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Your Roseville chiropractors and acupuncturist
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Proper lifting mechanics is so important in order to avoid injury. You need to make sure that you lift with your legs rather than with your back. Many people put too much unnecessary strain on their back while lifting objects at work or at home. This can then cause a muscle strain or a disc injury causing a lot of pain. In order to lift properly Dr. Zak Owens shows how to properly lift using your legs.
He does this through a method called hip hinging. First you need to make sure you are squared up to the object. The object needs to be directly in front of you. Then you will be doing a squat. Keep your back straight while you bend at your knees and hip. One way to make sure you are doing this correctly is to have a wooden dowel or stick behind your back to make sure it is straight. Once you get down far enough grab the object. Then push with your legs up keeping the back straight and straightening at the hips and knees. This is also equally important to do when you are putting an object down. Bending at the back when putting an object down can equally hurt you as if you were picking it up. Make sure when you are putting it down that you are keeping your back straight bending at the hips and knees. If you have any questions feel free to send a message. Your Roseville Chiropractor is always here to help.
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The coronavirus is still keeping a lot more people at home and for good reason. However, being at home doesn't mean you can't stay active and get your exercises in. Here are some more exercises from your Roseville Chiropractor, Dr. Zak Owens, so you can stay active. These exercises are designed for seniors (65 and up) as they are easy to do and can be modified so everyone can do them. You don't have to be over 65 to do these exercises as you can modify these exercises to make them more difficult.
1. Step up exercises-The step up exercises is a great exercise that can be modified for everyone of all ages. Start with just doing these exercise on a low surface like a stair step or a step bench. Start slow and make sure you have an open area to do this that way you don't accidentally trip and fall. Once you feel comfortable with this exercise 2. Glute bridge exercise-the glute bridge exercise is a great way to strengthen your butt muscles. It is also great because by doing this exercise you can get help decrease your low back pain. Push up with your legs while lying on your back and squeeze your glutes together. The simplest way to do this is to hold this position for a couple seconds go back down and repeat. You can also hold the final position for 30 seconds. If you feel this is too easy you can start by hold the final position with one leg on the ground and the other extended. You can do dips with either one or both legs making sure to not rest on the ground. 3. Pull apart theraband exercise-the pull apart theraband exercise is a great way to strengthen the muscles between your shoulder blades and it is easy to do. This is a great exercise for those have been sitting a lot or if you have neck and back pain between the shoulder blades. This exercise is simple to do as all you need to do is pull apart the theraband. You can do it exactly horizontal or you can do it diagonally to help strengthen your muscles. 4. Resisted external rotation shoulder exercise- I’ve shown this exercise a couple times in the past as it is a great shoulder exercise to help strengthen the typically weak infraspinatus and teres minor rotator cuff muscles. I also really like this exercise since it can be easily completed with a theraband. Make sure to keep your elbow tucked in close to your side. 5. Exercise ball stability exercises-Exercise ball exercises are really great for any person of any age. While I wasn't able to show this exercise very well on the video doing stability exercises is great for seniors to do. All you need to do is sit on the exercise ball with two legs on the ground. You can then move your body in a circular movement around the ball which will make you off center from the ball. While doing keep your core stable by flexing your abs slightly, breathing through your diaphragm, and keeping your pelvis in a neutral position. Doing this will help increase your core stability. If this is too easy try spreading your legs out farther. If you want more of a challenge straighten one of your legs off the ground and only have one leg contacting the ground. Keep your foot on the ground closer to you for help or put it further away for more of a challenge. This exercise is also great for those who are having low back pain. I know these exercises can be done by seniors and help keep you active during these difficult times. If you have any questions feel free to reach out. Your Roseville Chiropractors at Accident and Sports Injury want to help you be active, be pain free, and be able to do the things you love to do. We want to help keep mobility in the spine. Medicare covers chiropractic care which will help you be pain free and be able to move better. We hope to see and help you soon. Right now we are living in a world of uncertainty. The pandemic of the coronavirus has uprooted many of us from our normal lives and routines. Many of us have lost jobs, some of us are required to work very close to the virus, and some of us are going stir crazy from being at home. With so much negativity around us it is hard to keep a positive attitude. The coronavirus is all that is being talked about. The news makes it seems like that things will just keep getting worse. However, I want to talk about some ways that you can change your perspective and how you can be positive and have hope during this time.
