A question I get absolutely all the time is, “Why is my posture so bad?”
The answer? It’s the little things you’re doing over a period of years.
It’s hard to influence your posture with exercises. Most of the time it’s due to things you are doing outside of the gym.Imagine a person that sits all day. Their hips are constantly in flexion, their upper back and shoulders are slouched over, they get up every two hours to go to the vending machine. Even if you gave this person the absolute perfect exercises they may not change their posture much.Why?It’s because what we do everyday for hours and hours. A half-hour workout just isn’t going to change your posture.
Think about it – do you really expect 1 ½ hours in the gym every week to counteract the fact that you sit at a desk or in your car for 40, 50 or even 60 hours every week?It’s not going to happen. Those constant postures manifest and develop into something much bigger than you give them credit for. Muscles tighten in as little as 20 minutes; that means if you’re sitting at a desk for 8 hours every day, your muscles are adapting to that position by getting shorter! On top of that remember that you drove to work, you sat down for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All these postures were the same!
If you are really serious about changing your posture, look at every aspect of your day.
If you sit at a desk, get your hips in extension by performing frequent lunge stretches. Get a stand-up desk. Move around a lot. Try to be constantly moving.
If you drive all day long, set a timer on your phone to go off every 15 minutes that will cue you to sit-up straight and move around a bit. Fidgeting is not a bad thing!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Results that last?
Do you want results that last a long time? What a silly question, of course you do. When it comes to back and neck pain, most people suffer constantly.
The key to long term pain relief in the lower back and neck is to improve muscular endurance. It’s not to increase strength of the muscles, it’s to increase the time that the muscles can contract. This means that it is not important to lift heavy weights for your spine, but rather you must be able to lift light weights for a longer period of time. In fact many exercises don’t even require weights. Your own body weight is enough.
The goal is to hold a position and be able to maintain that position without movement for a couple of minutes. Think of it this way, stop doing crunches but rather hold the top position for one minute.
People that lift heavy weights all the time still can suffer with back pain. Strength appears to have a very weak correlation with lower back pain. Just because you can lift heavy weights doesn’t mean your back may not hurt. You have to be able to do an exercise that lasts a long time to help the correct muscles in your lower back.
The correct exercises are extensions on a gym ball, stability exercises on the floor, higher repetition deadlifts, squats, and good-mornings. We can show you these in the office.
The problem is that most people that have repetitive constant back pain have weak muscles that get quickly tired and have shrunk. To compound the problem, the muscles don’t contract at the right time. For example, when you go to lift a box in the garage, the back muscles should work, but they take a split second too long to contract. Just enough time to sprain your back. OuchThey also had abnormal activation patterns.
The muscles of your lower back quickly shrink after an episode of lower back pain. The muscles don’t recover after the pain is gone. This sets you up for the next episode of back pain.
It takes 8 weeks of endurance training to increase endurance ability by 100%- 150% in patients that are out of shape. This means that AFTER the back pain is gone, it can take 8 weeks to fully recover the muscular endurance to prevent the next episode. As you can imagine, some patients never follow this advice. They figure that the pain is gone so they must be alright only to experience pain again. It’s a vicious cycle.
Exercises can be done daily or even twice daily because they don’t produce muscle soreness. Usually with chiropractic, the pain will begin to reduce within 1-6 weeks depending upon the case. After this, it is important to continue with the treatment while exercising for at least eight weeks.
This is the reasoning for the treatment recommendations that we make.
The key to long term pain relief in the lower back and neck is to improve muscular endurance. It’s not to increase strength of the muscles, it’s to increase the time that the muscles can contract. This means that it is not important to lift heavy weights for your spine, but rather you must be able to lift light weights for a longer period of time. In fact many exercises don’t even require weights. Your own body weight is enough.
The goal is to hold a position and be able to maintain that position without movement for a couple of minutes. Think of it this way, stop doing crunches but rather hold the top position for one minute.
People that lift heavy weights all the time still can suffer with back pain. Strength appears to have a very weak correlation with lower back pain. Just because you can lift heavy weights doesn’t mean your back may not hurt. You have to be able to do an exercise that lasts a long time to help the correct muscles in your lower back.
The correct exercises are extensions on a gym ball, stability exercises on the floor, higher repetition deadlifts, squats, and good-mornings. We can show you these in the office.
