North Las Vegas Chiropractic Blog

Chiropractor Las Vegas shares shoulder exercises for beginners.

Body: Here is a simple exercise that you can do at home with no equipment.

It works the areas related to the shoulder such as deltoid – anterior, deltoid – lateral, pec major – clavical head, and coracobrachialis muscles.

The purpose of this exercise is to Increase shoulder strength and muscular endurance. By doing this exercise you can have the benefits of Improved stability, functional strength and injury p

Begin on floor on hands and knees.

Hips should be above knees and shoulders above hands. Attain a straight spine position.

Activate core muscles. While maintaining a straight spine, reach forward until arm is at shoulder level. Slowly return to start position.

Repeat for prescribed repetitions and sets.

Chiropractic Care During Pregnancy: The Benefits

Back pain is a common problem faced by women during their pregnancy. This occurs when pregnant women put on extra weight causing extra pressure on the spine. Receiving spinal treatments can reduce such pains through chiropractic, and pregnancy issues like delivery can be made more comfortable and faster.

Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic care is a conservative form of treatment that addresses the spinal cord, discs and related nerves without the use of surgery or drugs. It involves the adjustment of spine to align it back to its normal position. This reduces the spinal nerve stress which can cause various other health complications in the woman and later on in the child. Hence, chiropractic treatment addresses the whole body to promote health and well being.

Safe during Pregnancy

Many complications can occur during pregnancy that can be triggered by spinal problems. These complications can get transferred to the newborn, as they affect the nervous system of a mother. Babies can develop colic, breathing problems, allergic reactions, bedwetting, and neural disorders. The Webster Technique is commonly employed for pregnant women to reduce the spinal nerve stress and balance pelvis, ligaments and muscles.

Throughout the stages of pregnancy, specialized chiropractic care plans are devised to suit the patient. Research shows there are no known potential contradictions to chiropractic treatment during pregnancy. Chiropractic professionals are known to adjust treatments to better suit the body of a pregnant woman. They follow tables and employ techniques which avoid unnecessary pressure on the stomach.

Benefits of Chiropractic Care

Many medical experts recommend chiropractic care during pregnancy as it helps maintain pelvic balance. A balanced pelvis gives a baby more room to move into the correct birth position. This avoids some of the potential fallbacks of delivery. Other benefits include:

Reducing back, neck and joint pain
Reducing nerve stress to promote healthy development of the mother and baby
Relieving pressure from the spine and maintaining better posture
Restoring joints to ensure optimum range of motion
Reducing symptoms of nausea
Reducing time of labor and delivery
Stimulates optimal functioning of reproductive organs
Preventing potential cases of cesarean
Maintaining a healthy pregnancy

A visit to the chiropractic clinic begins with physical evaluations, and then a treatment plan is made, involving therapies, nutrition and exercise. Chiropractic care aims to provide comfort for mothers during and after pregnancy, and also ensuring their babies enjoy proper bone and neural development.

Image Used Under Creative Commons Licensing: Profile of a pregnant woman by Jason Pier in DC

Importance of Blending Chiropractic Care with Back-Strengthening Exercise

Back problems often are a result of a bad posture that could cause severe pains. Restoring the back to its original and natural condition takes time, and a combination of chiropractic care with the recommended exercise can dramatically enhance recovery.

A combination of the two provides numerous benefits. Exercise keeps muscles in their proper tone, increases blood circulation around the body, improves digestion and develops a better lifestyle all together.

The following back-strengthening exercises complement the healing process greatly:

Hip Bridge

The Hip Bridge exercise strengthens those muscles near the lower back that play an important role in stabilizing the spine.

It can be carried out by lying on the back with the feet flat and about hip width apart; the knees should be bent. The arms should be relaxed. The person then squeezes their buttocks as they lift their hips in a straight line towards the shoulders. After around 3 seconds, return to the starting position, slowly.

Around 12 repetitions are recommended.

Bird Dog

The bird dog exercise aims at strengthening the lower back, hip, butt and thigh muscles.

The person kneels on the floor with both hands spaced out about a shoulder-width apart. Tuck in the belly towards the spine and raise one leg straight backwards while raising the other hand in opposite direction.

