Sitting, standing, or lying supine
Anterior to the patient.
Please sit down. May I touch your head and the front of your neck? (or point to the area). Please hold while I try to push your head forward and to the side. Now turn your head and hold while I resist your turning.
Guide the patient to sit down. With the patient relaxed and with permission, place your fingers on the sternocleidomastoid muscle and tendon. Ask the patient to hold while you push on the forehead to resist neck flexion and then on the side of the skull to resist ipsilateral lateral flexion. Ask the patient to turn the head away from the side of the palpated muscle and then hold while you resist additional turning of the head. Avoid hand placement on the mandible, as this stresses the temporomandibular joint.
If you were palpating the right sternocleidomastoid muscle, then you would resist neck flexion, lateral flexion to the right and rotation to the left.
If the patient were positioned in supine, ask the patient first to slightly lift the head, then turn the head to the opposite side as the palpation and lift the head.
If you were palpating the right sternocleidomastoid muscle, then you would resist neck flexion, lateral flexion to the right and rotation to the left.
If the patient were positioned in supine, ask the patient first to slightly lift the head, then turn the head to the opposite side as the palpation and lift the head.
VH - Head and spine skeleton with the sternocleidomastoid muscle
On the other side add platysma, suprahyoids, infrahyoids, sternohyoid, sternothyroid, thyrohyoid, omohyyoid, longus colli and capitis, scalenes, muscles and tendons