Category Archives: Exercise

Is surgery the only answer when competitive athletes get hurt?

Posted on September 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

The other day was Sunday or “Football Day” as it is referred to by many of my friends. I watched a bit and caught the wrap up Monday before making it into the office. Several players, including Michael Vick, were hurt during the day and had to leave the games.*

Injuries really aren’t surprising considering how rough competition can get. Even at a college or high school level, sports are violent and players get hurt. The consequence of these injuries may stop an athlete from participating in any competition and the pain can be felt for the rest of their life.

The big question is. “What do competitive athletes do when they get hurt?” The pressure to get back into the game is immense. Often they are faced with the choice of losing their place on the team or undergoing some type of risky surgery.

It made me think about my own experience and that of several other chiropractors who were high school and college athletes. After potentially career ending injuries of different types we were all offered surgery as a cure but chose to undergo chiropractic care, recovered fully and got back to playing that same season. (Unlike surgery, where the recovery time and subsequent rehab often makes an injury “season-ending.”)

Over the past 25 years of practice here at The Back Care Center of Dumont, NJ we’ve helped many injured athletes. We’ve also kept many of our younger athletes injury free with good support programs, exercise regimens and regular chiropractic adjustments. And if you’re a golfer, we have specific and extensive experience in Golf fitness, with 2 Titleist Certified Golf Fitness Professionals and a PGA Golf Pro on staff.

So get out there and play safe. And if you do suffer an injury, think about giving us a call before you consider more radical treatments like surgery. We may be able to get you back in the game before it’s too late.

 

*By the way, Vick’s injury was a concussion, which thankfully the NFL is finally taking seriously. (Even Madden 12 Football is taking them seriously, with concussions resulting in the player being sidelined for the rest of the game, no exceptions. If you don’t play Madden, then you can learn all about it from this article by Alan Schwarz (no relation!) in the NY Times.

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Posted in Alternatives to Surgery, Dumont NJ, Exercise, The Back Care Center

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A little trick for avoiding some golf-related injuries

Posted on September 9, 2011 | Leave a comment

As a Titleist Certified Golf Fitness Professional, some of the most common injuries I see in my practice are to a golfer’s lower back, shoulder and arms. They are usually sprains or strains, but they can also include tears to muscles, ligaments or cartilage. There can even be serious injuries with long-term consequences such as arthritis and herniated spinal discs.

These injuries happen mainly for reasons like poor body mechanics, bad swing mechanics or poorly fitted equipment, but there’s also a cause that most people would never consider dangerous: excessive practicing.

Amateur golfers practice by going to the hitting range. At the range, a golfer must decide which size bucket of golf balls to choose: small, medium, large or in some cases even JUMBO.

After a typically cursory warm up of bending over two or three times and then swinging the club a couple of times, the amateur golfer will start hitting balls. That is a total of between 60 to 160 balls. If you count the practice swings between balls, it’s like playing three rounds of golf in under an hour!

Unless your body is properly conditioned for that type of workout, injuries are very likely to happen.

Here’s a little trick that can help minimize golf-related injuries: buy a small bucket even if the jumbo one looks like a better deal. Balance this restraint with a sufficient warm up with gentle swings of your shorter irons before going for distance with the driver. And perhaps most importantly, work on your body when you are not working on your game.

Most golf injuries happen because the player’s body simply can’t do what is necessary to swing the club properly. Spend some time in the gym doing the golf related exercises your body needs to get into proper shape to avoid injuries.

And if you don’t know what to do, call us. With PGA Golf Pro Jon Manos and two on-staff Titleist Performance Institute Certified Golf Fitness Instructors, Nick Manoy and Dr. David Schwartz, The Back Care Center of Dumont, NJ can help you with a physical screening, golf swing biomechanics and video golf swing analysis, plus drills and exercises to improve your body and your game.

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Posted in Dumont NJ, Exercise, Golf Fitness, The Back Care Center

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Golf, Exercise and Conditioning: A Cautionary Tale

Posted on August 16, 2011 | 2 Comments

I have a patient who came to me for help with his golf swing. We did a full functional analysis and then video taped his swing. All told, we spent about an hour evaluating him and then I spent another half hour going over his results.

