Initially, we worked with her to relieve her discomfort, then started applying behavior modifications, exercise and promoting body awareness. Within 2-3 weeks, her discomfort was under control, and we started working on behavior modifications.
Becky works at a computer 40 hours a week. Having her aware of her sitting postures, where her monitor is, how often she gets up and down, how her neck and head are in relation to the rest of her body, were all questions that called for more personal awareness and change. She began to work on these issues and her chronic discomfort started to become more intermittent.
Next, we asked what she was doing for exercise? Yoga was the answer. While I love that people do yoga, hyper-flexibility can lead to overstressing certain joints and regions of the body, so we talked about strength training with Crossfit. She tried a boot camp and loved it! She started getting stronger and feeling her body was more capable of the static behaviors of sitting for work.
Lastly, we worked on refining her behaviors, not needing to see her for care more than once a week, then moving down to once every two weeks. After a bit, she had a spell of not seeing us for 3 weeks, but she started to feel tight, stiff, achy, and more bound up through her mid back and neck, and a stiff low back. One adjustment and she was back on track.
For Becky, she finds that every two to three weeks is a great time frame to get adjusted, because she FEELS it makes the quality of her life better with work and daily function.
So there’s a pattern here. Do you see it? Instead of taking the “you have to do chiropractic the rest of your life, all the time” routine that most people hear, we have a clear plan:
- Remove the pain. Nothing can be done to the body until the pain is removed. End of story. Sometimes it’s fast and sometimes it’s slow.
- Create awareness. Personal responsibility of your daily activities that are repetitive or cumulative is critical for identifying patterns then CHANGING them.
- Add positive stimulus. The right exercise, treatment, rehab, etc. at the right time will build new, correct patterns in the body, to reduce and remove the repetitive stressors.
- Build on the positive changes. Continue to challenge the system in the right ways to grow and change will help improve your function even more.
- Maintain. Knowing that a chiropractic visit every month, three months is good, allowing the spine and body to reset, is amazing for overall health.
Our goals are to get you better and keep you functioning well. I want you to learn, and grow, and become your best. If you know anyone who needs care, or wants to be better than they are, have them give us a call.
Have a great summer!!