The abs rule. As a result of this not-so-subtle imperative, a flat abdominal musculature is one of the primary goals of all exercise programs. Flat abdominals have great aesthetic appeal, not only to the "owner" of those abs, but also to the person's spouse or partner.
Of course, a flat abdominal musculature is necessarily strong, and strong abs yield substantial health benefits. Strong abs provide biomechanical support for the weight-bearing activities of the lower back, pelvis, and hips. Strong abdominal muscles help distribute weight evenly across these bony structures, making weight-bearing more efficient and preventing injury to regional muscles, ligaments, and tendons.1,2
The second key function of strong abdominals is to support the respiratory system. By providing a resilient shell or casing to house the abdominal viscera, that is, the stomach, liver, intestines, and other organs, strong abdominals create a robust environment in which the diaphragm can achieve full function. The result is maximum respiratory capacity and the capability of fulfilling all the oxygen and other metabolic demands of a healthy organism.
It's useful to recognize that the washboard abs featured on the covers of fitness magazines and in advertisements for fashion and other personal accessories are merely the most superficial result of abdominal muscle fitness. The rippling effect is due to a highly trained rectus abdominis, the top layer of the abdominal muscle group. But the three other layers, the internal obliques, external obliques, and transversus abdominis, are even more important in terms of physiology and function. The takeaway here is that doing abdominal crunches or other variations of sit-ups is not enough to achieve all the health benefits of well-trained abdominals. A complete exercise routine is required in order to effectively involve the three deeper abdominal layers.
These complete routines are known as core exercises.3 The notion of a core references the center-creating function of the abdominal muscles. Many of the basic core exercises are identical to those done by fitness enthusiasts going back almost a century, such as squats, push-ups, and jumping jacks. Core exercises include the plank, hip bridge and lunges. One of the great benefits of doing core exercises is that no equipment is required other than an exercise mat. No gym membership is needed, as all of the core exercises can be done at home or at a local park.
Since the core abdominal muscles provide support for all weight-bearing activities and stabilize the entire biomechanical structure, persons whose core muscles are deconditioned are more susceptible to all types of musculoskeletal injuries, especially painful strains and sprains of the neck and lower back. Regular chiropractic care helps you get the most out of your abdominal muscle training program. By detecting and correcting nerve interference and spinal joint dysfunction, regular chiropractic care helps ensure optimal functioning of your spinal column and its associated muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
In this way, regular chiropractic care provides a flexible and resilient framework for a complete and thorough core strengthening workout. Core exercises are easy to do and provide noticeable benefits within a very short time. As with all physical fitness activities, the most important thing is to get started so you and your family can start enjoying long-term fitness and improved wellness.
When we think of healthful lifestyle choices we generally consider requirements for a healthy diet and regular vigorous exercise. We want to be sure we're eating a wide variety of foods from the primary food groups and that we’re careful to watch our daily calorie intake. In the realm of exercise, we want to do a minimum of 30 minutes of vigorous exercise five days a week. These lifestyle recommendations apply to young and older adults, older children, and teenagers, that is, the entire extended family. But many people neglect to take into account the third pillar of healthy lifestyle enhancement, that of getting sufficient rest. Obtaining sufficient restorative, refreshing sleep may be the most underrated and under-discussed lifestyle choice.1,2
The amount of sleep necessary to maintain good health varies among individuals, but the minimum requirement is most often reported as seven hours. For most of us, getting less than seven hours of sleep a night on a regular basis will likely be insufficient to support physiological functioning. For example, the great philosopher Immanuel Kant famously got up at 5 am every day. But Kant went to bed at 10 pm, thus obtaining seven hours of restful sleep per night.
Sufficient rest enables our bodies to recover from daily stresses and strains and repair damaged cells and tissues. Getting less sleep than we need, over time, results in muscle and joint stiffness and tension, otherwise unexplained aches and pains, impaired digestion with a wide range of symptoms, emotional irritability, and disordered cognitive function.3 Without sufficient sleep, people become more easily confused and forgetful. Decision-making becomes flawed. It becomes much more difficult to analyze and comprehend the big picture, whatever the undertaking. If these symptoms sound all too familiar, the source of the problem may frequently be identified as failing to get the amount of sleep you really need.
