Counting

I love math but I hate counting, it bores me.

Earlier this morning while I was exercising I noticed everyone was counting while they were working out. Some were counting to 5, others counting to the very popular 10 and still some were counting all the way to 30. Every now and then when a person is done with their exercise I will see them write down the number on a piece of paper, this way they can remember what number they counted to and it means their work is done.

I used to try this method of exercising. I'd count, I'd write, I'd look at the numbers and.....well...I'd just get bored. I'd go to sleep counting to 10, everything went to 10. There were no numbers after 10 because the entire world of numbers only went to 10. It was very limiting...

Boredom like this can never be good for a workout. If your mind gets bored so will your body and muscles that make it move. Do the same thing over and over and you will not want to do it anymore. Exercise is not meant to be a place for timeout where you go and count. It's a time for your body to release itself, to stretch out, to grow, and to change for the better. This doesn't happen if you are bored.

There are two main things I see wrong with counting.
*Lets say you are counting to 10:
1) You get too fatigued before you get to 10 and sacrifice your form to get there.
or-
2) You get to 10 but you have yet to challenge your muscles and allow for growth.

The first example gives rise to an extremely big problem that I see with the way we have traditioanlly exercised. People will give anything just to get to that magic number they have set out to acheive. In their mind, getting to that number means they have accomplished something, they are working out hard and they deserve to get in shape. They have sacrificed and they want the reward of feeling good about themselves. They put on big weights because they want big results, and they want them fast.

Unfortunately this is not the way the body works. While the goal of feeling good about yourself is the right one, sacrificing patience and form in your exercise will only make your body feel bad, even painful. When you begin to give up your form to "finish out" an exercise the work stops on your muscles and begins to damage your all important joints, ligaments and even your back. This is a good example of one step forward and two steps back. If this process is continued it will eventually result in pain, then pain will be associated with exercise and sooner or lately we won't want any part of it....this is bad! Never give up your form for a number that you count to.

The other thing I see wrong with counting is not going long enough. Very often people will stop working their muscles when they have reached their magjc number but they have yet to actually feel a workout. When Arnold the govenor earned Mr. Universe awards he used to call this "the pump." This is when the muscles actually begin to burn and blood rushes to the muslces to allow for growth. This is important! It is when exercise happens and its what you should strive for when you workout.

The hardest thing for people to grasp with this is the concept of "listening to your body." Your body will tell you when you are hurting it for the right and wrong reasons. Learn to know the difference between a heatlhy muscle burning pain and a detrimental joint or tendon pain. It will have a lasting effect on the outcome of your body. The difference between muscle pain and joint pain is pretty simple. Muscle pain will be a soreness found within the muscle belly, it will be tender to touch and will go away in about 1-3 days. This is a good thing, this is your muscles growing and bloodflow moving throughout your body. The bad pain...(this is joint pain and ligament pain) is found where your bones attatch, the joints. Sometimes this pain can be pulsating and long lasting (up to a month). This is not good for your body and it is what will happen to your body if proper form is not maintained throughout exercise. Make proper form of exercise a constand practice and learn to recognize the difference in the two different types of pains. Most importantly....chase after the good one.

Instead of counting, choose a resistance and just go with it. Go until you feel the burn your body is asking for. Choose the level of your resistance with caution and never let the proper posture dissappear for the sake of a number. This will not only help you do more with less time but your body will also thank you for it. You will get better results, feel more energy and finallly wake up those muscles you forgot you had.

Investing in Health

I recently realized I don't really know enough about money. It's kind of ironic because in undergrad I was a business major with concentrations in both marketing and finance (It's funny what you really learn in school). This is not to discredit my former university in any way. But my passion for health took me back to school and I've spent later part of my educational tenure learning more about this great profession I'm currently in. Yes...I love my job!

So, in my realization that I don't know enough I went out on a quest to start learning more. I started reading books, listening to tapes, and talking with as many wealthy people as I could (I figured they would know what they were talking about)....all so I could learn a little more. While the advise I have received from a financial standpoint has been extremely helpful, I was very suprised to find out that most of the wealthy people don't just invest financially. In fact there were four specific investments that consistently were encouraged. They were:

-financially
-spiritually
-relational
-health

Of these four investment areas I think you could easily make the case that your health might be the most important. After all, your health is your life, and without a healthy body you may not be around long enough to fully enjoy the dividends the other investments have to offer. Because when we don't feel good...when we have pain...it clogs us...it keeps us from doing the things we want to do, the things that make life wonderful!

I'm a firm believer that the quality of your health will affect the quality in other areas of your life. The better you feel the more you will be able to do. You will have more energy to spend with your family and friends. Your brain will function much more efficiently allowing you to be able to think clearer and do more at your job and your financial investments. And because you are moving around your blood flow and chemicals within your body won't be like a stagnant pond but more like a smooth flowing river.....this certainly helps with your heart.

Still though, for some people its hard to see the benefits or the point in putting much stock in their health investments. I hear a lot of people say things like:

"I just don't have the time."
"I don't really hurt that bad, I'm ok right now."
"That gym membership cost way too much."
"Fast food taste good and it saves me time, cooking healthy takes a lot of work."
"Nutritional supplements and vitamins cost too much."
"Precriptions keep me out of pain."
"This is just my lot in life."