The problem is that most people that have repetitive constant back pain have weak muscles that get quickly tired and have shrunk. To compound the problem, the muscles don’t contract at the right time. For example, when you go to lift a box in the garage, the back muscles should work, but they take a split second too long to contract. Just enough time to sprain your back. OuchThey also had abnormal activation patterns.
The muscles of your lower back quickly shrink after an episode of lower back pain. The muscles don’t recover after the pain is gone. This sets you up for the next episode of back pain.
It takes 8 weeks of endurance training to increase endurance ability by 100%- 150% in patients that are out of shape. This means that AFTER the back pain is gone, it can take 8 weeks to fully recover the muscular endurance to prevent the next episode. As you can imagine, some patients never follow this advice. They figure that the pain is gone so they must be alright only to experience pain again. It’s a vicious cycle.
Exercises can be done daily or even twice daily because they don’t produce muscle soreness. Usually with chiropractic, the pain will begin to reduce within 1-6 weeks depending upon the case. After this, it is important to continue with the treatment while exercising for at least eight weeks.
This is the reasoning for the treatment recommendations that we make.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Diet Cola or Coffee?
I’m switching from diet cola to coffee. Is that healthier?
I’m not so sure that coffee can be considered “health food” but when you compare the chemicals in diet colas to coffee, coffee can be considered healthier.
There have been some studies showing that caffeine taken prior to exercise can stimulate energy from fat cells. This is only for infrequent ingestion of caffeine. It’s not to say that coffee is a weight loss drink. When those people ingested caffeine regularly, the results were not as good.
Coffee the way some people drink it should be sold at 31-flavors rather than Starbuck’s. The studies were done with coffee…beans with hot water…not cream, sugar, caramel, chocolate sprinkles, etc.
Lastly, you are likely to get a dirty look from your dentist, with a speech about teeth whitening.
So while it’s unlikely that coffee is the holy grail of health, it seems to be considered by some to be “healthy” this week.
We’ll see what happens.
I’m not so sure that coffee can be considered “health food” but when you compare the chemicals in diet colas to coffee, coffee can be considered healthier.
There have been some studies showing that caffeine taken prior to exercise can stimulate energy from fat cells. This is only for infrequent ingestion of caffeine. It’s not to say that coffee is a weight loss drink. When those people ingested caffeine regularly, the results were not as good.
Coffee the way some people drink it should be sold at 31-flavors rather than Starbuck’s. The studies were done with coffee…beans with hot water…not cream, sugar, caramel, chocolate sprinkles, etc.
Lastly, you are likely to get a dirty look from your dentist, with a speech about teeth whitening.
So while it’s unlikely that coffee is the holy grail of health, it seems to be considered by some to be “healthy” this week.
We’ll see what happens.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Eating before and after a workout
If you wake up early in the morning and workout for less than one hour, it’s not really necessary to eat anything. Just go do the workout and come home and eat.
After the workout, you should eat something that contains some balance to it according to the Zone Diet. Do this regardless if you are lifting weights or doing cardio. Eggs and an apple are perfect. A Clif bar, chocolate milk, a protein shake, or a high protein cereal like Go-Lean are good choices. Bad choices are toast, coffee, bagels, most cereals, and juices. This will allow your body to burn fat and not blood sugar. You’ll also have more energy.
If you are working out later in the day, eating prior to exercising is going to be a factor. If you are doing cardiovascular exercises that don’t involve a lot of bouncing (cycling, walking on a treadmill, stair-stepping) you can literally eat right before. Ideally, a zone snack would be perfect because it would allow you to primarily burn fat as an energy source. Snacks/meals such as a turkey/cheese sandwich with avocado on it could work. Eating a high carbohydrate meal right before an aerobic workout is forcing your body to use your blood sugar as the primary energy source rather than fat. This makes your exercise not as effective.
If you are doing weight lifting later in the day, it’s best to time your eating so that you are eating an hour before your workout. It’s hard to workout with a full stomach. If you get off work at 5:00 pm, don’t just run to the gym and workout. If you haven’t eaten since noon, you might lose energy. Maybe you can have some yogurt or fruit at 4:00 pm. If you are in a crunch, Gatorade and string cheese is a good pre-workout meal prior to weight lifting.
After the workout, you should eat something that contains some balance to it according to the Zone Diet. Do this regardless if you are lifting weights or doing cardio. Eggs and an apple are perfect. A Clif bar, chocolate milk, a protein shake, or a high protein cereal like Go-Lean are good choices. Bad choices are toast, coffee, bagels, most cereals, and juices. This will allow your body to burn fat and not blood sugar. You’ll also have more energy.