1. Keep yourself physically healthy- I'm sure this has been hammered time and time again but this is key for happier life. Make sure you are eating good foods like nutritious fruits and vegetable and other nutrient rich foods. Avoid eating foods with empty calories liked fried foods, fast foods, sweets, etc. Also with so much time at home avoid eating just to eat like snacking on chips. Try instead having nutritious snacks such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, etc. It is also important to keep yourself active. Do something to work out and keep active each day. Some great ideas are going for a walk (make sure to maintain social distancing), work in your yard, participate in a dance party with your family, find some home workouts you can do with family or by yourself. There is a lot you can do to keep yourself healthy. 2. Find time to explore hobbies- I know it is easy to find a new show to binge watch on TV especially if you are tired but with more time at home it is a good idea to explore a new hobby. There are a lot of great fun things to do that could occupy your mind. Maybe it is picking up an instrument to play. You could start knitting or gardening. It could be as simple as picking up a book, writing a story, or learning about your ancestors. Finding something new to learn will help keep your mind occupied and help you foster continual learning in your life. 3. Be grateful what you have- It is very easy to find something wrong or to say I wish I had this. Instead of doing that think about all the great things you do have. It could be as simple as a place to live or health. It could be a family or a job. It could also be that we have improvement in technologies and knowledge to better combat the virus. Taking to time to think about all the things you do have will help you focus on that rather than on the things you don't have. 4. Remain hopeful and take action- Even if it seems that everything is going wrong you can always have hope. Try to focus and think that things will get better. Be optimistic of things to come. I think the biggest way to keep hope is to take action. If you are hopeful for things to get better do everything you can to make it happen. If you fail that's okay just try again. We all fail but the important thing is getting up after you fail. 5. Don't get overwhelmed- It may seem like there is a million things to do. It is important to not get overwhelmed with everything that is going on. Focus on one task at a time. Once you get one task done go to the next one. If you think of everything you need to do it can bog you down and make it difficult to start. Focusing on one task at a time will help you get everything done. I hope this can help you through these difficult times. If you do these things I know it can help you to be more positive. If you are feeling depressed or have trouble with persistent negative thoughts make sure to talk to a mental health specialist. Recently the California Governor has asked for senior citizens to stay at home because of the coronavirus. During this time it is important to maintain wellness. Here Dr. Zak Owens of Accident and Sports Injury Clinic in Roseville, CA is going to show some easy exercises that can be done by seniors while staying at home.
1. Sit to stand squats-Sitting to standing squats are a great exercise to do. It has the benefits of doing squats but allows for the opportunity to take needed rests. While doing these exercises the goal is to not use either hands to push up on your legs. This will allow you to strengthen the muscles of your legs. If you need to you can use one arm to help with balance or make sure to use the wall to help. Another helpful tip is that if you are having difficulty doing these squats you can try doing them from a higher chair. These sitting to standing squats are a great exercise for senior citizens. 2. Single leg drop-This is an eccentric exercise for the abdominal muscles. It is the opposite of doing single leg raises. For this exercise lay on your back, bring your knee towards your chest, straighten your leg up as high as you can, and then slowly lower the leg to the ground. The slower you go the more it will help strengthen your abs. 3. Tricep dips-triceps dips are a great body exercise to help strengthen the triceps. The nice thing about dips is that there are different ways to modify it so seniors can strengthen their triceps. If you want to make this exercise easier keep your feet close to where your arms are at and use a higher surface like a kitchen counter. Doing this will allow you to use your legs more to help your triceps work. If you want to make it more difficult you can use a lower surface like a couch and put your legs as far away as possible. That will allow for more weight to be put on the triceps. 4. Cat Camel stretch and Quadruped tract-These are a great stretch and exercise that I think should be used together. The cat camel stretch does a great job at allowing mobility in the lower back by stretching the lower back in extension and flexion. The quadruped tract is a great core exercise. It can be done with just lifting up a single arm or a single leg. If you would like to make it a little harder you can do opposite arm and leg at the same time. This is a great exercise to be done when having lower back pain. 5. Aerobic exercises at home-Aerobic exercise is so important to help keep your heart strong and healthy. Some great aerobic exercises for seniors are walking and riding a bike. A recumbent exercise bike is a great investment. It allows for comfort while exercising and can put in a place where you can watch TV or even read a book. You can also just get just the exercise bike pedals only or pedal exerciser which are very affordable and don't take up a lot of space. Another great option is going for walks. Even if you are stuck at home you can still walk around the house. You can also walk around the yard which will help you do aerobic exercises. Walking is a great exercise for anyone especially seniors. There are a lot of exercises that you can do. If you have questions make sure to comment and we will answer them. We hope to see you soon as chiropractic care is beneficial for seniors. When people talk about their lower back pain many people throw out the word sciatica to describe their pain and how it is causing them pain and affecting their activities. Lets talk about sciatica pain to determine what it is, how it is caused, and what can be done to help the pain.
