Move At Work, Yo.

Sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours at work sounds harder than running a marathon to me.  I just think of being glued to a chair and a bright screen while ticking away at the keyboard.  Sure my chair is awesome, state of the art lumbar support and my work ergonomics department inspected my station and left it with an A+.  But at 11:30, almost lunch time I am stiff and just want to move.

Is this accurate at all?  Or am I painting a picture that could only belong in Office Space and not real life?  I’m going to run with it as if it is a common situation anyway.

Work ergonomics are definitely important and are a necessity to any desk job, but there really is no replacement for real mobility during work; it would just not be a healthy environment.  Even writing this blog, I can feel my shoulders wanting to roll forward, my mid back wanting to drop, and my lower back wanting to round.  Why?  

Good posture takes work.

So, what is to be done?  What is acceptable at work?  What if I am too embarrassed and do not want to make a spectacle of myself? 

What is to be done: 1) Dynamic mobility is always a good go-to when you are feeling or want to prevent stiffness.  A pretty good routine of dynamic mobility would be a World’s Greatest Stretch, walking with leg pulls, air squats, side bend plus reach.  (There really are so many, but these are just to name a few)

But really, we also want to reverse everything that we turn into while sitting for a long time.  That means (2)  Breuggers position while sitting or standing (standing preferably).  Finally I really like 3)the Beefed Up Child’s Pose.

Breugger's Position

 

What is acceptable at work?  I’m sure most of these could be squeezed into your day without reducing your production…

Embarrassed? Spectacle? Two things here. 1) Who cares?  You are being an active member in society!  You are taking it upon yourself to stay healthy and energetic!  You are realizing that how you feel is directly proportionate to how you perform!   

 

2) If you really are embarrassed, then just go to the bathroom.  People already think that you are exerting some sort of effort when you walk into the stall anyway, so you might as well embrace some movement other than your bowels.  Seriously, though. Get Moving!
One.

Questions?! Comments?

Is It True That If You Don't USE It, You LOSE It?

If there was one movement that I wish I learned when I was younger it would be the squat. What an athletic movement this is! The ability to bend the knees and hips at the same time while stabilizing the midline is not as easy as some people may think and asking high school athletes to perform one will surprise you. Some people think that squatting is bad for them because they have knee/low back/hip pain, but shying away from movements will only assure that you will continue to regress.

 When I broke my hand (spiral fracture of the 4th metacarpal), my wrist was casted in neutral for 4 weeks. When the cast was taken off my spiral fracture had healed and was in no pain. My wrist, on the other hand, was VERY stiff and it hurt to move in all directions (especially in flexion and extension). Had I not had taken the time to rehab, strength train, work on mobility, my wrist would still be at a deficit. Our bodies are kind of awesome. The human body will adapt to whatever stresses on which they are put, Wolfe’s Law. This means that if you were to turn your head only to the left for even 4 weeks, you will lose range of motion going to the right. How does this happen? 


The tissues all adapt! The ligaments will shorten, the muscles will be strengthened for turning left and weakened turning right, the joint capsule will physically be more willing to turn left rather than right, and should you turn to the right, you will feel pain. This is why people have rounded shoulders, forward heads, and the INABILITY TO SQUAT!


If you do not go through a full range of motion you are doing yourself a disservice. The squat it a full range of motion, but it is also ridiculously functional. It requires hip, knee, and ankle mobility, spinal stability, shoulder stability, and balance. If any of these are a weakness, it will show in the attempt of a squat. Two takeaways here, 1) frequently perform full range of motion activities (not just stretching, but actual functional movements), and 2) learn how to squat and address any issue that may be limiting your range of motion. 

One.
Questions? Comments?

What's the Deal With Twinge?!

Have you ever been in the middle of an activity when you feel a little “twinge”?  (Twinge: an instance of pain that may or may not have happened.  Your body definitely felt something, but your head will not let you believe that there could possibly be anything wrong.)  Then you go on with your life.  Two days later, that twinge came back, only twice though.  Two weeks later the twinge officially becomes predictable pain.  This has officially entered the category of being an injury.

"I didn't feel that, la la la"

Fiddlesticks.  Now your shoulder is stopping you from doing your daily swim; you are sitting out from volleyball at your own family picnic because you “did something” to your shoulder; you stopped your weight lifting routine and are just focusing on legs, but this gets old fast.  After two weeks of rest you go back to trying a swim, after all, you rested it so it must be all good now!  Twinge.  Frustration.  Pity Party.  Eat.  Lethargy.

I wish this was out of the ordinary, but I see this in practice all the time.  We do not want to admit that we may have a rotator cuff tear, so we will avoid some fairly logical steps to make sure that it does not get worse.  People get apprehensive of pain, but the truth is that:

PAIN IS GOOD! (as seen from my previous blog)

It is situations like this that bother me a little bit.  We live in a world with conservative care.  What is conservative care?  In my world, it is managing injuries (big or small) without using injections, surgery, or medication.  A “twinge” is a great sign that you may need to incorporate something else into your weekly life to PREVENT AN INJURY FROM COMING!  One month of rest and rehabilitation 3 times per week might be excessive for a twinge, but it could also be exactly what you need.  

