Napanee Chiropractic Care Centre

If you remember the December issue of this newsletter, I planted a couple of seeds indicating sit-ups were bad, and I suggested why.  I will now begin to discuss a progression of exercises that have actually been scientifically proven to increasing spinal stability.  Note that I have paraphrased this information from Dr. Stuart McGill, who is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities in spinal stabilization techniques.  He is Canadian in Waterloo to boot!

Cats and camels refer to flexibility exercises.  They are relatively simple back flexion and extension movements that increase the fluidity of the entire spine.  The primary intention is motion, not stretching, so when you are doing these motions, do not over-stress the back at the ends of the motion.  You only need to do five or six of these in order to see the benefits.  Doing more repetitions will not hurt, but you will probably not see much more improvement after the first half-dozen.  If you do feel pain during these motions, I would suggest to continue to to them, but limit the range of motion to the pain free ranges.

We all know how a cat stretches when it wakes up from one of its 30 hour naps.  It is on all fours, and it arches its back up, convexly.  Guess what!  It is the same for us humanoids!  Camels have the opposite appearance. (Okay, for you picky readers, I am talking about the double humped Bactrian camels instead of the single humped Arabians)  Their backs appear to be curved downwards, in a concavity.

So, the cat/camel exercises involve getting onto all fours, then slowly and with full control moving between a relatively high arched position like a stretching cat and a relatively low arched position, pulling your belly button towards the floor.  Repeat this exercise five or more times in the morning and before you do any further stabilization exercises, and you will notice significantly more fluid motion of the back through the day.

Next time I will look into some actual stabilization exercises to do after you limber up with the cat/camel.

A recent research review has suggested what we have known for several years…that low intensity laser therapy is very effective for the treatment of acute neck pain.   The authors of the article in the December 2009 issue of the Lancet, one of the most respected medical journals, reviewed 16 randomized clinical trials, involving 820 patients.  They found that low intensity laser therapy does indeed offer statistically significant relieve from acute neck pain in both the short and medium terms.  They did not look at long term relief, as there were no studies available.

This study confirms what we have seen clinically.  For acute neck issues such as whiplash or other sprain strain injuries, I have found nothing that is more effective than our BioFlex laser.  Chronic neck issues can be frustrating at times, but we have never been disappointed in acute cases.

For quite a few years, most personal trainers and therapists have been convinced that the best way to reduce the number of back injuries was to increase abdominal strength.  While there is some merit to this point, it is being mis-applied.  Most people, upon hearing this, decide to strengthen the abdominals by doing sit-ups or abdominal crunches.  This can lead their clients down bad paths.

In fact, researchers in the last decade have found that sit-ups drastically increase the amount of low back compression, which stress the low back discs and can lead to increased disc herniations and other pathologies.  Each sit-up produces low back compression levels that are close to the Occupational Health and Safety action limits, and repeatedly compressing the spine beyond the action limits have been conclusively shown to increase the risk of back disorders.  Instead of abdominal strength, research has shown that rehabilitation professionals and their clients should be concerned more with abdominal endurance.  This can be achieved through the implmentation of exercises such as curl-ups (much different than crunches!), planks and bird-dog exercises.  I will describe these movements in the coming issues of this newsletter.  But, for now, STOP THE MADNESS OF SIT-UPS AND CRUNCHES!!!