1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6    View All Whiplash is the common term for a very real injury; hyperflexion/hyperextension injury or sometimes called cervical acceleration/deceleration trauma. Whiplash usually happens in less than 1/3 of a second. The muscles, tendons and ligaments that are responsible for normal structure and function are strained, stretch beyond their normal limits (hypermobile) and in some cases torn (microtears of the muscle fibers). Misaligned and injured cervical spines will remain in this injured state until treated.