How Does a Tens Unit Work on Muscle Spasm- Pain comes from electroechemical impulses relaying the pain message. A TENS unit interrupts this pathway. T.E.N.S stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. It is often used to treat low back pain and neck pain. Tens units use a low voltage electrical current to induce pain relief. Continue Reading Article
Neck Exercises- Learn effective neck stretches and strengthening exercises for the cervical spine
End Neck Pain by Improving Posture- How Proper Posture Improves Your Spine Relieving Nerve Pressure- How does posture have anything to do with neck pain?--Neck pain comes from pressure on the nerves. How does this happen?--Usually pressure from a misaligned neck spine. When your spine is misaligned (some call that subluxated) it does not move like it should and in turn creates inflammation in that area. Either out-of-alignment spinal vertebrae (spinal bones) put direst pressure on nerves or the inflammation, or built up degeneration causes the pressure. Continue Reading Article
How to Reduce the Chances of Getting A Stiff Neck- A Stiff Neck.... Horrible especially when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is going to be one painful day. You are stiff, your neck hurts, you cannot turn your head, even brushing your teeth hurts. We get questions about how to treat a stiff neck all the time. Continue Reading Article
How To Avoid Neck Pain While Doing Abs- If you do your Abdominal crunches correctly with proper form, there is no reason to suffer from neck pain or sore neck. One of the biggest mistakes that people make is that involve there neck muscles while doing these exercises- that is a NO-NO. Bringing your head and neck forward puts unnecessary pressure on the neck and it is not healthy. So when you do your abdominal crunch look at the ceiling.Continue Reading Article
Have you have experience a muscle knot in your upper back area- if you could reach it and place some pressure on the area, you would get some relief. Too many times this happens. Painful trigger points could be in your upper back, midback, neck or lower back.
There is a device called the Theracane Massager that can help to reach difficult areas of pain. It works by adding pressure (that you apply) to muscles and increase oxygenated blood flow to the area. The pressure that you apply helps to loosen up the muscle by breaking up adhesions in individual muscle fibers.
One of the best places I found that this works wonders is in between the shoulder blades, in the upper trapezius muscle and in the shoulders at the top.
You can use the theracane at home, or at work. I would recommend that you apply an ice pack right after using it, especially if you use a lot of pressure on the muscles. Read the accompanying manual - I assure you that you will be surprised at all the ways it can be used for pain relief.
Use the Theracane for upper back muscles that you are not able to reach yourself easily.
Great for mid back and lower back pain trigger points that may be hard to reach.
Easy to Use at Home or at Work. Apply as much pressure as you are able to handle.
There many natural ways to relieve pain naturally versus taking medication. A couple of therapies that worked really well for people are chiropractic, massage therapy, and acupuncture. For example, what are the choices for someone with sciatica? At first, pain medications might come to mind. But did you know that stretching, non surgical spinal deompression, chiropractic , and physical therapy are all valid choices for pain relief?
All these therapies are natural, easy to do and readily available to most of us. There are no side effects from these treatments.
When searching out one of these natural practitioners , get a recommendation from a friend, family member or neighbor to see who they see or used to see.
Other ways to treat pain naturally is to change how you do things. For example, what you eat. Did you know that a herb called boswellia provides natural alternative relief for joint and muscle pain. It helps to decrease inflammation. Studies have also shown Ginger relieves arthritis pain. Other things you can do to relieve pain that do not require medications is changing how you sleep. Actually getting to sleep is important for the body to heal. Maybe you need to change your pillow if you are having headaches or suffer from a pinched nerve in the neck.
I am not saying that the natural way to go is right everytime. But do your best and see what nature and your surroundings have to offer you. It might take some extra effort and time, but in the end its always worth it. The medications are always there as a last resort.
Rather than being uncomfortable there are so many products out on the market that will help you be more comfortable. I am talking about positioning bolsters, rolls and wedges.
They come in all shapes and sizes. Cylinders, Round Logs, Half Circles, Wedges, and Bolsters. They often composed of foam so that they hold their shape when you put weight on them. They also come composed of fiber fill as well, which makes them much more comfortable. One example of this is a very comfortable cylinder roll called the Jackson Roll. Here is an example of someone using this roll under their neck.
They can be used behind the lower back, under the knees, under the arms, for the feet and many other areas of the body. Great for when you have a pinched nerve in the neck or lower back, after surgery, or if you want to be comfortable when you are in pain.
Often times these positioning wedges will comes with positioning straps that will not tear or fray. These are important because they keep the positioning wedge in place.
The latest research is showing to do more of a dynamic stretch routine pre-work out, and sustained stretches post exercise.
What does that mean?
This essentially means to do more of warm up type stretching to start. Things like neck rolls, jogging in place, jumping jacks... After the work out do regular sustained stretches. For example , if you did a lot of triceps, then a sustained triceps stretch for 10 or 15 seconds can be done.
Dynamic Stretches Are Best When It Comes To Warming Up Before You Workout
Recent studies have been shown that static stretching can decrease your strength and athletic performance. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research studied weight lifters who did static and dynamic stretching. They found that static stretching reduced strength. Specifically the weight lifters decreased their one-rep max strength by 8% and decreased lower body stability by more than 22% when doing static stretches.
In addition to dynamic stretches, there are 3 other types of stretching that are beneficial:
Chiropractic Treatment - address the cause of the tight muscles with making sure the spine is aligned properly. The muscles are innervated by the nerves and the nervous system after all.
