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

Are You Barely Breathing?

                Breathing and breath control is a very important aspect of life.  Seems pretty obvious, right?  Improper breath control can actually directly be linked to low and mid back pain.  It is of the utmost importance that we, as active humans, focus 100% on our breath control not only during physical training, but our general daily activities. At our functional training facility, we emphasize this kind of control especially with any Olympic or weightlifting movements.

Holding the breath keeps tension throughout the “core” and provides a strong base to lift, whether it’s a deadlift, an over head squat, or picking up the kids’ toys.  The “core” has been a buzz word in the physical health and fitness industry for many years now, but it is still commonly misunderstood.  The muscles surround the abdomen and, when contracted, create a natural soda can-like brace to protect its contents (intestines, bladder, colon, spine, and vital vessels and nerves).  Think as if you were going to let someone hit you in the stomach, you would brace yourself, right?

So if you’re following along, it may seem as though I may condone holding your breath when lifting anything.  Logic would tell you that that is probably not a good idea (I’m going to have to agree with that).  Learning how to brace your abdomen without holding your breath is one of the major aspects of this notion of breath control.  Here is how to perform abdominal hollowing… the right way.

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

For our purposes abdominal bracing is a technique that has been taking over alternative healthcare with respect to low back pain and “core” stability.  Please consult your healthcare provider to confirm that you activating that right muscles and performing that exercise correctly.  You should literally be protecting your spine with abdominal hollowing with every movement you do in your daily life.  Also, while I’m saying my pleases and thank yous, please understand that this is only one aspect of learning how to control your breathing.  Learn them all.  As always please comment for questions or visit us at www.dryaun.com.

You Should Not Deadlift. Also, You Should Probably Learn How To Deadlift.

For some reason deadlifting has a bad rap.  I think I know the reason:  Low back injuries.  There is a lot of information on the interweb that can scare the general public away from deadlifting.  Also, there are a lot of healthcare professionals who will tell you not to deadlift.  Some of them are right.  Let me clear some things up about one of the most misunderstood movements in fitness.

1.       Deadlifting must be done, but it must be done correctly.

2.       Most low back injuries that arise from deadlifting are due to a break in the form; this includes lifting heavy AND light weights.

3.       A deadlift is not a weighted back extension.  This means that you are not supposed to lift the weight with your back; rather, you should stabilize the back/torso while your legs move the weight.

4.       Do NOT deadlift if you do not know how.  More on this below.

5.       The deadlift is not an upper or lower body exercise.  It’s both.  And while we’re on the subject, every exercise that you do is a full body exercise- even your bicep curl.  If it isn’t, then you aren’t doing it right.

6.       Everyone should learn how to deadlift. EVERYONE! (It just does not have to necessarily be with a barbell and weights.  Do you pick things up from the floor? Then you should learn to deadlift.)

(I am not going to start describe how to deadlift because, honestly, it is not something that can be read and performed.  You should invest a little more into your exercise routine and find someone to teach you how to deadlift.  This will prevent you from being injured.  Also, here a nice write-up from stronglifts.com on 5 reasons why you may be experiencing low back pain with your deadlift: http://stronglifts.com/deadlifts-lower-back-pain-injury-technique/ )

The most important part of the deadlift is learning how to open and close your hips while keeping your spine straight throughout the movement.  This can be trained through and exercise called hip hinging.  If all you get from this blog is a fundamental idea of how to hip hinge, then I have done my job.  Here are the first few steps on how to hip hinge.

1. Stand tall with a neutral spine and pelvis.

2.  Lock your shoulders by bringing you shoulder blades closer together (be sure not to raise the shoulder blades).  

3.  Unlock your knees slightly.

4.  Tighten your stomach and bend forward at the waist.  The idea here is to maintain the same upright spine while bending forward.  Notice in the second picture that the curves of the back are maintained while the third picture depicts a large rounding of the upper and lower back.

 

(Click to enlarge)

There are a lot of things to think about with this exercise, so please seek some additional advice on how the rest of the movement is done.

Let me ask you a question, and be honest.  What is the purpose of your exercise routine?  What is the purpose of you not having an exercise routine?   If “general health” is somewhere in your purpose, learn the hip hinge and the deadlift.  Doing them correctly and routinely will preserve your active lifestyle.  It really will.  The absolute best place to learn how to deadlift is in Fairfield, CT at BKAthletics, www.crossfitperformance.com. 

