A frequently heard comment from many of our Wellness Patients is that since beginning regular chiropractic care they don’t get nearly the coughs and colds, the ‘bugs’ that they used to, they often sleep better and just generally feel healthier. In fact many of our wellness families find they now no longer go the medical doctor. They find that they just don’t need to!

Why is this? Why is it that some people get every ‘bug’, every sickness, going around but others seem to be immune to them.

Walking is a good example of a basic movement pattern. We land on the outside of the heel, roll across from the back outside to inside front part of the foot and finish with pushing off on the big toe. This pattern has been shown to be both mechanically energy efficient and to reduce stress on joints and muscles (less injury prone).

What happens if we injure a leg / foot or toe, twist a knee, roll an ankle, stub a toe or bruise a heel? We limp to avoid pain and we no longer follow the same pattern of movement. Now muscles, joints, ligaments have to work in ways they are not designed to. They compensate. If this happens for a short period of time the body quickly re-establishes the pre-injury movement pattern. However if this compensated movement persists it can become permanent. Overtime this faulty pattern causes:  increased stress on joints that can lead to joint damage in the form of arthritis, muscle strain in the form of myofascial pain or tendonitis, greater expenditure of energy leading to fatigue. This is why restoration of correct movement is so important in a rehabilitative program.

There is a saying in manual medicine that “muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones heel, but the nervous system remembers pain”.  This explains why we see people limping for no good reason long after the injury, there nervous system has remembered the pain and is still protecting. Not only do muscle, tendons and joints need to be rehabilitated but importantly the nervous system needs to be reprogrammed and the protective pattern replaced with the old fundamental pattern.

In later blogs I’ll discuss how this applies to common specific problems such as rotator cuff shoulder problems, low back pain, patella pain syndromes, repetitive hamstring strains, headaches, TMJ pain to name a  few. Stay tuned casino

As science has progressed we have gained a better understanding of how the body works. Interestingly, science has only explained what teachers and coaches have known forever; practice makes permanent, only perfect practice makes perfect and permanent. Repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition! 2×2 is 4, 3×3 is 9, etc. The explanation of this form of learning has come through the concept of NEUROPLASTICITY. Neuro refers to the nervous system and plasticity implies flexible / malleable.

Nerves carry messages around the body. The more times we run a message through a nerve pathway the stronger that pathway becomes. This applies to thoughts as well, but we will concern ourselves with movements only here.  Very similar to training muscles where the more a muscle is used the stronger it becomes, nerves behave the same way. Just like muscles, disuse of nerve pathways leads to a deterioration of that pathway. This is what happens to some of our basic movement patterns due to modern / western lifestyle. Squatting is a good example.

Are you able to fully squat down so that your buttocks rest against the back of your heels and your feet are flat on the floor? What’s more can you remain there comfortable for a length of time? Interestingly they have found in cultures where squatting is a common practice there is an associated lower incidence of low back pain. Even more surprising a very recent study shows the benefits of squatting when emptying the bowel in regard to the incidence of constipation and haemorrhoids. Although not really a dinner table subject, this finding has huge implications on our health with the rise in colon-rectal cancer rates.

Squatting like cross crawl is a fundamental movement pattern. It requires mobility in the ankles, knees, hips and low back. It also requires balance, strength and stability. To perform correctly it requires the right amount of each ingredient just like baking a cake. Too much mobility and not enough stability or not enough mobility with too much stability will both impair performance.

I urge you to go and get squatting, start within a range of motion you are comfortable with and gradually increase this range. casino slots play for fun

Movement = characteristic of life

Patterns = a repeating ordered sequence

If you have children you probably remember marvelling at every developmental change you watched your baby go through. From lifting and turning their head, rolling from their tummies onto their backs and back again, crawling, kneeling, crouching, and standing walking … Wow!

Each stage built on the previous one, each one being essential for the proper development of the next.  Miss a stage or move too early to the next and risk problems later with more advanced movements.

I remember once working with a professional rugby union player who had real problems performing some of the running drills used in sped development. He just couldn’t get the coordination required between opposite arm and leg movement. Rugby players can be quite cruel so he copped a fair bit of flack from his team-mates. After the session I asked him if he knew how he had progressed from crawling to walking as a baby. He told me he had been told by his mother he had never really crawled but went from sitting to squatting to walking. He had missed an essential component in development – THE CROSS CRAWL PATTERN.

This motion is essential to any activity where we reach forward with one limb, such as walking, running, kicking, hitting, skipping, hopping, boxing and throwing. The opposite limb acts as a counter-balance and allows weight transfer from side-to-side and front-to-back. That is why tennis, throwing and boxing coaches emphasise the importance of foot position when generating power in the arms, and it is the opposite leg that the power in the arms comes from. casino games slots

What about really simple movement patterns like squatting, lunging, reaching, stepping, crawling, climbing, rolling, or walking?  Do these movements seem familiar? They are what all of us trained hundreds of hours at once. When? You won’t remember? No because you were only a baby. These movement patterns develop in a specific sequence and lay the foundation for all other movements. There is a continual sequential development of stability, balance strength and coordination.