If you are working out later in the day, eating prior to exercising is going to be a factor. If you are doing cardiovascular exercises that don’t involve a lot of bouncing (cycling, walking on a treadmill, stair-stepping) you can literally eat right before. Ideally, a zone snack would be perfect because it would allow you to primarily burn fat as an energy source. Snacks/meals such as a turkey/cheese sandwich with avocado on it could work. Eating a high carbohydrate meal right before an aerobic workout is forcing your body to use your blood sugar as the primary energy source rather than fat. This makes your exercise not as effective.
If you are doing weight lifting later in the day, it’s best to time your eating so that you are eating an hour before your workout. It’s hard to workout with a full stomach. If you get off work at 5:00 pm, don’t just run to the gym and workout. If you haven’t eaten since noon, you might lose energy. Maybe you can have some yogurt or fruit at 4:00 pm. If you are in a crunch, Gatorade and string cheese is a good pre-workout meal prior to weight lifting.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
How to exercise around injuries
Many people have chronic conditions. These are pains that never fully go away but can be lessened greatly through chiropractic methods. The challenge is to still work out while you have the pain. How do you know when you can workout through the pain? Should you rest and wait?
With chronic problems it’s best to work around the pain, rather than through it. A patient of mine was working out and trying to do push ups and it was killing her wrists and shoulders. Since she was working out in the gym I told her to try the pec-deck machine and barbell bench presses. These exercises worked the same muscles as the push up, but didn’t bother her wrist or shoulders. She didn’t stop working out, she just didn’t do the exercises that hurt.
Now some would argue that the push up is a better exercise than the non-functional machines and weights. It’s not a better exercise if you get injured.
You can try the treadmill, elliptical, or exercise bike. There’s even recumbent bicycles if your back is really hurting. While all of these are good for your cardiovascular fitness, some may bother your knee or back. Simply try another exercise until you find the right one.
In certain circumstances you should just not work out at all. In cases where there is a new injury and/or there’s inflammation it would be best to take some time off.
In some cases you can workout through the pain. In these cases where there is a weakness that is the reason for instability in the spine, exercising despite pain would be appropriate. In these cases you will significantly feel better as you are exercising. You will know that it feels better because as you are gaining strength, the pain will lessen. If the pain is getting worse, you need to stop.
With chronic problems it’s best to work around the pain, rather than through it. A patient of mine was working out and trying to do push ups and it was killing her wrists and shoulders. Since she was working out in the gym I told her to try the pec-deck machine and barbell bench presses. These exercises worked the same muscles as the push up, but didn’t bother her wrist or shoulders. She didn’t stop working out, she just didn’t do the exercises that hurt.
Now some would argue that the push up is a better exercise than the non-functional machines and weights. It’s not a better exercise if you get injured.
You can try the treadmill, elliptical, or exercise bike. There’s even recumbent bicycles if your back is really hurting. While all of these are good for your cardiovascular fitness, some may bother your knee or back. Simply try another exercise until you find the right one.
In certain circumstances you should just not work out at all. In cases where there is a new injury and/or there’s inflammation it would be best to take some time off.
In some cases you can workout through the pain. In these cases where there is a weakness that is the reason for instability in the spine, exercising despite pain would be appropriate. In these cases you will significantly feel better as you are exercising. You will know that it feels better because as you are gaining strength, the pain will lessen. If the pain is getting worse, you need to stop.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
When 20/20 Doesn't Work Anymore
Usually people join the gym and do 20 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of machines, 3-times per week. They never change their routine. If you’re lucky, this will work for you. The main problem is that if you are consistent you’ll hit a plateau after two months. If you no longer lose weight, you’ll likely get frustrated and quit.
Here’s what you should do after the two months of 20/20:
You’ll need to increase the weight lifting workout. It’s quicker to do some basic exercises that involve a lot of muscles rather than using 15 different machines. If you did bench press, squats, and pull ups you would be finished in 45 minutes. If you don’t like free weights, you can do machines but try to use machines that work more than one muscle. Weight lifting should be done the day before endurance exercise.
The following day you should do a light resistance endurance workout. Every calls this “cardio.” Use something like an exercise bike, treadmill, swimming etc. You want to do something that will get your heart going without a lot of strain on your joints. In other words, running on concrete would be restricted. In this workout, you want to exercise up to one hour at a consistent pace.
