Specialized Headache Exercise

In my previous post I went over the culprits and solutions to typical headaches.  One of those solutions that I made mention of were specialized exercises.  This post is going to describe how to do a very important neck exercise.  One of my hesitations in this post is the reader not having me around to correct them on some of the common technique mistakes which people make doing this exercise.  So take caution and contact me with any questions-- I'd be happy to coach you through it.

• Step 1:  Lie down on your back.

• Step 2:  Using a stretchy band of some sort (a therapeutic resistance band is best), stretch the band outward with your grasped hands along your belt line, with your palms facing upward toward the ceiling.  The back of your hands should be on your "hip bones" (the technical anatomy is the A.S.I.S., or, the anterior superior iliac spine).  The purpose of this step is to engage your core, so focus on sucking your belly button toward your spine, keeping all abdominal muscles tight.  Feel free to bend your knees and have the bottom of your feet flat on the ground if this is more comfortable.

• Step 3:  Ensure that your shoulders are rolled back, and down (not shrugged up toward your head at all).  Your scapulae (shoulder blades) should be flat on the ground.

• Step 4:  Raise your chin up to your sternum as far as you possibly can, slowly and deliberately.  Your shoulders should not raise up off the ground at all!  Lower your head back to neutral.

• Step 5:  Turn your head all the way to the right or left, then raise your head up to touch your chin to the corresponding clavicle (collar bone).  Return to neutral and repeat this step on the opposite side.

• Step 6:  Steps 4 and 5 comprise one repetition, and you need to do this for 10 reps.

A couple things you should be aware of with this.  First, the reason behind the band and engaging your core is that I don't want your core assisting you with what your neck is doing, so we're keeping it distracted and isolated away from the objective neck work.  And your core should maintain a constant contraction for the entirety of the exercise!!!  Second, after about 7 reps, you should be getting fairly tired.  THE LAST 3 REPS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT!!!  This is because at this stage your main primary mover muscles in your neck have reached a stage of fatigue, and now it is up to your intrinsic neck muscles to get the job done.  So if you start getting tired during those last reps, don't give yourself a break-- we want to retrain those intrinsic muscles most of all.  It is also important that you're heavily cognizant of your technique during those last few reps; DON'T GET SLOPPY!  Keep your technique flawless.Please remember that if you do these wrong, you could actually be creating some problems, so please don't hesitate to contact me.  These exercises done by themselves won't guarantee you results, but when complemented with the synergy that comes from the chiropractic adjustment and some myofascial release, we can produce amazing results! 



Get Moving!  Get Performing!



Contact info:

Dr. Kelby Martin(929) 33-KELBY   [929-335-3529]

South Jordan Chiropractic
10456 S Redwood Road
South Jordan, UT 84095
Office phone:  (801) 446-5100

Headaches: The Culprit & the Solution

Headache patients are some of my favorite patients.  I take great pride in what I'm able to do for them.  I've taken a girl who had migraines every day for the previous 5 months and gotten her to be headache-free for a full month-- no drugs needed!  I recently took another young girl who had a concussion from a year ago, causing her headaches every day for that entire year.  Within the course of a weekend we reset some biomechanics so that she went a full week with no headache!  You might be asking, "Why only a week?"  Answer:  this happened exactly 1 week ago!  We are yet to see how long this girl's symptom-free time will last.  We are anticipating and shooting for the rest of her life!  There's many other examples of patients for whom I've seen these types of results transpire.

So how do I do it?  What is the culprit behind headaches?  Well, we need to establish and acknowledge that headaches can and do take on many forms.  So to state that there's a magic bullet answer is too simplistic.  However, in my experience, very often the answer lies in the S.O.T. muscles, in one way or another.  SOT stands for the sub-occipital triangle.  These 4 pairs of muscles are designed to only be fine-tuning muscles.  In other words, as we sit up straight, the SOT's are able to do best work in this realm. 

However, (wait, Dr. Kelby, are we getting into posture again??  You'd better believe it!!), when we don't hold adequate posture, the SOT's have to become pseudo-major moving muscles (coarse-tuning).  

Some old fashioned radios utilized both coarse tuning and fine tuning.  Our SOT muscles are only supposed to be used for fine-tuning of our posture, but more often than not, we are using them for coarse-tuning.