Thus, contrary to the six, five, or four hours of sleep a night that business "gurus" and "consultants" claim they thrive on, seven hours of nightly sleep is a basic requirement for the vast majority of people. Eight hours of sleep is great when you can get it. The question becomes, how in our very busy lives is it possible to get this amount of sleep? The solution lies in following, approximately, the lifestyle chosen by Kant (1724–1804), the giant of the Enlightenment who needed optimum good health in order to support a lifetime of tremendously fruitful activity. Personal discipline comes into play. For example, arising at 5:30 or 6 am might work better for us, but we would need to make sure we go to bed at 10:30 or 11 pm.
Many may find, once they've become aware of the significance of this lifestyle upgrade, that seven-and-a-half or eight hours of sleep per night works best for them. The key is to get the rest that's right for you. Over time, you and all your family members will notice the difference, as each one begins to fulfill this necessary component of healthy living. The long-term result is good health, happiness, and enjoyment in life.
How Regular Chiropractic Care can Improve the Quality of Sleep
We are not in charge during our sleep periods, that is, what happens when we sleep is not under the control of our conscious selves. All our physiological mechanisms, known as vegetative functions, proceed on their own. Just as when we're awake, our heart, lungs, and digestive organs operate independently of our conscious instructions. But if we're not controlling these life-sustaining systems, what is? The nerve system is in control, both when we're asleep and awake. As our body's master system, the nerve system makes sure that all the physiological systems are online, all the time.
But the nerve system itself requires maintenance and upkeep. That's where regular chiropractic care comes in. Regular chiropractic care detects and corrects sources of nerve interference that would degrade the performance of our body's master system. By helping to optimize spinal alignment and reducing the effects of nerve interference, regular chiropractic care helps us function efficiently and effectively. The result is good health in the present and assistance with ongoing health and well-being in the future.
Change is an undeniable force that impacts everything. Nothing in the physical world, either on Earth or in the Universe itself, is able to resist change and ultimate decay. Supernovas, for example, are the final explosive moments of massive stars. Our own changes through life are not as dramatic, but nonetheless, they are just as meaningful, often profoundly so.
Some life cycles such as that of a leaf or butterfly are studied and appreciated as symbols of change. Yet, the physical changes we go through over the years and decades are often lamented instead of revered. We could mourn for our youthful selves, regretting our losses and wishing we could have retained what used to be, or we could return our perspective to the forces of life proceeding in and around us. In doing so, we come to realize we are not required to passively accept the march of time. In the context of physical health, we may focus our attention on the things we are capable of doing to resist the impact of the passing years and maintain and even upgrade our levels of fitness, health and well-being.
Realistically, physical structures do break down. For example, our intervertebral discs, the gelatinous shock-absorbers situated between pairs of spinal vertebras, begin to lose their maximum water content shortly after birth, owing to the ongoing effects of gravity. Thus, intervertebral disc degeneration is inevitable. But we can resist the process and slow the progression or loss, by pumping physiologic fluids back into the disc via physical activity and regular vigorous exercise. In this way, we rehydrate our intervertebral discs to the available maximum, improving our flexibility, agility and mobility as we do so.
Overall, lifestyle upgrades such as ensuring a healthy nutritious diet1,2 and engaging in regular vigorous exercise five times a week3 help us be proactive against the effects of the passage of time. Importantly, we gain critical support for these activities by going for regular chiropractic care, which is a difference-maker when it comes to enhancing and upgrading our health and well-being. By identifying sources of nerve interference and correcting spinal misalignments, regular chiropractic care helps ensure optimal functioning and performance of all our body's systems. As a result, we're better able to get the most out of our lifestyle activities.
We may not be able to run a six-minute mile at age 60, but that's not the point. What we can do is become much fitter and much healthier than we have been. We can lose weight and add pounds of lean muscle mass, sleep more restfully, have more energy throughout the day, upgrade our musculoskeletal adaptability, and improve our long-term health and well-being. We have the time that is ours to have.
All of us have had health-related issues at some time or other. Whether it's low back pain, headaches, asthma, gastritis, an ankle sprain, or a rotator cuff injury, we've all had a health problem that ultimately needed treatment. Chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and various types of cancer are especially difficult and usually require interacting with multiple specialists over many years. However, regardless of our health history, it's worthwhile for all of us to stop for a bit, sit down quietly, and take stock of our current health status.
