Mobility & Flexibility - Joint Movement

Pain, stiffness, tenderness, and swelling in joints. Osteoarthritis most often affects the knees, hips, hands, and spine. Rheumatoid arthritis usually begins in small joints in the hands and feet, then spread to larger joints. In addition to pain and swelling, rheumatoid arthritis can cause fever, tiredness, and weight loss. If you have a type of knee arthritis in which the wear and tear is harming the middle of your joint – called medial-knee arthritis – special insoles could help. Lateral-wedge insoles are thinnest at your instep and yours widest at the outer edge of your foot, realigning your feet and your lower legs in a way that can reduce some of the twisting that wears down knee joints. Your doctor can tell you which type you have. Everything from genetics to joint injuries to age-related changes in cartilage-protecting enzymes plays a role. But there’s plenty of evidence that you can cut your risk significantly with the simple, proven strategies here.

Strength training and building strong muscles can help an individual lose weight. Exercising in general is a great way to burn calories and improve fitness levels but, muscle tissue can burn as many as 15 times more calories per day than fat tissue, including during rest.

Building strong muscles can also help protect an individual’s joints, especially the back. when the muscles are stronger, the body places less pressure on the joints and connective tissue during physical activities, including exerting activities such as weight lifting. Building strong muscles to relieve strain on the joints is also essential for preventing and/or treating arthritis. Also, building stronger muscles can help improve an individual’s posture.

Strength training and building stronger muscles is also healthy for the heart. Muscle tissue is able to perform with less amounts of oxygen, in other words, the heart doesn’t need to pump harder when being active. Additionally, building strong muscles can be good for managing blood pressure. 

Strength training can greatly benefit individuals as they age, helping to prevent injury or certain conditions. As we age, the body undergoes natural physical changes, such as degeneration of the joints, causing the development of certain health conditions, such as a degeneration of the spine or arthritis.

Building strong muscles through strength training is essential towards maintaining overall health, fitness, and wellness. 

By learning how to participate in strength training workouts, a majority of individuals can ultimately benefit from their body’s natural functions in order to prevent, improve, and maintain, their ideal fitness goals.

As a part of chiropractic care treatment, it’s essential for individuals who frequently suffer from joint and/or muscle pain due to direct trauma from an injury or an underlying condition to continue keeping their bodies as flexible as possible. People who often workout to maintain or improve their flexibility are actually at a lower risk of experiencing an injury or aggravating a condition. According to chiropractic, the best way for an individual to control their flexibility is to stretch before starting any physical activity.

Before stretching however, its also important to note that each individual should warm up their muscles prior to stretching. Stretching first can often result in further injury because the joints and muscles are pushed beyond their limit while the tissues are stiff and not yet loosened. Participating in a few low or no impact workouts, such as a simple walk, can be enough to warm up the body lightly. A chiropractor can also recommend an appropriate series of stretches and exercises according to each individual’s level of symptoms or injury.

Once you’ve made sure to warm up your body properly, you can begin stretching. There are two basic forms of stretching: static stretching and dynamic stretching.

Static stretching, is defined as focused stretches of the muscles used while the body is at rest that loosen up the muscles by holding a certain position for a determined amount of time. Dynamic stretching, is defined as focused stretches of the muscles used by building momentum to move parts of the body by pushing the muscles to extend their range of motion while making sure not to exceed the individuals normal stretching capacity. Both types of stretches are important towards enhancing one’s flexibility although a majority of people often use static stretching over dynamic stretching.

Many of the most effective stretches for correcting symptoms of back pain among others, can be practiced at home.

Exercise is a beneficial part of every individual’s lifestyle to accomplish overall health and wellness but, many athletes often overlook how as their bodies change with age, their workout habits must also change. While many individuals can disagree, changing exercise habits as people age can help prevent injuries while maintaining fitness.

Various individuals describe no longer being able to participate in the same strenuous physical activities they were normally capable of. Those same individuals frequently explain how performing the same level of exercise as they did once before has now become difficult, often causing pain and soreness. As we age, it’s not necessary for people to stop exercising altogether, instead, several exercise changes can be made. It’s still important to continue adding activities to your daily routines to help maintain the body strong and flexible.

Seeking help from a personal trainer can specifically be beneficial for many people in these cases. A personal trainer will work to determine an individual’s strengths and weaknesses as well as determining the best and least appropriate workouts for everyone to achieve their personal fitness goals while avoiding any possible injuries.