These SOT muscles were never intended to do that!  And here's the killer:  the SOT's are the most highly innervated muscles of our musculoskeletal system!  Meaning, as they become aggravated (by our bad posture), it's very easy for them to send pain signals to your brain, and to radiate that pain through the adjacent areas/muscles of your head!  This results in headaches; ouch!

My solution involves 3 or 4 modalities that will take those headaches go away, usually getting results within the first treatment!

• First, some myofascial release on those SOT muscles, as well as some adjacent neck muscles.  Myofascial release is not just massage work.  It's much more aggressive, and I seek to strip out all the built up garbage within those muscles.  Sound painful?  That's because it is!  But it works, so I do it!  And my hands have become very skilled at it.
• Second is the indispensable chiropractic adjustment!!!  The adequate range of motion that your spine once had needs to be restored.  If you don't use it, you lose it.  And most of us aren't active enough to keep our joints dynamic.  And when you allow your spine to be chronically stuck, that area can no longer afferently stimulate your brain.  If it sounds complicated, just know that you become less able to function, generally, and the chiropractic adjustment is very often the solution.
• Third is some very specialized exercises that pertain to preventing future headaches.  I will be posting how to do these exercises in a future post.  Stay tuned; like and follow the blog to keep informed!
• Fourth, if necessary, I use some specialized resonating tools/equipment that I came across with the brilliant physical therapist, Sharik Peck.  This, too, will have to be detailed in another post.

These tactics will take away your headaches without the straining side-effects on your digestive organs that come from headache pills.  Plus, we will prevent most future headaches from coming on.

I often come across people with headaches.  Can you imagine why?  Posture (surprise, surprise); people have sucky posture!  And I'm going to keep blogging about it until you all get the message!  This is why I'm so concerned with locating and helping people who work at a desk-- poor posture is inherent in how they spend all their time!  Not to mention the time away from work where they're also on a computer, their phone, or whatever the case may be.

Now, of course there are those who suffer from migraine and cluster headaches, which come on due to a variety of stimuli, such as seasonal allergies, smells, lighting, etc.  So I'm not blaming every headache or migraine on posture alone.  However, I will submit to you that those who are more prone to those types of headaches would very likely experience less of them if their posture was improved.

So here's some questions to consider:

• How many headaches do you have each month?  How about each week?
• How many headaches are too many?

I'll make this statement:  One headache is too many.  It is an indication that something in your body is amiss.  So let's fix it!  Remember that we need to get to the root of the problem, and not just treat/trim the symptom branches.  Getting to the root of the problem tells me that you're truly valuing your health, instead of just pushing it aside because you're "too busy" to deal with it right now.

Get Moving!  Get Performing!


Contact info:

Dr. Kelby Martin
(929) 33-KELBY   [929-335-3529]

South Jordan Chiropractic
10456 S Redwood Road
South Jordan, UT 84095
Office phone:  (801) 446-5100

Everyone Should Do This Easy Posture Exercise (IT'S SO EASY!!!)

I've previously done a couple posts on the importance of posture.  Yep, here's another one!  Are you starting to get a feel for how important posture is?  :)

This is a simple instructional exercise post.  If you commit a little time to do it every day, it can go a long way for you.

I'm going to instruct you to do wall push-ups.  Obviously, since we're doing push-ups on the wall instead of on the ground like usual, we aren't going for mass/bulk here.  Instead, we're seeking to tone your rhomboids.  The rhomboid muscles are found between your scapulae (shoulder blades) and your thoracic spine. 

• As we tone the rhomboids, they become tighter long-term, pulling your shoulder blades back. 
• This sequentially causes your shoulders to become more rolled back where they are supposed to be.
• When our shoulders are rolled back, our upper trapezius muscles pull the head back.
• As a result, we have better posture!

Here's some specifics on how to do these wall push-ups:

• Have your hands directly in front of your shoulder joints.
• As you allow your elbows to bend, maintain a 45° angle between your arms and your body.
• Keep your feet shoulder width apart.
• Keep your shoulders back AND down; don't let your upper traps pull your shoulders up toward your head!  (As a side-note, you ladies do this a lot, because this is where females tend to hold their stress... my myofascial release treatments will do wonders for you!)
• Most importantly!  Squeeze your shoulder blades together tight!  You should feel the tissue pinching in the middle of your back.  Keep it this way!
• Slowly "lower" yourself toward the wall and come back up.  Once your elbows are straight again, DO NOT ALLOW YOUR SHOULDERS TO ROLL FORWARD!!!  Keep that tissue pinched between your shoulder blades, the whole time!