As we carefully assess our current situation and where we'd like to be, telling the truth to ourselves is very important. Remarkably, engaging in the process of such an honest overview may create an opening for a new appreciation of the personal importance of health.
It's likely that we will notice some dissatisfaction with our current health circumstances and may experience a degree of frustration, remembering a time when we were perfectly healthy. We might recall a time when we were 30 pounds lighter or when we didn't have so many aches and pains, a time when we could sleep peacefully through the night and wake up actually refreshed and recharged.
It's okay to dwell for a little while in a state of remorse concerning what we think we may have lost, but acknowledging the good news will actually provide us with much more energy and purpose. That good news consists of the awareness that our attitudes toward our health are always in our hands.
In this respect, we are in control. We may not be able to wave a magic wand and instantly heal a chronic health problem. We may not be able to magically turn back the hands of time or instantaneously decrease the readout on the bathroom scale, but all of us can forge a new attitude concerning our health and well-being. We can declare that we're in charge of how we feel and that each day we're going to take steps toward improving our overall health.1,2
This notion of ownership, of responsibility, for own health may appear variously as a little hard to achieve. But it's an everyday thing. All we need to do, is to take action today. Of course, over time these actions add up and in not too long a time we wake up to find that we really are recharged and refreshed, we really have lost some substantial weight, and/or we really have the experience that our muscles are lean, long, and well-toned. We find that we have become, thanks to our regular daily practice, a person who is healthy and well, even in the face of whatever chronic conditions may still persist.3
All personal wellness programs benefit from a holistic perspective. We don't only want to get stronger, build lean muscle mass, lose weight, or sleep better, we actually want to accomplish all of these things in a total framework of health and well-being. All these components are interrelated and work together to accomplish long-lasting wellness.
Regular chiropractic care provides the structural foundation to achieve these objectives in the areas of fitness and good health. By focusing on the nerve system, your body's master system, and detecting and correcting spinal misalignments, regular chiropractic care helps you get the most out of the time you spend in your wellness activities. By helping improve structural stability and improving nerve system function, regular chiropractic care helps us achieve our long-term health goals.
Whether you're going out for a walk or a run, to the gym to lift weights, or to the pool to swim a few laps, the self-affirmation involved in the concept of "going out" or "going to" something for the sake of exercise is quite substantial. For most of us, it takes an extra effort, an extra application of willpower, to get us out of our chair or off our sofa and get moving in the direction of physical activity. For those who are able to overcome our own inertia and actually get out there and exercise, the rewards can be great!
The message to get out there and exercise comes to us from many directions. Often it’s our spouse or partners, family doctor, or close personal friends who encourage us to exercise. Other times it’s the onslaught from newspaper, magazine, and blog articles that tell us we have to exercise. However, despite the badgering of family and friends and the constant prodding of media sources, it remains true that exercise is very good for us and we all actually know this.1,2 The real missing piece for each of us is the recognition that exercise is in our self-interest and that we will proactively choose to take action on our own behalf. In other words, no one can convince us. We as individuals are the only ones who can make that difference.
How do you get to that place of choosing? First, by being willing to undertake a truthful self-assessment. If you find that you'd like to lose weight, have more energy, or have more restful sleep at night, then you might choose to begin a program of regular exercise. You do this, not as a result of someone telling you that you need to, but as a course of action that you have chosen. Then, being a reasonable person, after approximately six to eight weeks of participation in your new activities, you assess the results. If you like what's going on, then you'll probably choose to continue.
Regardless of the types of self-improvement activities and lifestyle enhancements you're engaged in, regular chiropractic care will help support your long-term health and well-being. By providing holistic care that is directed toward your body's overall functioning, regular chiropractic care helps you get the most out of the time and effort you're spending in regular vigorous exercise, eating a nutritious diet, and obtaining sufficient rest.
Regular chiropractic care provides these benefits by correcting spinal misalignments and restoring optimal functioning to the nerve system. By detecting and correcting sources of nerve interference, regular chiropractic care helps make sure all your physiological systems are working together, establishing new levels of harmony, wellness, and well-being.