Older athletes and people need to focus on building the strength of their muscles as well as making sure their body is getting the appropriate amount of rest it needs to recover. 

Maintaining a fit, flexible, and injury free body as we age can be achieved by changing your workout routine every day. Using different muscles and joints in different directions in the key to spreading out the force and keeping the body healthy through time.

The best way to warm up the body is to simply start gradually. As a runner for example, the individual can start with a slower running pace per mile for the first 10 minutes, gradually increasing the speed. The same can be done with cycling. The individual can take their average pace and progressively add 30%. By doing this, the body can slowly become accustomed to any fitness activity being performed. As a golfer, the individual can begin warming up by using half swings for the first 10 balls and gradually open up the swing. As a tennis player, running several laps around the court can serve as a warm up as well as get the athlete used to the surface of the courts.

 Prior to starting any routine requiring physical exertion, make sure to consult a specialist to discuss an appropriate set of work-outs as well as a proper warm up set of stretches and exercises for each specific sport or physical activity. Warming up the body before exercise is important in order to avoid injury and other complications.

One of the most important exercise tips for chiropractic patients is to take steps to keep your body in alignment as you move through your day. Good practices combined with solid exercises creates toned muscles that protect the body and spine from harm. 

Your chiropractor will work with you to design an exercise program that is optimal for you. Be sure to follow through with the plan and include these tips in your regular work out to experience the joy of healing from chiropractic care.

In the workplace, check with an ergonomics consultant to ensure proper positioning, especially if you spend most of the day seated or doing repetitive tasks. A comfortable chair reduces muscle strain and prevents injury. Make sure that your feet sit firmly on the floor and that lumbar support is in place. At home, you should have a good mattress and supportive furniture. Before starting any exercises, it’s important to warm up. A series of dynamic moves will boost your heart rate and heat up the muscles that you will be using during your work out. Finally, it is important to target large muscle groups with passive exercises.

Incorporating exercise into our days helps augment and manage our health, fitness, and wellness, primarily because of its ability to balance the levels of insulin within the body. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas which triggers the body to use sugar, or glucose, from carbohydrates in the food we eat to produce energy as well as store glucose for future use. Another major benefit of participating in regular physical activity is its capacity to boost the immune system. Exercising can alter the function in antibodies and white blood cells where these begin to circulate quicker to detect illnesses rapidly. 

Physical exercise can also help reduce stress because it boosts the production of endorphins in the brain, neurotransmitters in charge of making you feel good. Other great benefits of exercise include weight control and improved eating habits, increasing good cholesterol, HDL, in the body and decreasing triglyceride levels, which can increase the risk of heart disease. Regular physical activity can help prolong life as it reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke and improves and promotes a good sense of well-being. Exercises specifically focused toward strengthening musculoskeletal weaknesses and imbalances can enhance and speed up the recovery process for individuals who’ve suffered an injury and have started medical treatment.

Viewing exercise as a necessary part of your day can help many people build a habit to exercise. Making an exercise schedule can ideally be a good way to keep it in track. The good thing about exercise is that there are a wide variety of types, some which can be done in a minimum amount of time while still providing maximum results.

The human body was designed to move for the majority of the day but, in today’s society, people live very different lives where exercise is scarce and consuming calories is unavoidable. The majority of the population live almost completely sedentary lives with the constant use of computers, phones, cars, etc. Technology around us has made great advances, making human life easier but, due to this, people now have to work just as hard to reach the amount of physical activity necessary to live healthier lives.

Ideally, everyone would be more active throughout their days. But, when the job requires people to sit behind a desk for extended periods of time, we have to increase our efforts to participate in healthy fitness habits before or throughout our busy work days to raise our levels of activity.

The first opportunity to build a healthy physical activity habit before work depends on how each individual gets to work. If you ride the bus to work, for example, consider getting off a stop or two before your usual stop and walk the rest of the way to work. Then, while working from a desk, finding opportunities to stand can make a big difference. Also, when traveling from work, calling a hotel or checking online to see the type of exercise facility they have, if any, before booking a reservation can ensure you get a good amount of physical fitness while on those business trips. 

These tips can greatly help improve an individual’s daily physical activities and although many people might just be too busy to use them all, every little bit of exercise added to your daily routine can help. 

Katie is non-verbal but high energy.....

She jumped and clapped during her session with CrossFit coach and creator of the Special Warriors program, Sheron Smith, expressing herself the best she could. Sometimes Smith had to reinforce her directions, but the two have mustered a special kind of friendship.