Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of people in my office come in with severe pain caused by injuries while working out.  Others come in with huge postural distortions, especially in the upper back and chest, all attributed to 2 main problems:

1) Working out with a spine that doesn’t function properly

2) Not being aware of the correct stretches and exercises to correct your postural distortions.

I’ll address #2 first.

Look at this picture:

observe how upper back is hunched rounded and head is leaning forward.

I had a patient come in yesterday who has a similar posture to this photo.  Does this look familiar to you?

He has had a 5 year history of burning pain in his upper back and neck.  He was hoping I could fix it.  We talked about exercise, and he said he worked out religiously.  Hmmm.  Interesting.

I asked him what exercises he did.  Can you take a wild guess what exercises he’s been focussing on?  The classic ones people do when they haven’t really had the training to know what to be working on.  Chest ,arms, and abs.  That’s about it.

As a result, his pecs are strong and tight, and his scapular muscles in his upper back (rhomboids, levator, traps) are loose and weak.  Result?  Well. Just look at the picture.  Or maybe look in a mirror.  I would say that 90% of people who don’t exercise or live consciously are to some degree in the same boat.  Why is this?

Simple:  Lifestyle.  In school, we sit 8 hours a day in a chair.  Not exactly what our bodies were designed to do.  Our Ancestors sure didn’t sit in chairs the way our children do.

The main cause of chronic spinal problems. Look at how you are sitting right now. Looks familiar, doesn't it.

Then, we finish school.  We go to work.  Most of us sit again, on our commute to work, then we sit at work, commute back home, and then sit again in front of the TV.  When we are living these movement-deficient lifestyles, our spines, which house our central nervous system gets stuck, and mal-aligned.  This puts a great strain on our discs, nerves, and muscles.  Slowly, as we deteriorate, our bodies fatigue and start to scream at us in the form of pain, numbness, tingling, and dis-ease.  Slowly, as a result of this lack of motion, arthritis sets in, and so does degenerative disc disease, all are which use up our health care system dollars by being “treated” with drugs and surgery.  Since our parents lived the same lifestyles and developed the same conditions, we can easily be convinced that our problems are “genetic”.  I see so many patients who consult me as a last-ditch effort after they have been convinced by another health professional that they developed this problem from their parents, it’s almost like a broken record when I see them.  

Solution:

When working out, focus more on doing rowing and upper back exercises to counterbalance the effects of gravity and poor posture.  

focus more on resistance training with rubber bands and pulleys that

These exercises are also to be done in combination with stretching your pectoralis muscles to assist in loosening them up and bringing the shoulders back.

This exercise I showed him, using a simple rubber band he could use at the office, holding the bands on both ends while pushing it against  the soles of his feet, all the while sitting at his desk.  You pull on the rubber bands or the pulley at the gym so that your shoulder blades pinch together like in this picture.

(Note, an advanced version of this exercise can be done with dumbells while leaning forward with a straightened lower back, pulling the shoulder blades back)

This must be done consistently, and to a greater degree than his chest exercises.  I then showed him a stretch he could do in a doorway, by leaning forward through the door while his arms and elbows leaned against the door frame:

These two together, done consistently each day (back exercise every other day) will bring your posture back to normal within a short period of time, especially when performed in combination with chiropractic care.  I have now put my patient on a 6 week exercise program, combined with a game plan of weekly Chiropractic care to get him there quicker.  Spinal adjustments help by loosening up the stuck (subluxated) joints in the upper back so the joints and muscles can move more freely and hold in the correct position easier.  Not to mention re-connect his brain and his body again.  His pain will be gone within the next 4 weeks.  

Can I just correct my spine with exercise?

Last week, a lady came in from an injury sustained while doing yoga.  While I’m a huge proponent of yoga, I send you to Yoga with a warning.  If you try to bend, twist, or move in any direction on a spine that doesn’t function properly, you could be in trouble.  I’ve seen it too many times… People wanting to “fix” themselves with exercise end up injuring themselves.  Remember to keep this in mind while exercising:

Your entire spine needs to be moving freely, especially one vertebrae with respect to another.

Can you imagine trying to do exercise on a spine that is stuck out of alignment? OUCH.

Look at this picture.  The model on the left shows a normal spine.  The one on the right shows a subluxation– a joint in the spine that has a deficiency of movement.  Subluxations are interesting in that they both cause injuries, and injuries/overuse can cause subluxations.  Please note, this picture is an exaggeration for illustration purposes.  Subluxations are often more subtle than this.  God forbid, if you allow yourself to get to this point, there’s no way you’ll be exercising.  You’ll be flat on your back.

They can be both excruciating, and more often than not, painless.  Either way, subluxations disrupt the normal functioning of the body.  Subluxations are an interference to the brain’s attempt at communicating with the body.  

Your body is composed of over 50 trillion cells, and health can be considered as all these cells working harmoniously together in concert.  Your brain is the conductor.  How does your brain do the conducting?  Through the nervous system.  

Exercise is critical to keep you healthy… and you also need to maintain a healthy lifestyle– eating real, whole foods that are more alive than dead, maintaining a positive focus in all areas of life, to grow, to learn, to expand your consciousness in some way, to make a contribution to the world, and to make sure you are getting plenty of rest, and healthy movement in the form of exercise.  Just make sure you’re doing them properly, focusing on the right areas mentioned above.  

Keeping a clear neurological connection between the brain and cells of your body is critical to ensure that each and every day you are growing stronger rather than weaker, and you are able to get the most out of your healthy lifestyle choices.   It takes time, effort, and a deliberate focus to be healthy with correct posture.  It’s not luck or genes that determines your health!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

5 Responses to “The Problem With Working Out…..Read Before Exercising.”