Most of us would agree that we want to be as healthy as we can. Thanks to a steady barrage of commentary by talking heads on television and articles by "experts" in weekend editions of newspapers and magazines, most of us are aware that enjoying good health has a lot to do with specific habits of nutrition and exercise. The big challenge is to find enough time in the day to do all the things required to fulfill these habits. Part of this challenge is actually being willing to find the time to get all these things done in addition to everything else we have to do. Sometimes, on certain days, it may not be possible to find the time required. But good health is obtained over months and years and what's needed is a long-term plan to achieve goals of healthy nutrition and regular, vigorous exercise. A critical starting point is knowing your basic needs, that is, knowing the minimum requirements for good health.1
Many studies have examined these minimum requirements, concluding that 30 minutes of vigorous exercise, five days per week, is sufficient to obtain multiple health benefits. For example, both the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend 30 minutes of exercise, five days a week.2 People who engage in such a consistent exercise program find that they're not only fitter and trimmer, but they are sleeping better, have increased concentration during the day, and have an improved outlook on life. Importantly, those who exercise regularly have a significantly decreased risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.3 The long-term impact of exercise on our health is profound.
But there's a disconnect. Everybody knows that exercise is important. But almost three-quarters of adults do not get enough physical activity to meet public health recommendations. The immediate result is that almost two-thirds of American adults are overweight and almost one-third are obese. Worldwide, more than 1.4 billion adults are overweight.
The missing link is personal motivation and the key action step is to get started. Exercise has a way of carrying you along. Once you begin and successfully fight the battle of inertia and lethargy to make it through a couple of weeks of consistent, vigorous exercise, you'll find that you want to do it again the next day. The struggle to find time seems to fade into the background as you become a person who exercises. You'll likely discover that your life is being transformed in numerous, wonderful ways.
Thirty minutes of exercise, five days a week, is the key. You can do more, of course, but meeting the minimum requirement is the main goal. The choice of exercise is up to you. There are no firm guidelines regarding what kinds of activities to do. For many a good approach is to mix and match, alternating cardiovascular days with strength training days. Cardiovascular exercise includes walking, running, swimming, cycling, and cross-country skiing. Similarly, strength training can be done in a variety of ways. Overall, there's no right formula to use in developing your personal exercise program - what works for you, works for you. What there is to focus on is getting it done - 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
You've finally decided to paint your kids' bedrooms. Not only that, but you're going to do it yourself. Congratulations. Or your rooftop gutters have become so filled with leaves that the only place for overflow rainwater to go is down the sides of your house and seep into the foundation, and you've decided to install a gutter protection system. And you're going to do that yourself.
These may be great choices. DIY projects are self-affirming and self-empowering, and often provide real opportunities for personal growth and development. There may be substantial cost savings, or you just want to reconnect with your high school self who loved shop class. Regardless of the numerous possible motivations, the most important consideration in any home improvement project is safety.
Aside from basic rules such as using protective goggles and always having a buddy supporting and stabilizing the ladder you're up on, safety around the home often depends on your own level of physical fitness. For example, if you're relatively out-of-shape, it's easy to strain a neck, shoulder, or lower back muscle when you're trying to apply paint evenly to a corner of the ceiling. Similarly, if you haven't done any vigorous exercise on a consistent basis in a while, do-it-yourself activities such as changing your car battery or even mowing your lawn can cause a lower back injury or even a twisted ankle or knee.
Doing regular vigorous exercise provides many benefits In addition to preparing you for real physical work. Also, supporting your exercise and physical work is a specialized system of nerve endings known as proprioceptors.1 These nerve cells play a significant role in whether physical activity is done easily and well or, instead, results in an injury. Stated succinctly, proprioceptors tell your brain about your body's position in three-dimensional space. For example, if you're bending over to pick up two one-gallon cans of paint, your brain needs to know that you're ankles are bent at 20 degrees, your knees are bent at 80 degrees, and your hips are bent at 70 degrees. If this information isn't transmitted accurately or isn't received fairly instantaneously, you may suffer a lower back injury even though the paint cans themselves only weigh 8 pounds each.
