Strength Training Benefits

For most folks, if you mention lifting weights, they probably imagine someone doing massive amounts of bicep curls in the gym; let’s get this this image of what weight lifting might look like out of here! Multiple studies talked about by the best local Jamison chiropractor show just how beneficial resistance training can be, for both men and women. Sure, we can build muscle and strength with lifting those dumbbells…but how else can we benefit?

Putting a load on our muscles, joints, and bones is imperative for our overall health and wellness, especially as we get older; as we age, we lose bone mass, and that can lead to issues like osteoporosis, back pain and postural issues. By adding weight training into our workout programs, we can slow the process, and maintain strength in our bones! We also start to lose our lean muscle mass as we age, and strength training can minimize the losses that are inevitable.

Lifting weights also has another benefit – not only does it help maintain a healthy body weight, but muscle also needs energy, so it uses blood sugar! This is helpful, especially those folks that are at a greater risk for diseases like diabetes, as well as high blood pressure.

If you’re still iffy about weight training, don’t be! You don’t have to lift massive amounts of weight in order to see these benefits, and we are able to see improvements in strength across all ages when incorporated as part of a healthy lifestyle with your favorite local chiropractor. And even better? You can use your own body weight as resistance, so get started on some squats, pushups, and planks, and start building up those muscles!

GET YOUR FORTY WINKS

We all spend more than a third of our lives sleeping, but until recently scientists knew surprisingly little about the role that sleep plays in health. In the last few decades sleep research has been a hot topic in medicine, and it has revealed how important a good night’s sleep is to our physical and mental well-being.

There are many studies that show how a lack of sleep can play a role in chronic diseases and health conditions, and now local chiropractors are even seeing a relationship between poor sleep and pain.

A study by Esther Afolalu of the University of Warwick in Coventry, the UK, has found that poor sleepers have higher rates of chronic pain. The study, which tracked more than 60,000 adults in ten countries for four or more years, found that insufficient or poor quality sleep resulted in an increase in back and neck pain, fatigue, and poor health. When patients developed insomnia, they had double the risk of chronic pain disorders. The study’s conclusion was that sleep problems had a negative effect on a patient’s ability to process and handle pain.

Another study, by Dr. Monika Haack of Harvard, found that people who think they can make up for lost sleep by snoozing longer on the weekends are fooling themselves. Haack found that people who tried to catch up on weekends actually had more problems dealing with pain than those who got eight hours every night.

There’s no substitute for a good night’s sleep!

Local Chiropractor Offers Tips For Good Sitting

The way you sit or stand may seem like a simple matter, but it has a lot more influence on your physical and mental health than you may think. Poor posture can cause pain and soreness in your back and neck, as well as headaches, poor circulation, fatigue, and other problems. It can even affect your mental outlook, and can be a factor in low self-esteem and depression.

A chiropractor near you is well-versed in posture issues, since their main focus is on spinal health. Here are a few tips for good sitting posture, from the American Chiropractic Association.

. Keep your feet on the floor.

. Don’t cross your legs. The rule is, your ankles should be in front of your knees.

. Leave a small space between the back of your knees and the
front of your seat.

. Make sure the chair is the proper height — your knees should be at or above the level of your hips.

. If you can adjust the backrest of your chair, make sure it supports your lower back.

. Sitting is not just about your lower body. Proper sitting posture means relaxing your shoulders and keeping your forearms parallel to the ground.

. No matter how good your posture is, your best local chiropractor says it’s a mistake to sit in the same position for too long. You need to change your position or get up periodically to stimulate circulation. Besides, keeping the same posture for too long allows you to fall into bad habits, like slouching.

Pay attention to your posture — it’s important for your health!