by Katie Culver

For a lot of you, you come in for your adjustment, and afterwards, I ask you to do a few minutes of balance work. Whether its performing exercises while balancing on the exercise ball, Bosu, balance disk, or even just standing on one of the balance boards, I’m sure you’ve wondered why. Rest assured… there is method to our madness.

Because life is lived, at times, in unstable positions (such as walking on icy surfaces in the winter, running on uneven ground, or dodging toys and other obstacles as you chase your kiddos around the house),working on balance boards helps you safely and quickly keep up with the demands of life. Working on balance boards improves the strength of the small  muscles of the foot and lower leg, improves reaction time, reduce the incidence of injury, increases your body’s awareness of where it is at in space, improves movement mechanics, and helps the body to work together as a whole!

One of the main reasons that we want to do balance work with our patients is to increase your proprioception (your body’s awareness of where it is at in space… ie knowing where your foot or arm is at without having to look down at it). After a spinal adjustment, when the body is in its corrected alignment, working on a balance board creates continuous neural stimulus that is perceived as information in the brain. It reinforces that correct alignment and encourages the body to remain in that position (which in turn would lead to more spread out adjustments).

Conclusive research has also been done with balance boards. In one study, it was found that simple balance exercises, as part of early treatment for injuries such as ankle sprains, increases the strength and stability of the joint and therefore decreases the chance for residual symptoms and sprains. Additional research has shown that exercising on these unstable surfaces significantly strengthens muscles when tested against stable equipment. For instance, in one particular study, untrained men approximately doubled abdominal muscle activity when a crunch was executed on an exercise ball versus a static bench.

So if you want a stronger and quicker body whose muscles all work together in unison, try doing exercises on unstable surfaces. Remember, though, to be safe and begin easy, with no weight, and progressively get more difficult, as exercises on these surfaces can be deceivingly difficult!

There are numerous benefits from choosing to use good posture throughout your day. Our bodies were created to function in a specific way, so if we carry ourselves with poor posture, many muscles are over worked while others are under worked and begin to atrophy. It’s no wonder that roughly 80% of Americans experience back pain!

Some significant benefits include:

-Improved airflow and blood flow throughout your body… Our lungs simply don’t have the same capacity when we slouch over as when we stand/ sit up straight.
-Decreased risk of injury… Using good posture makes you less injury-prone because your body is stacked on itself and all parts are in proper alignment. This is especially important when putting any sort of stress on your body such as household chores, working out, and traveling.

-Decreased back pain… Correct posture greatly reduces your chances of experiencing, back aches, pains, stiffness, and even disc problems. Some of those pains are even irreversible!

-Increased energy levels… Your muscles will be less fatigued because again they will not be over worked or over stressed.

-It may even improve others’ perception of as you hold yourself upright and confidently!

So what is correct posture?

When Sitting:

• Align your back with the back of the chair, avoiding slouching or tilting
• Keep shoulders straight
• Flex elbows between 75-90°
• Keep neck aligned with spine
• Keep feet comfortably on floor

When Standing:

• Stand with weight mostly on balls of feet and arms loosely at sides
• Tuck chin slightly allowing ears, shoulders and hips to be in same plane with normal “S” shaped curve in spine

Easier said than done, I know, but it really is worth your time to create a good posture habit. One way we’ve thought of to help remind you to sit in better posture is to put a sticker in strategic places… by your work computer, in your car, near your favorite chair at home. Every time you look at the sticker, it will act as a reminder to realign your spine and sit/ stand correctly!

To learn more about how we treat posture check out our posture page.

Sleeping is obviously an essential part of each of our daily routine. Most of us sleep between 3 and 10 hours a day, and if you spend that 8%-42% of your day in a poor position, you are putting yourself in a position of risk for injury to the length of your spine. The position I would recommend most to sleep in is on your back. It is there that your spine and musculature is able to rest in a neutral position. While there, it is important to choose a pillow that allows your neck to maintain a neutral position as well (not allowing the chin to tuck or extend back excessively).  A pillow that I  recommend is the Therapeutica sleeping pillow.

Additionally, low back pain is present in 8 out of 10 Americans at some point in their life. If you’re one of those, placing a pillow under your knees allows your pelvis, too, to rest in a stress free position.  Also, check out our post on foods that help low back pain.

If sleeping on your back just isn’t working for you or if you’re pregnant and unable to sleep on your back, I would next recommend sleeping on your side. Again here, its important to pick a pillow that will not put your neck in too much or too little side tilting side but rather keeping it in line with the rest of your spine. Although side sleeping might be more comfortable for some, it may put the outside of your hip, the gluteus medius specifically, at risk for overstretching as your top leg relaxes at an angle below the horizontal. Your gluteus medius is one of the main stabilizers in the hip and is a key muscle in a number of daily activities such as walking, squatting, transitioning from sitting to standing, and even standing on one leg. If you choose to sleep on your side, I would recommend keeping a pillow sandwiched between your lower legs.

Unless you’ve found a different and unique way to sleep, your final sleeping-position-option is one I would not recommend: stomach sleeping. This is the hardest on your spine as you need to dramatically twist your neck to rest on your belly. Since your body works best balance, stretching and shortening the neck muscles can cause other problems in your upper back and neck. Additionally, it also shortens your pectoralis minor, causing your shoulders to round forward and put more stress on your cervical spine and mid back.

This is a patient who came to me with lower back pain that he had been suffering from for a number of years. After about a month he started to see long lasting improvement and is able to partake in his daily activities without experiencing back pain.

Recently channel 13 news came to the office to do a story about inversion tables and how it compare to decompression therapy.  In this video I discuss the benefits of each and which condition is appropriate for each therapy.  This video was from a local channel here in Indianapolis discussing low back pain and decompression therapy.

This patient came into our office unable to move, which is a huge concern for her as a stay at home mother. Within the first week she was feeling much better and since then we have worked on stretches and exercises to stabilize her low back and prevent her condition from returning.

This is a testimonial for a patient who was experiencing low back pain and unable to sleep at night.