The Most Overlooked Stretch for Low Back Pain

Low back pain is not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.

According to some health organizations, low back pain and stiffness affects 80% of people in their lifetime.

I’ve suffered from disc injuries in my low back when I was younger. I’ve also broken many bones, wrists, hands, ribs, and I can tell you from experience I would rather the latter than the former.

When you get low back pain or low back stiffness you will have a tendency to try and stretch out the low back and improve the movement.

Although your low back can have deterioration and disc degeneration, there is a limiting factor that is often almost overlooked.

This limiting factor in back pain is the length of the psoas muscle. The psoas muscle is a hip flexor that connects to your lower back and when you are in discomfort it will contract and compress your low back.

With people working from home, and spending more time than ever in a seated posture, the psoas muscle will lead to increased tightness, and therefore subsequent compression of the low back. This will lead to increased risk of low back pain or the likelihood of low back pain lingering longer than it normally does if you hurt your back.

As a chiropractor I usually see a high correlation between hip tightness and low back pain. The hip tightness caused by the psoas muscle usually presents as the inability to extend your leg behind you. If you sit at a desk for work, have a long commute or drive for a living, or you played/play sports like hockey or soccer where you are forced to drive your knees forward and you have a history of low back pain or low back stiffness, you need to start doing the following.

Here are three different variations of how you can stretch your psoas muscle to help reduce low back pain.

These are in order of what I think are most effective to least effective but the key to any stretching is do it consistently or it will provide little to no results.

1. The Couch Stretch

Lock your knee into couch

Drive hips forward

Feel the burn

2. Lunge Stretch

Knee on ground

Drive hips forward

On the right picture above, you can reach with your left hand and grab ankle for a greater pull and incorporate a greater stretch.

3. Couch Stretch - Easy Version

Inside leg extended at hip

Extend upper body for more stretch

Preventing Arthritis Pain From The Inside Out

Gone are the days where you turn to glucosamine and chondroitin supplements to improve the health of your joints. 

There are better ways to improve the health of your joints and one of them that is often overlooked is collagen supplementation.

Collagen has a gel-like consistency that can literally ad oil to your creaky joints. 

Many of you may have already heard of collagen for its anti-aging qualities, as it can impact the health of your hair and skin, preventing wrinkles and creating more firmness. I will save the anti-aging properties for another post, but for today let’s focus on what it can do for arthritis and joint pain.

Collagen is found in connective tissue, such as ligaments, tendons, and joints. If you haven’t seen the older video I did on how to make a bone broth, check it out below. I add chicken feet because these are loaded with collagen and will break down nicely in a long slow boil.

You can get adequate collagen from your diet, however, most of us don’t eat the foods consistently enough to get these effects. When we aren’t getting an essential component for health in our diet we must supplement to get the benefit.

Without getting into the details, here are a few studies that show the effectiveness of supplementing with collagen.

First, a study looking at collagen supplementation’s effect on functional daily activities. When comparing the collagen group with a group that took glucosamine and chondroitin supplements and there was a major difference in pain reduction and function changes.

Another study that reviewed the available literature at the time, looked at collagen’s effectiveness with osteoarthritis (OA). When the research studies available on the topic were reviewed the authors concluded that it was safe and showed improvements in function and pain for both men and women with OA.

Finally, a 24-week study done on athletes and joint pain found statistically significant improvements in joint pain when at rest, while walking, standing, and both lifting and carrying objects.

I try to intake collagen daily. One tip that I recommend is if you are making a bone broth, freeze large ice cubes of broth so you can grab 2 or 3 a day to heat up quickly. If you aren’t able to do that, then taking a hydrolyzed collagen supplement is going to be your best option.

I usually put my collagen supplement into a smoothie and since it has no taste, I don’t even know it’s in there. Another thing that can be done is simply mixing with water.

The other way I will supplement with collagen is I sometimes use a coffee “creamer” which provides protein and MCT (a good source of fat), which will help curb your appetite in the morning.

I hope this helps to give you some clarity for a natural way to improve joint pain. It will not only reduce pain and increase function, it will help support your joints proactively as well.