Try to do this for 10 reps, 3 separate times in your day.  An easy way to remember this would be to do it at breakfast, lunch and dinner.  At the very least, do it once every day, for 10 reps.  Remember, we're just going for tone.  And this works like when you were a kid and you played that "game" with your friends where you stood in a doorway, pushing both arms against the doorway frame as hard as you could for about 30 seconds... when you stepped out of the doorway your arms seemed to just float up.  This exercise relies on the same principle.  Do these exercises to get your rhomboids to naturally pull your shoulders back.  Wouldn't it be nice if your muscles just maintained proper posture without you having to think about it???

Have fun with this, and let me know what differences you see after you've done it for a week!

Get Moving!  Get Performing!

Contact info:

Dr. Kelby Martin
(929) 33-KELBY   [929-335-3529]

South Jordan Chiropractic
10456 S Redwood Road
South Jordan, UT 84095
Office phone:  (801) 446-5100

The Ideal Protein Diet

I've gotta take a moment to brag about my wife, Caryn.  She started the diet program that we utilize at our clinic (Ideal Protein) about 2 months ago.  She's already lost 32 pounds!  Way to go, Caryn!  So!  She has motivated me to start it up myself.  She's an absolute inspiration!  Here we go!

There's a couple great principles incorporated in this Ideal Protein diet that make me a fan:

• You don't lose muscle mass in the process (as is common with most other diets).
• It resets your pancreas.
• It embraces the fact that it is a purposefully imbalanced diet, noting the accurate, biochemical uses of our 3 major fuels (carbs, proteins, and fats).

So let's quickly go over these 3 bullet points, one by one.  First, this diet doesn't make you lose muscle mass.  Other typical diets usually have some form of reducing your calorie intake.  Meaning, you still take in carbs, proteins and fats, just in smaller quantities.  With the Ideal Protein diet, you relatively stop the carb intake (eating just enough to maintain adequate organ health).  Under this system, your body falls into a state of ketosis (no more of the usual glycolysis) and your body has to use your fat cell storage to fuel your daily activities.  The stipulation being that you don't get to work out during this weight loss phase of the diet.  Working out would cause your body to utilize muscle fuel (since the blood sugar fuel from the carbs and sugars are gone from lack of intake)-- your body uses the muscle protein fuel when working out and not the fat cell fuel.  So just know that we're putting our body into ketosis on purpose so that we use fat cell fuel without working out.

Second, by cutting out the sugars and carbs, your pancreas no longer has to repetitively spike that well-known hormone known as insulin.  Since your pancreas no longer has to work so hard to spike the insulin (which happens to the majority of people on the standard American diet, a.k.a. SAD), your pancreas is given the reset that it deserves!  Many people who are pre-diabetic or even have diabetes have found that they no longer have diabetic problems after going on this diet.  Now, that being said, I've gotta throw in the disclaimer that Ideal Protein doesn't claim to cure diabetes, it just often happens to be one of the great side-effects.

Third, this diet embraces that to lose weight effectively, we need an imbalanced diet for a time.  We hear all the time that we should always maintain a balanced diet.  Well, that's true, if you're at your target weight already.  But if you're overweight, you should be utilizing this process your body is programmed to do when we have deprived ourselves of carbs-- and that's the process of ketosis.  It's there and designed to burn your fat cells as your body's source of fuel.  And!  By eating all the ideal proteins, you maintain your muscle mass!  So awesome!

If you've tried all the fad diets, if you've tried cutting calories and exercising more, and if you've tried a host of other frustrating methods, I invite you to join Caryn and myself on this Ideal Protein diet journey.

Know that our clinic requires that you attend (for free) one of our Ideal Protein classes to gain a more in-depth understanding of the process before diving in.  This class also provides a great opportunity to get all of your questions answered.

Are you or someone you know ready to lose that excess weight?  Or are you worried about someone you know?  Maybe someone that is pre-diabetic or has diabetes?  Aside from the superficial weight loss to just look better, it is time to get our bodies healthy!!!  So please give yourself or that loved one the gift of resetting their health.  Now is the time.  Caryn and I are here to go through the journey with you!


Get Moving!  Get Performing!


