How to get better

I believe the fundamental stages required to get better and overcome an injury are: correction, rehabilitation, maintenance and resistance.

There's a lot to be gained from following the steps and making sure that healing has occurred and chance of  re-injury is limited:

Correction:

Correction entails moving the joints and vertebra back to the most ideal position. To allow a vertebra to move the muscles automatically change their tension, stiff muscles begin to relax and movement patterns begin to change.

If appropriate correction does not occur we can examine to find out why not.

Rehabilitation:

All spines degenerate over time; if it were possible to transplant a perfect spine how long would it take before it started looking like the former?

Traumatic injures and our habits cause stresses on our spines and affect their position and structure.

A previously injured spine is more likely to resume habits that may cause further damage.

Rehabilitation means changing our habits for the better to prevent re injury.

Sitting, sleeping, standing, exercising, our movement patterns and the way we time our muscle contractions whilst moving, how things work when we're stressed or off balance.

Most of the time simple Ergonomic changes may be implemented and have very favorable outcomes. Learning a new exercise or technique can teach your body to function better and prevent reinjury can have long term benefits.

The typical example is a mom who's had a C/section, cutting through the abdominal muscles forces the body to use other muscles to try and stabilize the spine the habit of using the wrong muscles is retained. It takes a 5 minute exercise to feel the abdominal muscles work again. If this is maintained it boomers the new habit.

These changes can be tested and monitored as improvement occurs.

Maintenance:

How well the corrective and rehabilitative steps have gone determines the required maintenance one may require to prevent a relapse of a condition. If a you have a desk job and you hunch over a laptop all day the likely hood of full recovery is limited without ergonomic improvement and postural improvement, once posture is improved what schedule is required to maintain it before it deteriorates again and symptoms reoccur.

We can test this with functional orthopedic tests and exercises that require specific muscle recruitment. Improvement and Prognosis can be measured and scheduling can be done accordingly.

Resistance.

In sports such as tennis  and golf it's often said that to make real gains in ones ability you need to make your weaknesses strengths, if your volleys or short game are weaknesses work at them until they're an asset to your game. Why not apply the same logic to an injury; if your core muscles are weak don't just rehab them until they work continue until they become an integral part of your functioning.

There's and endless number of exercises that can challenge your balance and stability, range of motion and control, the challenge can be fun and again measurable outcomes can be rewarding.

If you'd like any help with Correction, Rehabilitation, Maintenance or Resistance please don't hesitate to give me a call.

Description of Exercises

These Rehabilitation exercises aim to create stability initially and then test and exercise it with varying amounts of stability and a motion. Once basic exercises and movements are mastered more complex movement patterns can be attempted. Eventually even when stressed the Abdominal Muscles and Glutes work to stabilize instead of sudden Back and Hip Flexor (Iliopsoas) contraction which causes injury.
Chiropractic care Corrects the position of the joints and controls muscle tension. Movement patterns and Rehabilitative exercises help to prevent further or future injuries. Maintenance care follows and should test and examine the boundaries of ones fitness so that you know when you're likely to injure yourself and can take action before getting sore.



1. Abdominal Activation whilst Breathing

• Are you able to breath and Maintain Abdominal contraction?

• Place one hand on your abdominal muscles and the other in the small of your back and focus on maintaining your abdominal contraction whilst changing your breathing pattern.
• You should maintain Abdominal contraction during all exercises irrispective of your breath... this teaches you to maintain stability even whilst tired. 
• Exercise 7 can be done as a precursor to learn the initial activation or the Abdominals.

 

2. Lunges and quadriceps stretches

• Stretches the Iliopsoas and Quad muscles the antagonists to the Gluteal Muscles.

• Hold for at least a minute on each side

 

3. Bosu ball stability exercises. Standing Balance Exercise

• Learn to create a functional connection between the trunk and pelvis and stabilize the body.

• This can be done with eyes open and closed, on both and then one foot and on various unstable surfaces such as sponges or bosu to increase the difficulty.

 

4. Planks/ bridges

• Lift your Pelvis and hold the position

• Maintain Abdominal and Gluteal Contraction

• When comfortable with maintaining the position on two feet; lift a foot by straightening the knee and keep the position without allowing the opposite hip to drop, To do this you need to use your stabilizers.

• Keep your Pelvis in position whilst changing legs. How Stable can you make the transition?