There is nothing to be afraid of.

My favorite part of being a sports physician is prescribing additional rehabilitative exercises as a supplement to an individual’s routine exercise program.  This allows someone who is perfectly capable of learning one or two new exercises to care for his or her injury before it is actually considered an injury. 

This is not scary for the individual because an action step was made once a weakness had become evident (Yes, the twinge is actually an indication of weakness or faulty movement).  Sometimes adding in range-of-motion activities with some stability exercises will eliminate the twinge/weakness/faulty movement.  

Here is an example of a recreational swimmer’s weekly routine with an added shoulder PREhabilitation.  This was given after an examination to rule out anything major and we were able to prevent the regression of the injury:

Weekly routine:

Swims 1 mile 3 days per week (half freestyle, half back stroke)

Weight training 2 days per week (full body circuits)

Shoulder twinge PREhab prescribed:

Swim days:

Shoulder ROM 2 x 10/ movement

Contract/Relax mobility for 5 minutes prior to swim

Weight training days:

Raised surface child’s pose

External rotation 3 x 10 (light and easy, good form)

TGU light 2/side x 5

Shoulder setting with plank 10-30 sec holds x 3

These twinges just need a little love.  Give it to them. 

One love. 

~Dr. Yaun

Maybe It Will Go Away

 

"Aches and pains increase more and more with age."  "Getting older is tough."  "My knees are bad, I can’t do that anymore."  "It’s natural to have back pain as I get older."

Sound familiar?  Is this really all true?  I can imagine that this is a similar story that everyone has heard or told at least once.  The fact of the matter is yes, you have more pain now than you did when you were younger, and no, it is not natural to be in pain as we age.  The variable that changes your outcome is your chosen lifestyle path.  Lifestyle: the way one chooses to live with regard to career, home life, diet, hobbies, social status, exercise choices, and health maintenance (this is my personal definition without being that Webster definer guy).  

The key word is “choose”.  There are a lot of topics that can be branched out from this category, so I will stick with the pain. 

“Pain prevents injury when utilized effectively and limits performance when utilized ineffectively.  Further, the presence of pain inhibits specific muscle and motor patterns that may be essential to both injury avoidance and ultimate performance.”- Stuart McGill

I love this excerpt.  If you are an athlete who “plays through the pain”, you are ultimately limiting your performance.  The human body will find a way to get a certain job done, but this is problematic.  For one faulty movement, it takes 10 correct movements to re-learn the right mechanics.  So that means if you are a going for a run and changing the way you are running because your foot hurts, you may be running incorrectly.  So for EVERY STEP that was taken, it will take 10 correct steps to fix it. 

How many times will your right foot hit the ground in a 400m run (once around a track)? Math time:

-          Assuming an average stride length of about 7 feet

-          1312.34 feet = 400m

-          1312.34/7 = 187.477 steps.  Assuming that the right foot is the one in questions, we will divide by 2

-          187.477/2= 93.74 FAULTY STEPS

-          93.74x10= 937 steps to correct the dysfunction

All of this math nonsense means that for running a quarter of a mile incorrectly, it will take two and a half miles just to undo that faulty movement; bringing you back to square one!

Take away: Just because you can alter your movement and have no pain, does not mean that you fixed the problem.  Take the time to properly correct the CAUSE of your pain.  This will effectively boost your performance and, more importantly, prevent further injuries!

One love. Dr. Y

An Idea About Work, Daily Activities, and Your Exercise Routine

 Professional and semi-pro athletes have an obvious reason for training the way they do.  Weekend warriors train because they have some race in 6 months that they want to crush.  Most of the population probably wants to merely look and feel good, not really caring about any upcoming fitness event.  I would like to propose an alternative motive for having an exercise routine… that applies to everyone above:

Your daily activities (including home, work, leisure activities, etc.) should represent, at the very most, 50% of what you do for your exercise routine.

(The answer is yes, I did just make up that statistic, but I think it is a decent generality to make and I will explain why.)

Scenario: I am a construction worker and my job consists of lifting, moving, squatting, etc.  I can argue that I get eight hours of physical activity per day and I do not need to exercise any more. 

This way of thinking will ensure exhaustion by the end of EACH day because the worker is performing 100% of his physical activity during work.  What if this person had an exercise routine that trained him to lift more functionally, engrained proper squatting leading into weighted squats, aerobic and anaerobic conditioning, etc.?  This routine, of only 3 days per week, will condition this construction worker to perform his job with much more ease. 