In his 1856 journal, the great American philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau wrote, "I love the winter, with its imprisonment and its cold, for it compels the prisoner to try new fields and resources." Thoreau, a fearless explorer of inner and outer landscapes, welcomed opportunities to learn and expand his capabilities. As he frequently observed, winter can be a great teacher.
But when we think about typical winter sports of ice skating or snow skiing, it seems that winter may be a harsh time to attempt to develop new skills. But, at least for these sports, winter is where the action is!
When we work on developing new skills in sports or activities, we're counting on our nerve system to perform its critical functions of command and control. These functions are required for effective training of muscles, tendons, and joints, so that these musculoskeletal structures can advance in adaptability and performance.
In addition to improving our musculoskeletal system, we may improve our winter exercise performance by additional training for the proprioceptive system1,2. Proprioception is your body's awareness of its positioning in three-dimensional space. All joints contain numerous proprioceptors that relate information to and from the brain.
Your ability to balance effectively and make instantaneous biomechanical decisions depends on a well-trained proprioceptive system. Alternating standing on one leg for 15 seconds at a time is a basic proprioceptor-training exercise; balancing on one leg while skiing, skating or surfing is a more advanced and demanding use of the system.
As your body's master system, your nerve system is responsible for coordinating all the physiological processes of all your body's other systems. The interrelations among these complex activities must be addressed instantaneously and accurately. Regular chiropractic care helps ensure that your nerve system is free of nerve interference and operating at peak capacity. In this way, regular chiropractic care helps ensure optimal functioning of your musculoskeletal system. As a result, regular chiropractic care helps us advance in our exercise and sports activities, gain new skills, and enjoy long-term health and well-being.
Overall, winter exercise may provide a lot of enjoyment, with unexpected victories adding to one's sense of personal fulfillment. With appropriate preparation, winter exercise may help pave the way for high levels of health and wellness throughout the year.
Rejuvenation Versus Resignation
This is the time of the new year when our recently made resolutions are put to the test. Were they holiday-fueled imaginings or meaningful expressions of our heart's true desires? Are our resolutions sturdy things that will help us carry out our goals and plans for the rest of the year or are they flimsy constructs composed of hopes rather than substance? Many of us will be faced with this conundrum shortly after the New Year’s celebrations have concluded and how we respond can have a significant impact on the rest of our lives.
When it comes to resolutions to improve our health and well-being: We know we should remain committed, but problems often arise when we attempt to put this knowledge into practice. For example, many people enshrine the same health-related goals into their annual New Year's resolutions list year after year but never succeed at accomplishing what they set out to do.
New Year’s proclamations such as obtaining regular chiropractic care, losing weight, working out more, and eating better, are reasonable, appropriate, and laudable. The catch, however, is that for most of us our dedication to health-related plans doesn't last much beyond a few weeks. So how can one find the motivation to keep firm in their resolutions?
The way to succeed in your 2017 resolutions is to approach each day for what it really is - a new day and opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to the health and well-being of our families and ourselves.1,2 By recognizing that we have a daily opportunity to refresh and reaffirm our New Year's resolutions, we gain the freedom to implement our resolutions each time we get out of bed in the morning. In this way, throughout the course of the new year, we will continually rejuvenate our commitments to ourselves.
Your chiropractor can also help support your ongoing commitments to health and well-being. By detecting and correcting spinal misalignments that are sources of nerve interference, regular chiropractic care helps keep the nerve system, our body's master system, in peak condition. With a well-tuned nerve system, the rest of our physiological systems such as the cardiorespiratory, digestive, endocrine, and immune systems are themselves enabled to function at top capacity, which in turn, can help support your health and well-being resolutions this year and for years to come.
The onset of winter does not signal the end of exercise and outdoors activities. There's plenty of skiing and snowboarding available in the Northeast, the American Rockies, across Canada, and even in Southern California. For those who like their exercise with less dramatic velocity and acceleration, walking and running continue to be possible in winter. The key to successful exercise throughout the winter, beyond the will power required to just get out there and do it, is an extra level of care and attention to what's going on around us and directly in front of us.
In the urban environment, the primary problem from late November through March is slippery sidewalks and roads. If you're not cautious, you might step on a hidden patch of ice and end up on the ground. This is true even in Southern states such as Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, where winter snowstorms are not uncommon. If you're exercising outdoors and have some momentum going, a slip and fall may have serious consequences including strains, sprains, and fractures.1
The first step in preparing for these winter challenges is appropriate footgear. Old walking or running shoes that have lost most of their tread should be avoided.2 Your footgear should fit comfortably and be able to accommodate thicker socks without being tight and constricting.
