We often ask our patients to take a short walk after their adjustment, depending on the chiropractic technique we’ve used. We generally ask you to take short walks of about 5 minutes or so, to stabilise your spine.

Walking is a low impact type of exercise and, as such, is suitable if you have ongoing or recurrent episodes of lower back pain. Aerobic exercise can be great for reducing the incidence of low back pain but it’s too painful to perform when you’re actually suffering. Walking counts as good exercise but doesn’t aggravate the structures in your lower back.

For some back problems, even walking will aggravate or cause too much pain to be bearable. In this case, other low-impact exercise may be advisable, especially water therapy (such as jogging exercises in the pool or deep water aerobics). This is because the water supports your body, which reduces compression on your lower back. This allows for more pain free movement.

Walking helps to:

· improve your circulation, pump nutrients into your soft tissues and drain toxins.

· strengthen your muscles in your feet, legs, hips, and torso. It also increases the stability of the spine and conditions the muscles that keep the body in the upright position.

· improve your posture and flexibility. Walking, along with regular stretching, allows greater range of motion; helps prevent awkward movements and potential for future injury.

· strengthen bones and reduce bone density loss. Regular walking for exercise helps prevent osteoporosis and can help to reduce pain if you suffer from osteoarthritis.

· control weight, especially as one ages and metabolism slows.

· reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. It can also lower blood pressure and reduce cholesterol.

So now you know the benefits of walking. If you do a 2 mile walk every day for a week you’ll feel so much better (mind you – you will also be 14 miles from home!) As always, if you have a question, just call me on 01603 216430 and I will call you back or email me through our website norwichchiropractic.co.uk.

All the best

Neil

Exercise the right way round.
Many people are just doing their exercise all the wrong way around. No I don’t mean that you need to sit the other way on the exercise bike! What so many people do, is that they exercise in the wrong order or the wrong way. Let’s look at what most do step by step and see what might need to change.

So many people will arrive at the gym and do a few stretches to warm up. Not a bad thing to do – though it’s important to remember that it’s not meant to be a ferocious pull on your hamstring/quads/ lats that stops just short of ripping your muscle in two! Be very careful when using leverage, such as putting your leg up on a rail to stretch hamstrings, very easy to overdo it. It should be gentle and progressive and held for at least 8 seconds (count it off, it’s longer than you might think). Remember it’s not a competition with that annoying guy from accounts; people have different flexibilities. Just let your body be your guide.

Then what the majority of people will do is go into their cardiovascular routine for half an hour or so. They’ll do their workout of bike/treadmill/ rower (in whatever order) and build up a sweat and get their heart rate up. Then they’ll go straight into the resistance work – the free weights or resistance machines. All sounds good I hear you say….BUT now they’ve worked out and got their heart rate up their body is in an Aerobic state and yet they’re doing weights, an Anaerobic activity.

In a nutshell (and without getting all technical and too biochemical) aerobic activity is sustained activity and burns either glycogen, the body’s short term energy store, or fat along with oxygen (hence the breathing hard).
By contrast, anaerobic exercise burns fuel without oxygen and generally produces more power and mass in muscles if done in short bursts.
The key here, is that once your body goes into an Aerobic state it takes a while to drop out of it! So… the key, if you’re doing your weights to build power and bulk, is to do that FIRST (after the stretches).

So to get the best from your routine, try this
1 Stretches
2 Weights and resistance work
3 Warmup
4 Cardiovascular training
5 Warmdown

If you cast your mind back to the weightlifting on TV, did the contestants come out already panting as though they’d just got off the treadmill? No, they knew for them it’s all about anaerobic function. So take a leaf out of their book. Do your weights in short bursts and before your cardiovascular work. You’ll get the most out of your work to build bulk and strength AND be more efficient into the bargain.

There’s some good reading on wikipedia on this if you’d like to know more.
Very soon we’ll look at the different types of, and benefits of, phased training such as interval and something called, I kid you not, Fartlek training (stop sniggering at the back there)

Til’ then have fun and keep up the good, aerobic or anaerobic, work.

yours in health
Dr Neil

The vast majority of us drive. We don’t really think too much about our sitting position, posture, tiredness levels etc. This isn’t so much a problem on short journeys but on long ones, these factors can mean the difference between a comfortable and safe journey and a nightmare one.

When you drive long distance, do you do what so many people do? Drive, drive, drive; stopping only for petrol, food or a much needed toilet break? If so, you may inadvertently find yourself driving for several hours. With no breaks, you may get there only 5 – 10 minutes quicker. The fact is, that driving for such long periods without a break is more likely to give you backache or make any current problems worse. Your body can easily seize up if stuck in one position for too long. It can also dull your concentration making you feeling tired and more likely to have an accident. That, clearly, is a serious matter.

So what good driving habits should we adopt?

1. Stop, get out and stretch every 75 – 90 minutes or so. It need only be for 5 minutes walking up and down in a petrol station or in a lay by. By the way, don’t think that stopping at a fast food joint, with a certain small chef outside, gobbling down chips is the same thing. It isn’t and, unlike a short walk, will not refresh you. All those carbs and fast food will just make you want to have a little sleep. Anyway, that’s a whole other subject.
2. Do a few stretches before you get back into the car, pulling your knee up to your chest for example – but do follow your chiropractor’s advice!
3. Vary the rake angle of the seat every so often. Most car seats now have an adjustable angle to the backrest. Just give the button or dial a slight tweak but don’t move it too much. There is a range within which you will be ergonomically comfortable. Just vary the position a little within that range. This stops the muscles setting in one position and helps you to feel less stiff and achy at the end of your journey. Do make sure, however, that you can still see in your mirrors.
4. Ensure that your rear view mirror is set for you sitting upright, not slid down, in your seat. Also pay close attention to whether you’re sitting straight upright in your seat or leaning to the left or to the right. People often lean slightly left, into the middle of the car, especially in small cars (like the ‘KA’). I have my own theory on the reason why! Anyway, just watch them in traffic queues and see if you don’t agree! (Let me know).
5. Stay well hydrated. Have a bottle of water with you in the car. This will help you stay alert and refreshed. Note:- water NOT coke – you want hydration, not sugar highs and lows!
6. If you feel tired, stop somewhere safe and have forty winks. You’d rather get there safe than not at all, right? Set the alarm on your mobile if you have to.

These habits may not be ground breaking but so many of us ignore them. On your next long journey, discipline yourself to do them. You should arrive at your destination in one piece, feeling perkier and more refreshed.

Yours in health,

Dr Neil

Welcome to my blog.

I know there are millions upon millions of blogs out there and I’m honoured that you’ve decided to look at mine! If you want to find out more about me and my history in chiropractic, look at the about Dr Neil page at the top.

For this, my first entry as such, I’m going to outline what we’re about. This blog is designed to be a forum to bring you cutting-edge information about health and wellness in the 21st century. There’s a revolution starting in health care and this resource is here to help you find out the truth about how to be healthy. We’ll be covering such diverse topics as nutrition, exercise, the power of the mind in terms of your health and bringing news and comments about the big (and little ) stories that relate to your health. Clearly it’ll have a chiropractic slant, but it’s about much more than just that. It’s really not going to be all dry and boring either, there’ll be fun stuff too.

Welcome on board.

Yours in health

Dr Neil