As always for questions, comments, debates, etc. contact me through www.dryaun.com. 

Move Your Arms and Legs, Not Your Back!

Increasing you back flexibility will not increase your performance; in fact, it will probably cause you pain.   

Bold statement? Let’s look into it.

The spine has natural curves (if you want to get fancy and impress someone, you could call it lordosis and kyphosis) to act as a spring that helps absorb various movements done in any given day.  Chiropractors or other health and fitness professionals will often give back stretches with a goal to increase spinal flexibility.  This is faulty.  Generally spinal stretches should be given to help ease some pain, but this is NOT an adequate way to prevent pain, or even worse, injury.  As a matter of fact, Solomonow’s study (2003, 2008) showed that static stretching of the spinal ligaments can cause muscle spasm!  We stretch for temporary pain relief and exercise/rehab for prevention of pain and injury.  So here’s the rule:

Mobilize your shoulders and hips, not your spine.

On the surface, there may be some sports where it seems that developing spinal mobility is warranted.   If we look a little deeper into the actual movements involved, we will see that it actually is not the case.

Baseball Swing: 

            

Seems like it is a big twisting motion of the spine, but is it really the spine that’s twisting?

Golf Swing:

               

                Again, we are seeing aggressive HIPS, not big movements in the spine.  Trunk flexion in the golf swing allows for variance in your stroke, variance in your stroke means inconsistent play and how frustrating is that to a golfer?

Olympic lifting:

               

                This is an Olympic snatch, where one must move a load from ground to overhead without stopping at the shoulders.  Notice how the hips are low and the spine is straight.  The only mobility in the spine is actually in the 7^th picture where there is SLIGHT extension of the mid back.  The hips are actually fully open at this point and the spine is straight, even in the catching position (seen in the 8^th picture) - great technical lift here.

Tennis:

               

Again, we see significant flexibility of the shoulder and hips, internal and external rotation along with power of the hip extensors.

Gymnastics:

Here we have great flexibility of the hips and hamstrings.Look how the spine is maintained.

             

This shows flexible hips with a straight low back.  She then goes into thoracic and cervical (neck) extension.

Here is our exception for spinal flexibility.  The lumbar (low back) is in excessive extension along with the hip flexibility.

 

             Gymnasts are notorious for having laxity in the lower spinal ligaments which are associated with a condition called spondylosis or pars defect.  I can honestly only think of the gymnast where it is beneficial FOR THE SPORT AS A PROFESSIONAL to have more mobility of the spine.  Let me reiterate, this is NOT beneficial for the average person.

I could go on with more sports, but I think you get the picture. While we are on the topic of mobility, I want to address this whole hamstring tightness concept.  To date, there is very little evidence that hamstring tightness cause low back pain.  There is, however, some evidence suggesting asymmetry of hamstring flexibility is linked to back pain.  Stuart McGill, PhD makes a great point in his book, Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance:

                “… performance is not a stretching contest.  Mobility is a requirement, but loose joints without precisely controlled strength are unstable.  This decreases performance and increases the risk of subsequent injury.”

So the next time you think you have to work on your back flexibility, think about what you are actually trying to do.  Think of your activity and the functional involved.  In most cases you will find your back should be neutral (maintaining the natural curves of the spine) while your hips and shoulders have to move.

Questions? Criticisms? Need to learn how to stabilize?  Contact me through my website, www.dryaun.com!

Andrew Yaun, D.C.

Do you Smell Something?

The following body parts aid in walking, potentially predispose you to PAIN in your ankle, knee, hip, and low back, and just so happen to reveal the most about your current emotions.  Know what they are?   YOUR FEET! Crazy, right?

The feet provide structural support for the pelvis and spine.  When foot posture breaks down, additional stress is placed on the joints, muscles and ligaments of the pelvis, hips and knees!

An unequal amount of support from one leg results in an uneven foundation for the pelvis.  If one of your feet is flatter than the other you can expect your body to hurt all over.   Would you drive around your car with one flat tire?