Contact info:

Dr. Kelby Martin
(929) 33-KELBY   [929-335-3529]

South Jordan Chiropractic
10456 S Redwood Road
South Jordan, UT 84095
Office phone:  (801) 446-5100

"Whiteboarding"

I've created this YouTube video... I anticipate many more to come!

http://youtu.be/0Tknf1Z7_P0


Get Moving!  Get Performing!


Contact info:

Dr. Kelby Martin
(929) 33-KELBY   [929-335-3529]

South Jordan Chiropractic
10456 S Redwood Road
South Jordan, UT 84095
Office phone:  (801) 446-5100

The Truth Behind Your Knee Pain!

We've discussed a fair amount of posture to this point-- time for a change of pace!  A large amount of the population has had, or currently has, knee pain (to some degree).  But if we set aside knee trauma incidences, would you be surprised if I told you that the majority of the time the real problem actually isn't in your knee?

Yes, you read that right.  Most people suffering from chronic knee pain are experiencing that pain due to another problem away from the knee, and the knee is simply manifesting some "byproduct" symptoms.

Here's a basic analogy to illustrate my point:  if a fruit tree is sprouting some nasty fruit, how many of us are focusing on that nasty fruit, or perhaps the branches, as being the problem?  A common example is a headache-- when someone gets a headache, they're focused on the fact that they're having painful symptoms (nasty fruit), and they only want those symptoms to either subside or just go away.  A couple pills later (chopping off some tree branches) they notice the decline of their symptoms (or at least their body is more ignorant to those symptoms).  What has this person done here?  Their body has sent a signal of pain to tell them there is a problem.  Yet, they don't usually care about what CAUSED that headache, only that they wanted to dull the painful sensation (the end result of the problem; the fruit).  But what is going on at the tree ROOT level?  Or, perhaps, what is wrong with the soil?

So many times we see people being prescribed a drug for symptom 'A' or 'B', and then the side effects of that drug ends up leading them to symptoms 'C' and 'D', for which there will be another drug prescribed, and so on and so forth.  We are treating symptoms instead of understanding why the symptoms are there in the first place.  If we correct the REAL PROBLEM, the byproduct symptoms will inherently go away!

So back to the knee-- if painful knee symptoms are only the nasty fruit that comes down the line, what is the root of the problem?  Why have these painful knee symptoms shown up?

Let me explain a concept which most physicians aren't even aware of.  And that is that your joints follow a pattern from bottom to top.  What do I mean?  Well, all joints are meant to provide some form of movement-- some joints have very limited movement, whilst other joints have a TON of movement.  If we were to classify our major joints into being either "highly mobile" or "relatively stable", then we start to see a pattern-- I call this, "The Joint Pattern Rule".

• Starting at the ankle-- here we have a joint which we can classify as mobile.
• Next up, the knee-- this joint only moves in one plane of motion, therefore it is stable.
• Next, the hip-- this is an extremely mobile joint.
• If we then group several spinal joints into a section, the lumbar spine is designed to be a stable section, as our muscular core surrounds this area.

That sequence of joint patterning continues up the spine, but what we've covered in those bullet points will suffice for our current knee discussion.  Most of us aren't moving enough.  So depending on several factors, such as the nature of our jobs, how we spend our leisurely time, how often we work out (or don't work out)-- do you think it would be fair to say that maybe some of us aren't as physically active as we could be?  The old adage, "if you don't use it, you lose it" comes into play.  And when we looked at the hip in the bullet points above, we noted that it is an extremely mobile joint.  Very few people are utilizing the full range of motion that their hips are intended to have.

What is the consequence of this?  Your body has an incredible ability to compensate.  So when you repetitively initiate movements that would normally require a good deal of hip motion, and that mobility no longer exists in your hip (if you don't use it, you lose it), something has to make up some ground for you.  Your body has two options:  gain more movement out of your lower back, or gain more movement out of your knee (these, of course, are the two adjacent joint areas to the hip).  But both your low back and your knee were supposed to be stable joints!  And when we force a stable region/joint to move outside of our physically capable control, we see the emergence of pain!

