The majority of New Year’s Resolutions are related to your health & fitness. We want to look better, we want to feel better, we want to function better. Quite commonly as March comes around our New Year’s Resolution is nothing but a whisper in the wind. There are a lot of reasons why we fall off the wagon when it comes to our fitness goals, we are going to address the big one!
Commonly in our practice we see people looking to get back in shape or achieve performance related goals. The most consistent thing we hear is the feeling of their body stopping them from doing what they want to do. This could be restriction in range of motion, pain during movement or the result of injury. Whichever it may be, ensuring your spine is functioning at it’s optimal gives you the best chance to heal, perform, and achieve your health goals.
What does it mean if my muscles are tighter on one side than the other?
Soft tissues (Muscles, ligaments and tendons etc) are supporting tissues of our skeleton. They maintain stability and allow us to move. When a muscle is tighter on one side of the spine than the other, this typically indicates specific spinal dysfunction. When a vertebra is not functioning properly and is protecting itself, it recruits muscles nearby to further protect it and compensate for it’s loss of function. This means your spine needs to be checked out.
How come certain areas of my body are more stiff and move less than other areas?
Stiffness and loss of movement is a direct result of dysfunction in a specific joint. Where is all this dysfunction coming from you may ask? We are an accumulation of all the different stresses placed on our body throughout our life. Injuries and falls, motor vehicle accidents and especially continual postural stress. In response to the increasing load of different stressors on our body and spine, the spine restricts movement to protect itself from further injury. An intelligent response, however not serving you all that much after the initial stage of healing. This being one of several reasons joints degenerate with osteoarthritis, especially when we continue to load the body with more stress. Again, this reduces your mobility and increases stiffness, preventing your ability to efficiently achieve your health goals.
Why am I weaker on one side of my body?
Generally everyone's first response to a weak muscle is to typically focus in on and strengthen that particular muscle. What we must not neglect is why that muscle is actually weaker! What we know about the brain and nervous system is that it has complete control over muscle activation and strength. If the nervous system is being affected by a dysfunctional vertebra in your spine this can absolutely result in weakness in muscles, either specifically or globally. The other reason the spine can be involved in muscle strength is regarding over-activation. As we discussed earlier, muscles can tighten up to help protect dysfunction in the body. So if particular muscles are constantly tight to protect an area they can be fatigued and thus not activate or contract as consistently as it should. A functional spine is vital to a functional body.
DON'T LET YOUR SPINE RUIN YOUR NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION, GET CHECKED BY A CHIROPRACTOR
You can also gift a loved one better health in 2019 – Gift Cards are available.