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Avoiding Common Posture Pitfalls
Posture is power- it’s time you started paying attention
Our lifestyles often get the best of us and nowhere is this more evident than in our posture. As an office of chiropractic, we are often able to tell a person’s lifestyle from the second they walk in the door- they are most likely exhibiting it in their shoulders and neck, and sometimes in the gut. And while we can’t help ourselves from thinking biomechanically, it behooves you to think about your own posture and its role in your wellbeing. Awareness is the single greatest make-or-break factor in determing postural health- it’s time you started paying attention.
Chiropractic as Preventive Healthcare
Back pain doesn’t just show up out of nowhere
Many of us would be hard pressed to pick a specific time when our chronic back pain started. That’s because the factors which contribute to back pain have been slowly accumulating in our bodies for years. As we took no proactive action against them, they one day reached a breaking point. It is important to realize that while the breaking point is most often brought on by an acute injury- throwing your back out while lifting for example- it is more likely a combination of internal factors exacerbated by a single external one. This systemic explanation for injury guides everything we do at OFW Chiropractic.
Chiropractic Care Represents a Golden Opportunity for Children
Take it back to the beginning
Before all the pain and stiffness set in your spine was young and in a state of balance that allowed you seemingly unlimited opportunity without the risk for injury. But the forces that sought to undo such balance and wellbeing were already at work and we were busy growing up ignoring the warning signs (or rather, our parents were ignoring the warning signs?) As we got older, we did not take a proactive approrach to caring for the growth and development of our spine, setting an attitude that would come to define our spinal health in adulthood. Let’s flip this script.
What Can Water Do For Your Spine?
Why continue to deprive yourself of H2O?
Americans, as a whole, are chronically dehydrated. Despite our better intentions, we often choose caffeinated, sweet drinks over boring old H2O; by doing so, we neglect to provide our body with the water it needs to succeed. What are we foregoing when we don’t hydrate sufficiently?
- Cells can’t repair as efficiently
- Your heart has to work harder to get oxygen to the muscles
- Waste and toxin-removal processes in the body are hampered
- Joints dry out and lose range of motion, causing pain
These bullet points are just the tip of the iceberg. Chronic dehydration can become so engrained in our lifestyle that we establish it as the new baseline for normal. This is dangerous because of the unquanitifable long-term effects of dehydration on our bodies. Read on to find out about the importance of water in spinal health.
Athletes Excel with Chiropractic
The pursuit of athleticism
In the end, the only thing that really matters is how good you feel on a daily basis. Athletes are athletes because they derive enjoyment out of their sport- it makes them feel good both mentally and physically. There is a direct reason for this; physical activity affects your wellbeing by:
- Releasing endorphins which fight pain and stress and make you feel happy
- Releasing a protein known as Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, which provides a restorative effect for the neurons in your brain.
This neuromusculoskeletal relationship explains why the pursuit of athleticism is linked with higher levels of happiness. The Olympics are notable for outpourings of passion that prove exercise has a powerful role in the human experience.
Chiropractic for Athletes: Spotlight on Tennis
Tennis is a holistic wellness activity
Millions of people worldwide enjoy the sport of tennis while simultaneously using it to socialize and stay in shape. But the biomechanical demands of the sport mean that many of these players will sustain a sports-related injury in a given year. The strains for your body particular to the movements involved in tennis include:
- Hard foot plants: shear forces place a strain on the joints in the leg and spine, contributing to spinal misalignment and associated dysfunction.
- Repetitive stress: repeated movements place a disproportionate amount of stress on certain parts of the body, including the spinal joints.
- Ballistic motions: spontaneous propulsion of limbs in upper extremities places high levels of pressure on joints in the arms and spine.
- Twisting motions: side-to-side force increases pressure on the spinal joints.
Golfers Go Low with Chiropractic
Why is back pain so rife in the golf community?
Many people would point to the prevailing age demographic of the golf community as a contributing factor, but the link is much deeper than that. Despite its reputation as a low-key sport, golf challenges our bodies by demanding a unique combination of movements. While these movements are of a generally beneficial nature, they also present a unique set of challenges for spinal health. The torsion involved in a powerful swing, along with the constant bending over, are some of the most damaging movements for our spines. Unless we take steps to strengthen and protect our spines, back pain is an almost inevitable outcome.
Crunch Time and your Spine
How do you grind?
When the pressure is on, any conscious awareness of spinal health seems to dissolve. It Is one of the first things that goes, and it goes because of the interconnectivity of stress. Mental stress contributes to muscle tension, which means we tend to tighten up: you can feel this effect in that stiff neck at the end of the day. Excess muscle tension also tends to pull our spines out of alignment and increase the interference in our nervous system. Our posture gets stuck; we spend long chunks of time with our shoulders pinned inwards, our upper back rounded and our neck held forward. All of these positions increase pressure on the spine, which leave us sore and out of whack at the end of the day. Chances are, we wake up stiff the next day as well, and reach straight for the caffeine. This takes the meaning of “grinding,” to a whole new level.
Child’s Pose is Spinal Relaxation
Child’s pose prioritizes spinal health
Even by yoga’s high standards, child’s pose is akin to a superfood for spinal health. It is a low-intensity move that can be performed in just about any setting to provide a tonic for weary spines. Here are the benefits of child’s pose from a chiropractors perspective:
- Provides a gentle stretch for the lower back, hips, thighs and ankles
- Passively stretches core stabilizing muscles
- Elongates the lower back, improving circulation to the spinal joints
- Encourages relaxation through resting in the position and taking deep breaths
While the stretch centers around the thighs, studies have shown that child’s pose is effective at mitigating pain in the back, shoulders, neck and hips.
Helping Athletes Manage Pain in Westwood
When your sport gives and takes
Physical activity is supposed to help us prevent pain in the first place. The cardiovascular, muscle-building and conditioning aspects of sport fortify our bodies, boost circulation and assist every system in the body to function optimally. By strengthening our bodies, we become more resilient to injury from a whole spectrum of movement. But many sports also come with a price, one of the most frequent being trauma to the joints. Think of the top American youth sports:
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Football
- Soccer
While the intensity obviously varies, all four of these sports are characterized by repetitive wear and tear of the weight bearing joints, including the ankles, knees, hips and spinal joints. As we get older, many of us transition to running, which can also be viewed through a high-impact, repetitive-trauma lens. But far be it from us to suggest a change of sport; if you love what you are doing, and your body feels great despite occassionally recurring pain, it is not time yet to make a wholesale change to a lower-impact sport. But you might benefit from a visit to the chiropractor!