So!  The general strategy/approach to my patients with knee pain is to work on gaining more range of motion in the hips, and possibly ankles, depending on the patient.  As you can imagine, there's several other components/factors that can contribute to knee pain.  So if you're thinking all you need to do to rid yourself of knee pain is throw a few hip stretches into your daily routine, you should probably err on the side of caution instead:  come get yourself checked.  I'd love to see you; I'd love to be your doctor!  And besides, we need to get you out of pain first before we start re-training your hip mechanics.  I know how to do that for you, without pain killers!  :)

We can see that lack of movement leads to these knee problems (seems to be a recurring theme for all of our chronic pain problems, doesn't it?).  So what do I advise that you do to prevent having knee pain in the first place?

Get Moving!  Get Performing!


Contact info:

Dr. Kelby Martin
(929) 33-KELBY   [929-335-3529]

South Jordan Chiropractic
10456 S Redwood Road
South Jordan, UT 84095
Office phone:  (801) 446-5100

Been in a recent car accident?

If you or someone you know has been in a recent car accident, this information is extremely important!

We went over the importance of posture in the last couple blog posts.  Usually poor posture is the result of long periods of bad habits.  But an auto accident can create problems instantly, even though (and this is what's crazy) there are times that whiplash symptoms don't even manifest themselves until 12 to 18 months later!!  You should know that, typically speaking, symptoms show up about 2 weeks later.

If you've been in an accident, your body is trying so hard to figure out what in the world just happened to it, and it will usually start laying down scar tissue inappropriately.  We also often see what's called "ligamentous laxity" in car accident patients.  That's a complicated way of saying that the supporting ligaments around your spine (specifically, the neck, or cervical spine) have undergone a traumatic stretch from which they are incapable of recovering!!  It's like one of those plastic grocery bags-- when you stretch that bag out, it isn't going to recoil.

But here's the good news:  assuming you have any kind of car insurance, there's a high probability you have what is called personal injury protection, or "PIP".  So your financial side of treatment care will be taken care of!  The other good news is that our practice (South Jordan Chiropractic) is the place to be for auto accident/personal injury care.  We see several whiplash cases every week, and we have an incredibly high success rate with these cases.  This is partly due to the equipment at our clinic, which is designed to aid in the recovery and corrective strategies that are needed in a whiplash patient.  The other part of the equation is the soft tissue re-training, coupled with skilled chiropractic work-- together they will ensure that your health won't be compromised just because you got into an accident.

"Doc, I just went to the emergency room after the accident, and they said everything was fine."  This is common.  Know that they are mainly looking for broken bones, lacerations (cuts or scrapes) or any other potentially "higher danger" levels of injury (all of which we can check for as well).  But for the care of your soft tissue injuries, (and there definitely WILL be soft tissue injuries in any whiplash accident/incident), you need to come see the experts at South Jordan Chiropractic.  Don't risk your health just because you may not have symptoms at the moment.

So!  Whether you've been in a minor fender bender, or something more severe, you definitely (at the very least) want to come in for a consultation; we will be able to tell you right off if we can be of help to you.

Lastly, we work with a lot of experienced attorneys who can help your case.  And if you aren't at fault, you may be the benefactor of a financial settlement when all is said and done.  We're here to help you in the process.

All the best!


Contact info:

Dr. Kelby Martin
(929) 33-KELBY   [929-335-3529]

South Jordan Chiropractic
10456 S Redwood Road
South Jordan, UT 84095
Office phone:  (801) 446-5100

Posture, Part 2... The Muscle Spindle!

Last time we covered some basics on the importance of posture, including how most of us have bad posture due to our constant habits.  I briefly mentioned the altered lengths/positions of the muscles and soft tissue surrounding our neck.  Today we'll be hitting that concept more in depth.  Within this altered musculature resides the muscle spindle.

Think of the muscle spindle as being your body's sophisticated measuring tape.  Within each muscle (in fact, within every muscle fiber of every muscle) we have this amazing measuring tape, constantly keeping track of the changes in muscle length.  This information is sent to our brain (specifically, the cerebellum) via afferent nerve pathways.  The cerebellum allows us to have the ability known as "Proprioception".

Proprioception enables us to know where we are in space (no, not outer space).  In other words, when we close our eyes, we should still be able to fairly accurately know exactly where one part of our body is, relative to the rest of our body.  As an example, when police suspect a drunk driver, they administer the eyes closed, finger to nose test-- alcohol impairs proprioception, and the drunk driver is fairly inaccurate.

