You’re not going to find Rob or Matt on Youtube doing “Crazy Chiropractic Adjustments“.
It’s not that we’re not super-cool fun guys. We are the coolest.
Do we occasionally get airborne trying to get a stubborn vertebrae to finally unlock? Maybe we do. Sometimes you really need to get some heavy leverage to get the thing to happen!
Do we have a Y-strap in the office? Maybe we do.
Do we advertise it to entice people, who may or may not actually benefit from it, to come get their necks yanked and cranked? No, we do not do that.
When the patient is too much in charge, this is a bad thing. This is Rob here writing this, for those that know me. I have a Y-strap in my office. I place it where no one can see it. I do not want my patients bugging me to use it on them. Some patients I show the strap to and I describe the use of it and I tell them about it, and those are the patients who I think can safely benefit from that type of cervical traction.
The last thing I want is some hyper-mobile 21 year old with headaches from horrible posture coming in and expecting the Y-strap adjustment…because they saw it on the Internet. That person is not an ideal candidate for that modality.
Ironically, that person will probably get the ultimate “CrAcK!” from that adjustment as their head nearly separates from their body and their upper cervical stability ligaments are tested to the max, but those fireworks do not mean anything will be any better. They will feel great for a few hours of adrenaline and endorphins, the next day might be another story altogether.
Will some other chiropractor gladly take their money and apply 50+lbs of mechanical force, pulling their skull away from the neck with a sudden tug? Probably! Not us, though.
You may very well respond favorably to the Y-strap style of cervical traction. A really great part of chiropractic school is that I can tell the difference between someone who probably will benefit from that and someone who has an unfavorable risk profile for the Y-strap.