Research has shown that physiologically, the weight lifting can tear muscle fibers and the cardio can help flush blood through the muscles resulting in less soreness for you. By organizing your workout in this fashion, you’ll get greater strength gains and less soreness. If you did an endurance day first and the weight training on the second day, the muscles would be too fatigued to gain maximum benefit.
The third day of this cycle would be a rest day. Remember that we started out with a 3-day a week exercise program. Now you are graduating to a 4-day a week. Day 4-5 would be the same as day 1 and day 2. You would do weight training the first day, and endurance exercise the following day. Even though before you were exercising more frequently with weights and cardio (3x/week) you were only spending a total of one hour each per week. That’s why you hit a plateau. By adopting this two day cycle with a rest day in between, you are now doing weights two hours per week and endurance two hours per week.
You will find that this system will give you the benefits of continuing progress.
Here’s what you should do after the two months of 20/20:
You’ll need to increase the weight lifting workout. It’s quicker to do some basic exercises that involve a lot of muscles rather than using 15 different machines. If you did bench press, squats, and pull ups you would be finished in 45 minutes. If you don’t like free weights, you can do machines but try to use machines that work more than one muscle. Weight lifting should be done the day before endurance exercise.
The following day you should do a light resistance endurance workout. Every calls this “cardio.” Use something like an exercise bike, treadmill, swimming etc. You want to do something that will get your heart going without a lot of strain on your joints. In other words, running on concrete would be restricted. In this workout, you want to exercise up to one hour at a consistent pace.
Research has shown that physiologically, the weight lifting can tear muscle fibers and the cardio can help flush blood through the muscles resulting in less soreness for you. By organizing your workout in this fashion, you’ll get greater strength gains and less soreness. If you did an endurance day first and the weight training on the second day, the muscles would be too fatigued to gain maximum benefit.
The third day of this cycle would be a rest day. Remember that we started out with a 3-day a week exercise program. Now you are graduating to a 4-day a week. Day 4-5 would be the same as day 1 and day 2. You would do weight training the first day, and endurance exercise the following day. Even though before you were exercising more frequently with weights and cardio (3x/week) you were only spending a total of one hour each per week. That’s why you hit a plateau. By adopting this two day cycle with a rest day in between, you are now doing weights two hours per week and endurance two hours per week.
You will find that this system will give you the benefits of continuing progress.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Sacroiliac Joint Pain and How to Fix it
Patients come in all the time with lower back pain that is either localized to one side or it feels like it’s a band of pain across the belt-line. It usually hurts worse in the morning and will loosen up as the day progresses. The pain can range from a mild ache to intense sharp pain.
How we treat this condition involves the following:
Adjusting the sacroiliac joint. We either use the Arthostim instrument or our hands to increase the movement of the joint. The most common finding of sacroiliac joint pain is restricted range of motion. We determine this by watching how the joint moves while you raise one leg upwards, then the other.
Ultrasound or cold laser therapy. If there is swelling within the joint, the ultrasound will help. Cold laser therapy works better, but some people prefer the ultrasound.
Stretching the piriformis muscle and Psoas muscle. These muscles are the prime movers of the hip. Most people with sacroiliac joint pain have tightness on the side of the restriction.
Rehabilitation and prevention of this type of pain requires the patient to perform squats and good-mornings. The greater physical condition the patient is in, the sooner they can start rehab. Ultimately, you want to prevent this condition from happening. Periodic adjustments to the sacroiliac joint and strengthening exercises such as good-mornings are the two most important things for prevention.
How we treat this condition involves the following:
Adjusting the sacroiliac joint. We either use the Arthostim instrument or our hands to increase the movement of the joint. The most common finding of sacroiliac joint pain is restricted range of motion. We determine this by watching how the joint moves while you raise one leg upwards, then the other.
Ultrasound or cold laser therapy. If there is swelling within the joint, the ultrasound will help. Cold laser therapy works better, but some people prefer the ultrasound.
Stretching the piriformis muscle and Psoas muscle. These muscles are the prime movers of the hip. Most people with sacroiliac joint pain have tightness on the side of the restriction.
Rehabilitation and prevention of this type of pain requires the patient to perform squats and good-mornings. The greater physical condition the patient is in, the sooner they can start rehab. Ultimately, you want to prevent this condition from happening. Periodic adjustments to the sacroiliac joint and strengthening exercises such as good-mornings are the two most important things for prevention.
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