Sciatica is when something is causing compression or irritation to the nerve roots of the sciatica nerve or compression or irritation to the sciatica nerve itself. Sciatica is much more complex than this but lets talk about what you experience when you have sciatica pain. With sciatica the pain is felt as moderate to severe pain that starts in the low back and shoots sharp pain down one or both legs. You may also experience numbness and tingling in one or both legs with or without the sharp pain. There are many causes of sciatica pain. One of the most common reasons for sciatica pain is a bulging or herniated disc. Other common causes may be osteoarthritis causing nerve impingement or narrowing of the space where nerve roots leave the spinal canal also know as stenosis. Our chiropractors and acupuncturist can help you get rid of your back and leg pain. Studies have shown that receiving chiropractic adjustments or acupuncture can help decrease your leg pain and get you back to doing what you love. This is done by helping to relax the muscles surrounding the injured area and increasing restricted joint movement of the injured area. This will help to promote proper healing of the damaged tissues in the surrounding area. Along with Chiropractic adjustments and acupuncture care we can help you by instructing in exercises and stretches to help the injured area. These will help to promote movement in the damaged area and help to strengthen weak muscles. By strengthening the muscles we can help stabilize the area to help decrease leg pain and help to strengthen the core which will help to prevent further injuries in the future. When you experience sciatica pain it is always a good idea to try chiropractic care and acupuncture to see if it helps with the pain and other symptoms. Physical therapy is also another great option to help manage sciatica pain. When these options fail and don't provide relief it is a good idea to talk to your doctor about other treatment options such as using medications, shots, or surgery. If you are experiencing any sciatica pain make sure to make an appointment with your Chiropractor, Acupuncturist, or other Doctor today. They can help determine the cause of the sciatica pain and make sure you are getting the best treatment possible. The Study below shows the effectiveness of spinal manipulation (adjustment) in helping with sciatica pain specifically caused by a disc injury. The Effect of Spinal Mobilization With Leg Movement in Patients With Lumbar Radiculopathy-A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30521781 The shoulder is a very interesting part of our body. It has the by far the most movement of any other joint in our body. It is made up of several joints including the glenohumeral, acromioclavicular, and scapulothoracic joint. There are so many muscles that surround the joint, help with movement, and help stabilize the joint like the rotator cuff muscles. Due to these factors shoulder pain is one the most common pains to experience. With so much movement ligaments and muscles are bound to get pulled and tighten which then limit movement. It is also a common area for tendons to calcify. To help with your shoulder pain or lack of shoulder mobility here are a couple exercises that may help. If you are in severe pain make sure to contact your Roseville Chiropractor to help you get out of pain.
