What Whiplash Actually Does to Your Cervical Spine
Whiplash — cervical acceleration-deceleration injury — occurs when the head is suddenly forced through rapid flexion-extension beyond the cervical spine's normal range. The resulting injury affects multiple tissue layers simultaneously: cervical ligaments are stretched or torn, disc annuli may be disrupted, facet joints are compressed, and deep cervical stabilizer muscles undergo simultaneous overload and subsequent neurological inhibition.
The reason whiplash so frequently becomes a chronic pain condition is that the neuromuscular dimension of the injury — the inhibition of the deep cervical flexors, the altered sensorimotor integration at the cervical joints, and the compensatory movement patterns of the pain-protective phase — does not resolve with time and rest even as the acute tissue injury heals.