Are you ready to tap into your body's full potential and move with grace and efficiency? Look no further than "Built to Move," a groundbreaking guidebook that revolutionizes the way we approach physical fitness. This transformative resource takes a holistic approach, emphasizing the interconnectedness of mobility, strength, and flexibility. With practical exercises, helpful illustrations, and valuable insights, "Built to Move" equips readers with the knowledge to correct imbalances, prevent injuries, and unleash their true capabilities. From tailored training methods for all fitness levels to mindset and motivation strategies, this engaging guidebook is a must-have for anyone seeking to optimize their movement and embark on a lifelong journey of wellness. Say goodbye to limitations and hello to a body that's built to move!
Revamping Your Brisk Walking Routine: Unleash the powerful healing potential of walking
Are you ready to take your brisk walking to the next level? Don't just walk, strut with confidence! Mastering the art of perfect posture can make all the difference. So, let's dive into some essential cues that will revolutionize your walking game:
Lift your head high and feel the tension melt away. Straightening your spine not only boosts your poise but also relieves any neural tension, making it a lifesaver for sciatica sufferers.
Before you hit your stride, warm up like a champ. Picture yourself marching on the spot, but with a twist! Lift those knees a tad higher than your regular walking stance. It's a power-packed warm-up that sets the tone for an exhilarating walk.
Embrace the rhythm of freedom. Let your arms hang loose, and allow them to gracefully swing across your body from the shoulders. Feel the momentum as you sway to the beat of your brisk steps.
Start small, conquer big. Begin your journey with shorter steps and a brisker pace. Gradually, with each stride, let your legs stretch further, propelling you towards your walking goals. Progress is the name of the game!
Walk like you mean business. Picture yourself rushing to an important meeting. Emulate that pace as you stride forward. It's all about that sense of urgency that gets a sweat going.
Listen to what your body is saying. Begin with a solid foundation of 15-20 minutes of brisk walking on a flat surface. Use a stopwatch to time yourself. When discomfort creeps in, mark the time as your benchmark for a pain-free period. Let this guide your journey, gradually extending your walking time. For example, if pain sets in at 18 minutes, make that your endpoint for the week. Next week, push it to 25 minutes, building up to 45 minutes of discomfort-free walking.
Witness the transformation. Consistency is key. As you diligently follow this path, both your physical and mental well-being will undergo remarkable changes. Feel the energy surge through your body and the positive mindset take root.
Elevate your routine with a holistic approach. Pair your daily walking practice with regular checkups with your local chiropractor. Their expertise will be your secret weapon against acute and long-standing back pain. Embrace the power of movement and professional guidance to reach new heights.
In the words of the philosopher Solvitur Ambulando: “There is nothing a good walk can’t solve!”.
Think you’ve got a pinched nerve? Think again.
The concept of a “pinched nerve” has become synonymous with the experience of acute lower back pain to the point that most patients diagnose themselves with a “pinched nerve” before they have even walked into my office. In fact, real pinched nerves are a fairly rare phenomenon and acute lower back pain or a “pinching feeling” in the lower back is not related to nerves at all. Rather, lower back pain is most commonly caused by irritated muscles and joints and in most cases can be easily managed by manual or movement therapy (i.e. your local Chiropractor).
So what actually causes lower back pain or a pinching feeling in the lower back?
These kinds of complaints are usually caused by small movements that we repeat over and over in our day to day lives that are actually causing damage to our spinal structures. Over time, this damage accumulates and causes an injury which then leads to the pain which most people experience.
If you are experiencing lower back pain or want to reduce your risk of developing lower back pain, the most important thing to do is to stop damaging your spinal structures in your everyday movement patterns.
Forward bending (known as flexion) and twisting (known as rotation) can be damaging to the spine if not done using the correct form. If you bend forward or twist with a rounded or hunched lower back then you could be causing small amounts of damage to your spine every time you bend over to brush your teeth, load the dishwasher, pick your socks up off the floor or pick up your baby or puppy. If you do this often enough and for long enough, you will eventually develop a lower back injury. In addition, hunching over a desk or computer is also considered a form of flexion which is damaging to the back. If you spend your whole life hunching over your desk, this too can cause an injury in the lower back.
Once you have this injury, bending over becomes painful and even intolerable. This pain also sometimes extends into the glute or leg.
How do we prevent and treat these types of lower back injuries?
Most of us can’t limit the number of times we need to bend over in a day, especially if forward bending is part of your occupation, child caring, housekeeping or fitness routine. But you can make sure that when you do bend forward, you do it well and avoid damage to the spine over time.
The key to forward bending well is to maintain a neutral lower back (not arched or hunched) and to bend in the hips (known as a Hip Hinge). The Hip Hinge protects the spine from damage by activating your abdominal’s (which keep your spine strong) and allowing your large glute muscles to do all of the hard work, instead of your back. If we consistently make sure to forward bend using a neutral lower back, we can successfully prevent lower back pain in the future.