These comments are no doubt the mindset that this culture threatens to build within us all. We are very misguided as to how we should look, what we should eat, and where/what should we go/do with our pain. We are told we have to look like the actors/models on tv but this is the cheeseburger you should be eating. It's wrong and it's not the way its suppose to be....it doesn't have to be that way.

But in looking at those comments again you will notice two consistent things holding people back, time and money. When they say I can't afford to do it, I say how can you afford not to do it! If it's money you are concerned about think about this. By going the unhealthy route in your life you will eventually succumb your self to pain medication of some sort. Provided you aren't motivated to change your life somewhere along the way, this pattern will continue. Eventually your body has been so broken, the pain meds (expensive for not only you but insurance companies as well) will no longer work and you may have to have surgery. Surgery in itself is an extremely expensive cost, it will not only cost you but it will have significant cost to the insurance compainies, and eventually the taxpayer. Soon everyone is mad at the system, we are all hurting and not getting as much out of life as we could be. In short, your body will declare a health bankruptcy.

By choosing the healthy route of life you will feel better. The chances of you needing expensive pain meds and surgeries are drastically decreased. You will do more, make more money, love more, live longer and happier lives. You will be much less of a burden on not only your budget but also that of the insurance companies and the taxpayer. You will have a greater ability to connect with the people you care about and they will be doing the same. We often ask the health professionals what they can do for our bodies. In properly misquoting President Kennedy, the question shouldn't be "What can my Doctor do for my body" but rather "What can I do for my body."

The choice is up to you.....

The Root of Pain

I was listening to the radio yesterday and the man hosting the show was speaking about traffic and how we never seem to be able to fix traffic problems. He argued that when we do have traffic problems we "temporarily" fix the problems by building new roads, new highways, and toll roads and so on.... He then went on to say that this doesn't really fix the underlying problem because after a while more people we move in (hey....the town has no traffic problems now, you would love it here!) and the cycle will ultimately repeats itself. He concluded by saying that the current condition of the roads and transportation system is not the problem, the root of the problem is that more people keep coming in,.....I suppose its a cultural thing?

The point he made was a valid one. And one I think we can all benefit in learning from. I immediately began to associate his philosophy to finding "the root of the problem" to how it relates to "the root of pain." At the clinic we work in we see many many people who are just now beginning to see and understand the root of their problem. Just as in the traffic example where a town/city attempts to resolve its problem with quick fixes, our culture and our mindset towards healing has been doing the same thing.

I think much of it has to do with where we go for answers when we have pain. Our culture has been telling us that when we do have pain we should immediatley seek out"pain medication." And don't get me wrong....there are many many times when we do need the medication to help us get through painful times. Afterall this will no doubt get us out of pain, which we deserve, but did we get rid of the underlying problem? Not always.....and quite honestly....it's sad. Very often in fact the root of our problems with pain comes from the stresses the culture has put on us. Most of us sit all day at our jobs, our muscles are becoming imbalanced, we create tensions that begin to pull on our once symmetrically balanced anatomical postures and turn it into a display prepared for a breakdown. So...it's very possible that while on medication we do not feel the pain and all is well....we go on our merry way. We go back to our jobs sitting the same way, moving the same way and things seem great!

This type of approach to fixing the problem was seen in the traffic example and as we know...only more problems will come. If the root of the problem is not addressed then the problem will grow at an exponential rate, perhaps even to the point that one day surgury will in fact be required. This is an extremely unfortunate thing because the body could have healed itself earlier, the habits could have changed, the weight of the world didn't have to come down the way it did. While working in hospitals I was lucky to be able to work with amazing patients who unfortunately had an amazing amount of pain....I wish we could have gotten to them sooner, we shouldn't have to go through this.

The point to be made here is one of redirection. Where are you going when you have pain and what are you really aiming to resolve? Is it ultimately in the best interest of the long term? What is your body telling you? Do your habits contribute to this pain? Are your methods just giving you a tempory fix? Is that what you want?

Addressing our pain is very much like that of the traffic problem. We could build more roads and yes...for a while things will be moving again, we won't feel all this pain that has been brought on by the culture that was moving in. But sooner or later more of our culture, bad habits and yes....more pain will come rushing back in, history will in fact repeat itself and we are left with blaming the system and complaining about this terrible problem.

My Office

Several onlookers have emailed me asking me where my office is. We are located in Austin, Texas and my website is http://www.procarespine.com.

Non-Surgical Spine Treatments

With over 80% of Americans suffering from serious back pain from one time to another, it is important to understand your options when it comes to non-surgical spine care. As a business, Pro-Care Spine Center focuses on just that. As a doctor of Chiropractic, I see over 30 people a day for spine related injuries or prolonged abuse of their spine.

Today, I feel like I have more tools than ever to keep my patients from ever having to see a surgeon because of their spine-related pain. Not to say that I don't send patients to the surgeon when they need it, I do; but, my goal is to either get the patient better without surgery or get them in the best condition possible to have a successful surgery.

This blog will focus on the various treatment options availible to the public and their pros and cons. I have heard a saying that when there are 1000 cures for one ailment, that none of the cures could be too effective. This is typically true, but not for the spine. Unfortunately, the spine is very complex and as a result, there are many different things that can go wrong with it, requiring many different treatment types. I won't cover 1000 treatments, but we will cover the most predominant ones.