Back Pain While Raking

When the leaves turn their beautiful fall colours you know you will be burdened with the task of doing a fall clean up shortly there after.

Every autumn I have a plethora of new back pain injuries that show up in my chiropractic office.

Ranging from neck pain, to shoulder blade pain and even sciatica, it never ceases to amaze me when these painful conditions present.

One of the main reasons why you can develop different types of issues while raking is that it is in fact seasonal. You may only doing this once or twice a year, and you may try to do it all at once creating muscle fatigue and eventually back injury.

As a chiropractor, I see many different complaints present in the fall, but I decided to create a video to explain two of the most common back injuries that can happen while raking.

Bend With Your Knees or With Your Hips? Protecting your low back while lifting

Bend With Your Knees or With Your Hips? Protecting your low back while lifting

You have definitely heard the saying “bend with your knee, not your back”. In theory, this is to keep a “flat back” which is a protected back. But practically speaking only bending with your knees may put you at a disadvantage.

You probably know someone who has “thrown out their back” while lifting something, doing a half bend, or picking something up off the floor. I can tell you that as a chiropractor I know many of these people.

What this is called is sub-maximal buckling. It’s a common chiropractic complaint, and many people are perplexed why something so nominal can cause so much back pain.

The truth is this is multi-factorial and I could make this an extremely long post, speaking to the complexities of low back mechanics and muscle recruitment, but for the sake of simplicity, I will explain how to keep your back in a protected position by bending with your hips and knees while keeping your back in a flat position.

A “flat back” is usually referred to as a neutral spine or neutral low back. The easiest way to describe this is the position your low back goes into if you push your butt out behind you. essentially you are creating an arched back.

The components of your spine are able to handle the forces placed on them, and the increased forces while lifting an object if you stay in this protected position.

In the video below I demonstrate how this can be achieved by locking your arms out and letting them slide down to your knees as you bend. This will keep your low back neutral, and help to protect yourself while lifting.

How to Prevent Hunchback - Only 5 Minutes a day

No one ever said when I grow up I want to stare at my shoes all day.

But for many of us, the path we are going down ends up here.

With many of repetitive daily postures in a forward seated hunched position, it forces your spine into a strained position that can cause long term tension and stretch to the ligaments of the spine.

Over time the muscles in the back become long and weak, while the muscles of the chest and shoulders tighten pulling your shoulders and rounding your back.

Bad posture can lead to other problems including back pain and even compression fractures of the spine.

As a chiropractor, I see many people that complain of chronic tightness and pain through the shoulder and shoulder blade region.

Since many of the muscles holding up the spine and preventing it from slouching forward are postural muscles they need to be worked more frequently to build endurance. It is also important to stretch the tightened muscles of the chest and shoulders to allow the shoulder and back to straighten.

Check out this video that helps explain daily stretches and exercises that will help prevent the progression of a rounded hunchback.

How to Sneeze and Protect Your Back

There is no doubt that sneezing comes in many shapes, sizes, and sounds.

I have witnessed forceful sneezes, petite sneezes, chain reaction sneezes, and many more.

The one thing that they all have in common is that sneezing puts immense strain on your spine, which can lead to back injuries and back pain.

That is because sneezing not only increases the force around your spinal cord called intrathecal pressure, but it also creates a quick forceful contraction of your body’s core and spinal muscles.

This forceful contraction can back pain from conditions such as a muscle strain or joint strain. It can also cause more serious injuries like a disc injury such as a disc herniation or disc bulge, or in some cases a fracture to the ribs or a compression fracture of a vertebrae.

How do you protect yourself from back pain while sneezing?

You could try to prevent the sneeze from happening by looking into light or holding your breath, but I don’t think these are proven methods that are effective at stopping a sneeze.

Or you can set your body in a better position to protect your spine and so that you won’t be showing up to your chiropractor with an injury from sneezing.

There are a couple of important ways to improve the position of your spine and put you in a position that is less vulnerable to back injury and back pain.

Check out the video below to learn more.

Wry Neck - What it is & how to fix it.

Nothing is worse than starting your day with a pain in the neck. Even worse sometimes it can lock up and leave you with a very limited range of motion.

