Chiropractor Manhattan Beach shares intermediate level abdominal exercise.

October 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Involves no equipment.

This exercise works the abdominal, oblique internal/external, iliopsoa muscles.

The purpose is to increase abdominal strength and muscular endurance.

The benefits include improved stability, functional strength and injury prevention.

Begin lying on floor.

Lift knees so that a 90º position is attained at hip and knees. Place hands beside ears. Activate core.

Lift shoulder off floor approximately 6 inches attempting to bring elbow toward opposite opposite knee so that both simultaneously meet.

chiropractor manhattan beach Chiropractor Manhattan Beach shares intermediate level abdominal exercise.

Return to start position and repeat on opposite side. Continue alternating sides until recommended repetitions are complete.

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Filed Under: Chiropractic Tips, Natural Remedies, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Backpack Attack

September 20, 2010 by Leave a Comment

It’s back to school week. One of the big problems we have when going back to school is Backpack Attack! We have severe problems with kids going to school, because their backpacks are loaded down with books, and kids start coming up with backpack injuries. In fact, some kids have backpacks that weigh 50 to 60 pounds. Compare that to their little bodies that only weigh 50-80 pounds, that is just way too much weigh for their bodies to take, and it creates postural imbalances as time goes on, and as their bodies are growing. It’ll create subluxations in the body and health problems down the line.

Now, one of the biggest problems heavy backpacks will create is Forward Head Posture, where the head goes forward in front of the shoulders. It creates a lot of undue stress on the ligaments, the nerves, the discs, and joints of the spine, and will set the tone for future degenerative disease like degenerative disc disease or arthritis.

So, what we want to do is keep the spine in alignment. One of the best thing you want to do for your kids regarding their backpacks is keep the straps tight with no more than 15% of the body weight in the packs.

Also, they need a strap or a buckle attached to the waist. So the weight of the backpack is more evenly distributed across the spine, this will help bring back the head a little closer.

Most kids wear their straps loose, which creates a lot of weight down low making the kids push their heads forward in order to counter balance the weight.

The key now would be to fix the cause, which is the backpack attack to where it is over-weighting the body and creating the turtle effect. Said effects create a lot of undue pressure on the areas mentioned before.

The other thing is to get your kids checked for subluxations, because if it’s already been going on for a few years, they’ll have degenerative disc disease building up. Since this is a silent process, their symptoms may then seem like they’re coming out of nowhere, such as severe neck pain, headaches, back pain, discs problems, and may end up with surgeries down the line.

Checking your children is a proactive, instead of a reactive, type of healthcare. First we have to fix the backpack problem, then get your kids checked for subluxations, and create the subluxation problem, so that they may lead a healthy life.

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Is Exercise Enough For A Healthy Spine?

August 28, 2010 by Leave a Comment

This morning I got up early, worked out, and even did some yoga. I also got my back checked for subluxations by a fellow chiropractor. Why did I do that? Even thought I worked out, did yoga, and in good shape, I need to get my spine checked. I have yoga instructors that have been doing yoga for years that come in here, pilates instructors that are in great shape as well. They can have spines that move well, but there can be a segment that’s not moving right, and it could be out of alignment or subluxated. So for that reason, when it’s subluxated, the bone loses its position and it can choke on that nerve. If you look at Grey’s anatomy, it states that the brain and spinal chord control and coordinate all functions and structures of the body, just not some bad muscles, but all structures and functions, meaning your heart, your kidneys, your lungs, your liver, your immune system, your digestive system, all systems of the body.

So, if you have a subluxation it can interfere with the function of your body. Which means it interferes with your life and your health. For that reason, everyone should get their spine checked, for that reason I went and got my spine checked even though I worked out and did yoga this morning.

