Chiropractic Tip: Upgrade Your Posture & Skip Back Pain
Back pain impacts the lives of millions every day. For many, it becomes a struggle to live a normal life. If you have been lucky enough to avoid upper and lower back pain, it might be time to learn some precautions.
HarvardHealth tells us there is a lot that we can do to prevent back pain. Start by staying fit and maintaining a normal weight. Then take one more simple step.
Pay Attention to Your Posture
The way you hold your body while you stand, sit, lift, bend pull or reach can impact your spine and make all of the difference. If your posture is good, the bones of the spine, the vertebrae, will be correctly aligned helping to keep your body pain free.
Easy Posture Steps To Take Now
Use imagery first. Imagine a straight line passing through your body from the ceiling to the floor. Your ears, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles should be in a vertical line. Picture a cord attached to your breastbone pulling your chest and rib cage upward. Keep your pelvis level. Don't allow the lower back to sway. Stretch your head toward the ceiling, increasing the space between rib cage and pelvis. Picture your body moving smoothly straight as an arrow.
Then Try These Exercises:
Shoulder blade squeeze. Sit up straight with hands resting on thighs. Keep shoulders down and chin level. Slowly draw your shoulders back and squeeze the shoulder blades together. Hold for a count of five. Relax. Repeat four times.
Upper-body stretch. Stand facing a corner, arms raised, hands flat against the walls, elbows at shoulder height. Place one foot ahead of the other. Bending your forward knee, exhale and lean toward the corner. Keep your back straight with your chest and head up. Feel the chest stretch. Hold for 20-30 seconds. Relax.
Arm across chest stretch. Raise your right arm to shoulder level in front of you and bend the arm at the elbow, keeping the forearm parallel to the floor. Use your left hand to grasp the right elbow and gently pull it across the chest stretching the right arm and shoulder. Hold for 20 seconds. Relax. Repeat three times on each side.
Use these posture exercises to help protect your back throughout the day.
Visit Your Chiropractor to Learn More
Your chiropractor can be the best way of all to stay healthy and avoid back pain. In the first visit the chiropractor will use a spinal manipulation to evaluate the health of your spine. There will also be a complete medical history review followed by a discussion of daily activities.
From there your chiropractor may want to talk about posture and evaluate workplace stations, hours and positions. The session might include healthy diet and weight loss suggestions, relaxation exercises to reduce stress, and new work schedules if you tend to work too many hours.
I have known many people who have turned chiropractic visits into an overall health checkpoint. They maintained active schedules and enjoyed busy lives. But whenever painful twinges came up they turned to their chiropractor to find early solutions.
As their chiropractors helped them stay healthy the emphasis was on natural care with no medications or surgery.
If this sounds like a plan you would like to live with make an appointment and find out more.
Used under Creative Commons Licensing courtesy of Stefan Schmitz