What if you already have a lower back injury or already experience pain when bending or rotating?
Your natural response to this pain might be to avoid the movements that cause the pain i.e. bending over or rotating. In fact, forward bending is part of life and forward bending using a Hip Hinge will not only help to prevent future damage to your spine but will also allow a damaged spine the time to heal. Instead of avoiding the movement altogether (which isn’t really possible), it is better to continue to bend and rotate but to make sure to do it using a neutral lower back so that you don’t continue to damage your back. This will also help to teach your brain that this type of movement is “safe” and that it doesn’t need to avoid bending in order to reduce pain. Over time, repeating movements that were once pain-provoking can help to train your brain to no longer see them as painful.
Below is a comprehensive series of videos covering how to perform the hip hinge as a anti-dote to a “pinched” lower back.
Opening conditions and guidelines for operating during COVID19
The conditions under which we are opening our doors again are based on the highest safety recommendations.
They include:
1) Limited numbers per day, so please bear with us if you aren't seen to immediately.
2). Staggered time slots so that the waiting room doesn't get overcrowded and we can ensure social distancing.
3). Hand sanitising when entering and leaving. We will have sanitiser available.
4). Facemasks to be used by both Doctor and patient during the consults.
5). Regular hand washing by the Doctors and front of house staff as well as disinfection of the treatment rooms between patients.
6). We will have disposable masks for those that don't have masks.
7). The waiting room will be set up so that the seating will be spaced 2.5m apart and will be sanitised regularly.
8). We need all patients to arrive on time for their appointments. This ensures that the office doesn't have too many people crowding the space.
9). All items such as towels and drinking glasses have been removed from the waiting rooms, bathrooms and treatment rooms.
10) Removal of shoes prior to entering the treatment rooms.
11). For patients who are tentative, we have a telehealth offering. This provides high-quality communication and care.
Preventing Back Pain During Lockdown
Preventing Back Pain During Lockdown
In light of the nation-wide lockdown and worldwide COVID-19 epidemic, most South Africans are now spending more time than ever sitting in chairs. In addition, being at home all day is causing a reduction in daily movement and hence we are seeing a huge spike in the incidence of lower back and neck pain.
So what do you do when your local Chiro’s office is closed due to lockdown and you can’t get your usual manual therapy?
Most of us know that sitting on a couch with a laptop propped on our legs isn't the best choice from an ergonomic standpoint and that setting up an ergonomic workspace is of utmost importance for keeping the body pain-free.
But how do we achieve this?
It is commonly thought that simply changing your office chair or changing the way you sit in your chair will help to mitigate pain from sitting. However, this is not the case. Work-related/ ergonomic injuries are in fact caused when our bodies are under too much physical strain. The strain is caused by picking up a heavy object, moving into painful positions repetitively or being in a painful/ slouching position for an extended period of time.
Whilst good posture does help to prevent pain to some extent (sitting with rounded shoulders all day won’t keep you out of your Chiro’s office), holding a perfectly upright posture for a whole day will still cause pain and stiffness as staying in one position all day still causes physical strain. Instead of focusing on the notion of achieving an ideal posture (which doesn’t actually exist), it’s important to rather focus on reducing the amount of physical strain on the body through the course of your working day.
Dr Lazar’s Top Tips For Preventing back pain when working from home:
1. Move often: Sitting in one position all day is sure to cause physical strain on your lower back and neck. If you are at your desk all day try and break it up with tasks that force you out of your chair. For example, stand to take phone calls and stand during Skype/Zoom meetings if possible. Make a goal to stand up from your desk every 45-60 minutes and to incorporate a bit of mobility. The standing stretch is a great mobility exercise: raise your arms overhead and hold for ten seconds. Then reach higher and farther back for another ten-count. Inhale deeply, working into an upright and stress-free standing posture. Drop your arms and relax.
2. Change position regularly: Prof Stuart Mcgill (A leading expert in spinal biomechanics) suggests switching between different chairs and sitting surfaces during the course of the day. Some individuals will find comfort in sitting on a gym ball for 20 minutes and then moving back to an office chair. This can also be done by adjusting the settings within your office chair itself. Play with the backrest angle and the height. The goal is to not spend all of your time in one position so that you can distribute stress to different areas of the body.
3. Set-up your desk ergonomically: Make sure your monitor height is at gaze level so that your head is not overly flexed or extended. You can use a pile of books or an old shoebox to prop up the height of the screen. Your palms should rest on the keyboard without too much bend in the wrists. Adjust the text size or wear glasses if your vision is a problem so that your head doesn't need to poke forward to see the screen. Keep your spine in a neutral position whilst sitting. This can be done by rolling up a towel and placing it in the 90-degree bend of the chair or via an affordable lumbar support pillow. Make sure to take all keys and wallets out of your back pocket. Sitting on a wallet is like sitting on a wedge. It off balances your pelvis and causes compression of the hip joint as well as the Glutes and the Piriformis muscles. This can cause a "pseudo-sciatica."