Sometimes this happens while you sleep and you wake up like this. Other times you just move your head and something lets go in your neck and you instantly feel the pain and stiffness.

Wry neck is characterized by some common symptoms like pain, stiffness, limited neck motion, muscle spasm, and sometimes referred pain into the head, shoulder, or upper back.

One symptom that is usually not related to this is consistent shooting nerve pain down into your arm, hand, and fingers. If this is what you are experiencing it is more likely that you are suffering from a pinched nerve.

Although wry neck can cause very sharp pain it should not travel past your elbow.

There are many different conditions that can cause wry neck, but if this is something new to you, it’s most likely that you have acute facet syndrome.

Your spine is lined with facet joints on the left and the right and allows for smooth motion. Sometimes they can become acutely irritated, and due to their high sensitivity, they can cause severe pain.

The natural course of healing for this type of neck pain usually is around 14-21 days. In really bad cases and with re-aggravation you may look at closer to a month.

I personally love using chiropractic for treating this as I can decompress your neck to the point where it alleviates the pressure and spasm around the joint. Also, the adjustment and other techniques can help considerably with regaining movement in your neck. It may not go back to 100% right away but you should have more range of motion.

Deep massage and heat are two things that you want to avoid in the first few days, as this will increase the inflammation and make the condition more drawn out.

In the meantime, before you can get in and see your chiropractor, try these few things that I talk about in the video below.

Better Seated Posture - Do This One Thing

Low back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain, headaches, muscle strain, spasms, and more are all the consequence of bad posture. Bad posture isn’t the main problem, it’s a bi-product of sitting for long hours each day.

The average American sits on average for 6.5 hours per day. YIKES! Not only are the effects of sitting bad for your general health due to inactivity, it’s terrible for your posture.

When we sit everything is out in front of us and it causes us to round our backs, drop our heads and reach in front of our body. This is compounded by the fact that gravity is also pulling us down the entire time.

When we think about correcting our posture, intuitively we think to roll our shoulders back to relieve some of the strain that is consistently happening. This may help with the strain in that specific area but it negates the fact that there is an underlying problem that we must correct first.

That problem is the foundation of your spine. By setting up a good foundation at the base of your spine while sitting you will improve your posture drastically by giving integrity to the structures above, therefore reducing postural strain and the back pain and stiffness associated with it.

Check out the video below for a quick explanation on what setting a strong foundation for your spine looks like.

How to Get Out of Bed and Avoid Low back Pain

Low back pain first thing in the morning is very common. Unfortunately there are many contributing factors that cause low back stiffness first thing in the morning. The underlying cause is usually low back arthritis or an existing injury to a lumbar disc. However, there are many aggravating factors that can contribute to the morning low back pain and stiffness. These include but are not limited to the mattress, you sleep position and finally the way you sit up out of bed.

This last maneuver is similar to a sit-up which puts a ton of strain and compression through the lumbar spine,.

This is made even worse by the fact that your discs re-hydrate overnight and increase your risk of low back injuries with certain movements.

Below is a video explanation of a better way to get out of bed, or off the couch when you are laying on your back.

How Bad Posture Can Lead to Compression Fractures

A compression fracture of a vertebra is usually stable, and not life-threatening, but it can cause a tremendous amount of pain and disability.

Compression fractures can happen from serious trauma, such as car accidents or sports injuries. However, more often than not compression fractures happen with increased frequency as we age.

In combination with low bone density, a light slip, or even a sneeze can cause a compression fracture.

The area of the spine that is commonly affected is the thoracic spine. In the picture below this is the area between the two red lines.

The thoracic spine is where you have the most “hunch” in your back. When your posture is poor and you are hunched forward it causes the hunch to be more pronounced and leads to more compression on the front edge of the vertebrae.

When you combine this increased pressure with poor bone density you are at risk for a compression fracture in your spine.

The picture below shows the inside of a vertebra. The red arrow is pointing to the cortical bone which is the hard outer shell. The blue arrow is pointing to the trabecular bone which gives your bone structural integrity.

When the compression on the front of the vertebra is greater than the amount of force that the internal bone can take, you will get a compression fracture.

The typical shape of a compression fracture is a wedge, with the front of the bone collapsing while the back portion stays intact. This further creates more postural deformity and will lead to a more exaggerated “hunch back”.

