Let's get Physical... Therapy? I'm not Olivia Newton John...

www.optimalwellnesstx.comI know the title is terrible but I had a difficult time thinking of something good to get your attention and some of you might not know Olivia Newton John.

So exactly what is physical therapy?  Well physical therapy is a health care practice that involves diagnosing and treating musculoskeletal disorders.  The ultimate goal of a physical therapy is to restore maximum function to the patient.

Why is a chiropractor talking about physical therapy?  Good question, the reason is many chiropractors are trained to do physio-therapy (by law we can not use physical, but it is the same thing).  The reason for this is to teach our patients way to prevent injuries in the future and have them living healthily long lives, and to only see a chiropractor for a "check up" of the nervous system.  Chiropractors deal with mainly the spine and spinal nervous system.  The spine is surrounded by muscles that help us move in various directions and what controls these muscles???  Thats right the nervous system.  So lets say the right side of our body is weaker than the left, would it make sense that the vertebrae would continually pull to the strong side creating a subluxation (bone out of place causing nerve interference and symptoms).  Yes and Yes.  So as a chiropractor if I were to just adjust those subluxations away would they stay away, most likely not.  The reason is we didn't address the muscle imbalance.  So lets say I were to add strengthening exercises to the right side of the spine, would this help A)hold the adjustment and B)possibly prevent it from returning.  Yes and Yes.

Some benefits from physical therapy are increased muscle strength and endurance, increase joint range of motion (along with the adjustment), increased coordination, decreased muscle spasm.  Physical therapy techniques might vary from person to person because our bodies are not the same as well as the length of recovery.  There is no wonder that physical therapy and chiropractic go hand in hand.

In chiropractic office we hear the phrase "what benefit is there to doing these exercises" more often than not.  The benefit of the exercises  and we try and remind patients of this is to keep the spine strong and aligned.

If you would like to see the benefits of our office please contact at us 512.358.0325

Sleeping Beauty...?

With our work schedules, social lives, and overall stressors from our days some of don't get the right amount of sleep or the right type of sleep.  So we compensate for this be consuming our energy drinks, which supplement our bodies adrenaline needs (we won't have as much available for fight or flight if we use an outside source), coffee or my new favorite add 5 hour energy (they got me with the 230 feeling I would get a bit sleepy around then) but now it gives you "A Whole Lot of Hours" but the bottle says five.  I am adapting this post from an article done by US News & World Report but getting adequate sleep is good for us all (this was geared towards high school students)

Tip 1 Be Consistent:  Now I know it might be tempting to sleep in on the weekend or even "catch up on sleep" but keeping a regular sleeping schedule is key to keep our bodies in a rhythm.  According to sleep researchers we should be going to be around 11pm and waking up around 7am.  I am more on the 11pm to 530-6am schedule but as I have mentioned no more than 7 1/2 hours of sleep.

Tip 2 Become a morning person:  I know, I know I have heard it before and we all know someone if it is not us that is "just not a morning person"  Set a pattern of time to wake up, this will work better for us who wake with the sunrise or slightly after.  It will take at least 30 days for this to become a habit, but once you get it down you will see the wonders of the morning.  Going for a walk, run, or just getting outside before it gets too hot and enjoying the world around will not only work for your physical wellbeing but also for your mental health.

Tip 3 Schedule carefully:  Now I know that I just said become a morning person, but even if you get up at 7 and have something scheduled at say 9 that will give you time to wake up and not rush.  Now this will also give you a little extra wiggle room if you don't want to hit the snooze button, but I suggest getting out of bed even if its only to catch up on TV from the week.  Getting out of bed also breaks the pattern of your body wanting to sleep more.

Tip 4 Compensate:  Just be flexible with your time, if you have a race or something that is early in the morning on the weekend chances are you have know about this for a while and should have been preparing for a few days if not weeks.  Don't try and stay up the night before to finish a project if it will effect you over the course of the weekend.  Break it down into smaller steps and finish in a few sessions.