Proprioception becomes a critical system any time you go up on a ladder.2 Maintaining your balance depends on a moment-by-moment, two-directional stream of information between your brain and your bones, joints, muscles, and ligaments. Your nerve system and your musculoskeletal system do all the calculations required to enable you to work safely from the top step of your ladder. But if your proprioception system hasn't been optimally trained in a while and is, in a sense, out of shape, your balance and overall safety are at risk. Bad things can happen.
From all points of view, including that of safety in the home, it's important to maintain your proprioception system in peak condition. You can easily do this by engaging in regular strength-building activities such as strength training and yoga and regular aerobic activities such as running, walking, swimming, and biking.3 Proprioceptor training is built-in to all forms of vigorous exercise. Safely and successfully completing your home improvement projects is one of the many benefits.
1Judkins TN, Scheidt RA: Visuo-proprioceptive interactions during adaptation of the human reach. J Neurophysiol 2013 Nov 20 [Epub ahead of print]
2Suetterlin KJ, Sayer AA: Proprioception: where are we now? A commentary on clinical assessment, changes across the life course, functional implications and future interventions. Age Aging 2013 Nov 14 [Epub ahead of print]
3Maitre J, et al: Chronic physical activity preserves efficiency of proprioception in postural control in older women. J Rehabil Res Dev 50(6):811-820, 2013
In "The Producers", the riotous Mel Brooks movie classic from 1968, the wily and almost washed-up Broadway producer Max Bialystock (played famously by Zero Mostel) takes timid accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) to lunch. Bialystock steers Bloom to a hotdog vendor's run-down sidewalk stand just outside an entrance to New York City's Central Park. "We're dining alfresco" Bialystock pompously intones, sardonically tracing a big, broad semicircle with his hotdog to symbolically include all the glories of being outdoors.
Of course, "alfresco" means out-of-doors or in the open air. In Italian, "fresco" means cool or fresh. Dining in the open air is often much more fun than having a meal indoors. The same may be said for exercise - whenever you have a choice, exercising "alfresco" is often much more enjoyable. Exercising outdoors is more rewarding for many people and also provides a wide range of unexpected benefits.
According to Federal agencies, the average American spends about 90% of her time indoors. Coupled with this assessment is the fact that three-quarters of Americans and one billion people worldwide have deficiencies in Vitamin D, a prime life-supporting and health-enhancing nutrient. Exercising outdoors for 30 minutes several times per week will assist your body in manufacturing more sufficient quantities of this important vitamin.
Additionally, spending time outside helps improve both physical and mental health. Regular exercise is associated with helping to prevent numerous health disorders, including obesity, diabetes, colon cancer, hip fracture, high blood pressure,1 cardiovascular conditions, and inflammatory conditions such as arthritis.2
Sunlight tends to improve a person's mood, so being outdoors is a natural boost to one's frame of mind. Adding exercise to the mix naturally enhances this psychologically elevated state. Since 2005 researchers at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom have focused on the benefits of "green exercise". In one study, participants engaging in a green outdoor walk described improvements in self-esteem, overall mood, and vigor. Confusion, fatigue, anger, and tension were all substantially reduced.3
Even viewing green and rural environments reduced blood pressure measurements by almost 9% in 100 treadmillers compared to those viewing blank screens or viewing urban images. If viewing green spaces is beneficial, actually being out-of-doors is likely to provide even greater benefit.
The bottom line? Being outdoors will enhance the value of most exercise activities. Green exercise will often impact a person's life in ways unlooked-for and by means unexpected.
Core training is a no-longer-new catchphrase on the fitness landscape. The concept of core fitness, by now, has been promoted by every Pilates school, yoga center, and chain of fitness clubs around the world. Many doctors, including chiropractors, physiatrists, orthopedists, and even cardiologists, emphasize the importance of core training with their patients. Practically every physical therapist and personal trainer has learned a variety of core exercises to use with their clients. Core fitness has become an advertising buzzword, helping to sell all kinds of health-related products. The overall result is raised awareness of the importance of core strength and the opportunity to engage in a critically important form of healthy exercise.1,2,3
What exactly is the "core" and what are you training when you train it? Your core muscles are your four abdominal muscle groups - the transversus abdominis, internal obliques, external obliques, and rectus abdominis. Back muscles, too, are included in the core group - specifically the erector spinae, longissimus thoracis, and multifidus. The importance of the core muscles is their ability to provide a "center" or focus for the physical work your body is doing. If your core is not fit other muscles will have to take over, leading to the likelihood of strains, sprains, and other injuries.