 Let’s talk about daily movements, such as the squat.  I have seen quite a few people experience significant knee pain with squatting and running.  This question arises every time, “Is squatting/running bad for me because of my pain?”. 

 I will go out on a limb here and say no.  What we have to look at, however, is your actual technique and body alignment during these painful movements.  Maybe you have to narrow your stance, maybe you have to evert (point the toes outward) another 5-10 degrees,  maybe your feet are not maintain a proper posture.  If the arches in your feet drop during a squat, the knees cave inward and create almost double the stress on the medial plateau/meniscus.  This sets off an imbalance that eventually causes PAIN.  Where is that pain? The knee? The ankle? The low back? The buttock?

If you are having pain during a certain movement whether it is at the gym or in your daily life, you must address it before the pain gets worse.  People who have pain when running will “accept” that they just cannot run anymore.  That may be the case, but I’d be willing to bet, with adjusting the technique (yes, even in running) or addressing some muscular/structural imbalances, that one can overcome fallible boundaries.   

Yours in Health,

Dr. Spider

Rest: Good or Bad?

For years people have been told to rest after an injury has taken place.  The common acronym of "PRICE" (prevent, rest, ice, compress, elevate) is the guideline to help decrease pain and facilitate repair.  The question raised is, how long do I have to PRICE?

There are three phases that occur once a tissue (muscle, tendon, ligament, etc.) is injured.

Phase 1: The Inflammatory Phase - This phase occurs immediately upon the injury.  Blood flows to the area more than usual to for a clot in the tissue.  This can be visualized by swelling to the area (we can go into what exactly happens physiologically, but this is not the purpose of this post).
           How long does this phase last? 2-3 days depending on the type of tissue involved and how badly the injury was.

Phase 2: The Repair Regeneration Phase - The clot has been formed and all of the white blood cells have laid down a good enough base to start laying down the initial collagen (aka soft scar tissue is formed).
         How long does this phase last? 2 days to 6 weeks

Phase 3: Remodeling and Rehabilitation Phase - Scar tissue is remodeled and it begins its permanent repair.
          How long does this phase last? 3 weeks to 12+ months!

We are not PRICEing for 12 months.  In fact, we are not even PRICEing for 3 days.  The reason for this blasphemy of rehabilitation is because we need to have RELATIVE REST!  The scar tissue should ideally be formed in the same direction as the tissue it's being laid on.  What does that mean to our recovery? We MOVE! (without pain)


For your enjoyment, here are some effects that full immobilization has on the body:
1. Muscle atrophy (muscle loss) begins in 6 hours
2. The atrophy rate of muscle is 1.5% PER DAY!
3. This means 41% decrease in strength in 5 weeks
4. Loss of tissue mobility (adhesion formation)
5. Detrimental effects to the synovial joint and connective tissue
6. Damage to tendon structure
7. Permanent cartilage damage
8. Vein and artery complications
9.  Loss of neuromuscular coordination (ability to move the joint is impaired)

The key point is to be on top of your rehabilitation.  Letting an injury just heal by itself without taking an active role in rehabilitation will result in less range of motion, and chronic pain due to compensation.  Contact your chiropractor, physical therapist, orthopedist, or medical doctor for advise on how to progress your injury.  There is no injury too small to address; if it causes any pain or discomfort ask now before it grows into a much greater problem down the road.

Yours in Health,
Andrew "Spider" Yaun, D.C.
www.dryaun.com

Ice Massage

Hey Everyone,

We did 100 Turkish Get Ups today and may have caused some irritation to the knees and elbows.  So, here is a quick explanation on how to cut down the bruising/inflammation.

A bursa is a little pillow that lies within or around a major joint of the body.  It allows for less friction around the joint (so the muscles can move better) because they are filled with synovial fluid (basically water with some nutrients).  The consistency is that of an uncooked eggwhite.

Inflammation of these bursae is called bursitis and can occur by constant irritation directly over a certain bursa (in this case the knee and the elbow).  Not to worry, though.  Ice massage will help decrease the inflammation, block some of the bruising pain, and increase the amount of time that it will take to resolve.

Any questions? Comment on here or visit www.dryaun.com and send me a message through the "Contact Us" message form!

~Dr. Andrew "Spider" Yaun