So what does any of this have to do with posture?  Hang with me, I'm getting there!  We just considered the example of the drunk driver, showing that our proprioception can be diminished.  So we see that proprioception isn't always automatic; it can be lost.  Another way our proprioception can be reduced happens when our muscle spindles have been altered.  What do I mean?  Remember the altered lengths in the muscles that occurs when we have bad posture?  Recall that the muscles behind the cervical (neck) spine become chronically lengthened, and the muscles in front become chronically shortened.  BOTH the chronic lengthening and the chronic shortening of these muscles impairs, to some degree (depending on the severity), the ability of the muscle spindles to send the "measuring tape" message to our cerebellum.

The reason this is so important is due to the fact that there is a meaningful neurological pathway from the cerebellum to the frontal lobe of our brain.  As our cerebellum is adequately stimulated, it will in turn stimulate the frontal lobe.  The frontal lobe is what primarily makes up our personality.  It is very service-oriented.  It is responsible for thinking at a more intelligent, cognitive level.

So can you think of the neurological consequences of having bad posture?  I'll bet you could if you took a moment to piece the puzzle together.  Here's the sequential steps you should be considering:

1. A consistent, bad posture.
2. Chronically lengthened posterior muscles and chronically shortened anterior muscles.
3. Headaches, Neck pain, Shoulder pain, Low back pain.
• In addition to diminished abilities of our muscle spindles!!!
4. The muscle spindles don't stimulate the cerebellum as adequately as before.
5. The cerebellum doesn't stimulate the frontal lobe as much as it should.
6. The frontal lobe isn't able to think as clearly or intelligently as it should.
7. EVERY aspect of this person's life is diminished.

"Every aspect, Doc?"  Yep.  If your brain isn't working at its optimal function, your mentality, your physicality, your emotional health, your spirituality, etc. -- it all goes down!

Conversely, as you work on correcting your posture and getting your spine re-aligned (including re-training/re-calibrating/re-educating your muscles), you re-create/re-stimulate the neurological pathways!  The muscle spindles fire more sufficiently, the cerebellum is more ideally stimulated, and the frontal lobe is awake and alive!  You enable yourself to thrive!

There's a couple more aspects to this equation.  First, when the frontal lobe is stimulated, it will utilize a pathway to inhibit our flexor muscles-- the flexor muscles are predominantly the ones firing in poor posture positions.  Think of your shortened anterior neck muscles, your pecs, your biceps, basically creating the fetal position again.  Secondly, when the frontal lobe is stimulated, it will also inhibit the behavioral drives of the temporal lobe.  The temporal lobe is very self-centered; it's the "me, myself, and I" lobe.  It's also highly responsible for temper tantrums, anxiety and depression, and other self-sabotaging behaviors.  Wouldn't it be nice to significantly reduce those experiences?

Hopefully by now you're starting to see the benefits of better posture.  There's a reason why so many people feel so good after their visits to the chiropractor.  Here's a quick wrap-up of the benefits that come from improving our posture:

1. Better respiration:  With better posture, we open up our rib cage and allow deeper breathing patterns to occur.
2. Less strain on our soft tissue anatomy:  The strains we place on our musculature and other surrounding soft tissue is lessened, and as a result, the painful symptoms too many people have go away.  Goodbye headaches, neck pain, shoulder pain, and low back pain!
3. Better muscle spindle potential:  Higher, more accurate muscle spindle firing rates = stimulated cerebellum = stimulated frontal lobe, inhibited temporal lobe and flexor muscles = better able to thrive!
4. Confidence:  People with proper posture look better!  Once your posture is restored, your life will never be the same!
5. Higher energy levels:  This comes as a result of the combination of our first four benefits already listed.

And as you can imagine, there's many more!  These concepts are a huge part of the reasons I love doing what I do.  As I've said before, getting you out of pain is the easy part-- I want to enable your brain and body to thrive, and these concepts are largely the reason I can facilitate that as your chiropractor.  I encourage you to give yourself the gift of better health; I'd love to hear from you.  Until then...

Get Moving!  Get Performing!

Contact info:

Dr. Kelby Martin
(929) 33-KELBY   [929-335-3529]

South Jordan Chiropractic
10456 S Redwood Road
South Jordan, UT 84095
Office phone:  (801) 446-5100

Posture! What you probably didn't know!

Remember when you were a kid and your parents or your grandparents would tell you to sit up?  And maybe nowadays you're still telling yourself to sit up.  But how long does this practice last before you're right back to that slumped posture?  Does all this posture hype really matter?  The answer is a resounding YES!!!