Who even knew we had a core? Plenty of people did, long ago, but in those days no one talked about a "core". For many decades football coaches, ballet instructors, and gymnastics coaches trained their athletes in vigorous and strenuous techniques that all focused on core strength. High school gym teachers knew about the core. Remember squat thrusts, jumping jacks, and push-ups? All those ancient exercises (that we used to groan and moan about) train deep core muscles. We were doing core fitness before there was "core fitness".
Why do we need core fitness today? More and more our work involves sitting down. We stare at computer screens for eight hours a day. Instead of doing physical work such as farming or building, we type on a keyboard and talk on a cell phone. The long-term result is that muscles, tendons, and ligaments lost their integrity. Tight neck muscles, tight lower back muscles, and weak abdominal muscles are the result, and these issues lead to more serious problems such as chronic headaches, cardiovascular stress, impaired digestion, and depression. We need fitness activities that start building us back up again, and the right place to start is at the center - by engaging in core fitness.
The best thing about core fitness is that you don't need any equipment. You could get a mat and a physioball, but those items are optional. Take a yoga class. Take a Pilates class. Learn a few core exercises and begin to do them several times a week. You'll soon begin to notice that you feel better, in general. You have more energy. You're sleeping better. Your mood is improving. All due to a few squats, a few planks, and a few push-ups. That's a pretty good deal.
We all know that 30 minutes per day of strenuous exercise will provide many health benefits. Recent Federal guidelines from the Department of Health and Human Services1 have even made this official. The real question for most of us is how to find the time to exercise regularly and consistently. All we have is 24 hours each day to get done all the things we need to get done. Exercising often takes a back seat to work, shopping, cooking, cleaning, getting the kids ready for school and ready for bed, and all the other million-and-one little details that demand our attention every day.
Most of us have the motivation to exercise2 - we want to do it and we know it's important and good for us.3 But when to fit it in? A few hardy souls bite the bullet and get up at 5:00AM - making more time in the day by getting less sleep. Others exercise at the end of a long day, but sometimes that's stressful and counterproductive. However they do it, many people make real efforts to exercise a few times each week.
Most likely - over time - our good intentions get stymied by our daily concerns. Deadlines and scheduling take precedence and the most easy-to-jettison item on our to-do list - exercise - gets lost in the process. And sooner rather than later we're back to not exercising at all. Public health experts and policy makers have been struggling, too, with this apparent no-win situation. The outcome is brand-new recommendations relating to short bursts of activity during the day. These three- to five-minute bursts have been studied and shown to provide real health benefits to real people under real-world circumstances.
Instead of taking coffee breaks at work, people are beginning to take activity breaks. Three to five minutes of climbing office building stairs or brisk walking outside the building or a quick series of calisthenics are all it takes. Six to ten such breaks fulfills the daily requirement of 30 minutes of exercise. No separately scheduled exercise time is necessary. You're already at work, you're already taking breaks. So the breaks become exercise breaks. And you get your exercise done. And you feel great for the entire day, due to bursts of endorphins occurring throughout the day.
These bursts of activity are also ideal for people working at home, as well as for school children. Studies in schools are showing increased attention spans and increased learning as a result of short bursts of intense physical activity.
Everyone can do this. And finally, everyone can have a workable system for getting the exercise they need. Your chiropractor is a fitness expert and will be glad to help you design an exercise program that works for you.
1U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Washington, DC, DHHS, 2008.
2Vallance JK, et al: Maintenance of physical activity in breast cancer survivors after a randomized trial. Med Sci Sports Exerc 40(1):173-180, 2008
3Heckman GE, McKelvie RS: Cardiovascular aging and exercise in healthy older adults. Clin J Sport Med 18(6):479-485, 2008
Energy conservation has become an important topic around the globe, in communities, nations, and confederations such as the European Union. Energy conservation is not only critically important for global stability. It also serves as an important metaphor for the health and well-being of individuals.
Physiologically, humans have their own energy conservation systems. For example, your heart rate is tightly regulated. If your heart beats too fast for too long, owing to ongoing stress or anxiety, it may ultimately break down. Other problems may develop. A racing heart requires a lot of oxygen to supply the energy for heart muscle cells. This precious fuel is always needed elsewhere, and symptoms may develop in the gastrointestinal or hormonal systems.