This is why it is so important to develop and maintain good posture while you are young to help prevent painful conditions like compression fractures.

Two main things you can do to help reduce the stress to this part of your spine.

1. Set a proper foundation in your low back.

2. Less anterior head carriage (forward head).

Slipped Disc?

You have probably heard the term “slipped disc”, often it is often used very loosely. 

A true slipped disc is referring to a disc bulge or disc herniation. This can happen throughout the spine but most often in the neck and low back. 

Your intervertebral discs are filled in the centre with a material that can shift if the back is injured in a certain way. 

Typical physical demands will most commonly shift the center of the disc towards the back of the spine where the spinal cord and nerve roots are.  (Think of squishing a jelly donut from the front, the jelly will be pushed out the back)

This can compress the nerves either directly or from the pressure resulted from inflammation. The nerves are very delicate and are reactive to the slightest changes in pressure.   Since the nerve roots area are surrounded by boney canals, there is not much room for error. 

This slippage of the disc will commonly cause neck pain or back pain depending on where the injury occurred in the body, and in a lot of cases the pain can be quite severe.  

Not to mention the chances of pinching a nerve that can cause a shocking or searing pain into your arms and hands.  Or if it’s a low back injury it could cause sciatica (low back pain that causes nerve pain down your leg).

In humans there are certain signs and symptoms that will make it easier for your chiropractor to diagnose. Before an examination you should make notes describing exactly what pain you are feeling and any limitations that you have, and during the exam cooperate during physical tests to determine the root cause.. 

With dogs and horses this can be harder to diagnose.  A lot of time this can present as lameness, a weak leg or complete dragging of the hind end. 

Chiropractic can be of great help but the healing process can be quite slow as nerve tissue healing depends on the amount of compression and the length of time it was compressed. 

In humans, dogs, or horses, if there is pain or weakness and both legs as well as incontinence, this should be treated as a medical emergency and you should go to a hospital.

Chronic Shoulder Blade Pain & What To Stop Doing

Chronic shoulder blade pain is a common symptom that can make your day miserable.

The pain is usually unrelenting and can be aggravated with certain postures.

Dr. Adam Markew explains why pain under the shoulder blades commonly happens and two daily repetitive strains that contribute to the chronic nature of this complaint.

How Do You Adjust a Dog? Dog Chiropractor

How do you adjust a dog? With care and specificity of course! 

From a human to a dog, there are some obvious differences in how I adjust as a chiropractor. 

Other than having to bribe dogs with treats, the obvious difference is that a dog’s anatomy is quite different from a human’s anatomy.  If I were to apply the same adjustments to a dog that I do to a human they would not be effective as the joints are angled and aligned differently.

The other major difference is the amount of force that I apply when doing animal chiropractic. 

Even a large breed dog’s vertebrae are smaller than an adult human, and if you see a toy breed, their legs and shoulders resemble chicken bones rather than dog bones. 

When all is said and done, there are some major differences when a chiropractor adjusts a dog vs. a human, but the principles of a chiropractic adjustment remain the same.  Align the spine and let the nervous system work optimally.

Dizziness & Vertigo Caused By Your Neck

Vertigo and dizziness can be caused by many different sources.  

Usually, vertigo or dizziness is a symptom or sign that something is not right within your body. 

Positional vertigo, ear infections, brain lesions and eye conditions are all common conditions that can elicit dizziness or vertigo type symptoms. 

One cause of vertigo and dizziness that is usually chronic in nature and often overlooked by health care professionals is cervicogenic dizzness (dizziness caused by the neck). 

In this video Dr. Adam Markew explains how vertigo or dizziness can be caused by your neck and some common signs and symptoms to why this may be happening to you. 

Neck Pain In Dogs - A simple test you can do to test

There are many reasons why a dog will limp in their front end.

It can be caused from their neck, shoulder, elbow, nerve damage, or even a strained muscle.

To help pin-point what is causing the limp, you have to rule out injuries to certain areas.

One way to test if it may be related to your dog’s neck, is to check their range of motion.

If your dog is having pain from something mechanical, then their movement will be limited in certain movements.