Hold in this position for 15 seconds and then return to starting point, carrying out the same procedure on the opposite side hand and leg.

Side Plank

The side plank exercise strengthens the lower back. It is done by the following method:

The person is to lie on their right side, straight from head to the feet while resting on their forearms. The elbow should be directly under their shoulder. The abdominals are to be gently contracted and the hips slowly lifted off the floor – in the same straight position.

This position should be held for at least about 30 seconds before lowering the hip.

Lunge

Lunge exercises enhance a person’s overall control of their body. This tends to protect the spine in daily activities, such as walking and running or even stair-climbing.

Starting off with the abs gently contracted. The hands are placed on the hips; the person then takes a big step-forward using the right foot while sinking the right knee at a right-angle.

The person should then slowly return to the starting position, switch the legs and repeat – 10 repetitions are recommended.

Image used under Creative Commons Licensing: Side Plank.jpg

How to Find the Right Chiropractor for your Sports Injuries

Chiropractors are part of America’s third largest primary healthcare profession. With hundreds in each state, it is evident that finding the right one is a rather difficult task. Fortunately, it is not impossible either. Here are 5 factors you should look for on your search for the right chiropractor.

1 – Reputation

The most important factor to analyze when searching through a list of recommended chiropractors is their reputation. Even with years of experience, some chiropractors do not prove as beneficial as others. When it comes to sports injuries, ensure that you choose only a highly reputable chiropractor, evident by a number of positive online reviews.

2 – Experience

A chiropractor may come highly recommended and they may have a reputation as being a great chiropractor. However, if you have visited multiple chiropractors before, with little positive result, it may be a good idea to choose a more experienced chiropractor. With more experience, your chiropractor will know about a deal of problems and hence can help you better than others.

3 – Locality

Of course, locality is an important factor when choosing from your list of chiropractors. With the busy schedule most people have, the last thing anyone needs is to travel for an hour to reach the chiropractor. As such, unless they are one of the best chiropractors in the state, area or country, always select a chiropractor that is close by.

4 – Availability

Considering the nature of their work, chiropractors can be unavailable at many times. If you need to have your sports injuries examined on a weekly basis, it would be unwise to select a chiropractor that is available only once a week. Why? Because with the load they have, setting up an appointment will be difficult.

5 – Services

Last but not least, when selecting from a large list of recommended chiropractors, ensure that you select one that offers a number of services. While you may require a chiropractor for sports injuries, it is wise to have one for other problems too such as back and neck pain.

By analyzing the 5 factors above, selecting the right chiropractor will no longer be a difficult task. However, ensure that you spend ample time on each factor, ensuring that the chiropractor you choose has the right blend of the above 5 factors. Never pick a chiropractor who excels in just one factor.

Image used under Creative Commons Licensing: Crunches.jpg

Importance of Nutrition AND Physical Health

Today I had a patient ask me, “Tara, I’m feeling great. Not just today, but for a while now. When I’m at home, I’m doing my home rehabilitation exercises and drinking my Ionix Supreme every morning. Is it the Isagenix Ionix Supreme that is making such huge improvements or is it the Chiropractic that is making such a change?

Well, to be honest, it is a little of both.

The Ionix Supreme helps your body to adapt to any stress you may be facing be it chemical, emotional, and/or physical. It gives you the nutrients you need to improve your stamina and energy levels.

Chiropractic adjustments relieve the pressure on your spinal cord and allows your body to work at an optimum level.

Both nutrition and Chiropractic go hand in hand, because both work toward giving you optimal health. You may have a perfect spine, but we all lack nutrition due to how our food is grow, and how much the land is depleated. On the other hand, you may watch what you eat and make sure to eat healthy, whole foods, but you may have a 5? abnormal curvature in your spine in your neck/upper back area which is causing you the tension and pain you’ve been experiencing there, but also the numbness and tingling you feel in your arms and hands, and possibly could be the cause of your high blood pressure due to the nerve that exit your spinal cord in that area being constricted and strangled due to that 5? abnormal curvature.

Tara F.
Rehab

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