Posts Tagged ‘chiropractor houston’
Why Ignoring Back Pain Is A Big Mistake
Ignoring your back pain is the worst thing you can do
Humans have an incredible capacity to live with pain, especially the kind that accrues slowly over time like the back pain and dysfunction related to our job. We can ignore it, or worse mask it, and move on with our daily activities; this approach sets us up for a lot of pain and degeneration in the future, but these considerations are subjugated to the importance of the task in front of you. It is amazing how we will let spinal flexibility, resilience, stability and posture fly out the window just because we have to get the job done. At Holmes Chiropractic, we believe that ignoring or actively blocking pain signals is the wrong way of going about things.
Healthy Habits for Hurting Hands
Stiff, sore hands are not something to take lightly!
Tenderness and pain in the joints and tissues of the hands is ubiquitous among office workers due to the repetitive trauma inherent in computer work. If you spend a lot of time interacting with a computer, it behooves you to take measures that will protect your hands so you can avoid conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis. At Holmes Chiropractic, we start with ergonomics- are you setting your hands up for success or future pain? Depending on the level of your wrists and how they rest on the desk, you could be adding more strain than is necessary to your hands. Once ergonomics are in place, you need to be proactive about taking care of your hands. Read on to find out how.
Are Situps Hurting your Spine?
Building core strength without sacrificing spinal health
Core strength and stability is an essential component of spinal health. The situp is a traditional exercise for building core strength that has long been demonized by spinal health professionals, but not for the reason you might think. The fact is, most people do situps incorrectly- they have a half-formed notion of what a real situp should look like and they set out to build a set of abs by religiously performing a movement that is bad for the spine.
- When you do a situp incorrectly, you flatten the natural curve of your spine.
- Many people over-engage the hip flexor muscles, which means they are sacrificing the core-strengthening of the exercise, while over-tightening a muscle that creates a pull on the lower back.
- This is an isolated activity which creates repetitive stress for one part of the body while neglecting other muscles.
With this system, you could end up with a sore back and no abs! So let’s take a more practical approach to developing core strength.
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 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.