Our posture is fundamental to our health.  To many, this won't be groundbreaking news.  But how many of us can explain why?  It is imperative that we understand the concepts at play here.  Having proper posture creates a foundation upon which we build the rest of our health.

Ever see senior citizens with those big humps at the top of their back?  What's the difference between them and other senior citizens who don't have those humps, can stand up straight and are surprisingly active for their age?  What made the difference?  You can't tell me that those humps are just a natural byproduct of getting older, otherwise all seniors would have them.  I'm also not a fan of giving way to the premise that it's just some people's genetic disposition.  Genetic dispositions may make some aspects of your health more likely, but in most cases, we are in complete control of our health!

The trends of our day have us using technology at an exponentially higher rate.  How much time are we spending on our phones, tablets, playing video games, using computers, watching TV, etc.?  Most of us have terrible posture due to the technologically-laced world we live in.  Our heads are spending so much time looking down, stretching out the musculature and other soft tissue in the back of our neck, while the anterior (frontal) muscles and soft tissues begin to "accept" that this shortened length is the new "norm".  It certainly isn't normal at all, but almost everyone's posture has adapted to being in this position.

When we look at the human spine from the side, we see 4 distinct curves (see image).

As displayed in the image, there are two lordotic curves (the neck, or "cervical spine", and the lower back, or "lumbar spine") and two kyphotic curves (the upper back, or "thoracic spine", and the sacral area).  As people lose their cervical curve (due to the reasons listed above), there's only one other curve that "matches" the lordotic curve of the neck, and that's the low back.  By means of compensation (which our bodies do all the time), the low back lordosis has to accentuate and become more curved (this is called "hyper-lordosis").  This is frequently the mechanism behind low back pain.

Years ago, clinicians observing the loss of cervical curve in a patient was a rarity; they were typically associated with whiplash injuries.  The whiplash would create an instant ligamentous laxity (in other words, the supportive/stabilizing ligamentous tissue of the neck would be stretched beyond what it is supposed to be), allowing the loss of curve to occur.  But now it's seen in almost everyone, not from any instant trauma, but a slow process over time.

As our body continually adapts to these changes, gravity is able to place enough strain on us, and we start to see symptoms like low back pain.  This maladaptive posture not only manifests the symptom of low back pain, but often brings on other symptoms including headaches, neck pain, upper back pain, and shoulder problems.  Do you have any of these symptoms from time to time, if not, regularly?  What about others you know?  Chances are, you or someone you know, does, especially if your job entails sitting at a computer for several hours per day.

So let's take a moment and address something really important.  If you're thinking the purpose of regaining your posture is to get you out of pain, or perhaps prevent these symptoms from returning, then you're really only seeing half of the vision.  The chiropractic care plan which I implement is very effective in getting patients out of pain-- that's the easy part.  And if that's all you want, then come on, let's get it done.  But!  What's more important and exciting is when patients start realizing that they are physically capable of so much more than the complacent status quo which they've allowed themselves to accept!  Instead, their potential starts to become reality.  So what about you?  Are you tired of drifting through life, going through the motions, having less energy than you should and sitting way more than you should, in that slouched, poor postural position?

Conversely, haven't you had those times when your energy is just vibrant?-- when your synapses seem to just be firing at an accelerated, purposeful rate?  But how often do those moments happen?  You can hope that you'll fall into one of those states (and additionally hope that they may start to miraculously come along more frequently), or you can train your body to thrive on a routine basis!  Some of you may say that you're already an energetic person.  Hey, that's awesome for you, but I'm telling you that you haven't arrived.  There's another level which you're capable of reaching, and probably a couple more levels after that!

"Okay Doc, I get it, posture is important.  So all I have to do is get myself to sit up straight all the time and I'll be good to go, right?"  While I compliment such an individual for desiring to improve their posture, we both know that the novelty of that thought wears off as quick as we think of something else, and our old friend gravity pulls us down to the slouched position once again.  So what else can be done?

First, we need to acknowledge that the poor posture which the majority of us are guilty of took a lot of time to develop.  So a treatment care plan is going to take some time to help correct it.  While one chiropractic adjustment will do some good, it won't be enough to overcome years of bad postural habits.  Second, emphasis on re-calibrating, re-educating, and re-training the surrounding musculature and soft tissue is very complementary to the adjustment-- this is done through something called "myofascial release" (something I do every day) and some cutting edge rehab exercises to ensure that the beneficial changes last you for the rest of your life.