The variegated songs of the mockingbird. The crack of the bat on the baseball diamond. The screaming of little children at play in the community pool. Wherever we turn, the sounds of summer surround us in a joyful uplifting cacophony. Summertime may mean barbecue and it may mean the beach, but it also means outdoor activities that we haven't engaged in for much of the year such as hiking, biking, volleyball, and tennis. If we want to enjoy a summer full of fun, it's important to do some preparation to minimize the risk of physical injury and help make sure we can do all the things we want to do. Although the possibility of injury to muscles, tendons, and ligaments is inherent in all physical activity, there are many steps we can take to keep our musculoskeletal system healthy and functioning at peak capacity.
Two main courses of action involve regular stretching and regularly doing a dynamic warm-up. Stretching, done properly, wakes up our joints and musculoskeletal soft tissues and prepares our bodies for physical work. Stretching basically means lengthening, and when you stretch you're encouraging the major muscles of your back and legs to gradually achieve their greatest length. When you stretch, you're primarily focusing on the hamstrings, calf muscles, quadriceps, and erector muscles of your back.
Stretching is done gently, slowly, and with the utmost attention. It's important to remember that if you're not fully focused, you may strain a muscle by an inadvertent sudden movement or by overstretching. Stretching is a Zen-type activity and requires concentration and mindfulness. Your stretching session could take 10 or 20 minutes, depending on your overall level of flexibility. When you're done, the blood supply to all your muscles has increased and the contractile mechanisms of your major muscle groups have lengthened. As a result, you're ready to engage in vigorous physical activity and withstand sudden starts and stops while minimizing the risk of unexpected damage.
The importance of doing a dynamic warm-up has become increasingly recognized in the last decade and these preparatory activities have gained in prominence and become increasingly popular. Dynamic warm-ups engage your muscles, joints, and associated soft tissues in low-level movements that involve actual physical work. In a sense, dynamic warm-ups are training sessions so your body will learn what's required when larger mechanical forces come into play, such as acceleration and deceleration and the need to successfully counter the force of gravity.
Your dynamic warm-up is done right after your stretching session. Numerous activities are available and part of the interest and fun of a dynamic warm-up is the wide variety of choices. Wednesday's program might be substantially different from that done on Monday, and Friday's activities might be completely different from what you've done earlier in the week. Dynamic warm-up activities include torso twists, arm circles, lunges, squats, and light jogging. Your dynamic warm-up session could take 10 minutes. When you're done, you're prepared to fully enjoy your summertime games and outdoor exercise.
Regular chiropractic care is a year-long activity that is especially valuable during the summer months. The summer weather brings us outdoors where we can run, jump, ride, skate, and play ball with abandon. We'd like to make sure we can do all these things with a minimum risk of injury. Unexpected back and neck strains and sprains slow us down and interfere with what we want to do. The best policy is to do what we can to avoid these problems in the first place.
A primary solution is to make sure we're getting regular chiropractic care. By detecting and correcting spinal misalignments, sources of nerve irritation that interfere with musculoskeletal function, regular chiropractic care optimizes our body's mechanical performance. Regular chiropractic care helps keep our spine and nerve system in good working order so we can participate fully in our summer exercises and games and enjoy ourselves throughout the season. In this way, regular chiropractic care is a key component of our program for summer-long fun.
In the depths of winter, adults, as well as children, exert themselves to engage in enjoyable outdoor activities that will keep them warm and provide both excitement and entertainment. Cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, sledding, ice hockey, figure skating, and speed skating all have their enthusiasts.
Many people are proficient in multiple winter sports. Others have no discernible degree of skill, yet persist owing to the exhilaration and good feelings that are obtained by asserting oneself in the face of freezing temperatures. Even in Southern California, where the winter temperatures are laughably warm compared to those registered in places where it gets authentically cold, residents feel the bite of winter. Even in warmer areas, children and anyone young at heart can visit ice rinks in neighborhoods malls and get a sense of what it's like to skate on frozen water.
