 I have talked about how posture can affect the function of the shoulders. I have also made a video on how you can feel this yourself by simply rounding the shoulders and lifting your arms and then trying the same thing with 'good posture' and see how different it feels. If you haven't watched the 1min video, you can watch it below. For those of you that like stats, I was shown some research that shows just how dramatic the effect of posture can be on your risk of a rotator cuff injury. It is quite eye opening. Continue reading to see what they found out.
Here is our follow up to the passive hanging video. In this one we show you how to turn a passive hang into an active hang. Try it out and let me know what you think. If you have a sore upper back or shoulders and would like a check up, feel free to contact me and we can find a time to get you assessed.  Back pain is very common and most people will experience it at some stage in their life. When your back is sore, it can make normal daily activities difficult and painful. In this post I will show you how to get our bed, how to get up off of the toilet, how to put on shoes and how to get up off of the ground when you have a sore back. Each of these 4 activities are relatively easy when you are feeling good, but if you are sore, they can be quite painful. Hopefully these simple tips will be useful and give you some relief if you are currently struggling with back pain.
In this video I show 3 simple exercises to help improve your posture. If you have 'poor posture' chances are you have weakness in your mid back. This is why you get tired quickly when someone gets you to 'sit up straight'. The muscles in your mid back and shoulders have weakened since they have not been used properly. These exercises are designed to help strengthen those muscles so that you can maintain a better posture for longer and ultimately get less back and neck pain. This video is a follow on from my previous video on the 'Bruggers Relief Position'. If you haven't seen it, you can watch it here. NOTE: If you have any pain with these exercises, please stop and consult your medical/exercise professional.
I have just finished my latest video showing 2 simple tips to help reduce the strain on the neck and shoulders when using a computer. They are very simple, but can a make a world of difference. See how your workstation compares. The static back position, also referred to as the 90/90 position is something that I show almost everyone that comes into see me in practice. It is a great postural reset and works for all areas of the back. In this post I will show you how to do it with a few progressions and regressions. Continue reading to see how to do it.
Back pain is a very common problem that a majority of people will face at some point in their lives. The big question is, if I have back pain, what can I do to help fix it? The American College of Physicians recently issued updated their treatment guidelines for acute, sub-acute and chronic lower back pain, side-stepping medication as a first-line treatment and recommending non-drug therapies instead. It is suggested that painkillers should be the last resort. So what are these non-drug therapies they suggest? Continue reading to see what the guidelines suggest.
A majority of people will have an episode of acute back pain at some point in their lives. I see people in this condition regularly in practice. An episode of bad back pain will generally force you to do something about it, hence they go and see a chiropractor, physio or their GP etc. It is very important to get the problem assessed as pain is your body telling you that something is not right. Simply hiding the pain through medication may make it feel better but won’t necessarily fix the problem. In this post I wanted give a few tips on how you can help ease the discomfort at home after it happens and whilst you are going through your treatment program.
Just about every day I see someone in practice who says they bent over or bent down to pick something up and tweaked their back. Correct lifting technique is no just bending your knees and using your legs. Using your legs is vitally important when picking something up off of the ground, but what about those times when getting something out of the boot of the car or off of a chair or out of from an awkward position? Sometimes you are not able to use your legs like you normally would. What do you do in these situations in order to protect your back? Well in this post I will discuss a few ways of lifting safely if you are not able to bend your knees properly. Continue reading to find out.
The simple answer is yes. Research published in the spine journal in 2013 suggests that the health professional you see as a first point of contact can play a role in determining the outcome. The study showed that approximately 43% of workers who saw a surgeon as their first point of contact had surgery within 3 years. In contrast, of those who saw a chiropractor first, only 1.5% ended up in surgery. This is an amazing difference. Continue reading to see the full results and what to make of the study.
According to a new literature review in the January issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, it is becoming more common for children and adolescents to seek medical care for back pain. In fact, it has been said that nearly one in three adolescents report back pain. I have also seen an increase in the number of children presenting with back pain and discomfort in practice over the last few years. There can be a number of causes for back pain in children and sometimes, all of the expensive tests and scans may not be able to find the exact cause of the problem. So what are the common causes for back pain in children and how can we help? Continue reading to find out.
Back pain is a very common problem. Most people will experience some back pain at some point in their lives. A new study out of Sydney has looked at common causes or triggers of acute lower back pain. They looked at 999 people who had had recent episodes of acute lower back pain and asked them to report exposure to 12 physical or psychosocial factors in the 4 days before the onset of back pain. They then created an odds ratio (OR) on the chance of injuring yourself. I am sure you will agree that prevention is better than cure, so knowing what things may trigger an episode makes it easier to try and avoid them. Continue reading to see what they found and what time of the day injuries are more likely to happen.
Recently I did a 2 part blog series on Upper Cross Syndrome. In this series I showed how our poor posture often leads to this head forward, rounded shoulder syndrome which can cause, upper back and neck pain, shoulder injuries, headaches etc. Most people I see in practice have this syndrome to some degree. It is the slouching that we do that causes our shoulders to roll forward leading to forward head carriage and then the symptoms of Upper Cross Syndrome. The second part of the series discussed several ways to help this syndrome. If you want to read the original posts, and try the simple test to see if you have it, you can read them here and here. In this post I wanted to show you a very simple standing or sitting position that can dramatically improve your posture and take the strain off of your upper back and shoulders. Continue reading to find out how to do it.
Hopefully you have read my previous post on two simple tests you can do to see if your poor posture has caused upper crossed syndrome (UCS). If you read it, I bet you were interested in trying the test to see how well you fared. If you did the test and there were signs of UCS, I bet you are wondering what you can do to help it. Well, here is the answer, my 4 steps to help Upper Cross Syndrome. If you haven't read the previous post, click here to do so and try the simple test. Continue reading to find out what you can do to help.
We are always told exercise is good and we need to do it regularly, and I agree with this. However, an important consideration is that the exercises need to be done with the correct technique in order to avoid injury and get the best results. CNN published an article where they interviewed several top physical therapists in America and got them to talk about what exercises are most likely to cause injury. They then discussed the top 10 (you can read the original article here). I have summarized the results and added a few things. It is important to note that some of these exercises can actually be very beneficial if they are done properly. It is also important to realise that just about any exercise done poorly could cause injury. Technique is key. Continue reading to find out what exercises may hurt you.
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Dr Craig BuscombBringing you news, research and advice on health, wellness, exercise and chiropractic care to help take your health to the next level 
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