Prehydrate before exercise, and continue to hydrate throughout your workout. Before you start, take a brief, brisk walk (10-15 minutes) then take a moment to stretch each of your large muscle groups. This will significantly reduce the likelihood of injuring your back or neck.

Be well,

Andy

Following the show, I had the chance to speak with Terri about some of the lifestyle issues which can contribute to back pain. Ironically, Terri had been dealing with some back pain this past week, and was headed to her physician’s office right after the show.

Here’s the clip:

interviewterri

Thanks for stopping by, and be well!

-Andy

Some helpful tips follow the video. Enjoy!

WhyIstillhavepain

Here are some things to pay attention to in your spine lifestyle. Addressing these few things may go a long way towards helping you to find relief. Take a look at these:

1) Make sure your workspace is as ergonomically optimized as possible. Good chair, good organization of work related materials, etc…

2) Get regular sleep. Optimize your sleep environment- supportive mattress, dark room, quiet. Don’t consume caffeine within several hours of your bedtime.

3) Get regular exercise, and exercise properly- maintaining an optimal body composition will help take the strain off of your back. Good form will ensure that you are working the correct muscle groups, and prevent you from harming yourself further.

4) Minimize the weight of the items you carry with your. Dump out the contents of your purse or briefcase and get rid of everything you don’t really need.

5) Make sure your car is as spine friendly as possible; Adjust seating and controls for easy, unstrained reach. Add a lumbar support (a rolled up t-shirt will do.) Set your mirrors so you aren’t cocking your head one way or another.

6) Consume plenty of water daily. This helps to eliminate cellular waste from your system, and allows you to heal and function more efficiently. Take a few minutes, several times a day to do some relaxing, restorative deep breathing exercises.

7) And as always, use a headset while you are on the phone- Cradling your phone between your ear & shoulder is one sure way to wreck your neck!

A good place to start is to pay attention to those areas where you spend the most time. Invite your partner to pay attention as well- sometimes an objective second party set of eyes will notice things you will not.

Be well!

-Andy

Victoria & Albert Museum, Kensington, London

I have been working with an outstanding nutritionist, Sarah Barts for some time now. Her approach to weight control is based on simple, common sense principles which help you not to just lose weight, but to maintain a nutritionally healthy lifestyle which will help you for the rest of your life. Recently, she has been doing some additional work as a personal chef. You should definitely check out her website here.

I asked her to contribute her top ten list of tips for helping to lose weight and maintain it. Check it out…..

Top 10 ways to eat healthier and lose weight.

As a registered dietitian certified in weight management and a personal chef, I’ve worked with multiple individuals wanting to eat healthier, enjoy food, and lose or maintain a healthy comfortable weight.  Through the years of working with multiple weight loss programs and countless hours of research, I have been able to see what works best for people.  Below is what I would consider the top 10 ways to eat healthier for prevention of chronic disease, help with weight loss, and overall improve relationships with food.

1. Eat more vegetables, the more colors the better.  Dietary guidelines suggest 2 ½ cups of vegetables per day.  Fill half of your plate at lunch and dinner with vegetables of multiple colors, and you will fulfill these recommendations.  Not only are they high in antioxidants and phytochemicals to help prevent cancer, they are also a good source of fiber
2. Limit drinks with calories, water is the best option.  4 ounces of 100% juice can have approximately 60 calories; 20 ounces of soda can have up to 17 teaspoons of sugar and close to 240 calories per bottle.
3. Eat healthy 90% of the time, leaving 10% of the time to choose what you want.  There is no reason to feel guilty if you have always adored a food that may not be as healthy.  Portion control and frequency is key.  Realistic healthy eating includes small amounts of the not so healthy, but delicious foods.
4. Eat slowly and enjoy.  Who doesn’t like to eat?  Why not enjoy it?  Slow down and distinguish what tastes good about your food.  This will give you time to evaluate what your likes and dislikes are, and check-in to your hunger or fullness levels.  (no need to clean your plate)
5. Stop eating when you are satisfied.  Yes – the food tastes are great!  It will not be the last time you eat it and you can always save the leftovers for later.  No negative feelings needed for not cleaning your plate – - “it’s either a waste or a waist”
6. Eat more whole grains and fiber.  Not only is fiber filling, which keeps you feeling satisfied longer, but it also keeps blood sugar in control, helps prevent colon cancer, and can reduce cholesterol.
7. Move more.  You might have a sedentary job, and work out at the gym for an hour a day, which is ok.  But, you will burn more calories if you are physically active throughout the day in addition to your gym visit.  Walk whenever possible, e.g. pace whenever talking on the phone, use a pedometer and shoot for 10,000 steps per day, park further from the store or your work, walk for 10 minutes at lunchtime.  Include an activity that you enjoy 1-2x/week.
8. Eat less processed foods.  If you can’t pronounce many ingredients on the label, your body is going to have a hard time with it too.  Eating foods with natural ingredients and less processing makes your body work the way it’s meant to, giving you more energy.
9. Eat small frequent meals.  This will take some planning on your part, but eating smaller meals and nutritious snacks between them not only keeps your metabolism working throughout the day, but it helps to prevent over-eating.  When meals are skipped and you get extremely hungry, there is more tendency to eat whatever kind of food is available and eat fast, thus increasing calories consumed.
10. Get rid of your diet rules.  If you have dieted multiple times, more than likely you have acquired the “good food/bad food” mentality and recite the multiple rules that you have learned over time.  The problem with diet rules, is they are most often accompanied by negative and guilty feelings when they can’t be followed perfectly.  Negative and guilty feelings are sometimes associated with an all or nothing way of thinking and sometimes the nothing can lead to over indulging.