4. Incorporate a daily movement practice: Many of us are limited in terms of the type of movement we have access to during lockdown. With gyms, trails and sea activities being out of bounds at the moment, it has become increasingly difficult for people to stay active. However, a daily movement practice is important now more than ever. Not only does this type of practice help to prevent pain, it also helps to improve mental wellbeing. A daily movement practice helps to prevent pain and injuries by creating lubrication in your joints, promoting blood circulation to areas which may be lacking as a result of sitting, loading your tendons and ligaments to make them stronger and priming your nervous system to make it more tolerant to pain.
Click below to see exercises recommended by Dr Hilton to incorporate into your daily movement practice.
For more individualised information on how to set-up your home office space or home exercise routines to prevent and reduce pain, click the button below to learn more about our Telehealth offerings.
Introduction to the movements
The Deadbug
The Birddog
Isometric Bear
Cat/Camel
The Getup
Breathing
Let movement be thy Medicine During Lockdown
Now more than ever a daily movement practice should become a staple over the coming weeks. With social isolation in full force, stress, confinement and lack of everyday movement can potentiate aches and pains as well as tension in places that are common areas for those with reoccurring problems.
An interesting observation in our practice is that patients who practice some form of daily movement be it Yoga/Pilates/Tai chi/Running or strength training manage their recreational and real-life activities with strength and confidence.
It creates a sense of well being and acts as a barometer when certain areas of the body aren't moving with ease. From a physiological perspective daily movement when done in the correct dosage with the right intent has many benefits.
It creates lubrication of the joints, promotes blood circulation to areas which might be lacking as a result of sitting, loads the connective tissue to reinforce it. At a systemic level, the stimulation of nerve endings in both the joint capsule, fascia, and muscle is like candy for the brain. All that movement is fed through the peripheral nervous system to the brain and creates a learning environment for the motor cortex and stimulates centers in the brain that regulate the autonomic (unconscious) system. The benefits of such stimulation are a brain that is more plastic (think exercise for your brain) and change your autonomic state in a matter of minutes. The shift in the state is from a stressed anxious state to a calmer clearer state of mind.
The key functions of the practice are to increase the core body temperature and promote circulation, Prime the nervous system for more dynamic movement throughout the day, and lubricate the joint surfaces. Below are some of our recommended choices making up a daily movement practice:
1) The Czech getup: (10 to each side)(If you are pain-sensitive always perform within your tolerance. Pain should not be more then a 6/10) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z93MyQ-sCIo
2) Getting the hip joints mobilized: (Hold for 45 seconds on both sides) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLuvQCTPrcY&list=PLtyPctjT2r9yaX536MWMeXRrIAXce5iW2&index=1
3) For the Midback:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V76A42jT8wo&list=PL4qucIlemaht68WVZVipE06XqgGLWuYpY&index=3
4) Full body movement: (Bear Crawl) (i recommend 5 rounds of crawling for roughly 5/6 meters in length.)
https://www.youtube.com/watchv=11okyirK_sA&list=PL4qucIlemaht68WVZVipE06XqgGLWuYpY&index=35
5) It wouldn't be complete without a bird dog: (7-10 on each side.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxo0lDGLNkw
Prepping for the Cape Epic 2020
Outside of the endurance and riding specific workouts a big focus should be on prepping the muscle/fascia and joints for hours of corrugated roads, rocky downhills and unforgiving single track. The best way to do this is to spend some time under load. In more simple terms to lift some weights. Squats, deadlifts, lunges, pull-ups and bench press should be staples in your routine. Not only will they help in your power output on those short sharp climbs but they also enhance the shock-absorbing capabilities of your limbs and torso to take up all the pounding that the rough terrain throws at you. In addition some of that training can be incorporated into at least one HIIT (high-intensity interval training) a week to simulate the kind of intensity you might experience during the race. This is a great way to train as it is novel and takes out some of the monotony of riding up a hill multiple times and challenges the body in different ways. With all the hard training regular chiropractic maintenance is a great addition to a well-planned training regime. This will help keep the body balanced and aligned which helps the musculoskeletal system function efficiently.
Treat your spine like you would your teeth:
So you have just embarked on a fitness journey. Got all the kit and have joined the hottest fitness craze on the block. Three weeks down the line you are feeling great but there is something niggling in your back. The next morning you wake up to brush your teeth and your back locks! This is an all too familiar scenario I see in my practice.