• A sponge under the feet or back can make the exercise more challenging later on
  

5. Opposite extensions/ superman’s/ kick-backs

• Hold Pelvis Still with Abs and Glutes.

• Start with one arm and the one leg and do opposite leg and arm only when technique is correct.

 

6. Lunge with rotation

 

• Lunge first with good posture and arms forward.
• Make sure your knee stays in front of your hip inline with the foot and doesn't buckle inwards, if you are unable to maintain the knee position don't progress to rotations.
• Rotate to the open side first. progress to the closed side when the open side is mastered. Maintain posture and trunk control with your Abdominal and Gluteal Muscles.
• If Technique fails stop!

 

7. Abdominal specific crunches

•  Lie on your back with your feet on an exercise ball, bend your knees and press downwards on to the ball.
•  If the pressure on the ball changes start again. This is more important than the Crunch!!! If your Glutes are working you eliminate your Iliopsoas from contracting, this makes it specific because you cant bend from the waist.
• Hold Abs tight and use them to do a small Crunch; the idea is to isolate and teach you how to contract your Abs.
• Can do rotations to each side to activate the Oblique Muscles too.

All Exercises should be done with the correct technique and should not cause any pain!
There are no set number of reps or sets, technique is what determines how many to do. A difficult exercise should not be attempted unless you're able to master the basic variant.
Should you require further explanation, supervision, or would like to discuss these exercises please don't hesitate to contact me.
Chiropractic Adjustments correct the position of the joints to make these exercises more comfortable and prevent injury (Correction/Rehabilitation/Maintenance).
 

Rehab of Low Back Pain; Steps, Goals and Exercises

Steps for lower back rehab: 1. Abdominal bracing 2. Hip flexor stretches/ releases 3. Stability exercises 4. Static postural muscle exercises 5. Gluteus muscle strengthening 6. Dynamic stability exercises 7. Abdominal crunches (without hip flexor activity) Goals: 1. Begin activating the abdominals 2. Decrease the forward pull of the hip flexors     (Iliopsoas) 3. + 4. Strengthen and test the appropriate            muscle groups in the correct posture. 5. Change amount of forward tilt of the pelvis by     activating the abdominals and gluteal stabilizers 6. Decrease the amount of required spinal     extensor activity (injury to posterior joints) 7. Decrease excessive lumbar curvature Exercises: 1. Static abdominal activation with breathing     exercises 2. Lunges and quadriceps stretches 3. Bosu ball stability exercises 4. Planks/ bridges 5. Opposite extensions/ superman’s/ kick-backs 6. Lunge with rotation 7. Abdominal specific crunches (activate the glutei while doing crunches)  Consult a qualified practitioner or trainer before embarking on a new training or rehab program.

How I Fix Low Back Pain

I've wanted to share how I correct what leads to low back pain for some time. This will be an explanation as to what causes back pain two or three weeks after an initial traumatic event, the bad habit if you will, that eventually causes damage to tissues and ensuing pain. 

I've had great success in using my method and explain it 10 times a day so hopefully this can also serve as a resource if I fail to explain it well enough in consult.

It starts with your Iliopsoas or Loin Muscles. Your Iliopsoas connect from your Lumbar Spine to your Hips, they are meant to flex your Hip or bring your Knee to your Chest, they also try to stabilize your lumbar spine when your abdominal muscles aren't functioning as they should. When your Iliopsoas muscles contract or shorten while sitting for hours at a time, they pull your spine downwards when you stand up. They are antagonistic to your Gluteal or Bum muscles that hold you upright. 

If your Glutes aren't working to hold you up, because your Iliopsoas is contracted, the work is left to your Back Muscles and Hamstrings. Your back muscles now have to resist your Iliopsoas and grab your Vertebra whenever you lack coordination to keep you upright; they are Strained and they Sprain the Joints of your Spine.

When your Gluteal muscles are deactivated by the actions or your Iliopsoas the muscles around your Hip have to take up the work load and become painful causing hip pain.

If your Iliopsoas is shortened and your Abdominal Muscle activity is reduced by sitting for long periods of time, by traumatic injuries, by Abdominal surgeries and by weak Gluteal muscles. 

So how is it fixed?

We reeducate your nervous system and correct the position of your joints with specific Chiropractic Adjustments, release your Iliopsoas and stretch it, and then learn to use your Gluteal and Abdominal Muscles again with special exercises.

When your Abs and your bum work your Iliopsoas no longer pulls on your spine.
Look for my Exercises and stretches in my next blog.