You can test your dog’s neck range of motion with the cookie test. Please see the video below for a quick explanation.

Why you Have Low Back Morning Stiffness & 3 Tips to Help

Low back pain is one of the biggest disabilities in North America. It affects millions of people, and it can be most obvious first thing in the morning.

In this video Dr. Adam Markew addresses the most common reason to why you have low back morning stiffness and gives you three tips that may help decrease it.

Why you Shouldn't Stretch First Thing in the Morning

Low back stiffness in the morning is one of the most common complaints among low back pain sufferers.

There are many reasons why this can happen, and many different presentations of pain. In this video Dr. Adam what happens to your spine overnight while you sleep and what type of exercises you should do and which type to avoid within the first 30 minutes of waking up.

Chiropractor Newmarket - Dr. Adam Markew

How to Check Your Dog's Hips

As a canine chiropractor, I am constantly checking hip range of motion.

Different breeds have different hip motion due to the fact that their lower back may be angled down more towards the ground, limiting the amount of movement they have in their hip.

Normal hip range should be smooth and pain free for your dog. They should allow you to slowly draw the hip back with little to no resistance.

Sometimes your dog will pull their leg forward. This is usually a protective mechanism to stop the hip from extending into a painful range.

If your dog has hip arthritis or you suspect that it does, you will notice that the hip range of motion will end early compared to the other side. This is due to the worn out cartilage, and decreased space within the joint itself.

The video below demonstrates how you can quickly check your dog’s hips at home.

BBQ Season Basics

Summer is upon us and what sounds better than hanging with friends and family, enjoying some refreshing beverages and fresh food off the BBQ. 

BBQ’d food can taste great but did you know that there are certain steps to take to make your grilled food healthier. 

Here are a few tips that you should consider next time you fire up the grill. 

1. Easy on the sugar - Many BBQ sauces contain high amounts of sugar, which will increase inflammation. Try making your own dry rub as a healthier alternative (see below).

2. Low and Slow - Keeping the cooking temperature lower will limit the chance of producing charring, which is considered a carcinogen. 

3. Clean it - It goes without saying that you should keep your grill clean.  Avoid using metal bristle brushes, which can stick to your grill and potentially end up in your stomach.  Use a wooden scraper or try using half an onion next time you need to clean your grill. 

4. Add Colour - Increase your vegetable intake by adding a few to your grill next time you cook.  Use a healthy oil and cook on low temperatures from indirect heat. 

Cajun Dry Rub:

¼ tsp pink himalayan salt

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 ¼ tsp dried oregano

1 ¼ tsp dried thyme

½ tsp red pepper flakes

Mix ingredients and apply generously to your choice of meat. 

Dog Agility Shoulder Problems

When you are putting your dog into agility training or an agility competition you are asking a lot of them physically.

Working at a high pace, and with many changes in direction, agility can put your dog into compromising positions that can stress different areas of their body.

A dog will usually work until they can’t.  They will push through the discomfort until it’s too unbearable anymore. They truly are resilient animals.

One body area that is particularly vulnerable with dog agility is your dog’s shoulder and lower neck.

The lower neck has a network of nerves that feed the front limbs.  While the shoulder is your dog’s primary joint for movement between the spine and the front limb.

If your dog injures either of these areas, the symptoms can overlap and look similar.

Typically your dog will come up lame and not weight bear well on that side.  They may have tenderness in that area of their shoulder or they may have limited neck range of motion.

In any case where your dog comes up lame you should have them assessed physically by either your vet and if nothing serious arises, make sure they have a physical assessment by an animal chiropractor.

One way you can determine where the injury is coming from, by testing the ROM in your dog’s neck.  If it’s limited or asymmetrical side to side it is a positive test.

You can test this by performing the treat/cookie test.  Do this by holding a treat while your dog is standing, and make your dog follow the treat in an arc to their left shoulder, and then back all the way to the right shoulder.  

Lower neck conditions in dogs are a big concern as they can potentially lead to damaging nerve trauma and produce longer recovery times.

If your dog is starting agility or is currently doing agility it is a good idea to have their function in all joints assessed by an animal chiropractor.  

Better function = Better performance.