When he came back, we talked about what was going on with his body and why he was having certain difficulties with his game. We spoke about balance and exercises. I told him about the program I had planned for him and how it would help to fix him physically so he could play better on the course.

He was more interested in the videos we shot and his swing evaluation. He went right out and started working on fixing his swing and the next time I saw him, he happily informed me that he had shaved more than 5 strokes off his last 3 rounds. We spoke a little more about the golf fitness exercises and conditioning program, but he was happy with his improvement and didn’t see the need to start putting in more time.

The next time I saw him was about a week later. He had called the office because he had hurt his upper back and shoulder in the middle of a round of golf. It turned out that he had a moderate tear in one of the muscles in his rotator cuff and injured the joint where one of his ribs met his spine.

It took us about three months to get him out of pain and back to playing. In my opinion, backed up by my Titleist Certified Golf Fitness Training, this was all avoidable if he had only followed through with my initial recommendations. The moral of the story is to make sure the golfer is in good shape before trying to fix his game.

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Posted in Exercise, Golf Fitness, The Back Care Center

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Fix the golfer first, then work on their game

Posted on August 11, 2011 | Leave a comment

Golf is a funny game: for many players, the harder they try, the poorer the results. A major reason is that amateur golfers are usually weekend warriors. They put little or no work into conditioning, and then they power swing every time they tee up the ball. Aches, pains and even serious injuries can be expected…and predicted.

Most amateur golfers hurt themselves not because they have a poor swing but because they have poor body mechanics. In other words, they simply can’t move their bodies into the positions required by the sport. Instead, they will seek out the help of a golf pro, taking countless lessons hoping to stop slicing into the woods or hooking into the water. Sometimes they’ll get better, but the majority of recreational players fail to take the basic steps necessary to really improve their game.

“Fix the player first, then work on their game.” All of my education and all of my Titleist Certified Golf Fitness training tells me this is the only way to make a good golfer out of an average weekend player. More importantly, we can help them to avoid hurting their back or shoulder or knee or wrist at the same time.

In my office, we run golfers through an exhaustive functional screening. We look at how they move and focus on the exact areas of their bodies that are causing issues. It can be a joint problem, a soft tissue injury or simply a coordination issue. Most of the time, the problems we find are not causing the golfer any pain but are significantly changing the way they swing the club.

By discovering where the problem is, we can help with appropriate therapies, stretching, massage therapy and golf exercises. Only then do we look at your golf swing, evaluate it and turn you over to Jon Manos, our PGA golf pro to help you correct the problems you might still have in your swing.

If you really want to fix your golf swing and you don’t want to sacrifice your health to the game, talk to The Back Care Center. First, we’ll fix you. Then we’ll take a swing at your swing.

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Posted in Dumont NJ, Exercise, Golf Fitness, The Back Care Center

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Backpacks, correct posture and an exercise for your children

Posted on May 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

May is National Correct Posture Month, so we at The Back Care Center of Dumont, NJ wanted to take a minute to talk to you about one of the most common causes of back pain and poor posture in students: backpacks. That’s right, backpacks.

Student backpacks frequently don’t fit well and are often overloaded with books, lunches, sports bottles and more. Carrying this type of load can lead to muscle fatigue and poor spinal posture, resulting in back pain, neck pain, shoulder problems and a host of other complaints.

So what can we do?

First make sure the backpack fits properly and your child is wearing it properly. The straps should be over both shoulders and should be cushioned to avoid digging into your child’s skin.

Second, here is a simple exercise you can have your children do correct poor postural habits:

Bruegger’s Exercise to correct poor postural habits

Perform this exercise for 30 to 60 seconds every hour or so. Sit on the edge of your chair with your feet flat on the floor and your hands by your sides. Lift your chest, arch your lower back slightly and point the crown of your head directly up at the ceiling — think tall. From this position, turn your palms outward, shrug your shoulders down and back and rotate your hips outward. Hold this position for the desired duration and then relax.

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Posted in Back Pain, Exercise, Neck Pain, The Back Care Center

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