Posts Tagged ‘chiropractor Park Slope’
Chiropractic’s Role for Tennis Players
The spines of tennis players face a unique mix of stresses
For being classified as a low-impact sport, tennis actually contributes to a lot of wear and tear throughout the body. Once you look at the nature of the sport, you begin to see why injuries are so common in the tennis community. To begin with:
- Shearing forces in the lower extremities: you speed up then come to a full stop, then accelerate in the opposite direction. This unpredictable procession of motions wears down the load bearing joints in the legs and lower spine.
- Repetitive stress: applied to the same local areas over and over again, creates a disproportionate amount of stress to a given region.
- Ballistic motion: increases the pressure on the joints in the upper extremities, as well as the thoracic and cervical spinal segments.
- Twisting motion: side-to-side motion increases the amount of overall spinal pressure.
How we help mitigate pain and dysfunction for tennis players in Park Slope
Our combination of chiropractic and acupuncture modalities help tennis athletes discover their best from while preventing injury.
- Spinal adjustment: balances the body, improves range of motion and circulation, mitigates back pain and prevents injury.
- Decompression: alleviates pressure from the spine, rehydrates intervertebral discs and facilitates healing.
- Stretching for tennis players: focusing on the core muscles, as well as those in the upper and lower extremities; yes, tennis is a holistic exercise that requires stretching for every part.
- Acupuncture: increases local, as well as full-body, circulation and facilitates healing.
Performing your best on court: chiropractic for tennis players in Brooklyn
Our overall goals for helping tennis players include: maintaining a high standard for range of motion, balancing the body so that musculature develops evenly, and improving coordination between body and brain, via the nervous system. If you are interested in using our natural modalities to improve your game on the court, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today.
You Are What You Eat: Explained
So, you really are what you eat
Hopefully that doesn’t make you feel too uncomfortable. But think about it this way: if you are consistently consuming foods that are devoid of nutrition, how can your cells rebuild, repair and literally regenerate, properly? How can you expect to feel well? The western diet, replete with meats and sweets, has had crippling effects on the American population for exactly this reason: with such inferior inputs, our bodies are literally incapable of repairing themselves properly. It’s time to start giving your body the nutrition it needs to support your lifestyle.
Eating wisely begins with awareness
It is difficult to simply swap out a sweet with a fruit, or a meat with a legume. We are programmed from a young age to crave such delights. But what if you could replace your craving for sweets with a craving for optimal wellness? At Community Chiropractic & Acupuncture of Park Slope, we go about this by helping people realize how much better they feel with a balanced diet. Once you unlock the awareness of how good it feels to maintain a healthy diet, the cycle will keep feeding itself, if you’ll pardon the expression. There is no denying that our bodies simply work better with a properly balanced diet- if you need help getting on board the healthy-eating train, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today. We work with you to identify and change any aspect that is holding you back from feeling your best.
Increasing Bodily Comfort to Boost Productivity
Setting yourself up for success
The golden rule of productivity: make yourself comfortable. A comfortable environment raises the overall level of happiness and productivity, and allows for your nervous system to make rational decisions in response to external stressors. Comfort in the office is determined by many factors, some of the most important of which include:
- Temperature: too cold is distracting, while too warm sends you to sleep. A not-too-warm office space makes you feel most comfortable, increasing productivity.
- Brightness: who wants to work in a dark, artificially lit room? That kind of environment increases anxiety while a brightly (preferably, naturally) lit room increases happiness and productivity.
- Ergonomics: the only way to keep pain at bay if you work in front of a computer. Neutral posture should be a priority, as should be taking frequent breaks, and alternating between sitting and standing.
Comfort in the office is also determined by comfort in the body
At Community Chiropractic & Acupuncture in Park Slope, we know that productive output is reliant upon internal comfort. Pain is distracting. If you are letting back pain or dysfunction, there is no way you can expect yourself to be fully efficient when it comes to working. Our gentle, natural modalities including acupuncture, spinal adjustment, decompression and massage help create a culture of calm in your body, allowing you to sleep better and wake up with more natural energy. This is the most effective platform to build upon if you are looking to increase productivity through natural channels.
Waking Up Without the Grog
Time to face down the day
Morning grogginess is a telltale symptom of a busy lifestyle. Here are natural ways for energizing yourself in the morning time:
- Discipline yourself: no Snooze button! Choose an alarm which gets you excited to wake up and only press it once.
- Practice deep breathing as soon as you wake up
- Take a shower that alternates hot and cold. Make sure you finish on warm!
- Set yourself a morning object of desire: whether it be a particularly tasty breakfast, or an early morning walk with the dog.
Waking up refreshed in Park Slope
At our office in Brooklyn, we want to help you leave that groggy feeling behind. Our natural modalities reduce pain and boost circulation, helping you feel more comfortable and relaxed when bedtime rolls around. When your spine is aligned, and your nervous system is firing on all cylinders, your body can be a very comfortable place to be! Let us help you start waking up refreshed by giving our office a call to schedule an appointment today.
The Problem with Ignoring Back Pain
Pain is a signal- a signal that requires a response
The truth is that most incidences of mechanical back pain do resolve themselves. One side of your brain is telling you that you can just keep going and the pain will go away while your more rational voice is telling you that you are simply fooling yourself. Pain is a signal that something is wrong- a warning symbol that if you keep doing what you are doing, injury could occur. That‘s why you become stiff and sore- if you moved those muscles any further than their restricted range of motion allows, there is a good chance you would incur injury.
