The majority of lower back problems can be influenced by everyday movements or postures that are repeated thousands of times – and if they are not done properly they can cause plenty of issues. How many times a day do you stand up from sitting down?
Challenge: Can you stand up without your knees going in front of your toes, without using your hands on your knees, and keeping your back straight?
If you have issues with this ask your Chiropractor for more advice.
Sometimes the cause of back pain is obvious, for example a sports injury. However… Sometimes the culprit could be surprising, such as improper footwear, especially high heels.
Why do they cause damage? When women wear high heels their body will attempt to compensate for the uneven balance they cause by flexing or forward bending their hips and spine. Heels can cause people to mimic the way a person would walk on a ramp and thus increase the pressure placed on the balls of the feet and the knees. The lower back is also pushed forward causing the hips and the spine to become dis-aligned. The changes to the posture can cause a prolonged tensing of the calves, hips and back muscles. This results in excess muscle fatigue and strain at the end of the day. Over long periods of time this can cause serious problems for your leg muscles and spine health.
The height of the heel can also determine the weight carried be the footwear. As the height of the heel increases, so does the pressure on the ball of the foot. Stilettoes can therefore cause the most damage to your posture and overall spine health. It is therefore advised where possible to wear as lower a heel as possible!
How to help your back: If you do wear high heels take a few aspects into consideration to make sure you’re causing yourself as little damage as possible. Try and avoid wearing high heels for long periods of time where possible. If you have to commute each day it is wise to commute in flat shoes that cushion and support the natural arch of your foot and change into high heels when you get into the office. If you do wear a lot of high-heeled shoes try and opt for ones with a lower, wider heel, preferably no higher than two inches, to reduce the amount of pressure being placed on your feet and calf muscles. It can also be wise to buy shoes in the afternoon, when feet are at their largest, this will make sure your shoes will be able to accommodate for the natural expansion of the feet throughout the day.
Make Sure Not To Trip! As your balance can be more unsteady when you wear high heels it increases the possibility of you tripping over and causing yourself an injury. In consideration of this, it is a good idea to opt for shoes with a leather insole to keep the foot from slipping and provide a steadier grip when you’re walking around.
If you suffer from arthritis, or very stiff joints, exercise may be the last things you want do. However… getting out into the fresh air and doing some low intensity, aerobic exercise can be extremely beneficial and help to prevent stiff joints. Some sports can help to build up your core muscles, the muscles which support your joints, and also reduce joint inflammation. These include: Yoga Pilates Swimming Cycling Walking
Opt for gentle movements and light stretches and build up slowly, the gentle stretching involved in each exercise can help you to maintain mobility and movement. Be careful… try and avoid any hot or power yoga as this can end up putting excessive pressure on your joints.
Try this… Swimming can be particularly good as the buoyancy of the water can help relieve any pressure on your joints while you exercise, giving you that extra supportive barrier which will help cushion any inflamed joints.
Or this…. Cycling also acts in a similarly supportive manner as it helps you avoid the pounding of high-impact aerobic activities. A gentle cycle can help to strengthen your leg muscles that support your joints. So whether it’s on an exercise bike or in the great outdoors, cycling can be an effective way of staying fit while making sure your joints aren’t placed under too much pressure.
If you are experiencing a severe flare up it is best to rest for a couple of days before part taking in any kind of physical activity. Remember, it’s not a race. Don’t push your body to do anything if you feel you can’t manage it. If you feel like it, you could simply go for a walk, but make sure not to push yourself too much if you are in pain. The best thing you can do is to listen to your body. Remember… pain is your body’s way of telling you to stop, so always go at your own pace!
Phew! It’s been a long week but hopefully all our advice has made a difference and you’re feeling pain-free and zen!
We’ve given you a lot to take in over the last 7 days so here’s a quick run down of our top tips…
Set a reminder to get you up and moving! this is the quickest and fastest-working option. Set a countdown timer on your phone, pop up email alert, sticky note on your screen, whatever it takes to get you up and out that chair!
Use your settings and apps – again, why fight technology when it has built-in settings that make your life easier! Do not disturb, airplane mode, yellow filters; they all take minutes to set up and you will feel the benefits within a few days!
Stretching is good for the soul – whatever your tech habits, stretches will benefit you! Work out a 5 minute routine that can be done anywhere, and your neck, back and shoulders will thank you for it. (For a personalised routine ask us next time you’re in the clinic!)
Ensure your work desk is set up correctly. Run through your check list – eyes, neck, shoulders, wrists, legs. Everything in align? Good, now that working day will not be such a pain in the neck!
Remind yourself it is just a phone! Mindfulness sounds like hippy rhetoric, but it’s very important to de-clutter and de-stress your mind, as a calmer mind means less tension in your body, which should mean fewer aches and pains. Remember that just because a piece of electronics is telling you to check it, it can probably wait!
We hope you’ve found our suggestions useful, and if you have any of your own handy tips then let us know on Facebook. Hopefully you’ll have liked and shared our videos from the week, so check back on the 19th April to see if you’re one of our lucky winners….
Gaming is an incredibly popular past-time, with more and more people playing, and for longer periods of time. This is great if you want to find out exactly what Big Boss has planned for Snake, or you need to save your civilians from the mother ship invasion, but I’m guessing posture is the last thing on your mind when gaming. That’s why Andrew has hand-picked the best stretches for you, and you can watch and practice them here. We recommend doing your stretches when there is a load screen, a cut scene or when your character dies and you have to reload. Essentially, if there is a break in gameplay, it’s time to get up and stretch!
