Wellness Tips for Working from Home Pain Free

Do you finally have a routine developed for working from home? Are you noticing some aches and pains associated with your new workspace? Don’t worry, you are not alone. There have been a number of patients experiencing the same concerns and here are a few tips to reinforce good posture and manage those aches and pains.

Have your work look you in the eye

Raise your screen so that it is at your eye level so that you avoid bending your head forward. Forward head posture increase tension on the muscles and joints in the neck and can lead to issues such as headache.

Pro Tip: Place a post it, colored piece of tape or special piece of artwork on the wall behind your screen – just above the screen. Every 5–10 minutes try and take a look at the marking. This will cause you to extend your neck and lift your head upwards which can help to take tension off of the muscles in the neck and upper back.

Make you sure you have a handle on your keyboard

Set the height of your keyboard so that your arms can hang by your sides and your shoulders are dropped. When you have done this, bend your elbows to 90°. At this position, your hands should be over your keyboard and your fingers should be able to reach all of the keys with slight movements in the elbow and shoulders

Pro Tip: Every 30 min perform a stretch where you are basically asking your screen to hug you. Drop your shoulders, open up your elbows and face your palms towards your screen. In this position begin contracting your shoulder blades towards each other and down (as if you’re trying to hold onto a pencil with your shoulder blades). Make sure your video screen is muted otherwise your colleagues may get the wrong idea 🙂

Stand your ground

If sitting, have your both of your feet firmly placed on the floor with your knees bent to 90°.

If standing, make sure your feet are shoulder width apart with a slight bend in your knees to keep them from locking. You may also keep a small stepping stool and place one foot on it at a time – this will unload the back on the same side as the foot you’re standing on the stool with. It is recommended that if you are going to use a stepping stool to rest your feet, remember to alternate them regularly so as to avoid creating any asymmetries in your back.

Pro tip: Invest in a wobble cushion or disc (they are around $30). This inflatable disc can be placed on the surface of any chair you sit on. It mimics an exercise ball in that it will keep your core muscles active by trying to stabilize your spine and prevents direct pressure on your tailbone. Added bonus, you can also use the disc to perform a number of different balance exercises.

Green Shirt Day!

Why Summer Massage?

Summer brings a change of pace from the winter months. We tend to become more active.  Whether it’s sports or hiking and swimming, we tend to move more. Being outdoors, we are exposed to hotter weather and often more humidity.  Many of us work in our yards; mowing lawns or planting and weeding gardens.  Often, we have more leisure time as many of us take holidays with our families. We may even want to lose a few pounds coming into summer or over the summer. Did you know that massage can be a benefit for each of these summer lifestyle changes?

1. More activity can lead to sore, tired muscles.Massage reduces muscle inflammation and relieves pain and keeps you flexible by increasing blood flow and flushing out fluids and toxins.
2. Heat and humidity can cause swelling and edema which make us feel less energized. Massage reduces swelling by increasing the flow of fluids through the lymph nodes.
3. Working in the yard can be a workout on its own and can lead to neck, shoulder and lower back pain.Massage reduces inflammation/pain and promotes recovery.
4. Summer can be a time for self-care.After the stresses of winter, a massage can help clear our minds and also reduce stress.  With the longer days, a massage can help promote sleep by increasing serotonin (making us feel happy) and melatonin (making us feel sleepy).
5. A massage can also help with weight loss by increasing blood circulation and creating more efficient metabolism, so we burn more calories at a resting state. Massage stretches connective tissue and reduces the buildup of scar tissue, which inhibits muscle growth, thereby helping build muscles.

Why not enjoy all these benefits of massage by booking with one of our amazing therapists at HALO Clinic.

Are You Aware of the Arm and Neck Connection?

What makes humans unique from other animals and especially primates? We have unique shoulders and opposable thumbs compared to primates. Both of these are important in understanding the arm and neck connection of the human body.

Did you know that the human shoulder is better suited for throwing and hunting? This ability provides humans with valuable survival skills.

The human shoulder joint has a wide range of motion and is very mobile, affording the potential for significant leverage and accuracy in throwing.

The human hand and opposable thumbs have “a relatively longer and more distally placed thumb” and “larger thumb muscles.”

With the unique anatomy and function of the human arms and hands, we require a consistent control of the hands and arms for our activities.

What we see is that motor activation starts in the brain, and through coordination of multiple centres, we have a precisely controlled movement that promotes our survival.

Did you know that the nerve signals from the brain travel through the spinal cord and exits at multiple levels in the neck as they continue to courses towards the shoulders, arms and hands?

