Back and Neck Care with Medically Proven Exercise Methods
Milton's Fitness Club in Orlando
Private Personal Training with The Core Spinal Fitness System and MedX Weight Resistance Equipment
Do You Experience Back Pain and Discomfort?
Compression
In this day and age of computers, office work, television, travel by car, and classroom settings, we sit too much and too long. Sitting (and gravity) causes compression in the low back, hip joints and back of the thighs. This compression creates a perfect environment to cause pressure and inflammation in the nerves and muscles of the low back and posterior thigh region. This pressure can cause burning, tingling, and shooting pain that can be debilitating.
You must take breaks from all the sitting by integrating standing, walking, and stretching breaks into your daily schedule. When you were a kid, the adults told you to stop fidgeting and wiggling, but "kid" you had it right! Move as much as you can!!
Posture
How you sit, stand, walk and move will also effect your back and neck. If you sit all day with your chest collapsed and your head forward, your neck and upper back will start hurting. If you sit all day with most of your weight shifted to one side, you'll cause an imbalance that will effect the musculature and intervertebral discs of your whole spine.
The Result of Poor Posture
When your posture is poor, you stop using your skeleton for support and start using your muscles for support. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to support yourself with muscular effort; much more effort than what skeletal balance requires. The result is fatigue and achy, burning muscles.
Try this: Pick up a big book and hold it straight out in front of you. Hold it. Hold it. Tired yet? When you sit or stand with your head forward, you are making the muscles of the neck and upper back hold your 10-12 lb head like you are making your arm muscles hold the book. Now you should understand why your neck and upper back feel so tight, sore and fatigued. You are making the muscles hold the weight instead of letting your skeleton support the weight.
When your posture is not balanced, front/back and side/side, you create uneven pressure on the discs that are between your spinal vertebra. The discs are kind of like gel-filled fibrous pillows and if you put too much pressure on one side it pushes the disc out to the other side. When this pressure causes the disc to bulge, it can cause compression on a nerve and you will get pain. When the pressure causes the disc to bulge for long periods of time due to poor posture and too much sitting, the disc will loose its ability to spring back to the balanced position. With no awareness or prevention on your part, this can lead to a ruptured disc that could lead to back surgery in the future.
So you must develop awareness about your posture!
When a nerve is compressed, it will be irritated and a cranky nerve won't leave the muscle it innervates alone. This causes more contraction in the muscle which reduces blood flow. When a muscle cell contracts it gives off byproducts. You have probably heard of the byproduct lactic acid. Blood flow through the muscle helps to carry the byproducts away from the muscle so they don't stay long causing more nerve irritation. The more chronically contracted the muscle becomes, the less the blood flows and the more irritated the nerves become. In this ischemic environment, trigger points can develop causing referred pain.
Here is an example of how trigger points can develop; your upper back and neck have been hurting and you have just been dealing with it because you don't know what to do. You figure it is just part of the price to pay for working on a computer. Time goes on and now you notice the right side of your head and jaw are also hurting. You go to the dentist but nothing is wrong with your teeth. But if you squeeze the upper trapezius muscle located between the base of your neck and the shoulder joint you will probably find a trigger point that, when pressed, will recreate the pain you are experiencing in your head and jaw.
What can you do?
- Immediately, you can apply ice for 20 minutes. You can also alternate ice and heat, 15 minutes each. The idea is that you want to flush blood in and out of the muscle tissue to help decrease the pain and improve the health of the muscles.
- You can also do gentle stretching daily to help lengthen the tight musculature.
- Start an exercise program to restore function, reduce pain and improve health.
- Decrease drinks or foods with sugar and caffeine that stimulate the nervous system. You want to calm your nervous system to help reduce pain.
- If you don't understand your musculoskeletal system very well, consult a professional to help teach you.
To reverse the de-conditioning syndrome of muscle wasting and loss of function, you will want to include strength training in your weekly health maintenance program, preferably one that is proven to strengthen your back and improve your spinal health. It is as important as breathing, eating and sleeping!
When you ignore your pain, you create a layering of musculoskeletal conditions that over time can be difficult to untangle. This is the vicious cycle of pain that you need to change by increasing the health of the muscles, decreasing the inflammation and removing the stimulus that is causing the imbalance with proper exercise, improved posture, healthy nutrition, and adequate rest.
To improve your posture, try this!
Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart and your knees slightly bent. Balance your weight evenly between the front and back of your feet. Now, arms by your sides, stretch up as if someone was measuring your height. Relax a bit so it doesn't feel forced and then find the balance in your feet again. Enjoy! This is the feeling of good posture! You can try this sitting too by balancing your weight evenly between your hip joints.
Inactivity and Muscle Atrophy
One type of muscle wasting is caused by physical inactivity, simply not using your muscles enough. The other type of muscle atrophy is caused by injury or disease. But, muscle wasting caused by physical inactivity will lead to self-induced
diseases and conditions. Strength training exercise is recognized by the
medical community as a proven method for maintaining muscle tissue
and reversing muscle atrophy at any age.
Strength training all the muscle groups 2-3x a week for 20-30 minutes is recommended by the healthcare community. This creates healthy benefits for your musculoskeletal system, cardiovascular system and endocrine system. Strength training isn't a vanity project. It's now recognized as a crucial part of a
well-rounded exercise program that will help offset the natural tendency
to lose muscle as we get older.
Muscle loss results in weakness which results in more inactivity and pain. Age-related decrease in muscle tissue starts at the young age of about 30. The average 30 year old will lose about 1/4 of his or her strength by age 70 and half by age 90. To prevent injuries, falls, bone loss, muscle loss, heart disease, diabetes and many other conditions, you have to be proactive about your health! Strength training IS health insurance.
While many standard exercise machines contribute to strength increases, they do not exercise the lumbar extensors (low back muscles of the spine). This information has been clinically tested and proven by research at the University of Florida. They found that to produce true improvements in low back function the muscles must be properly isolated and stabilized with weight resistance equipment that stabilizes the pelvis and isolates the lumbar spine. Such equipment with the unique pelvic restraint, like The Core Spinal Fitness System, is usually available only in professional settings. Their research also showed
that 80% of people with back pain were able to reduce or eliminate their pain with the use of this back strengthening equipment ....
even if they had bulging or ruptured discs!
This medically tested and proven weight resistance equipment is available at Milton's Fitness Club with professional private personal training to help you achieve the best back strengthening results.
Give us a call, our treatments are designed to restore spinal strength,
endurance, and flexibility to its normal state. We have 30 years of
experience in healthcare and fitness. Read our testimonials page.
We get results!
Milton and Cynthia Jimenez 407-230-0678
Private Personal Training in Orlando at Milton's Fitness Club
We are committed to excellence in healthcare, fitness and customer service.
|