What about flexibility? Interestingly we are born with all the flexibility and mobility we need. We then spend the first few years of life learning how to control it through stability, balance, strength and coordination. What do you think then happens? We stop doing all the things we did as children – crawling, rolling, climbing, jumping, skipping, hopping, squatting, etc…. We commonly replace it with SITTING and other adult activities.

In the next Blog I’ll explore some of the basic or fundamental movement patterns in more detail. online slots with bonus

When I started out as a PE teacher the program I was involved with was very skill and movement based. One movement pattern we spent a lot of time teaching was running. You would think running was a natural activity that anyone can do! Interestingly it is and it isn’t. You see to run optimally requires the highest level of neural integration that is the right application of the right force, at the right time, in the right direction with the right body movement. This can be trained – what do you think Usain Bolt has been doing for the last ten plus years! It is a specific movement just like hitting a forehand shot in tennis, kicking in football, shooting a basketball etc etc…

Several years after working with school children I worked with professional footballers. What became obvious was that after injury or holidays where the players hadn’t run for a while, when they returned to running they looked a little un-coordinated and out of rhythm. It would take a week or two to get that co-ordination and rhythm back – and these were top level footballers! What seems to happen the more we “groove” a specific movement pattern the more “natural” it becomes. Have you ever wondered why swimmers that race over only 50m train for hours in the pool? They are finding the most efficient movement pattern. We can also lose this efficiency through disuse.

Not only does efficiency of movement mean better performance – faster, higher, longer, heavier, but an associated reduced risk of injury.

In the next blog I am going to discuss some even simpler movement patterns, what we could call fundamental movements that underpin all the more complex movements needed for life. casino online

They are in fact answering their own question. We are designed to move. Every tissue and system in the body benefits from movement.

Movement benefits the nervous system due to the constant firing of nerves involved in proprioception (information about the bodies position in space) pain signals reaching the brain are diminished,  body balance is improved,  and  postural muscles are activated stopping them getting lazy. The nervous system also benefits from the increased oxygenation of the blood that results from moderate level activity.

Movement also benfits muscles, bones and joints. Muscles contact and relax, shorten and lengthen with movement which helps keep them strong, supple and healthy. The stress placed on bones when we move also helps keep them healthy by stimulating the osteoclast cells (bone making cells) to make more bone, thus reducing the risk of osteoporosis. The action of movement helps oil the joints keeping them healthy.

As well as these mentioned benefits there are so many more from improved hormonal levels, blood sugar levels and oxygen levels. So rather than reading this and surfing the net, get out there and MOVE! slot games to play for fun

The paper was written by a group of physiotherapist and their interest was in the use of exercise. However as a Chiropractor my first question was “Why would a baby always sleep with their head turned to the same side?” Being a Chiropractor the obvious answer is their is some problem with the cervical spine. 

During the birth process great forces can be exerted on the upper cervical spine as the babies head appears through the birth canal. This can lead to a very slight displacement of the top cervical vertebrae (C1). Chiropractors call this a subluxation, although it is not the same as a medical use of the word subluxation which is a whole other story.

Wouldn’t it make sense to have a new born babies spine checked for chiropractic subluxations?

If you do have a new born, check to see if they always sleep with their head to one side, or have difficulty turning to one side more than the other. It may be worth having a Chiropractor assess them for Chiropractic subluxations.

As an aside.  Hippocrates in ancient Greece developed a regime of exercise, spinal manipulation and spinal traction (The Rack!) to aid in the correction of “crooked spines” onlinecasino

To best understand scoliosis it is best to start by understanding an ideal spine from an engineering point of view.

The spine should be vertically straight when looking from the back or front resulting in equal weight distribution through the right and left sides of the body. Viewed from the side, the spine should have three curves that produce a “S” shape. These curves act as a spring system reducing the effects of  forces acting on the body.

Diviation away from the ideal spinal alignment compromises the spines main roles – axial support of body and protection of the nervous system while still allowing movement. Scoliosis then results in increased stresses on the spine and nervous system, along with improper spinal movements. This can then show up at some later stage as spianl pain.

There are many causes of scoliosis from injury, inequal leg lengths, neurological conditions and other pathologies. However the majority are what are termed idiopathic – a medical term for “we don’t know”. Many develop during adolescence with females having a higher incidence.

Next blog I will discuss more on early detection of scoliosis, prevention of scoliosis, treatement of scoliosis and the association of scoliosis with back pain.

Please post any questions or comments you may have on scoliosis. beste casino på nett

A comprehesive postural assessment is only the first stage for effective postural correction, one needs to explore all dimensions and address the underlying causes.  From the physical dimension; there may be poor foot stability requiring support, poor core trunk stability requiring strengthening work, spinal misalignments (Chiropractic subluxations) requiring specfic spinal corrections (Chiropractic adjustments), poor work station set-up requiring improved ergonomic seating / PC height etc, etc…. Emotional issues impact on body language and therefore directly affect our posture.

The first stage of correction is an awareness of the impact of emotions on posture. It is should also be stressed that not only can our emotions effect our posture but our posture can effect our emotions. Good posture has a positive impact on our emotions. To test this out sit slouching and be aware how you feel and then sit up straight and compare the feelings.

Please post me any questions or comments.

Dirk Williams – Chiropractor spill og vinn