Nerves are sensitive to pressure.

When nerves have pressure on them, from soft tissue or other sources, it interferes with the transmission of the signals from the brain to the arms.

The neck is muscle rich and is a common place where peripheral nerve entrapments can occur.

When considered with posture, the risk and complexity of the neck as a region where the nerves can impinge and interfere with the precise motor movement, and the arms and hands elevate.

Chiropractors assess and diagnose problems that interfere with the arm and neck connection.

At HALO clinic we consult and assess with patients that are experiencing neck, shoulder, arm, forearm and hand pain problems.

If we are not the right place to help you, we will let you know who in the community is the best person.

We are here for you 100%

Where do I Find Relief?

When suffering from a disc herniation, relief is very relevant in the life of the sufferer.

Sciatica or other forms of radiating pain often cause unrelenting pain. Symptoms of a disc herniation can include numbness, tingling, burning, electrical shock-like pain, weakness in affected muscles, altered of deficient symptoms. Left untreated some disc problems can lead to bowel or bladder problems. We commonly see herniations in the lumbar (Low Back) and cervical (Neck) spine.

Disc Herniation of the low back will produce symptoms that first start in the lower back and then often move into the thigh, calf and your feet. Cervical Disc herniations higher up in your neck will cause symptoms in your arm and fingers. There are also other reasons that you can have numbness, tingling or pain that extends to your toes.

It is crucial that your chiropractor does an examination. The assessment of your spine will help to determine where the problem is and what the best way to treat your problem for recovery will be.

Given the intensity and persistence of the symptoms that accompany disc herniations our patients often want the fastest relief possible, followed by relief that lasts. When care is deemed safe, relief from your disc symptoms often results from careful and conservative management with your chiropractor. This will include such things as ice, heat, exercise, manual therapy or other evidence-based practices.

When you decide to call your Chiropractor, you start the process to recover from your dis herniation.  Your Chiropractor will help to talk you through changing positions, modifying activities and strategies to provide relief. Sleep, working and leisure activities can all be modified to provide assistance. Most importantly, your chiropractor will be able to start treatment to bring you lasting relief.

Could your low back pain, or neck pain be the early signs of a disc herniation? An assessment is the only way to find out.

We are here for you 100%.

Your Body’s Support

Our bodies require a lot of support. The good news is that the body’s necessary support is innate. Sometimes people will seek outside supports, such as orthotics and bracing, and at times these are clinically relevant. This article will focus on how your body supports itself.

In good stories, there are protagonists and antagonists. In healthy bodies, there are protagonist muscles that promote movement and antagonist muscles that perform the opposite function of the protagonist’s muscle. When these muscles are in proper balance, that indicates that we are balanced, supported and have ‘good’ posture.

An example of this muscle relationship is the forearm articulation relative to the arm that occurs at the elbow. When the biceps contracts, the triceps is inhibited, and the hand moves towards the shoulder. When the triceps contracts, the biceps is inhibited, and the hand moves away from the shoulder. The biceps causes flexion of the elbow, and triceps creates the extension of the arm at the elbow. What if the biceps and triceps fire at the same time? When the protagonist and antagonist muscles fire at the same time, this is a condition called dystonia.

Now if we look at the body, there are hundreds of articulating (moving) joints that we observe. For each joint to articulate it requires one or more agonists and one or more protagonists. The body and its joints do not move in 2 dimensions, so often more than one muscle is required to promote a movement.

The tone of these muscles provides the support necessary for us to move, to sit, to lie down or anything else where we sustain a position. When these muscles are healthy, have the right tone, and are conditioned, we move well. One indication of a healthy body is a healthy posture.

Posture problems associated with weak internal support by your muscles that we commonly see include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Hunchback
• Rounded Shoulders
• Head Forward Posture
• Low Shoulder
• Pelvic Tilt
• Sway Back
• Flat Back
• One Leg Stance

One of the ways we clinically describe muscle imbalance comes from Janda a physiotherapist from Prague. We call the one that causes problems with the head and neck Upper Cross Syndrome, and the one that affects the hips and pelvis lower cross syndrome. The Picture below describes the imbalances.

You do not have to live with “bad” posture. We work with many clients to help diagnose and treat their posture and muscle balance problems. It is rewarding to see our patients who were stooped and firm stand tall and move easier. It is worthwhile to see someone feel more confident because they feel better about their appearance.

We are here for you 100%. we would love to see you stand tall.