tend to have the easier time.

When the neck is causing the headaches

Headache from the neck has a recognisable shape. It starts at the base of the skull on one side, spreads up over the back of the head towards the temple or behind the eye, favours the same side every time, and rises and falls with what your neck is doing. Long drives and long meetings bring it on.

The useful part is that we can often provoke it, and then settle it, by examining the top two or three segments of your neck. If that reproduces your familiar headache, we have something to treat. If your headaches instead arrive in attacks with nausea, light sensitivity or visual disturbance, that is a conversation for your GP, and the two can coexist.

How we assess neck pain at Megazee.com

Rotation is measured, not eyeballed. You sit tall, turn to a fixed point each way, and we record the difference between sides, because a neck that reaches 70 degrees left and 40 right tells us more than one described as stiff. The blind-spot check then becomes your retest for the rest of your care.

Hands on the neck, level by level, comparing each segment with the one above to find which joints have genuinely lost movement, not which patch feels tender.
A neurological screen where it is indicated: grip, reflexes, sensation compared side to side, and the buttons, keys and handwriting question.
The mid-back and the shoulder blade. A thoracic spine that will not rotate hands its workload upwards, and the neck pays for it.
A retest before you leave the room. Same turn, same reference point, so you know on the day whether anything shifted.

After a collision we re-screen for the urgent symptoms above before any hands-on work, and we ask again at later appointments.

What treatment involves

Hands-on work earns its place where a neck is genuinely stiff and guarded. Joint mobilisation for a restricted neck is firm, rhythmic pressure held for thirty to sixty seconds at a time, and it should feel like pressure you could talk through. Where a band of muscle keeps dragging the same segment back, we may add dry needling for persistent muscle pain.

The exercises are unglamorous and do the lasting work. A slow chin nod, held ten seconds, ten times, with the strap muscles at the front of the throat staying quiet: if they spring out like cables, the hold is too long and the wrong muscles are doing the job. Then loading for the shoulder blades and upper back, which is what stops the same fortnight repeating. You leave Megazee.com with two or three exercises, demonstrated back to us at the door, not a printout of twelve. The NHS summary of what physiotherapy involves describes the same mixture.

For how spinal care is staged, and when imaging changes anything, see our approach to neck and spinal pain.

Booking physiotherapy for neck pain at Megazee.com

You do not need a GP referral. Every physiotherapist at Megazee.com is registered with the Health and Care Professions Council and chartered with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Fees and private insurance are set out on our fees and funding page.

If your neck pain followed a collision, say so when you book, and whether you were checked over at the time. Then book a neck pain assessment in Manchester. If you would rather describe it to someone first, speak to a physiotherapist before booking; if what you describe belongs with a doctor, we will say so.

Physiotherapy for Neck Pain and Whiplash at Megazee.com, Manchester