1. Codman arm swing- This is a great first exercise for anyone who is having shoulder pain or limited shoulder mobility. This exercise involves using the momentum of your body to help swing your arm. This is a great form of passive range of motion exercise that is great in acute phase of shoulder pain or when you have a hard time lifting your arm. Simply move your body and let your arm hang. The movement of your body will help move your shoulder letting it swing back and forth like a pendulum. 2. Wand/Broom exercise- This is another great exercise during the early phase of an injury especially with lots of pain or limited shoulder mobility. For this passive range of motion exercise you are going to grab the top of a stick or a broom with the hand of your hurt shoulder. With the opposite arm you are going to push up to go through the range of motion of the shoulder. Don't use the top arm to help. Just allow it to relax and go along for the ride. 3. Resisted external rotation with a theraband- This exercise is designed to help strengthen the infraspinatus and teres minor muscles which are rotator cuff muscles. These muscles are responsible for stabilizing the shoulder and help with external rotation. These muscles are typically weak on a lot of people and can cause a lot of shoulder pain. To do this exercise you are going to pull to resistance with the non hurt side arm. On the hurt shoulder side you are going to pull the band away from your body while keeping your elbow tucked close to your torso. For this one you should watch the video to get a better understanding. 4. Resisted internal rotation with a theraband- This exercise is designed to help strengthen the subscapularis muscle which is a rotator cuff muscle. This muscle is responsible for stabilizing the shoulder and helps with internal rotation. This exercise is going to look like the exact opposite of the resisted external rotation exercise. With the opposite side of the theraband tied to a door handle or another heavy object you are going to have your arm curled to 90 degrees facing straight ahead. Now you will bring your hand close to your body while keeping the elbow tucked close to your torso. This another exercise that it would be best to watch the video for. 5. Resisted arm raises- Arm raises can be good to strengthen a lot of muscles for the shoulder. For this one I want to focus on the supraspinatus muscle because it is a rotator cuff muscle and is an important muscle for shoulder stabilization. To do this exercise step on the opposite end of the theraband with your foot. Grab the other end with your hand with your thumb pointed down. Lift up the band diagonal rather than directly in front of you or to the side. If you can you want to lift it up in the scaption plane which slight in front of horizontal and where your shoulder normally lines up. 6. External rotation with weight- The last exercise is the same as number 3 but with a weight. This exercise is shown laying on your side instead of sitting to allow for the weight and gravity to be the resistance. If you have questions about this watch the video. Please note these exercises are meant to be a first step and to help give an idea of what exercises can be helpful. If you want more specific ideas of what you can do for your shoulder pain make sure to see the Roseville Chiropractors you can trust here at Accident and Sports Injury Clinic. A common question I get as a chiropractor is whether you should be using ice or heat to help decrease pain. This is fairly common due to the accessibility and affordability of ice and heat modalities. These are great at home treatments to use after getting done with doing exercises, massage, chiropractic care, or acupuncture.
To understand when it is better to use ice or heat we need to understand what they do. Ice is meant to decrease pain receptor activity to numb the pain and to also decrease blood flow to the area causing vasoconstriction. On the other hand heat is meant to decrease tightness of muscles by the increase the elasticity of muscles and it also increases blood flow to the area. Decrease blood flow will help decrease inflammation of the area while increasing blood flow will help increase white blood cell activity in the area. Based on this it is usually better to use ice in the acute phase of an injury (1-3 days after an injury). This is to decrease inflammation or swelling of the area and also to decrease the pain. Now with a more chronic injury or chronic phase of pain (1 month+) it is important to help increase the blood flow of the area and increase muscle/joint movement of the area. Increase the movement will help decrease joint and muscle pain. Now even though this is recommended I believe that if you like using ice more use ice even in the chronic phase. If you like using heat more use heat in the acute phase of injury. When using ice and heat only use for 15-20 minutes at a time. Then take a break for about an hour or 2 before reapplying. I hope this helps whether you are in Roseville, Rocklin, Granite Bay, Citrus Heights, Sacramento area, or anywhere in the world. Inversion ankle sprains or ankle sprains to the lateral ligaments of the foot are a very common injury in sports and daily life. Damage to any of the ligaments whether it is the anterior talofibular, calcaneofibular, or posterior talofibular can cause a lot of pain. Also with tears in any of these ligaments you are prone to more ankle sprains in the future. In order to get out of pain after an inversion ankle sprain follow the exercises, stretches, and advice in this video so you can get back to playing sports or living your normal life.
