Blog
Maintaining Function in the Shoulder, the Body’s Most Mobile Joint
The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the human body
A joint that is utilized so often is a joint that is prime for wear and tear. At the point where it attaches the arm to the upper body, there is a complex network of nerves, tendons and tissues which all have the potential to suffer injury and cause pain. The rotator cuff is a collection of tendons (tissues that attach muscle to bone) and ligaments that support the arm at the shoulder joint. This rotator cuff is furthe reinforced by cartilage and ligaments that give your shoulder strength and support proper range of motion. Understanding the anatomy of this epicenter of movement helps us understand why many normal actions become fraught with pain and weakness when the shoulder starts acting up. So how can chiropractic help?
The Deep-Rooted Causes of Sporting Injuries
When we suffer sports injuries, where do we assign blame?
It is easy to point to faulty footwear or old equipment, but the truth is that the majority of sports injuries are entirely preventable. The expression, “leave it all on the field,” signals that athletes demand a lot from their bodies, often taking out more than they put in. The most common sports injuries that we treat involve strains and sprains. These injuries are the culmination of your body reaching a breaking point, and that breaking point is likely due to a number of factors both internal and external. So we ask: is that breaking point avoidable? Our job at Holmes Chiropractic is to help you exercise the greatest degree of control over the factors within your body.
Golfing your Best Game with Chiropractic
Golf places unique stresses on the body
Golf is an excellent sport for promoting mental and physical wellbeing; it is an opportunity to challenge yourself while still offering plenty of opportunity for social interaction. But whether you are playing against yourself or a competitor, don’t underestimate the golf swing- it is one of the most stressful motions for the spine and as such the game of golf presents unique challenges for spinal health. By understanding the biomechanics of the golf swing, we can improve our level of performance on the course while preventing injuries and spinal degeneration.
The Many Benefits of Chiropractic for Athletes
Chiropractic’s role for athletes across the world
The Olympics is an unparalleled coming together of athletic accomplishment that celebrates the role of exercise in the human experience. Each of these athletes has pushed to the very top of their sport through a combination of natural ability, discipline and the pursuit of perfection. Along the way, athletes are looking for every natural advantage they can get, and chiropractic answers that call with natural treatment modalities that optimize the coordination of body and brain. Read on to find out how chiropractic answers the call of athletes all across the world.
Chiropractic Means More Comfort During Pregnancy
Pregnancy is a time of upheaval for your spinal health
Back pain is ubiquitous among pregnant women. During a time of great expectation and near-constant physiological and psychological change, the last thing you need is the accompaniment of pain. Yet still, as your child continues to grow, so to does the back pain. At Holmes Chiropractic, we are motivated by the idea that your pregnancy doesn’t have to be notable for its back pain. We use natural, pregnancy-specific modalities to help reduce pain, increase comfort and boost your chances of a successful pregnancy, free of medical intervention.
Chiropractic Improves Oxygenation of the Entire Body
Better circulation makes you look, feel and function better
It is not to be underrated: ensuring that every cell in the body gets a constant flow of oxygen and nutrients is the best way to feel well. Oxygen is an essential component of cellular respiration, the process by which our body rebuilds, repairs and maintains. So the only question remaining is: why do so many of us forego the circulation we deserve. Our lifestyles often acquire bad habits that harm our circulation, many of which become engrained to the point of subconscious:
- Chronic shallow breathing
- Chronic poor posture
- Lack of exercise
- Insufficient hydration
- Poor diet
When our circulation is inhibited, we simply suffer. Read on to find out about increasing oxygenation throughout the body with chiropractic.
Ignoring Back Pain is No Answer
Why are we so skilled at ignoring back pain?
Perhaps the answer is that we are too busy for back pain. Compare back pain to other conditions: the effect of an acute injury like a broken finger is immediately tangible- it may actually prevent you from performing a given task; a migraine tends to steamroll all other tasks, consuming your attention as the pain centers in your head; back pain, however, is not like these other injuries, at least at first. Back pain tends to start slow- an ache in the lower back, stiffness in the neck- and bide its time until it blooms into something much worse.
Why More Athletes are Choosing Chiropractic
Performance-boosting therapy
If success in your sport is determined by fine margins, reaction times are crucial. Even a 10% reduction in your muscles’ response times can make the difference between first and second, or a personal best. At Holmes Chiropractic, we further measure the efficacy of chiropractic‘s role in athletic performance by observing improvement in measures of importance to the athlete. These areas of importance include:
- Range of motion
- Response time
- Blood flow
- Recovery times between workouts
- Injury prevention
Chiropractic’s role in reducing back pain, optimizing the nervous system and improving range of motion in all ages is well known. This blog will demonstrate chiropractic’s expanding role in aiding athletic performance.
Chiropractic is Dynamic Health Care
Chiropractic is a health care system
Traditionally, spinal adjustment (or manipulation) was the bread and butter of the chiropractor’s office. Our form of healthcare believes that the function of your spine informs the way your body feels. Thus, chiropractic adjustment, which seeks to maintain alignment of the spine and proper functioning of the nervous system, is a central modality for maintaining wellness and keeping pain at bay. However, chiropractic is far from stuck in the past; in fact, it is a truly modern healthcare system that moves with the times. Given factors that include an aging population, a more sedentary workforce, and the ubiquity of less active forms of entertainment, we are treating more people than ever who are suffering from premature degeneration of the spine. The domino effect that this causes in terms of overall health is exactly why chiropractic care is more important than ever.
Do This at Home: Mobilizing the Spine
A frequent complaint: lack of mobility in the spine
While the upper and lower segments of the spine are designated regions of stability, the middle region, also known as the thoracic spine, is designated as a mobile region. The spinal motion segments in this part of the back are specially engineered for rotation, flexion and extension. In the sense of your spine, movement begets mobility; you need to keep your spine mobile to maintain its mobility. Thoracic spinal mobility has important implications in the functioning of the upper and lower body, and thus maintaining its mobility is of vital importance. Unfortunately, many of the people we help at Holmes Chiropractic come in and exhibit signs of poor mobility in the spine. Poor spinal mobility affects us in myriad ways:
- Restricted range of motion
- Uneven development of supporting musculature
- Lack of coordination between moving parts of the body
- Communication breakdown along a vital pathway of the nervous system