Foam Rolling: Take care of your Tissues!

Foam rolling is a great tool for injury prevention and keeping our body’s tissues healthy.

Think of foam rolling like flossing your teeth. Why do we floss?
We floss to keep our gum tissues healthy and help clean out debris and junk from our teeth (joints).

This is what foam rolling does for our tissues (muscles and fascia) and can have a positive effect on our joints.

Our society has led us to often sedentary lifestyles with many of our hours sitting – at a desk or in our cars. As a result our tissues have become “tough”, “tight” and “restricted”.

Take care of your tissues! Try foam rolling for at least 15 mins a day – even if its while your watching TV.

If you need help or advice regarding different foam rolling techniques, come by Form & Function clinic. Our Athletic Therapist, Physiotherapist and Chiropractors would love to show you how. You can check out our previous video posts on foam rolling technique.

Foam_Roller_Exercises

Get up from your chair better

Make a tall proud chest before getting up.

When we sit we all get to that position of “comfort” where our pelvis rounds backward (or posterior tilt).  I tell my patient not to get up from position they have stressed their spine when sitting.  Making a tall chest or elongating the spine put the pelvis and spine in a better position.  This position allows your spine to distribute the load and you to have better access to use your gluts and core.

 

So before getting up make sure you have a proud chest or tall spine.

Dr. Paul.

Get up and move!

In a modern society where most jobs are in front of a computer 8 hours a day, prolonged sitting has become prevalent in a lot of peoples lives. What’s wrong with sitting all day? Well, more and more studies are revealing that prolonged sitting increases risk of disease (diabetes, heart disease and cancer) EVEN if you exercise regularly. So, even if you are diligent and exercise before or after work, it seems that it will not to reverse the risks of prolonged sitting.

So moral of the story? Get up and move! Make sure you are never sitting for more than 30 minutes at a time. This also isn’t to say that sitting is bad. Everyone needs to sit and rest sometimes but prolonged sitting is the issue. Remember, motion is lotion so remember to get up and move!

Also, check out our previous post for some tips on avoiding prolonged sitting!

5 Tips to be fit while you sit!

active sitting

If you work at a desk for 8 hours a day, don’t let it ruin your body!  Sitting is the new smoking.  Sitting with improper posture or slouching for extended periods of time causes stress and physiological change to the body.  Some muscles weaken and become harder to activate while tension and reduction in length can occur in others.  Research has indicated that extended periods of sitting have been associated with obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and bowel cancer.  Stay fit while sitting with these 5 tips:

1. Take the stairs. Make this a rule whenever and wherever you can.  It’ll force you to do some physical activity throughout your day.

2. Stand up and get a drink. Even if you’re busy throughout the day try and schedule yourself water breaks at set intervals to force yourself to get up and move around.

3. Roll your feet. Leave a ball or water bottle under your desk. Take your shoes off, and roll the bottom of your feet back and forth over the entire arch of your foot to help release tissue tension and improve blood flow to get that stiffness out.

4. Listen to your body! Simply being more in-tuned with your body will help you improve your posture throughout the day as you sit.  Your body will give you cues to move, listen to those cues and perform micro-movements to give your body some novel input as it demands it.  This can be as easy as posturing up or simply standing and reaching for the sky for a few seconds.

5. Stretch out those hips! when you sit for 8 hours a day, what happens is your hips remain in hip flexion the entire time.  What this does is create more of a sensory-motor amnesia where your body forgets the ‘feeling’ of moving through a full range of motion through the hip. Your muscles forget! As it is often said, if you don’t use it, you lose it!

Brace Yourself – Free Brace Fitting

BRACE YOURSELF

Do you have:

  • Unstable Knees?
  • Post Operative Knee Replacements?
  • ACL tear?

Form & Function is having a promotion for Brace Fitting.

Let one of our bracing specialists help you get moving today! We offer a wide selection of over the counter and custom made braces by industry leading brace companies.

Come in for a FREE BRACE FITTING!

For more information click the link — Custom Bracing

 

Fall Prevention for Seniors

Slips and falls are common this time of year but falls are not limited to icy conditions, especially in the senior population. Falls can occur year round and accounts for 84% of injury-related admissions to hospitals for seniors. It is also known that 90% of falls resulting in injury are preventable. Here are some tips to help prevent falls:

– Make sure both feet are on the ground before getting out of the car

– Use large and spiked tips on canes in icy conditions

– When going from sit to stand, take 10 seconds before allow for blood pressure to normalize and to minimize dizziness

– Review medications with your doctor to avoid dizziness, especially new medications

– Use good footwear (closed toed, laced up properly, with good support either through cushioning of the shoe or orthotics)

– Use handrails when available

– Use aids when necessary such mobility aids, hearing and sight aids and medical alert services

– Get an assessment of your strength and balance at Form and Function Clinic. We can provide exercises and further tips to help minimize your risk of falling.  Engaging in regular physical activity can increase strength, balance and endurance and thus prevent falls.

