Posts Tagged ‘injuries’

Yoga & Back Pain- Thoughts on keeping yourself injury free…

Saturday, July 17th, 2010


A few times each week, I post a brief tip or suggestion about avoiding or relieving back pain on my Facebook fan page. These posts are usually independent of anything I post here on the blog, and are just meant to provide folks with bite-size tips, and are rarely controversial. Last week I posted the suggestion that one never bend and twist at the same time (meaning, that if you need to pick something up off the floor, or reach down for some other reason, turn your body to face what you are grasping rather than twisting to one side or another while bending.) Well, this resulted in a whole bunch of mail and posts- particularly about how this suggestion would effect folks’ participation in yoga. Yoga does involve some bending and twisting- and in theory should ultimately help one to avoid back and neck pain rather than cause it. Here is a video post offering a few quick suggestions on ways to avoid back and neck injury while doing yoga. The tips are reposted in text version at the bottom of the post if you want to forward them to any of your friends or fellow yoga participants. I would enjoy hearing your thoughts and experiences regarding regarding back pain and yoga- whether it provided you relief or made you feel worse.

Enjoy!

yoga

(In the first take of this video, the woman behind me was waving into the camera. I asked her to please stop- but by golly she made sure her arm was featured in the video anyway. Congratulations lady- you now have a famous arm!)

Here are your tips to avoid yoga related back and neck injuries:

-As always, hydrate before, during, and after yoga. Even slight dehydration will increase the likelihood of straining or even tearing a muscle, and the enhanced fatigue that comes with dehydration will increase your chances of using poor body mechanics.

-Before a class, take a brisk 10-15 minute walk. This will warm up your muscle groups and prepare them for the challenge ahead. This helps even when getting read for a ‘hot yoga’ class.

-If you are new to yoga, work up to doing multiple classes per week. Your enthusiasm may push you to try and do 5 classes per week, but slow down. An NFL team I worked with brought in a well known yoga instructor to help with flexibility, and I cannot tell you how many low back sprains, neck strains, and groin pulls I wound up treating as a result of pushing too much, too fast.

-Listen to your body. If a new posture is painful- back off that posture. If you feel your discomfort is simply due to it being ‘new’, build up to it slowly. If pain continues, be sure you are approaching the posture with correct body mechanics (your instructor should be able to guide you.) If the pain persists, it may signal that something is wrong- see your doctor.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Andy

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Posted in Tips, Uncategorized, Videos | 1 Comment »

Ice versus heat for back & neck pain, sciatica, and other painful areas…

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

At least a few times a day, patients ask me about whether they should be using ice or heat to help relieve their back pain. It’s a good question, and unfortunately, if you asked 10 doctors, you might get 10 different explanations for why one is better than the other.

There is only one steadfast rule regarding ice & heat: For the first 48 hours immediately following an injury, ice is better. Ice causes some vasoconstriction (the reduction in the diameter of the blood vessels) in the area being treated, helping to reduce swelling and promote healing. It also can partially numb the area for a short time, providing some pain relief.

In this doctor’s opinion, after the first 48 hours, it boils down to a matter of personal preference. Ice provides some of the pain relieving benefits, but heat can help to relax tense muscles- so there are potential benefits to either. Personally, my muscles recoil from cold and send me right into spasm, so I cannot really tolerate ice- so for me it’s heat, but I hear the opposite from plenty of people as well.

The one recommendation I will make here is to limit the time of either. If you are using ice, wrap your bag of ice in a thin towel or napkin so the cold gets applied gradually, and without ‘shock.’ Apply for 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off. With heat, the timing is not as critical, but prolonged heat can cause too much relaxation to the area, will cause vasodilation (an increase in the diameter of the blood vessels in the injured area,) and if there is still some underlying inflammation- could increase swelling. So 20 on and 20 off here is probably a good rule as well.

Hope this helps!

Insurance nightmares…

Last week, I asked you to share with me some of your health insurance nightmares. My wife and I have been dealing with a pretty complicated problem, which thankfully seems to be largely resolving. I am amazed by how many of you have had serious issues with your health insurance. I am preparing a piece or two on this topic- not strictly a back pain thing, but I felt important enough to discuss here on BackWords. Check back.

As always, thanks for visiting,

Andy

Coming soon: Back pain tips for riders of mass transit.

Coming soon: Back pain tips for riders of mass transit.

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Posted in General Health Information, Low Back Pain, Neck Pain, Sciatica, Tips | No Comments »

Special Announcement: Launch of Back Together On-Site.

