by hopechiro | Dec 21, 2016 | Uncategorized
Chiropractic care is designed to alleviate pain and restore the body to its natural balance. For chiropractors, injury prevention is key for a healthy body. Good practices combined with solid exercises creates toned muscles that protect the body and spine from harm. While each patient receives exercise instructions for their specific condition, the following exercise tips for chiropractic patients apply to everyone.
Do Take Time To Warm Up Before Exercising
Before starting any exercises, it’s important to warm up. A series of dynamic moves will boost your heart rate and heat up the muscles that you will be using during your work out.
Select whole body movements such as leg lunges paired with arm motion or walk in place while raising and lowering your arms. Once you’ve warmed up, you can safely stretch without risk of injury.
Introduce Ergonomics Into Your Home And Work Space
One of the most important exercise tips for chiropractic patients is to take steps to keep your body in alignment as you move through your day. In the workplace, check with an ergonomics consultant to ensure proper positioning, especially if you spend most of the day seated or doing repetitive tasks. If you do not have access to an ergonomics consultant, feel free to ask Dr. Marjorie or Dr. Bryan for advice if you have questions about your workspace.
A comfortable chair reduces muscle strain and prevents injury. Make sure that your feet sit firmly on the floor and that lumbar support is in place. At home, you should have a good mattress and supportive furniture.
Choose The Right Shoes
Before you buy your next pair of shoes, check for stability, flexibility, and comfort. During your test drive, make sure that the shoes feel firmly in place as you move through your entire range of motion for a stable gait during wear.
Footwear should be flexible enough to give easily at the base of the toe for a smooth gait, and there should be cushioning at all the right places with plenty of room for the toes to move. Shoes that properly fit your feet means that your walk will be more natural and healthy during exercise and in daily motion.
Sit And Stand With Posture In Mind
Perhaps the biggest reason that these exercise tips for chiropractic patients are so important is that strong and flexible muscles will help you have good posture. Be mindful of the following as you move through your day:
- When sitting, your feet should be on the floor, your shoulders should be relaxed, and your forearms should remain parallel with the ground.
- If you will be standing for a time, make sure that you maintain posture by tucking your stomach muscles in.
- When standing for an especially long period of time, be sure to shift your weight from one foot to the other and from the heels to the toes and back again.
These simple tips for maintaining good posture will passively work your muscles and result in a healthier spine.
Passive Stretches For Large Muscles
Finally, it is important to target large muscle groups with passive exercises. Use your weight to slowly stretch your hamstrings, your piriformis, and your entire back. Passive stretching is gentle and relieves stress points that cause back pain. These gentle exercises provide a great deal of relief and are easily adjusted to suit your current ability. If you have questions about stretching these muscle groups, please ask us to show you the next time you are in the office.
by hopechiro | May 17, 2016 | Uncategorized
Are you a car owner? I bet you didn’t think that being a car owner could teach you a lesson about health. It can! Any car owner knows that if your car is out of alignment, the tires will wear unevenly. What you may not realize is your shocks, struts, springs, and ball joints are also being stressed. All of these parts of the car are being abnormally worn and torn, as well. Replacing the tires will not fix the problem. Driving the car less often, slower, or in a different fashion will not stop the wear and tear either. The longer we have the misalignment and the more severe it becomes, the greater the wear and tear becomes on the car and the more expensive it will likely cost to fix it. We, as car owners, chose to keep our cars aligned. Why? Perhaps you do for your safety, to save money in the long run, or to keep your car running longer.
We, like cars, are subject to the same rules. A misaligned spine will change the biomechanics of your body. In other words, it affects the way your arms, legs, and all the joints of your body function and how they move. Any misalignment in your spine will abnormally wear and tear the discs in the spine, the knee joint, hip joint, shoulder joint, and other weight bearing joints. The biggest and most important difference is that you cannot replace joints of the body like you can the joints in a car. Have you had your spine checked for proper alignment?
Call us today and make that first step!
678.971.4553
by hopechiro | May 10, 2016 | Uncategorized
Your body needs plants. It’s not just maybe needs or sometimes needs them; your body needs a variety of fruits and vegetables daily. There are vital phytonutrients found in plants that you cannot get in any other food. Your liver, for example, relies on key components from plants in order to appropriately detox the body and digest food properly. Some of the biggest challenges we hear from people when it comes to trying to increase plant based nutrition is it’s boring, not flavorful, and takes too much time to prepare.