Which brings to mind another thing, this weekend at the Art Festival in Hermosa Beach, I’m going to have a booth down there. I will be there Saturday, Sunday, and Monday from 12-6. I want to invite all my patients down. All of my patients that come down will receive a free spinal check up and adjustment. That’s right, patients, it’s on me. All I ask in return is that you bring a guest down, so I could meet them. Then I’ll perform a free spinal examination on any guest that you bring down. That’s the deal! Your guest will get checked for subluxations; you might save a life!

Filed Under: Chiropractic, Chiropractic News, Chiropractic Tips, Health Tips, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Best Ways To Add Calcium For Optimum Bone Health

August 17, 2010 by 7 Comments

The question for you this week is if you had to choose one thing that would add calcium to your diet, to keep your bones strong, which food would you choose?

When I ask people this question, most people would say dairy, like milk.

But what is interesting is that it is not your richest source of calcium. If we take a look at the studies, the studies say that the countries that have the highest dairy intake have the highest rate of osteoporosis and hip fractures. In essence, the people that drink the most milk will have the worst bones.

We should realize that the sources that have the richest calcium are green leafy vegetables. For example, As far as the amount of absorbable calcium, it is far better in green leafy vegetables.

In our office, there are other ways to strengthen our bones to promote bone health. You can do it by doing weight-bearing type of exercises. This will add more stress to the joints, which will cause the body to start laying down more calcium in those weight bearing joints. The weight bearing joints, such as the hips, are the most frequently fractured bones of the body where people have osteoporosis.

What we do in our office is tell our patients to walk for 15 minutes with weights. We kill two birds with one stone when we do that, because we add weights on the body in certain areas that actually add stress to the joints as well globally correct the posture. So, our patients get two great health benefits: the weight bearing stress to the joints to get more calcium plus the correction to their posture.

Check out our video above to see examples of how we add the weights to our patients.

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Hey South Bay, Are you Reactive or Proactive?

August 11, 2010 by 14 Comments

Today, our weekly blog is going to touch on a question that many of my patients ask me. They ask, “Doc, What is more important, eating right or working out?”

Let’s look into that. When I get a patient that asks me that question, it shows me that said patient is looking to do just one thing, and will prioritize just that one thing to try to bring about health. But, that’s not the idea behind what we do. That outlook on health is more of a reactive situation: “give me that one situation that will help cure my illness.” It falls in the line of a more of a traditional type of healthcare which is a reactive healthcare.

We want to change our mindset to a more proactive healthcare. I get people that say, “Doc, give me the one stretch that will help me with this condition.” And that’s what we call an Asprin Stretch.

The idea would be, as a more proactive approach, to ask ourselves, “What can we do to add health to the body?” Instead of using one stretch, we should be stretching the whole body daily on a regular basis regardless if we have pain or not. It’s just a good thing that will add health to the whole body.

We should start changing our mindset, because reactive healthcare does not make you healthy, it just patches up the symptoms.

If your goal is to gain better health, better function, and a better life, you should add things that could build to your health. Like eating right AND exercising. So, that’s our answer to the aforementioned question; you have to do both. Look for ways to ADD to your health.

If you’re subluxated, that’s bad. It’s good to get adjusted, and on a regular basis.

If your kid is subluxated, has no pain, but may be subluxated, should we leave him at home developing the same problems you have, and just be reactive? That is up to you.

I would recommend the proactive approach, that’s why the whole family should come in and get checked on a regular basis.

Filed Under: Chiropractic, Uncategorized

Topic of the Week: Maintenance

July 16, 2010 by 2 Comments

Topic of the Week: Maintenance

One of the most important aspects of maintaining your health is maintaining your spine. Grey’s Anatomy talks about your brain’s spinal chord as the major control center that controls all the structures in the human body.

One way we maintain the spine is by wobbling. We maintain good spines through proper motion, such as using the wobble chair. But spinal subluxations cause a lack of motion which causes interference to the nervous system which, in turn, causes bad health.

It’s important to keep the motion. Life is motion, motion is life. So, you have to keep regular with your chiropractic adjustments.

“How regular,” you ask? Some people should come once a week, some once a month, but it definitely has to be on a regular basis.

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