Depending on the severity of your cervical curve loss, your corrective treatment plan can last as little as one month, to possibly as long as several months.  Just like braces on your teeth at the orthodontist, there is need to properly align the vertebral bones in your spine over time.  Regaining your cervical curve will facilitate better health in so many aspects, including how to stimulate your brain in the best ways! ...Which leads me into what we'll be covering in the next post:  the muscle spindle (this will basically be "Posture, Part 2", and it will address why it is that having proper posture will promote more thriving energy).

What in the world is the muscle spindle?  Why is it important when it comes to posture?  It is a topic that is so fascinating, so please stay tuned for the next post!  Until then...

Get Moving!  Get Performing!


Contact info:

Dr. Kelby Martin
(929) 33-KELBY   [929-335-3529]

South Jordan Chiropractic
10456 S Redwood Road
South Jordan, UT 84095
Office phone:  (801) 446-5100

Welcome to the Performance Garage!

Hello!  Welcome to my Performance Garage!  Let's gain some clarity right from the get-go-- we are talking about physical performance of the human body, not automobile performance.  So don't let the "Garage" title throw you.  The above image is a photo of my Dad's 1957 Ford Fairlane-- just thought it would be a nice touch to the whole "performance garage" theme.

Anyway-- You need to know that your body is an incredible machine!  You can achieve more than you likely realize, but you have to have the right mechanic!!!  

The truth of the matter is that the majority of the population who are seeking and striving to be healthy are trying really hard, but are still dieting and exercising in ignorance.  Do you wonder why we're not getting the results that we want?  Why is such a large percentage of America rated as obese?  There's a need to correct this.  There's a need for well-researched, sound advice, so that we aren't dieting according to the latest fad, or exercising without proper technique, or falling victim to half-truth health information.  We live in a day and age of such rapid information, with technology coming at us from a variety of different angles, and we need to be careful and studious to ensure that the information we're taking in is true and accurate before other misinformed strangers' assumptions get the better of us.

All right, I'll get off my soap box for now.  By way of introduction, my name is Dr. Kelby Martin.  I obtained my chiropractic physician's degree from Parker University in Dallas, Texas.  I've been seeing patients in the South Jordan, Utah area since last August.  My unique treatment approach comprises not only the indispensable chiropractic adjustment, but also implements highly skilled soft tissue work and cutting edge rehab exercises to facilitate the re-calibration and re-education of muscles.  As a result, treatments hold better, last longer, and are generally more effective.

I want to tap into your potential.  If you're feeling an ache or pain, I'd love to help you get rid of that, and I've got the skills and experience to make that happen; that's the easy part.  But there's another level!  You can live the vibrant, healthy lifestyle that you've secretly desired to do your whole life, so long as you've been pointed in the right direction!

Hey, if you're restoring a classic car, you know you need to fix the major problems, get rid of the rust, and generally have it in working order before you can even start thinking about giving it the glossy paint job and beefing up on that car's racing performance.  But you've got to have the right mechanic for the job!!

I'm here to be that "mechanic" for you; I'm here to deliver on my promise.  So if you live in the Salt Lake area, or nearby, I ask that you give me the chance to give you the gift of vitality that you've been wanting.  If you only want to have your pain taken care of, I can do that for you, but if you also want to take it to the next level, that's where things start to get fun!

Continue to come back to this blog periodically.  We've got a lot of fun things to discuss, and a lot of existing conceptions out there to clarify.  But most important, we need to make sure we quit procrastinating getting our bodies in order-- because as our physical lives are vibrant and energetic it'll serve as a springboard to let all the other aspects of our lives thrive.  Our relationships, our mentality, our spirituality, our financial responsibilities... ALL of these and MORE will benefit from you having the type of physical standards that I've been describing.

Thank you for your time, thank you for your faith in the messages I have to deliver, and WELCOME TO THE PERFORMANCE GARAGE!!!

Get Moving!  Get Performing!


Contact info:

Dr. Kelby Martin
(929) 33-KELBY   [929-335-3529]

South Jordan Chiropractic
10456 S Redwood Road
South Jordan, UT 84095
Office phone:  (801) 446-5100