The problem is that once that pain goes away, it rewards you for your inaction. But did that pain really disappear? If you make no positive actions to account for the health of your back, and you continue with a lifestyle conducive to spinal degeneration, that pain will just recur over and over again. Ignoring your back pain signals is a great way to set yourself up for injury and disability in the future.
Taking proactive measures to beat back pain
We are not suggesting that you panic at the first sign of back pain. Rather keep a steady eye on your symptoms- where and when the pain occurs, the severity and how frequently it recurs. The prudent person takes action to prevent back pain in the first place, but we understand the predicament of being too busy to care for your spine. If you reach a point where back pain is becoming a constant source of worry, give our office in Park Slope a call. We prioritize the health of your spine and reduce back pain to prevent problems from compounding and leading to disability down the line.
Cardio Alternatives for Back Pain Sufferers
Cardio alternatives for back pain sufferers
So we still want to reap the same benefits as a 30 minute run, but without the repetitive trauma? Here are some ideas:
- Swimming or aquatic activity: suspends compressive force of gravity, provides natural resistance for all of your movements
- Elliptical training: allows for intense workouts without the stress on your joints.
- Stationary cycling: reduces stress on the joints and can mimic most running intensities.
- Metabolic resistance training: increases your metabolic rate to maximize the amount of calories you burn in a given session. A great way to burn fat quickly.
- Indoor rowing: reduces stress on the joints while providing cardio and strength-training benefits.
Your holistic health resource in Park Slope
At our office in Park Slope, we are dedicated to helping people discover natural health solutions. If your cardiovascular exercise is also contributing to your back pain, it is worth seeking other activities as a means of maintaining the cardio benefit while minimizing stress on the spinal joints. Give our office a call to schedule an appointment and start taking control of your back pain today!
Chiropractic is Therapy for the 21st Century
Integrated wellness in Park Slope
Alongside spinal manipulation (also known as adjustment) we provide our patients with the following healing modalities:
- Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine
- Postural analysis and education
- Ergonomic counseling
- Nutritional education
- Manual therapies
- Massage therapy
The stated goal of all these modalities is to help you mitigate the pain of chronic conditions, optimize your body’s ability to heal itself and prevent the onset of illness and injury. This preventive approach to healthcare strengthens your body against the dangers inherent in 21st century lifestyles including:
- Sedentary lifestyles
- White collar office work
- Overuse of devices
- Longer commutes
21st century pain relief in Park Slope
If you are interested in taking a new approach to healthcare this new year, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today. We are standing by to provide you with all of our natural health modalities and knowledge, and are more than willing to work with your primary care doctor to design a plan that helps you tackle all of your health challenges.
The Importance of Spinal Mobility
Give me some reasons why I want to improve my thoracic mobility
The paradox of thoracic mobility is that it relies on movement in the first place; in order to maintain thoracic mobility, we have to be mobile. The thoracic spine influences movement and function up above and below its particular segment, which means that maintaining its mobility is central to maintaining your spinal health. Here are some of the benefits to be gained from more thoracic mobility:
- Less pain
- A more stable lumbar spine
- Better range of motion throughout the upper body
- A less-rounded upper back
- Reverses kyphosis and improves lung capacity
So how do I improve thoracic mobility?
Improving thoracic mobility starts with identifying the particular points that are limited. We then use targeted, natural modalities, including spinal adjustment and mobilization, to restore mobility and reduce pain. By lengthening the spine, and then gently restoring mobility to the thoracic spinal joints, we effect great improvements in your overall spinal health. From here, we enact a plan of stretching and strengthening that focuses on maintaining the mobility of your thoracic spine. If you are looking to make profound improvements in your spinal health this year, give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today.
Planning 2018 With Less Headaches
Natural modalities for preventing headaches
When it comes to preventing headaches, many in the health community agree that circulation is a good place to start. Chiropractic techniques and acupuncture both boost circulation by opening up blood vessels in the head and neck. We can also show you simple stretches that reduce tension and get your blood flowing in moments of stagnation. By promoting better blood flow and reducing inflammation, we make the first step in preventing tension headaches and migraines.
But circulation is just the start!
Circulation is just step one. Factors including diet, hydration and posture are also primary considerations. At Community Chiropractic and Acupuncture of Park Slope, we want to help you design a holistic solution for your headaches. This includes identifying triggers, whether they be particular settings, foods or activities. We can effect a wholesale change in the way you see, treat and prevent your headaches. Let’s make 2018 the year where you start to fight back against the grip of headaches in your life- give our office in Park Slope a call to schedule an appointment today.
Maximizing Wellness in the Shadow of Chronic Pain
The cost of chronic pain
We should hold no punches- chronic pain is a public health crisis. It costs society billions of dollars in lost productivity and taxpayer burden. It costs individuals in terms of medical costs, mental anguish, depression and addiction to pharmaceutical “treatments,” that do nothing more than treat the surface symptoms. Western medicine is simply unprepared to treat the intangible nature of chronic pain. And while we continue to search for cures, many in the medical community fear that we may never find one. Of course, we will keep trying; in the meantime, choosing to face your chronic pain head on is the only realistic chance you have of living a happy life despite your symptoms.
Maximizing wellness despite chronic pain symptoms
At Community Chiropractic and Acupuncture of Park Slope, we focus on helping people design solutions for managing their chronic pain. We recognize that our modalities can not possibly promise to reverse chronic pain completely; instead, we focus on using our natural modalities to ease symptoms and improve functionality of the body and brain. In this way, we hope we can help you find a happy life despite the presence of chronic pain. At our office in Brooklyn, we use natural techniques including chiropractic and acupuncture to effect significant improvements in well being. If you are interested in finding out more, give our office a call to schedule an appointment today.