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Category: Exercises

aligngrapevineBlogExercises
By admin Exercises

Fitness Tips From a Chiropractor in Grapevine

You are aware that eating well and staying active are essential for maintaining excellent health, but occasionally unforeseen circumstances cause your best plans to falter. Don’t punish yourself; your Grapevine chiropractor is here to help. Maintaining your physical health doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. You can fit in more exercise and make better decisions with ease if you follow a few easy life hacks.

 

Stretching and Strengthening Exercises for a Healthy Spine

These easy at-home workouts help you to maintain the flexibility and health of your spine.

 

Stretching

Your back, neck, and core muscles can all benefit from gentle stretches to help ease stress and pressure. You can perform shoulder rolls by slowly rolling your shoulders forward and backward or by slowly rotating your head side to side. Try seated twists for your mid-back. Straighten your back, put your arms out behind you for stability, and then slowly rotate from side to side.

Lay on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground to relieve lower back pain. Grab one leg behind the other and slowly raise it toward your chest, pulling lightly until you feel a stretch. Continue with the opposite leg.

 

Strengthening

Core exercises are key. Particularly, planks assist and strengthen your spine and build your core. Beginning on your hands and knees, raise one leg at a time while maintaining a flat back. Hold for a duration of 30 to 60 seconds. Gradually increase your endurance.

Bridge positions and seated leg raises are more alternatives. Squeeze your glutes and raise your hips while lying on your back with your knees bent. Sit up straight and raise and drop one leg at a time while performing leg lifts.

 

Tips for Keeping Your Back and Neck Pain Free

Your Grapevine chiropractor suggests the following ergonomic practices to help prevent neck and back strain caused by extended sitting:

Invest in an adjustable chair and desk. Having a workstation you can customize to your body is key. Raise or lower your chair so your feet rest flat on the floor, your knees remain level with your hips, and your arms are even with the desk surface.

Take regular walking breaks. Every 30 minutes, stand up, move around and stretch. Walking boosts blood flow to your muscles and joints.

Use a lumbar support cushion. Place a cushion behind the small of your back for extra support.

Keep your monitor at eye level. Your screen should be an arm’s length away and slightly below eye level. This prevents straining your neck.

Use an ergonomic keyboard. An adjustable, split keyboard lets you keep your wrists straight and elbows close to your body. This avoids tension in your shoulders and arms.

Practice good posture. Keep your back straight and supported, chest open, and head level. Engage your core muscles. Your ears, shoulders, and hips should remain in alignment.

 

Nutrition Advice to Support Overall Wellness

What you eat has a direct impact on your musculoskeletal system, energy levels and overall wellness. Here are a few key tips:

Focus on anti-inflammatory foods. Consume turmeric, ginger, leafy greens, omega-3 fatty acids, and tart cherries which can help reduce inflammation in the body. Inflammation is linked to back and joint pain, so an anti-inflammatory diet is key.

Stay hydrated. Drink plenty of water every day to keep your spine and joints lubricated. A good goal is 6-8 glasses of water per day.

Eat more protein. Aim for 20 to 30 grams of protein with each meal, especially breakfast. Good sources include fish, eggs, nuts, and seeds. Protein provides the amino acids your body needs to build strong muscles, cartilage and connective tissue.

Eating well and staying hydrated are two of the best things you can do for your spine and joint health. Be sure to talk to your chiropractor in Grapevine for personalized nutrition advice to support your wellness goals. By following these tips, you’ll feel better from the inside out.

Align Health - Common Causes For Shoulder Pain
By admin Exercises, Physio

Common Causes For Shoulder Pain

Shoulders are the joints where the humerus (upper-arm bones), scapula (shoulder blades), and clavicle (collarbone) meet. In the rounded sockets of the scapula, the humerus fits on each side of our shoulder. A rotator cuff is a group of four tendons and muscles that covers and protects each humerus and help us move and lift our arm. The rotator cuff helps move our shoulders forward and backwards.  

As our shoulders have a versatile range of movements, if anything goes wrong, they will not move freely, and there will be a great deal of discomfort and pain. Your shoulder can be injured by playing sports, repetitive movements, or performing manual labour. 

What Causes Your Shoulder Pain?

Many factors and conditions contribute to our shoulder pain, while the most general cause is rotator cuff tendinitis. In this condition, tendons get swollen. 

Sometimes there is no direct injury to the shoulder, but an injury to the neck or biceps causes pain in the shoulders. This type of pain is termed referred pain, and generally, it does not worsen when you move your shoulder. 

Other causes of shoulder pain are following;

  • Torn Cartilage: if you injure your cartilage that covers the rim of your shoulder joint, you will feel pain whenever you move your arm or absorbs a lot of force. 
  • Torn Rotator Cuff: your rotator cuff got torn due to overuse or in a fall. It shows wear and tears as you grow old. 
  • Osteoarthritis: where it affects other bones and joints, shoulder joint get affected also. It affects the cartilage through stiffness and causes pain.
  • Broken shoulder or arm bone: your bone can crack or break if you take a hard hit or fall. Mostly clavicle and humerus get affected. A broken collarbone makes your shoulder sag, and you might not be able to lift your arm.
  • Osteophytes: in this condition, small, smooth piece of your bone rub up against each other to cause tendinitis or rotator cuff tear.
  • A pinched nerve in the shoulder or neck: this condition is also known as “impingement”. In this case, there will be severe swelling and pain.
  • Dislocated shoulder: if you pull back or rotate back your shoulder too hard, then your arm’s top might pop out of the socket, and there will be severe pain and weakness in your shoulder.
  • Frozen shoulder: your joints will be limited in this condition. Adhesions will build up when the shoulder is not in use due to an injury or surgery.
  • Heart attack: when your shoulder hurts a lot, and you also feel tightness and severe pain in the chest, you immediately need to see a doctor.

Diagnosis of Shoulder Pain

Your doctor will do a physical exam to check any structural problem in your neck or spine. Then they will check the flexibility of your arms by rotating them in 90 and 180 degrees. After that, your doctor will perform different tests like X-rays, MRI scan and CT scan to get a closer look. 

At Align Grapevine, we have a team of highly skilled and professional massage therapist, physician and chiropractor who help you get rid of your shoulder pain. If you are suffering from shoulder or neck pain and looking out for an expert chiropractor, contact Align Grapevine to get quick relief from muscle tenderness. 

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