Foam Rolling - This means changing the length of the muscle using a rumble roller for example. This creates a neural down-regulation that decreases muscle tone
Traction - This decreases stimuli to overactive muscles and allows for movement of fluid into the joint spaces. Two examples of this are decompression and elastic bands.
There are so many different types of exercises you can do at home. In fact, if you watch late night Tv- you can could probably pick up a few gadgets, home dvd's, and exercise apparatus. Over the years, we have tried Jillian Michaels, The Beast, PX90, balance balls, a treadmill, and free weights. I can honestly say that I still use a lot of the elements of our "home"gym.
Well recently I discovered something new called the Rumble Roller- great for relaxtion of muscles, soft tissue work, and deep tissue massage. This weird looking foam roller is great for working out trigger points, tight muscles, muscle knots and adhesions. These rollers do not have a smooth surface but have soft spikes that are spaced less than two inches apart. These special bumps work to improve blood flow and tissue flexibility. You can roll in different ways and also vary the pressure that you apply with the rumble roller.Also with the rumble roller you can get different types of massage to your muscles by going back and forth or rolling side to side. Both techniques work the muscles differently.
This is something you can add on to your home workout routine and use it on many different muscles such as:
Quadriceps Muscles
Iliotibial band (IT Band)
Hamstring Muscles
Neck and Upper Back Muscles
Low Back Muscles
Calf Muscles
You can work on deep muscles, and stretch the muscles and fascia. The Rumble Rollers actually comes in two sides and two levels of support (or density): Regular and Compact, and Regular Density or Extra Firm. Check out the different types of Rumble Rollers at the Arc4life.com
Hunch Back Posture refers to the "hunchback of Notre Dame" or the "egor" type person, if you will. That being said, we are talking about looks, not personality or anything else. This, of course is the extreme case, literally bent forward, with a hump on the back, one shoulder higher than the other...
...But what if you have bad posture, and you are starting to feel like the upper-back is "humping" up? This can be referred to as hunchback posture. Throw a spinal curvature in the mix (scoliosis) and that makes things hump upward too.
How Does A Hunch Back Posture Develop in the back?
In most cases we are talking about here, activities that promote forward head posture can eventually lead to the upperback moving upward - "HunchBack".
If the head drift forward the upperback follows that path as well. Our spines are built in such a way for maximum strength and so to with stand the forces of gravity pushing downward. Things like always texting with your head down, numerous hours on the computer, or continual stressful driving forces the head forward.
Chances Are You Know Someone with this Posture...
Now you have a name for it.
Do You Know Someone with this Posture?
5 Products I can Recommend to Help Avoid the Hunchback Posture From Developing:
Also Reasons Why these specific products will help you.
Hot and Cold Pack 9x16 - This is for when you are experience neck pain and upper back pain. Keep it in the freezer.
Arc4life Traction Pillow - A Support Pillow For Better Sleep. This pillow will allow your neck to have proper curvature.
Posture Pulley Neck Exerciser - For decreasing the forward head posture- this posture pulley will help it with resistance added.
Posture Corrector - For Better Posture. Period.
This will help you sit up better and stand better.
How to Fix this Posture?
The hunchback posture is more common then you think. Here are a few things sthat hould be done to fix this posture:
1) Just being aware of it and the things that may worsen it is the first step. When you are cognisant of it you can straighten you posture or change body positions.
2) Exercises. A very common exercise I give to someone with forward head carriage are called "head retraction exercises". To perform, you want to pretend your head is on an imaginary track going anterior to posterior. Now slide that head back on that track being careful not to flex or extend but glide the head backward.
3) Neck Traction. This is extremely important because after having forward head for a while, ligament and muscles will shorten, not allowing the head to comfortable stay in the normal position.
Is this A Common Posture?
Today, this is one of most common postural misalignment we see. Why? All of the things we do that can lead to forward head posture can eventually lead to the hunch back posture. Especially now with smart phones, more time spent on computers or laptops, sometimes reading with our heads down...
We are in the information age, we can take in more info, etc. but we have to be aware of our posture.
At Arc4life we get a lot of calls from customers who need a recommendation for their neck pain. Over the years, we have composed a list of the top 5 selling items on our website that just make sense when it comes to alleviating neck pain. We call it the Neck Pain Relief package. Here is what it includes:
a traction unit - something to stretch the neck
a support pillow for the neck that aligns the cervical spine while sleeping ( on your side or on your back)
a hot and cold pack (great for moist heat or a cold pack on your neck, depending on your pain)
a natural pain relief gel (great for muscle of the neck and upper shoulders)
a homeopathic muscle relaxer
Check out the Neck pain Relief Package at Arc4life. These products all work very well together to combat neck pain and quick and painlessly as possible.
Here is a product you can wear to improve posture: the posture corrector. It will help to roll back your shoulders, and prevent the hunchback posture. This brace also helps if you suffer from upper back discomfort from slouching or bad posture.
Today I want to Highlight the Bed Wedge Positioning Pillow. I personally used this foam pillow while I was on an extended period of bed rest for my pregnancy. This pillow is also great for post surgical procedures where you have to remain upright, and also for acid reflux. Here are three ways you can use the bed wedge:
Under Your Knees: Use for sleeping on your back
Under Your Upper Back, and Neck Area: Use for reclining
Nerve Pain can be due to many different conditions such as a herniated disc, a bulging disc or even degeneration in the spine. Nerve pain can present as pain, stiffness, shooting pains, numbness and tingling and other sensations. Here is an article about a great pillow that will work for nerve pain in the neck and upper back area.