 Quality of life is the backbone of this theory.  Your regular daily activities should feel like “no big deal” when compared to your exercise routine.  If you put this into play you will have more energy, be more productive, and FEEL BETTER!  As a chiropractor, I often am asked if I get tired from moving people around, adjusting, or performing soft tissue techniques.  I can honestly say no.  Specifically this morning I performed sets of deadlifts, tested a 30 second maximal effort on the air dyne (twice), and performed gymnastic movements on Olympic rings while training my aerobic capacity.  Handling things in my office is just physically not demanding and I want you to feel the same way.  

If you are not looking for a very demanding exercise routine, I suggest you at least incorporate these movements into an exercise routine.  If you have anything that is hindering you from exercise (like headaches, knee pain, low back pain, etc.) please contact Yaun Chiropractic for a free initial consultation. www.dryaun.com

Top 4 Ways to Reduce Pain in Pregnancy!

What To Expect While You Are Expecting:
Half of all pregnant women can expect some back pain. Back pain develops for two reasons. One is simply the added weight caused by the pregnancy. Another may be that the extra weight is carried in the front of the body, shifting your center of gravity forward and putting more strain on the low back. The muscles in your back have to work harder to support your balance.

How can you minimize the discomfort?

1. Stick with your exercise program. Find out from your doctor what abdominal and back strengthening exercises are safe for you, and how long you can maintain your regular exercise program. Swimming is an excellent way to keep fit and relieve the stress on your back from the extra weight of pregnancy.  

2. Lifting. If you have to pick something up, kneel down on one knee with the other foot flat on the floor, as near as possible to the item you are lifting.  This is called a lunge Lift with your legs, not your back, keeping the object close to your body at all times. Be careful, though - it may be easier to lose your balance while you are pregnant. Whenever possible, get assistance in lifting objects. 

3. Carrying. Two small objects (like groceries, one in either hand) may be easier to handle than one large one. If you must carry one large object, keep it close to your body. 

4. Sleeping. Sleeping on your back puts 55 lbs. of pressure on your back! Placing a pillow under your knees cuts the pressure in half. Lying on your side with a pillow between your knees also reduces the pressure.

How can you deal with the back pain related to pregnancy?

Fortunately, most back pain related to pregnancy is self-limited and will resolve. In most cases, medication is not a good option. Do not use any medication during pregnancy without permission of your physician. Some treatment options include learning exercises to support muscles of the back and pelvis, using supportive garments that may be helpful with certain causes of back pain in pregnancy and using spot treatments such as heat and cold. If your pain persists despite these measures, or you develop any radiating pain, numbness, tingling or weakness in your legs, you should consult with a spine physician with expertise in women's health issues and/or pregnancy related disorders. They will be able to assist you in diagnosing and treating your specific problems.  

For any questions, please contact Yaun Chiropractic at www.dryaun.com!

Top 6 Tips for SLEEP HYGIENE!

In my first blog about sleeping, we discussed some myths and facts about sleep.  I left you with some questions about your own sleeping habits along with an assignment to track your alertness during the day.  Today, we will look at the bare essentials when it comes to sleep hygiene.

Well what is sleep hygiene?  Take a shower; Brush the teeth; Clip the nails? No (well yes, but that is just regular hygiene).  I am talking about SLEEP hygiene.  

Sleep hygiene, in my own words, is the protocol that you would follow in order to ensure the highest quality of sleep for a specific night.

It is important to know that your internal clock (yes you actually do have an internal clock) sits right above the optic chiasm.  Why is this essential to know (and what is an optic chiasm)?  The nerves that allow you to see are called your optic nerves and they actually cross paths and attach to the opposite side of the brain.  The nerves cross about one to two inches from the front of your face and that is where the internal clock is located in the brain. 

So what?  SO! The amount of light taken in is directly related to your alertness (or sleepiness).  It makes sense that our ancestors slept and awoke with the sun, right?  Applying this to your daily life, you should make sure that your lights are turned down low within an hour of going to sleep. 

Here is my TOP 6 LIST of Sleep Hygiene Strategies.

1.       Within one hour of going to sleep, use candle light.  It is by far the best form of light prior to sleeping (and pretty romantic).  You should also avoid high light sources such as computers, television, iPads, cell phones, etc.

2.       Do not perform many activities that involve you thinking too hard.  Your body needs to decrease all brain activity in order to fall asleep.

3.       Your workouts should not be within 2 hours of falling asleep.  Your body also needs time to reduce its temperature.

4.       Make sure there is some form of blanket for the middle of the night. Your body continues to decrease its temperature while you sleep.

5.       If you do not fall asleep within 30 minutes of going to bed, GET OUT OF BED. The bed literally should only be for sleep and coitus; not reading, watching TV, doing bills, etc.

6.       Keep a note pad on your nightstand.  This will allow you to write down anything that is on your mind.  If you have a lot of important things that you cannot stop thinking about, you can write them down and it will be waiting for you in the morning.

I could go into detail about more of these sleep hygiene tips, but I will not in an effort to be brief.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through these comments or www.dryaun.com.

Goodnight.

~Dr. Yaun