If your routine includes lots of forwards bending (think loading a dishwasher or washing machine or lifting heavy boxes off the floor) or exercise such as crunches/situps/jackknives etc…. you might be setting yourself up for trouble.
These commonly performed exercises have been shown in studies by the foremost lower back expert Dr Stuart McGill to cause high shear loads through your spine and its soft parts (Disk, ligaments and cartilage surrounding the vertebra).
Dr Mcgill went on to develop 3 fundamental core exercises to help keep your spine stable, healthy and pain free. He describes the practice of these exercises like regular dental hygiene in that they should be done on a daily bases. It is important to note that these can be done in the absence of pain and will ensure a bulletproof lower back.
The 1st is the Mcgill situp and is designed to create a feeling of stability and safety in an achy spine.
The 2nd is the Mcgill side bridge. It helps connect the pelvis and the lower back and allows the lower back to move robustly in sideways movements.
The 3rd is the bird dog and it is a great way to get good core activation and fires up your Glutes. It also helps connect opposite sides of the body which is fundamental to human movement. Click here to see how they are performed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_e4I-brfqs)
Last but not least and probably the best “Magic Bullet” in combating lower back pain is a simple 20 minute flat walk at a brisk pace.
The three exercises above should be dosed appropriately and should be done in accordance with your pain threshold. This means that if 5 reps is the most you can do without the exercise hurting you then that is the baseline for the number of reps you start with and eventually build up to ten reps on each side. Ideally in people who are in pain these exercises can be repeated 3 times per day.
An incredible story of communication, work ethic and persistence! →
An incredible story of a patient that had a dream filled with many obstacles. We set a plan along side James Montgomery of the Run Project and we helped him realize his massive goal of the Drakensberg Grand Traverse. CHAPEAU Rodney Long, you are an incredible inspiration!
The Perfect Pain free Taper going into Cape Town marathon →
This post highlights some brief ideas on how to execute the perfect taper. Ensuring that you go into your race pain free with no niggles and with the most confidence that race day will go smoothly!
Kane Reilly- The pursuit of passion →
A great piece of writing about a young guy who balances life and competitive sport incredibly well. We are honored to be able to work with him and really proud of his growth over the years!
4 simple things to think about to improve your running, prevent injury and staying pain free:
1) Happy Feet.
Making it a daily practice, whether standing, walking or running to be in a position whereby your feet are not flared out like a duck or turned inward (pigeon-toed). It may seem unrelated to think of your foot positioning as an indicator to potential injury but if for example your feet are splayed outward. What this does is puts the joints above the feet into bad positions and can slowly damage the soft tissues supporting and surrounding them eventually leading to pain and swelling (think MCL/Meniscus injuries at the knees).
2) Awesome Ankles
Range of motion at the ankles is fundamental to happy running. Limited range of motion is a big indicator of poor running form. Limited movement at the ankle is a big causative agent in 3 of the most well-known running complaints namely
- Plantar fasciitis
- Achilles problems
- Shin splints.
So what can be done to maintain supple ankles?
A biggie is keeping the tissue above the ankle supple, by creating slack in the tissue it provides additional slack around which the joint can move. There are a few ways this can be achieved:
A) Using a self massage tool such as a trigger ball/ foam roller, by using it as a tacking mechanism and flossing the underlying tissue between the respective ball and the weight of the leg. Achieve the flossing mechanism by finding a sore/tight spot, placing the foam roller/trigger ball on it and moving the whole foot such that the toes point up and down. This intern mobilizes the soft tissue around the ankle and buys some mobility in the ankle. It can be done at both the calves and the front of the shin.
B) Another nifty trick is to use an old hockey/cricket ball and gently roll the arches of the feet, this builds some flexibility back into the arches of the feet.
3) Warming up and cooling down
The warm is very important in that it gets the nervous system ready for action ahead as well as warming the muscle and connective tissue and getting the joints lubricated. It allows the lymphatic and circulatory systems to serve their function. Runners that train and then don’t cool down are essentially shutting down their lymphatic system which in essence removes all the nasty by products of running and sets the stage for poor recovery and increased risk of future injury.
A great tool for warming up and cooling down can be achieved with a skipping rope as the skipping action closely mimics a running action.
4) Hydration:
Everybody harps on about how important hydration is but no one really seems to take it seriously. Considering that 80 percent of our bodies are made up of water and most of our most important body functions depend on water it makes sense that adequate hydration is very important.
Structurally water is a huge component of the fluids that bathe our joint surfaces which provide shock absorption and allow for smooth sliding of different muscular layers against one another. Thus if inadequately supplied it will cause a lack of shock absorption capability (think about sore knees post run) and the lack of sliding between muscular layers can setup adhesive bands (think hot spots in the muscles) and that achy and stiff feeling the morning after a long run. Aim for roughly 500ml and hour during the run and consider supplementing with an electrolyte drink.