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Lessons From the Bear

So there I was, watching The Great Adventures of Winnie the Pooh at 4 years of age, and he bends over to touch his toes and the stitching in his back bursts undone. “Silly old bear,” I think, “it must be because he’s so stuffed with fluff.” Then after 21 years of school, it hit me as I was watching that same movie with my 4-year-old.  Isn’t it amazing how in the circle of our lives our perspective can so greatly change? Here is why so many people get injured: repetitive bending at the spine, especially early in the morning. It’s in all the research and textbooks and classes on spine biomechanics.  He didn’t get hurt because he’s silly, old, a bear, or stuffed with fluff. It’s because he moved improperly.

The discs in your spine that allow for the appropriate flexibility you need, have a gel in the middle.  While you were sleeping, your discs fill with fluid and during the day some of the fluid gets pumped out. This is good because the fluid feeds your spine the nutrients it needs to stay alive.  However, this makes the morning a risky time for injury because forward bending too much too early in the day creates even more than normal pressure in your disc and the gel tries to push out in the back where there is the least resistance to the movement.

A noticeable injury doesn’t always happen all at once; little by little, that daily routine and repetition of this poor movement create little bits of damage that don’t quickly heal until at some point, there is injury and it is noticed! Don’t get me wrong, bending forward for this has been an activity done for thousands of years across the world, it isn’t the problem.  The problem is that this mandatory and normal movement is added to our unbalanced lifestyle where we compensate and move joints we shouldn’t do.  This is to accomplish movements we naturally want to do but don’t have the strength for (motor control, stability) or the flexibility (mobility) in the correct parts of our body that our ancestors had. The answer? Power through it with lots of weight lifting and repetition?  Hit it with a hammer? Please don’t!  The answer is to learn again how to move correctly.  For best results, come see your favorite chiropractor near Sandy UT for your functional assessment of useful movement.  But if you don’t have that luxury available, the following may help.

Keep an inward and sturdy low back curve (Neutral/lordotic curve), stick your butt out and up, bend at your hips (thigh to pelvis area), not your back.  Build your core with endurance exercises like planks and side bridges, learn how to breathe with your belly as you did as a baby, and strengthen your pelvic floor.

Unlike a stuffed bear, it’s harder for you to stitch yourself back together and go about your honey-loving day.  We are made of more than stuff and fluff, but there are still things we can learn from this classic bear. That’s why I’m here as a chiropractor.  I saw Pooh Bear doing moving to injury, and I can see it in other people.  You just enjoy the movie.

Take time to take care, Dr. Wooten, D.C.

When Shoveling Snow, Never Bend or Twist

Winter is amazing! The cold air becomes invigorating, the landscape changes dramatically, the trees and homes transform into beautiful spectacles as they light up the night. The hot cocoa and books reading the snow sledding and skiing begin, the hand holding gets just a little tighter as we take our loved ones down with us on the ice. Winter is coming, and snow will soon be coming with it. Some less amazing parts could be “break out your shovels, wake up even earlier, and drive slower if you want to get to work on time.” But more important than that, we need to maintain our health throughout the process of all snow shoveling so we can go to work and play this season!

Have Good Form

• Snow is coming, that’s a lot of fun, it also increases a lot of stress.
• It’s important to think about shoveling snow correctly to prevent injury and back pain.
• Sometimes we can get away with poor snow removal methods for a while, but our back starts to feel that “alternative method” soon.
• One way to look at it is that every time we bend with our back, we are putting more purchases on our credit card, and the day will come when our bill is due.
• The reason why our back hurts is that we are bending with our back when it’s supposed to stay immovable.

Bend With Your Hips

• Many people make the mistake of moving their back during exercise to make it stronger. However, the point of the core and our low back is to resist stress and motion. So that means every time that we move with our low back we are reinforcing a bad pattern and training our back to get injured.
• What we’re supposed to do is bend with our hips. Everyone says don’t lift with your back, but what they mean is lift with your knees. Sadly, that advice is only partially helpful because it gets too hard on our knees and we really should be lifting with our hips! After all, that’s where the biggest muscles in the body located. Logically, the reason we have the biggest muscles there is that those are supposed to be the primary movers of the body.
• Another thing to consider is we need to be using our thigh as a fulcrum against the shovel. When you can’t push the snow any further and need to do some shoveling use the handle as a lever and your thigh as a fulcrum.
• One last thing, the worst thing you could ever do for your back is bend and twist while holding something heavy. We just aren’t designed for that sort of thing and so the pounds per square inch on our back goes up exponentially compared to how we are supposed to handle that heavy snow.
• If you do this correctly, you shouldn’t feel any pressure tightness stiffness or stress in your low back. If that’s not the case, we have a problem.
• Most people don’t realize that pain doesn’t have to be part of our daily activity.
• The unfortunate part of living in the information age is we usually have a general idea of what we’re supposed to do and what we’re supposed to avoid but to carry out the idea into our lives, is still lacking.
• If you’re not quite getting it, that’s okay! That’s what I help people with all the time, getting a better sense of how their body is supposed to move to avoid injury. Feel free to come in and we can talk about how we can help you throughout the winter and any of your spring and summer shoveling projects.
• The favorite part of my day is when I can teach someone how to avoid and prevent future back pain.