Monday, April 12th, 2010

I am pleased to be able to announce the launch of a new Back Together service- Back Together On-Site.

Back pain is one of the leading sources of worker’s compensation claims, costing companies hundreds of millions of dollars per year- not just in medical costs, but in lost productivity due to absenteeism as well as presenteeism (when an employee continues to work, with reduced productivity due to an underlying condition.) Kevin Marth and I have spent several years studying this problem, and have developed a comprehensive service to help.

Back Together On-Site is a service designed to help employers reduce the cost of back & neck pain to their companies through;

-A comprehensive on-site evaluation of their workplace ergonomics, resulting in a detailed report including highest ‘at-risk’ situations, and recommendations for ways to correct.

-In-service programs for employees designed to increase risk awareness.

-A custom web portal designed to provide employees opportunity to raise questions about back pain, get suggestions about preventive measures, and provide an educational resource BEFORE they develop back pain.

-And much more.

Companies will see reduced injury rates, reduced claims, and a happier population of employees.

For more information, please send an email to info@backtogether.org, with ‘On-Site’ in the subject line.

Best,

Andy

Donna receiving a vibration healing session via didgeridoo, administered by Didgeri-Joe.

Donna receiving a vibration healing session via didgeridoo, administered by Didgeri-Joe.

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New study on integrated movement, follow up on the comfortable sex piece from yesterday, and a brief note about Back Together…

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Study on Integrated Movement from University of Gothenburg, Sweden:

A new study from the university discussed the concept of integrated movement- a process where patients are encouraged to have more body awareness in an effort to reduce their pain. I touched upon this concept in my book, Back Together, in the chapter discussing the learned neurologic response.

It is widely known that injured patients will subconsciously limit their range of motion on certain movements following an injury in an effort to find less painful ways to accomplish various tasks and activities. Unfortunately, these self imposed modifications become learned, and the altered body mechanics remain even after the injury has resolved. This can lead to further problems down the road because of irregular wear & tear on joints, as well as a higher likelihood of being re-injured.

This study focused on the use of Sensory Motor Learning, which is an extension of the concepts of the Feldenkrais Method (A widely utilized modality which encourages body awareness, and focuses on postural stability.) Basically, they found that patients who focused on these body skills had better control over their back pain and improved their mechanics.

Again, I love it when a study reinforces what I see clinically. When I have patients recovering from back or neck injury, I often have them address the learned neurological response as part of their recovery. Basically, if a patient has pain performing a specific movement, I will ask them to look at their daily activities and try to identify and analogous, or mechanically similar movement which does not cause them pain. I will encourage them to take time from their day to do repetitions of the non-pain inducing movements followed by a few repetitions of the pain inducing movement- paying attention to the mechanical similarities and differences between them. Over the course of days or sometimes weeks, they will gradually shift the balance towards the movement which was originally causing them pain- but with progressively less discomfort, undoing the altered, damaged body mechanics established following their injury.

Follow up on the sex furniture piece from yesterday…

Thank you so much for all of the great feedback on yesterday’s piece on products to help  find comfortable positions for sexual activity. As happened with the previous post on this topic, I received several emails where people shared their successes and failures in this regard. Some folks were very grateful for the information, and were also glad to find that they were not alone with this difficulty. As I suspected, this is a really neglected issue for back pain sufferers.

A quick note about Back Together:

I created Back Together in an effort to provide a useful resource for people and their partners or spouses whose lives have been adversely affected by back pain. I hope to help as many people as I can to rid their lives of back pain. You may have noticed that I go to great lengths to use egalitarian language wherever possible, and I do this to underscore that back together is here for EVERYONE. In the past month I have received about ten emails from individuals asking me to refrain from using the word ‘partner’ in addition to spouse. Again, Back Together is for EVERYONE- And I want to be very clear that I do not and will not discriminate against anyone based on race, religion, sexual orientation, age- or anything else for that matter.

My wish is to slowly develop a community of people who are finding ways to lead pain-free lives- and that everyone is included and welcome, so you really don’t need to send me any more of these emails. Thanks.

Coming up:

-A new ‘One Thing’ segment with Pilates instructor, Amanda Mitchell.

-Some thoughts on preventing back injuries relating to falls.

-Reviews of two new studies regarding back pain and medications.

-As always, new Tips o’ the Day.

- And a whole lot more.

Thanks for visiting. Be well!

-Andy

Cynwyd Elementary participating in Treats for Troops- sending care packages to U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Cynwyd Elementary participating in Treats for Troops- sending care packages to U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan.

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Posted in Announcements, Couples & Intimacy, Studies & Research | No Comments »