An Ounce of Prevention
By Beth Kamhi, DC
Most of us have learned a number of preventative skills in our lifetime. We know that it’s a good idea to brush your teeth, wash your hands, be careful on ladders and think before we act, “look before we leap” and many other small actions that make a positive difference in our health and overall well-being.
Yet, I doubt you have ever really thought about the concept of what I call “spinal hygiene” which is a basic understanding of body mechanics. Consider this…you are a two legged being (which is no small accomplishment!), you live on a planet with gravity, and your body is an overall two sided symmetrical design. With an awareness of these facts there are a number of small actions one can take to prevent a lot of the sprains, strains, and back pain that bring many of our clients limping through the door here at Sojourns Community Health Clinic.
The injuries we see are often seasonal. With that in mind here are a few small suggestions for your Autumn and Winter activities to help prevent injuries before the happen.
When those cool days come and the leaves fall, as you head out to the yard pay attention to how to apply that rake. Short strokes with arms held closer to the body are much less stressful to the spine than reaching out with long arms and body twisting. Also important is to switch your leading hand and spend at least part of the time raking from your less dominate side.
Next comes shoveling snow and the same rules apply. Keep exertion close to the trunk and use both sides as equally as you can. Smaller shovel loads will get the job done much faster than overloading that highly leveraged tool and winding up out of commission for a week. You have heard it before, work smarter, not harder.
When you escape winter for a warm weather vacation, how about a nice relaxing round of golf to enjoy the outdoors? You know that warming up is important and better still if you warm up on both sides of the body. If you are a “righty”, be sure to take a “lefty” stance and do a few warm up swings in that position before you turn around and warm up in your traditional way for the tee shot. Use the same concept the other way around if you are left handed. Better still, do this kind of warm up at every hole. Even though you will not be actually hitting the ball in the opposite side, just the action of firing the muscles on both sides of your spine will accomplish a couple of important things. You will reduce your risk of injuring your spine and better still, you will also straighten out your swing. How about taking a stroke or two off your game? Wouldn’t that be a plus!
Let’s not forget the risk of falls on ice this season! This can be significant to life changing. A pair or two of Yaktrax, or MICROspikes can be the difference between a safe winter and suffering broken bones. Get a few pair, keep one in the car and one at home, and most important…use them!
Got the general idea now? It’s not so much what you do as how you do it. Enjoy the seasons!