Your nervous system is the basis of all of the function and feeling in your body. Without it functioning properly your life will not be optimal. Your spinal column is what protects your spinal cord. The spinal cord is the highway that the information from the brain to the body travels. The spinal nerves are the branches that come off the spinal cord that actually gets the information out to the body. The spinal cord is made up of 24 moveable vertebrae. If those vertebrae stop functioning properly or get stuck out of alignment it can create inflammation and pressure on the nerve. What we do as chiropractors is assess the spine for proper motion and alignment. If we find any issues in either realm we are able to deliver a spinal adjustment to help alleviate the problem. If the adjustment holds and the inflammation and/or nerve pressure are removed the pain will be gone and we can then work to strengthen and stabilize the area. The adjustment is the base which we work from because it addresses the most common issue that causes low back pain. Watch this video of how a chiropractic adjustment is performed and how it helps.
Adjustment Videos:
Decompression Videos:
7 Easy At-Home Exercise to
Below are 7 easy at home exercises we send home with patients to get them on the faster road to recovery in addition to guided training sessions. If you have any questions about the services that we can provide for a disc issue, please do not hesitate to contact our office.
1- Bridges
Description
Performing the bridge is a great way to strengthen your gluteals.
Step-by-step instructions
Lying flat on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground, extend your arms out to your side with your palms facing up. From there push your heels into the ground and lift your pelvis up. Perform reps of this focusing on using your glutes to lift and minimizing your legs (hamstrings). To make this harder, you can cross your arms over your chest.
2- Bridge w/ Leg Extension
Description
The bridge with leg extension is a superb exercise for strengthening your gluteals, improving hip extension, and building stability in the core.
Step-by-step instructions
Lying flat on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground, extend your arms out to your side. From here, lift your hips up off the ground using your glutes. Once stable, extend your right leg out straight and try to maintain a stable pelvis. Hold for up to 10 seconds and repeat on the other side.
3- Bridge w/ Leg Marching
Description
This is a great exercise for strengthening your gluteals, improving hip extension, and building stability in the core.
Step-by-step instructions
Get into a bridge position and cross your arms over your shoulders. From there lift your pelvis off the ground and lift your legs one at a time in a marching motion The key here is to keep your pelvis level and off the ground and keep the contraction in your glutes, not in your legs
4- Cat and Dog Pose
Step-by-step instructions
Start in the quadruped position (all fours) with your thighs and arms perpendicular to the floor. Without bending your elbows, lift your head and try to lower your spine as far as possible creating the dog position. Now, lower your head and lift your spine as far as possible creating the cat position. Repeat this back and forth for the prescribed amount of time.
5- Leg Overs
Description
This exercise helps develop better separation between your lower & upper body and increases the flexibility in your hips.
Step-by-step instructions
Lying flat on your back with your legs extended and your arms out to your side, lift one leg up as high as possible keeping your knee extended. Now, try to touch you foot to your opposite arm keeping your upper body on the ground. Repeat on the other side.
6- Figure 4 Stretch
Description
When performing the figure four stretch, you are targeting the piriformis muscle. The proper execution of this stretch will develop greater flexibility to your piriformis which will allow for better hip rotation.
Step-by-step instructions
Lying flat on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground, cross your right foot over your left knee. Keeping your right foot on your left knee, reach down and grab your left thigh with both hands and pull your knee to your chest. As your knee and foot get closer to your chest you will get a great stretch in your right hip and piriformis. Repeat on both sides.
7- Clam Shells
Description
This exercise helps build strength in the gluteus medius muscles. This exercise will improve your lateral stability in the golf swing.
Step-by-step instructions
Lie on your side with your knees bent and feet on top of each other. Keeping your feet in contact with each other, try to lift your top knee up as far as possible. Next keep the knees in contact with each other and try to lift the top foot as far as possible. Then repeat this same thing but with the knees held approximately ten inches apart. Finally repeat with the knees held approximately ten inches apart and the top hip extended. Go back and forth for about thirty seconds for each exercise. Repeat on the other side.