And don’t forget to head over to our facebook for videos everyday this week, and for your chance to win!
We hope you are well rested today after following our advice for a good night’s sleep phone-free!
Today we want to challenge you to put down that tech and get outside. We want you to give up your evening of sofa-surfing, and head out on an adventure! It doesn’t matter where you go or for how long, but we want to see you enjoying your evening away from the screen. Post a picture on our Facebook page before midday on Wednesday 19th April to show us your adventurous evening, but if we see you online for more than 15 minutes this evening, we’ll know you’re cheating & you’ll be disqualified from the contest! The best adventure photo will win a biodot product of their choice*, and we will announce the winner later on Wednesday 19th April.
Earlier in the week we gave you a few tips for getting your mobile more health-friendly. And as we said it’s not just about the stretches, it’s about being mindful and changing our tech-habits to fit in with our daily lives. It’s not just mobiles that need attention, it’s all of our screens! Here’s a few more tech-hints about mobile phones and other devices to help you become calmer and full of positive vibes.
We recommend reducing the blue light from your mobiles and other tech. Research shows that the unnatural blue light from screens plays havoc with our natural body clocks. The blue light wakes our brains up when they should be shutting down, and can also cause strain in your eyes. It’s easily fixable, if you have an iphone you can adjust this directly in the settings. There are two ways to adjust an iphone’s yellow tint. The steps are laid out below:
Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift > edit to personal preference
In this setting you can set the exact yellow-toney you want, and it can be set to turn on and off at specific times
OR
Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Colour Filters
Then pick from the colour filters (see below image), have a play and see which option best suits you. You should be aiming for a creamy-yellow tint to the screen. (and don’t worry, having this filter on doesn’t affect your camera so your photos will still be true-to-life!) Android phones are a little more complex, but there are several free apps available that offer the same options. If in doubt, check the phone settings, ask us for help next time you’re in the clinic, or have a quick Google!
And these yellow filters are useful on all screens, so have a look on your computer/tablet settings, in your app store, or even look at buying a physical yellow filter to put over your screen.
We’d also recommend a mindful app. There are plenty of options out there (both free and paid-for). These apps are about taking a little bit of time out of your busy day to become more mindful. It is essentially meditation for the modern day and can really help in not only reducing your screen time, but also reducing stress and anxiety levels. You may not realise that the pain in your shoulders or the headaches you’re getting may be related to your stress/anxiety levels. Check the instructions below for a quick practice on mindfulness.
You could also try sorting all your ‘admin’ at one point – why not set aside half hour/hour (with your stretch breaks of course!) each day to reply to emails/messages/social media etc, but try not to check your phone throughout the rest of the day. See what a difference it makes to your mental and physical health.
In this hectic age it’s important to take time to yourself and relax. And hey, if you want to just have a bath with glass of wine after a long day, then that’s ok too! (At least if you’re in the bath there shouldn’t be any screens to distract you!)
Don’t forget to head over to our facebook for videos everyday this week, and for your chance to win!
We hope you’re feeling the benefits from a tech-free week, our shoulders are feeling better already!
Today we want to challenge you to get arty – instead of spending hours scrolling through twitter, we want to see what masterpieces you can create! You have until
midday on Wednesday 19th April
to create and enter your artwork on our facebook page – anything goes! Paint, draw, sculpt, craft, use any materials you can, get inventive and get crafty! The best entry will win a Biodots product of your choice! (For T&Cs see here)
So on your marks, get set, create! I can’t wait to see your entries!
Don’t forget to like and share our videos everyday for your chance to win a Sissel Pillow!
2017 is very much the age of technology, where computers rule the work-place and mobiles rule everywhere else! Did you know your mobile phone is more powerful than the computers used to get Neil Armstrong to the moon? It’s madness we live in such an exciting time for technology! However with all of this knowledge and tech at our finger tips, it’s easy to get absorbed and forget about the impact that this tech is having on our body and minds.
So we’re going to ease you in to your new tech-savvy life, because we know it’s not possible to simply stop using tech outright! Today we have some simple tips on how to health-proof your mobilephone, and challenge you to go the night screen-free!
The easiest thing you can do with your phone is set a timer to remind you to get up and stretch. We recommend for every 30 minutes spent looking at your phone, you should have a quick stretch break. The best stretches are shown in Alex’s video on Facebook, click here to see them and have a practice!
The next step would be to not use your phone when going to sleep. Have your alarm set by all means but don’t keep your phone within arm’s reach, as this raises the urge to check for updates which realistically, can probably wait until morning. Put it on the other side of the room – not only does this mean an uninterrupted night’s sleep, but it also means you are forced to get up and out of bed to turn off the alarm instead of hitting the snooze button 1 (or 8) times, which means a better start to the morning.
The best top tip for mobiles is the do not disturb setting! This is a great option as it stops the constant buzzing and updates from your phone which can distract, overwhelm and clutter the mind, and draw us back in to bad posture habits. Imagine if it was a person interrupting you every time rather than your phone; would you still put up with the interruptions?
Most phones have a do not disturb setting, either in a shortcut menu or in your settings folder. You can customise your settings so that it turns on & off automatically at a time set by you. Do Not Disturb also allows alarms through, and you can normally customise to allow certain contacts callers to come through too. Airplane mode is also an option that stops disturbances coming through.
Don’t forget to head over to our facebook for videos everyday this week, and for your chance to win!