In this blog, we want to give you an idea of a healthy, flavorful lunch option that is packed with nutrients. Plus it’s simple to prepare. Anyone can do it! You will want to set aside about 30-45 minutes on Sunday to prepare the food. And when it’s all said and done you will have your lunch packed for the week!
Mediterranean Quinoa Salad
Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups of water
½ red onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
2 tbsp olive oil
juice from 1 lime
salt and pepper, to taste
First, you will want to cook the quinoa. Boil 2 cups of water; add 1 cup of quinoa. Turn heat to low and cover for 15 minutes. Then, remove from heat and let the quinoa cool.
While you are cooking the quinoa, you will want chop the red onion, bell pepper and cucumber. Once the quinoa has cooled add all the ingredients together and stir until well mixed. The quinoa salad is a simple as that. Depending on what flavors you enjoy, you could add herbs or balsamic vinegar to the salad as well.
Next, you will want to prepare what you would like to pair with your quinoa salad. Hummus is delicious with this salad. You can buy store bought hummus of your choice. We like to add the hummus along with carrots, broccoli, and cucumbers slices. Tomatoes would be delicious too. The key is pairing it with veggies that you enjoy. If you go ahead and chop the veggies all at once on Sunday you can prepare containers or baggies with the veggies for each day. Life tends to get hectic once the week gets started, so by preparing the healthy foods in advance you will likely eat healthier throughout the week.
Have a healthy week and enjoy some plant based nutrition! Your body needs it.
by hopechiro | May 2, 2016 | Uncategorized
We have the best patients at Hope Chiropractic! What fun we had last week providing healthy snacks in our office. Whether you grabbed an orange for your mid-morning snack, an apple to hold you over until dinner, or some delicious homemade granola to nibble on throughout the day, we hope you felt appreciated. We have gotten several requests for the recipe, so we are sharing it with you. It’s oh so good!
Homemade Granola Recipe
Heat oven to 300.
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl:
2 c old fashion oats
1/2 c chopped pecans
1/2 c dried cherries
1/4 c sliced almonds
1/4 c sunflower seeds
2T pure maple syrup
1T +1t coconut oil
1/4 t vanilla
1 lg pinch of sea salt
Mix with hands- making sure coconut oil is totally dispersed.
Place on foil lined cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove and cool. Store in air tight container.
We look forward to hearing how you like it! One of our favorite ingredients is the dried cherries. What’s yours? Enjoy!
by hopechiro | Nov 17, 2014 | Uncategorized
Cold and Flu season is here! What are you doing to give your immune system an extra boost? While it is important to maintain a healthy immune system all year long, it is especially important during times when your immune system will be under additional stress. Below you will find 5 ways to start boosting your immune system today, so you can ensure a happy and healthy season ahead!
- Have your nervous system checked by a chiropractor. Since the nervous system is the master control system of the entire body, every other system in the body will suffer if the nervous system is operating at a less than optimal state. The nervous system and the immune system work closely together to allow you to respond and adapt to your environment, including the ability to fight off bad bacteria and viruses. Learn more about chiropractic and your health here.
- Eat more fruits and veggies. Much of what is found in the grocery store today is processed and packaged. It isn’t even real food, but we fall victim to it because it is quick and convenient. The old saying, “You are what we eat,” is true. The food you give your body will be used to produce the cells that make up your body. Your body deserves real food! It desires real food! I challenge you today to begin eating one raw fruit or veggie at every meal. Also, consider using a supplement to help bridge the nutritional gap in your diet. Juice Plus is a fantastic, research based, whole food supplement that is designed to do just that.
- Drink plenty of water. You should be drinking enough water to turn your urine a very light yellow color. Most people need about half of their body weight in ounces in water a day. Therefore, if you weigh 150 lbs, you would strive to drink about 75 ounces of water per day. The key is to drink it slowly throughout the day. Adequate water intake will aid in proper digestion and absorption as well as removing toxins from the body.
- Exercise regularly. Exercising boosts the production of macrophages in your body, which are the cells responsible for attacking bacteria. If you are currently not on a workout routine, start slow and simple. Walking for 20-30 minutes 3-5 days a week could be a good starting point, and the intensity and frequency can be adjusted as necessary. The key is to get into a consistent routine.
- Don’t sacrifice your sleep. Sleeping is extremely important and CANNOT be replaced by anything! The body is able to repair and heal at its best during sleep. You should strive for 7-9 hours of sleep a night. If your sleep pattern doesn’t allow for adequate sleep, start going to bed 30 minutes earlier until you are able to get at least 7 hours consistently.