The advice and exercises in this video are 1. POLICE or RICE acronym-POLICE stands for protect, optimally load, ice, compress, and elevate. Following these steps in the acute phase (0-48 hours) can help reduce swelling, inflammation, and more damage to the ligaments. RICE stands for rest, ice, compress, and elevate. RICE is the old acronym used that has only been changed because it is important to try and get movement back to the ankle. 2. Get movement in the ankle. Getting movement in the ankle is especially important at the the end of the acute phase and getting into the subacute phase. While there may be some pain at this point it is very important to know your limitations and not to push yourself to avoid more damage to ligaments. a) To do this you can start with doing passive range of motion with ankle which means maintain movement by not using the muscles of the foot but rather something else. This can be done with your own hand or someone else can do this. Make sure to go through dorsiflexion, plantarflexion, inversion, and eversion not too far but to tolerable points. b) Next you can get movement by doing active range of motion with the ankle. Active range of motion is when you are using the muscles of your ankle to move you ankle. This takes more energy and it is important to know your limitation when doing this. Make sure to go through dorsiflexion, plantarflexion, inversion, and eversion not too far but to tolerable points. c) You can now do isometric muscle contraction of your ankle. Isometric muscle contraction is when you activate your muscle but you don't lengthen or shorten your muscle. This allows for your muscle to work but without putting too much tension on it. Make sure to go through dorsiflexion, plantarflexion, inversion, and eversion isometric muscle contraction meeting the resistance with your hand or an object. d) Try to walk as much as possible during this phase without causing sharp pain 3. While in the subacute phase and you have mastered the previous exercises you can do theraband exercises going through plantarflexion, dorsiflexion, inversion, and eversion. This is good because you are doing active range of motion with variable resistance to your level with the theraband. 4. Doing toe raises will help strengthen the calf muscles. You can start out with standing on 2 feet and if you can do that you can move to standing on one foot. Along with doing toe raises you should also stretch out your calf muscles. 5. Once you are out of pain and in the chronic phase it is a good idea to start doing stabilization exercises for the ankle. Stabilization exercises are meant to strengthen the muscles around the ankle. The important muscles to strengthen are the fibularis and peroneal muscles since they are responsible for strengthening the lateral or outside part of the foot. This is important especially with an inversion ankle sprain because the outside or lateral ligaments are weak so to pick up the slack the lateral muscles need to be strong. Some ways to do this are through one legged stands. These can be done starting with just on the ground getting up to 30 seconds. You can do this with your eyes closed for a challenge. You can also do one legged stands on a rocker board or a bosu ball to help increase stabilization strength. If you want to incorporate stabilization exercises into your other workouts you can try doing weights while standing on a rocker board or a bosu ball. You can also practice doing workouts with one legged stands or even doing one legged squats. The possibilities are endless but make sure you do it to avoid ankle sprains in the future or chronic ankle instability. Along with exercises and stretches, manipulations or adjustments to the ankle have shown to help decrease pain and increase ankle mobility. This can be done by licensed chiropractors. Have you ever had a shoulder pain? It is can be very painful and affects a lot of activities since we use our shoulder so much. As a chiropractor I see a lot of people in pain and recently I've had a lot of patients with shoulder pain. The shoulder is a complex joint with multiple joints and having primarily muscles to maintain stability of the shoulder. The muscles that are primarily responsible for shoulder stability are the rotator cuff muscles which consist of the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis.
Another important muscle of the shoulder is the deltoid muscle which is a large muscle covering the shoulder joint and has multiple functions. Many patients experience pain in there deltoid muscle in the lateral part of the shoulder in the arm. This is where the deltoid muscle attaches to the humerus bone. One reason for pain in the deltoid is due to weak rotator cuff muscles specifically the infraspinatus and teres minor. These muscles are responsible for external rotation of the shoulder. The reason weak rotator cuff muscles causes pain in the shoulder is because the deltoid has to overcompensate for the weak muscles causing excess strain on the shoulder. Theraband Shoulder Exercise In order to help you get rid of shoulder pain we have a simple exercise to strengthen the infraspinatus and teres minor muscles. This exercise is simple and anyone can do it of all ages. All it requires is a theraband or an elastic exercise band. With the opposite hand holding the theraband tight all that needs to be done is have the arm bent to 90 degrees with elbow snug against your torso. Starting with the exercise hand close to the belly you just need to rotate your arm outwards while keeping the elbow snug to the body. Bring the arm out only to as far as your natural range of motion without pushing it too much. Then you can bring the arm back in. Doing this exercise for 15 repetitions a couple times a day shoulder help strengthen your rotator cuff muscles. In order for more clarity in doing this exercise watch the video. If you have any questions make sure to comment or send a message and I will answer it for you.
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