Importantly, participation in winter sports may often lead to injury, owing in large part to the physical momentum involved in skating, skiing, and sledding. Although injuries are often random and result from unfortunate circumstances, we can take many protective measures to help prevent an injury, despite having sustained a hard fall on the ice or a rough tumble downhill.
Proper preparation for any winter outdoor activity includes making sure that your body is up to the task. We get ourselves ready for sports-type engagement by participating in regular physical exercise. When we do aerobic exercises, we're training our heart, lungs, and circulatory system to increase their efficiency. Over time, we become better able to breathe more deeply, providing increased amounts of oxygen to power our muscles and other metabolic processes.
When we do strength-training exercises, we're developing the ability of our muscles and bones to support and maneuver with increased mechanical loads -- abilities needed for skiing and skating and other winter sports. Additionally, cardiovascular and strength-training exercises enhance the capabilities of our proprioceptive system, a network of nerve endings that help our bodies make instantaneous decisions regarding balance and position in three-dimensional space, subconscious skills that are critical to the successful enjoyment of winter activities.
Regular chiropractic care is a key component of our winter sports planning. Regular chiropractic care detects and corrects sources of nerve interference and restores and supports optimal mechanical function of the spinal column, our body's mechanical center. By making sure we are getting regular chiropractic care, we help ourselves get the most out of our exercise programs. In this way, regular chiropractic care helps us stay healthy, avoid injury, and have outdoor fun all winter long.
The Benefits of Walking for Your Back
Do you frequently experience back pain or stiffness? Back pain is a common complaint, particularly among people whose jobs require lifting, sitting, or standing for long periods. Fortunately, taking regular walks may offer a simple way to relieve your pain.
Walking Helps You Avoid Stiffness
Do you feel a little stiff at the end of the workday or after you finish a marathon gaming session? Your muscles and joints are bound to become a little tight when you sit or remain in the same position for hours.
Walking stretches the muscles in your back, hips, and buttocks and also eases tension in your tendons and ligaments. Making time for a daily walk can decrease stiffness and make it easier to bend to pick up a laundry basket or stretch to reach the top shelf.
Your Muscles Will Become Stronger When You Walk
The muscles in your back help support your spine and keep it properly aligned. If your muscles become weak, you're more likely to experience pain, stiffness, and decreased range of motion. Weak muscles may also pull on your spine, causing some of the vertebrae to move out of alignment.
Misalignments, called "subluxations" by chiropractors, are painful and can lead to other issues. Subluxations may affect muscles, tendons, and ligaments, causing these structures to tighten and become less flexible. Walking strengthens your muscles and reduces your risk of developing subluxations.
Circulation Improves When You Walk
Any kind of movement, including walking, improves blood flow throughout your body. Blood carries oxygen to the cells in your body and is essential for the normal function of muscles, tissues, and nerves. Improving circulation may also make it easier for your body to remove toxins that can contribute to back pain.
Walking May Improve Joint and Disc Function
Improving your circulation also benefits the discs in your spine. Rubbery, fluid-filled discs between each vertebra cushion your spine, act as shock absorbers, and help you move easily.
The discs work best when they're full of fluid. Fluid naturally moves in and out of the discs during the day and may decrease depending on your movements. Walking makes it easier for fluid to flow into the discs, which can mean less pain and stiffness for you.
A regular walk can also help ensure that the cartilage at the end of the bones in your back receives a constant supply of oxygen and nutrients.
Adding Walking to Your Daily Exercise Routine Can Relieve Your Pain
If you're in pain, a leisurely walk through the neighborhood may be the last thing you feel like doing. Although moving may not seem like a good idea when you have a backache, a walk may actually ease your pain.
In a study published in the Annals of Rehabilitation Medicine, study participants who walked regularly reported less back pain. Another study explored whether walking worked as well as other methods of reducing back pain. Participants with chronic low back pain were assigned to one of three groups: walking, physical therapy, or group exercises. Those in the walking group improved just as much as the physical therapy and exercise groups, according to the study, which was published in American Family Physician.
Walking, in addition to chiropractic treatment, can help you keep your back flexible and reduce pain. Have you been struggling with back pain? Contact our office to schedule an appointment.
Sources:
American Family Physician: Walking Program Effective for Chronic Low Back Pain, 8/1/15
SPINEHealth: 2 Reasons Why Walking Is Good for Your Lower Back, 9/23/19