3 Healthy Heart Changes in 3 Weeks…Are you up to the challenge?

It is Heart Health Awareness Month and a fantastic opportunity to make healthier choices for you heart.

To help you, I have developed my first ever Healthy Heart Challenge and I am challenging myself and all of you to join me!

THE CHALLENGE: Make 3 heart healthy choices every day for 3 weeks. These lifestyle choices have been shown to decrease risk factors for developing heart disease.

  1. Eat 4 servings of fruits & vegetables daily.
  2. Eat 1 serving of nuts & 2 servings of healthy oil daily.
  3. Be physically active for 150 minutes over the course of 1 week.

These 3 choices were chosen for their effectivity & simplicity. With our busy lives, they can be anything but simple to follow through with. I thought the idea of a community challenge to help keep one another motivated would be a great way to make these changes more achievable.

THE REWARD: Reduce your risk of heart disease. Improve your overall health & well-being.

START DATE: Sunday, February 8th, 2015

END DATE: Saturday, February 28th, 2015

For complete details please follow this link.

I hope you join me in this challenge!

Good luck to you all,

Dr. Odette Bulaong, ND

 

 

Posture up for health and confidence

What is good posture?  When you have good posture you allow for equal distribution of weight of your head onto multiple muscle groups and joints.  To obtain good posture elongate the back of your neck, tuck your chin in comfortably and pull your shoulder blades down.  This will put your upper head, neck and upper body in a better position.  As your chin drops forward when you are on the computer use these cues to get you back.

Posture also effects how you feel.  See the following link from a Ted Talk that will tell you how.

 

Lets talk Injury Prevention

When it comes to injury prevention during activity, whether that be your zumba class, kickboxing or lifting, it all comes down to alignment.  When your joints are properly lined up your body is strong and able to produce force optimally.  Proper alignment also prevents injury.  Any deviations from proper alignment put additional stress onto the muscles and/or ligaments of the joint.  Take for instance your ankle.  This image of the right foot viewed from the front, demonstrates the proper or normal alignment of the ankle in the middle. You’ll notice the two lines on each side in blue representing equal and proper distribution of stress and force.

Use proper alignment to prevent ankle injuries
Use proper alignment to prevent ankle injuries

On the left, we have inversion where stretching or tensile stress (in red) is placed on the outside of the ankle and compressive forces (in brown) on the inside.  The opposite is true for the image on the right or eversion.  When the body cannot handle the stresses placed on the joint, you get injury to the surrounding structures.  This is just a simple example of how proper alignment prevents injury!

For more information come into the clinic or join me this Saturday, December 6th at noon within the fitness studio at Club Markham where I will be giving a talk on injury prevention focusing on the back, knees and wrist.  Email info@formfunctionclinic.com with your name and phone number to sign up today.

Injury Prevention - club markham

Lets talk Injury Prevention

When it comes to injury prevention during activity, whether that be your zumba class, kickboxing or lifting, it all comes down to alignment.  When your joints are properly lined up your body is strong and able to produce force optimally.  Proper alignment also prevents injury.  Any deviations from proper alignment put additional stress onto the muscles and/or ligaments of the joint.  Take for instance your ankle.  This image of the right foot viewed from the front, demonstrates the proper or normal alignment of the ankle in the middle. You’ll notice the two lines on each side in blue representing equal and proper distribution of stress and force.

Use proper alignment to prevent ankle injuries
Use proper alignment to prevent ankle injuries

On the left, we have inversion where stretching or tensile stress (in red) is placed on the outside of the ankle and compressive forces (in brown) on the inside.  The opposite is true for the image on the right or eversion.  When the body cannot handle the stresses placed on the joint, you get injury to the surrounding structures.  This is just a simple example of how proper alignment prevents injury!

For more information come into the clinic or join me this Saturday, December 6th at noon within the fitness studio at Club Markham where I will be giving a talk on injury prevention focusing on the back, knees and wrist.  Email info@formfunctionclinic.com with your name and phone number to sign up today.

Injury Prevention - club markham