Focus on eating foods that are nutritious, enjoy meals, eat slowly and moving more.

Brought to you by: Sarah Barts, RD, LDN

Certified in Weight Management

Personal Chef for Mindful Gourmet

sarah@mindfulgourmet.com

www.mindfulgourmet.com

484-744-1429

Old growth banyan tree, Key Largo.

I subscribe to google alerts for different stories relating to back and neck pain. This week, I have read about a hundred stories about olympic athletes and their back and neck injuries. If I hear one more interviewer ask the question ‘why do you think so many olympic athletes are having injuries?’ I will blow a cork! Aren’t there better questions they could ask? How about questions about their love lives? What kind of car are they drivin’?

Olympic and professional athletes are training at a much higher level than most of us ever will. Now, I know you are saying to yourself  ”Aren’t they in peak condition? Shouldn’t they have less injuries?” Well, sure they are in peak condition- but if you look,  pretty much all competitive sports (save for maybe curling?) have become ‘extreme sports.’ The overall stats for lifting, jumping, running, endurance- most metrics used to rank athletic performance- have all jumped by leaps and bounds. There are records from Olympic games earlier in the 20th century, where commentators essentially declared that we were approaching the limits of human performance. WOW- how wrong they were! Virtually every major record has been beaten in the past 2 sets of Olympic games. The technology to make us all faster, stronger, better nourished for endurance, and with better performance psychology has advanced so far- but in the end we are all limited by the laws of physiology, and ultimately gravity. As you reach the higher echelons of performance, you are more likely to be injured, regardless of conditioning. Now that being said- the Olympic athletes have access to training and knowledge to help minimize their likelihood of injury- but there is only so much you can do.

Chiropractors, Osteopaths, Physical Therapists, and all the rest- are all a waste of your money!

You may have read my ‘coming Monday’ post earlier in the week. I suppose the search engines latched onto the tag line- because I have gotten a ream of hate mail, primarily from Chiropractors and Physical Therapist. ‘How dare you call my work a waste of money- I help a hundred people a week with their back pain!’

Have you ever been on this blog before? If you read back a few posts and see what I am about you will know that I am not here to bash anybody. How about reading the post first? I am not calling any body a quack- and I am certainly not about to tout my work as any better than yours- wait and give it a read.

Fitness  Challenge Update

People must have thought I dropped the ball on the fitness challenge until they read the post yesterday. Thanks for the updates some of you sent in. I am so glad you are choosing to do this along with me, and hope we can all talk at the beginning of 2011 about how we met the challenge, and lived up to our New Years Resolutions!

Have a great remainder of your weekend.

Andy

My workout regimen has been pretty consistent since I started- I have been doing cardiovascular exercises  about 5 times a week. Due to the incredible amounts of snow we have had, I have had to limit my cardio to indoor activity- my Nordic Track Skier has seen a lot of action these past few weeks. I have been lifting with free weights about 3 times a week, and using my Gyrotonic Transformer in the office.

I can say that my sleep is better, I feel less exhausted as a result, and as of yesterday I have lost 4 pounds. That winds up being about a pound a week, which is not fast- but here I am going for long term results, not a quick fix.

I have been getting nice updates from some of the folks who are working out with me (virtually.)

I shared a story sent in by Michael M. when I first initiated the challenge- he has been doing fantastically- he has taken steps to modify his diet, and has been working very hard to find exercises which do not exacerbate his pain. I have really enjoyed speaking with him about his efforts over the past several weeks.

I have convinced a few patients to join me on my quest to get back into shape. I have had a couple of people who are working to lower their cholesterol and the fitness challenge is providing them a great opportunity to work toward that goal.

I wil say this- putting this out there: my fitness challenge to myself- has placed a lot of pressure on me. After all, I don’t want to look like a chump, so perhaps talking about it in a public forum is just what I needed for motivation. Folks in my office have been watching out for me, as well as people in my local Starbucks. All I can say is, I better show some results, huh?

I wish any of you joining me in their quest for fitness, the best of luck. If you are doing this for health reasons, the reward will be better health and a better quality of life. If you are doing it in hopes of reducing your back & neck pain- you are likely to reap those benefits as well.

Please continue to share your stories and experiences, and thanks for visiting!

-Andy

The geometry of the deadlift places the greatest amount of stress on the lowest vertebrae of the spine, putting them at serious risk for herniation. A useful alternative for the muscles of the lower back is to perform a seated row using a horizontal cable pull. When you start the rep, begin in a controlled. slightly leaned forward position, and extend your spine slowly before bringing your arms and shoulders back. This will strengthen the muscles of the lumbar spine without putting you at undo risk.

Thanks for checking in!

-Andy