The next step is to create additional input and stimulation to your body's proprioceptive system, which is made up of specialized nerve endings that give you awareness of your position in three-dimensional space. Enhanced function here leads to improved agility and balance.3 One way to augment this system is to put a bend in your knees when you expect to encounter slippery surfaces. The increased knee flexion provides for a greater range of musculoskeletal responses to sudden changes in the environment, in this case, the ground you're walking or running on.
A third step is to raise your level of awareness. You might be firm and sure on your legs but others may not be so steady. Pedestrians or runners may slide into you, as may bicyclists and skateboarders. It's especially important when crossing intersections to be aware of automobiles and trucks which may not brake as expected and represent substantial dangers.
Finally, be sure you are keeping up with your regular chiropractic care. By detecting and correcting spinal misalignments, regular chiropractic care helps make your nerve system much smarter. When your nerve system is working at optimal capacity, all your body's systems are able to respond rapidly to changes in the environment. For example, with such peak function, if you start to slip or slide in wintry conditions your ankles, knees, hips, and low back all respond quickly to help prevent a fall. By assisting our bodies to become smarter, regular chiropractic care helps us enjoy a safe and fun-filled winter season.
1. Gianoudis J, et al: Effects of a targeted multimodal exercise program incorporating high-speed power training on falls and fracture risk factors in older adults: a community-based randomized controlled trial. J Bone Miner Res 29(1):182-191, 2014
2. Hsu J, et al: Slip resistance of winter footwear on snow and ice measured using maximum achievable incline. Ergonomics 59(5):717-728, 2016
3. Halvarsson A, et al: "Better safe than sorry": a qualitative content analysis of participant's perspectives of fall-related concerns and balance in older women with osteoporosis after balance training. Disabil Rehabil 3:1-7, 2015
As the weather turns colder, our metabolism begins to slow ever so noticeably. This change is nature’s design to synchronize our systems with the world around us and conserve resources. Instead of pitting ourselves against the laws of nature, it's a much wiser course of action to do our best to align ourselves with what's happening in the surrounding world and embrace the change.1
But a little slowing does not mean we have to abandon our exercise activities completely! Modification, care, and attention are the keys to continuing exercise regimens regardless of the season. We might notice that we want to get up a little bit earlier (or later!) to either match the increased sunlight of the early morning or, variously, to wait until the day gets warmer before venturing forth.
Those of us doing strength training may also need to invoke some winter adaptations, paying particular attention to what our bodies are telling us. There's no room for egos in healthful exercise, and it may be appropriate to modify our routines by decreasing the weights we're lifting by 10 or 20 percent throughout the winter months.
Aside from attempting to heed and respect the somewhat amorphous concept of body rhythms, what we're also addressing in our winter activity modifications is the possibility of injury. Injuries are not only painful and annoying; they interfere substantially with our exercise progress. For example, if you strain your Achilles tendon or wrist ligament you'll likely be sidelined at least several weeks.2
The primary issue is that in winter things like muscles, tendons, and joints are sluggish as a result of being colder, and take much longer to get warm.3 Cold muscles and tendons are not as pliable, flexible, and resilient as we are used to in the spring, summer, and fall. If we don't take care when we're exercising, injuries are likely. By slowing down and reducing our exercise intensity, we implement the principles of winter: rest, recovery, and recuperation.
The winter weather also creates an environment that leaves us more susceptible to colds, influenza, and other upper respiratory viruses. The pharmaceutical industry is very glad of the opportunity to inform us via incessant advertising that "flu season" is upon us and we need to stock our "medicine cabinets" with all sorts of pills and potions.
The better option may be to take care of our health throughout the year by engaging in healthy lifestyle choices, including a consistently healthy, nutritious diet, regular vigorous exercise, and proper rest. By maintaining steady levels of good health, we help ourselves to withstand the various infections that may cross our paths during the colder months. Regular chiropractic care is an important and integral component of our health care planning. By detecting and correcting causes of nerve interference, regular chiropractic care helps us function at peak capacity and helps ensure optimal health and well-being in all seasons, including winter.
