Everyone knows that it
is important to exercise regularly and eat right to take care of our bodies.
But what if you are in too much pain to be able to exercise comfortably or
safely? What if your range of motion is limited by stiffness?

By eliminating the headaches, muscle tightness,
low back pain, and nerve interference (or subluxations) that result from
misalignment, chiropractic helps the body become less limited in the types of
and amount of movement it can perform well. 

Proper Movement to Success in Spine

Imagine
waking up one morning with a frozen shoulder where you couldn’t move your upper
arm more than a few inches in any direction. How much would that impact your
ability to do your job? How much would that affect your ability to drive your
car or even to dress yourself? How much would that affect your ability to
concentrate on anything other than your shoulder? Obviously, if your shoulder
did not move correctly, it would have a dramatic impact on your life. Well, the
same is true with movement in every part of your body. If things aren’t moving
the way they are supposed to move, it will have a negative impact on your
ability to function at work, take care of the demands of everyday life, and
even your ability to concentrate.

Many
patients with severe low back pain report that their pain came on suddenly when
they did something as simple as bend down to pet their cat, put on their socks,
or pick up the newspaper. Just about everyone would agree that a person’s body
should be able to handle such simple movements. So what has happened?

In
every one of these cases, the joints of the patient’s body were “all locked up”
-- they were barely moving at all. When the joints in one area of the body do
not move the way they should, other areas of the body are forced to move more
in order to compensate. This creates a significant stress on those areas that
have to pick up the slack, and it soon leads to pain and inflammation. At the
same time, the areas that don’t have normal movement will slowly worsen as the
muscles continue to tighten, the joints stick together, and the ligaments and
tendons shorten. This leaves the body in a very unstable condition; if left unchecked,
this process will continue until the body can hardly move at all. That is how a
person comes to suffer flare-ups of pain at the slightest provocation.

Most
of us have seen people who have lost most of their normal mobility: they look
like bodies have been starched stiff whenever they try to move around. This is
especially prevalent among the elderly. Contrary to popular belief, however,
this is not an inevitable effect of aging; rather it is the inevitable effect
of not maintaining the body’s mobility through exercise, healthy alignment, and
body mechanics. There are people in their 60s, 70s, or even older, who are
stronger and more flexible than the average person in their 30s, simply because
they keep themselves exercising.

Maintaining
mobility is critical in order to live free from pain and disability.
Maintaining good mobility is not difficult, but it does not happen on its own.
Just as in developing a good posture, it is necessary that you perform specific
exercises and stretches to keep your muscles, ligaments, and tendons flexible
and healthy. In addition, it is necessary that all of the joints in your body
are kept moving correctly as well. Although this can be achieved to a great
degree through stretching, most people also find routine chiropractic
adjustments to be very beneficial.