The Spinal Column by SOS Physiotherapy
The Spinal Column The Newsletter About Your Health And Caring For Your Body
STUDENT LIFE AT SOS
task was his). As you know, SOS is packed with intelligent and hilarious clinicians. When learning with Stephen the energy was light (unless he had PB&J for lunch), but the knowledge transfer and attention to detail never stopped. Throughout my 6 weeks I had the opportunity to sit in on Stephen patient assessments and treatments, conduct my own assessment and treat my own patients with his guidance. He always challenged me to think critically, and kept me on my toes which I appreciate. A unique opportunity that SOS provides is weekly mentoring. This gave me with the opportunity to learn and practice hands on skills or listen to their discussions about more complex cases and provide each other advise on how to best approach it.
Kristen Bolivar
During the 2-year Masters program we have the opportunity to go on five 6-week placements. Choosing your placement, in my opinion, is a large task as we look to find the best possible place to put our knowledge to practice and learn as much as we can. I had heard great things about SOS Physiotherapy through the grapevine at Western and read up on the skill of the physiotherapists that worked at both the Belmont and Elmira locations. So, I ranked them #1 and #2, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best in the matching process. Sure enough, I received news that I was heading to SOS for 6 weeks. Student life at SOS was nothing short of... comical. Especially since I had the task of following Stephen Hogan around (or maybe the
I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn from Stephen and all of the other talented physiotherapists at SOS. I look forward to using all of the knowledge I’ve gained as I complete the program and pursue my career as a physiotherapist. Kristen Kristen and Sandro "rock off" for who gets to go first with their student presentations at the Huether in Waterloo.
www.sosphysiotherapy.ca
The Spinal Column The Newsletter About Your Health And Caring For Your Body
3 8
1
3 7 5 4
7 9
2
5 9
1 6
2 4
4 3
3 FUN & GAMES: SUDOKU HOW POSTURE CAN AFFECT YOUR BACK & NECK PAIN 7 2 7 2 4 3 2 1 6 http://1sudoku.com n°310547 - LevelHard
ard
4
3 1
5 3 2 9 6 5 7 3 2 1 5 8 9
8 3 4 8 1 3 5 6 1
4 1
8
ard
http://1sudoku.com
n° 315994 - LevelHard
shing the codes below : n°36953
n°315994
• The pain frequently starts in your neck and moves into your upper and lower back. Pain that seems to travel from one area of the back to another is frequently an indication of posture concerns. • The pain will subside after switching positions, such as switching from sitting to standing or vice versa. • Back or neck pain that develops soon after a change in circumstances, such as starting a new job with a new desk chair, or getting a new car. After years of practicing poor posture, your back, shoulder and neck muscles will likely find standing or sitting with straight posture to be uncomfortable. This is because your muscles have grown accustomed to the slouching, and standing up straight will require some thorough stretching.That doesn’t mean that once you have bad posture you can never correct it. Working with a physiotherapist to improve your posture is a great way to overcome chronic neck and back pain. In physiotherapy, you will be guided through a series of stretches and strength building exercises that can help you begin training your body to practice better posture, thereby reducing your back and neck pain. INSIDE: • What Can Good Posture Do For You? • Our Clinic to YOUR Community • Posture Dos And Don’ts • Exercise Essentials • Star Students At SOS • Mentoring Corner
Remember back when your mother used to tell you that if you wouldn’t stop hunching your shoulders, they’d be stuck that way forever? An idle threat, one that barely anyone took seriously. Yet, fast forward a few decades and it turns out that mom might have been on to something, after all. A poor habit of bad posture can have a lasting impact on your neck and back.The worse your posture is, the more intense your back and neck pain can become. Unfortunately, once you start experiencing neck and back pain, simply squaring your shoulders isn’t likely to be much help. Working with a physiotherapist can help you to train the muscles in your back, neck and shoulders so that you can improve your posture permanently, and in doing so, bring relief to your chronic neck and back pain. The Posture and Pain Connection Not all back pain is caused by poor posture, and it is true that you can have poor posture for years without feeling the consequences of that slouch right away, but in time the habit is likely to catch up with you. There are certain ways that you can tell if neck or back pain may be a result of poor posture, including: • The pain in your back is worsened at certain times of day. For example, after you’ve spent a day at the office, or after a few hours on the couch.
e sudoku andplay online : http://1sudoku.com
www.sosphysiotherapy.ca
WHAT CAN GOOD POSTURE DO FOR YOU?
Of course, there are ways that you can improve your posture at home, as well. Here are several strategies that are typically helpful: • Try to stand tall whenever you are standing or walking. Hold your head high and square your shoulders, but more importantly work on being the tallest version of yourself. Hunching over is the leading cause of poor posture. • Use support when you sit to keep your posture correct. Lumbar support in office chairs and car seats will help a bit, but for improved posture you may need to add additional cushioning that will help you keep your back straight. • Be mindful of how you lift heavy objects. Keep your shoulders square and your chest forward. When lifting something that is over 50lbs it is important to take extra care. Lead with your hips and try to keep the weight close to your body. Lifting something improperly can lead to injury to your neck or back, which may make proper posture uncomfortable. There are a lot of benefits of having good posture. Aside from saying goodbye to neck or back pain, improving your posture can provide several unexpected benefits to your lifestyle and personal well-being. Here are a few of the additional benefits of having good posture: • Proper posture creates quality exercise for your core and back • Improved respiratory health • Added protection for your organs, bones, joints and muscles • Reduced risk of arthritis
If you are experiencing chronic neck and back pain, there is a good chance that it could be related to your posture. Contact your physiotherapist to learn more about how you can take steps to start improving your posture today.
www.sosphysiotherapy.ca
Exercise Essentials Try these movements if you are experiencing back or neck pain.
put on a slight stretch in this position to open up the chest. To perform the exercise: Begin with the palms up and the thumbs pointing out to the sides. You can hold a light TheraBand as Adam is in the picture. Lightly pull your shoulders together as you gently tuck the chin down towards your chest and keep the shoulders squeezed as you point the thumbs towards the sides of your body and pull the band apart. Hold this position for 3-5 seconds and repeat for 10-15 repetition. For best results, use several times during the day to “un-do” that rounded, chin poked position were all guilty of and start the new year taller and stronger then last year!
In the photos to the left and right, our physiotherapist Adam is demonstrating one of his favorite postural reset exercises. This exercise is called the “No Money Drill”. The movement can easily be remembered by thinking about pulling out the insides of your pockets and saying “Really, they’re empty...” This exercise focuses on engaging several of the muscle groups that get lengthened and tired throughout the day as we sit in front of our computers and smart phones. These muscles are the deep neck flexors that are active during the small chin-tuck, as well as the scapular retractors and the rotator cuff muscles that are activated while pulling the shoulders back. The pectoralis muscles that often cause our shoulders to roll forwards are also
CALL ONE OF OUR 3 LOCATIONS TODAY!
Star Students At SOS
Mentoring Corner
The physiotherapists at SOS Physiotherapy are dedicated to learning and helping each other hone their skills to enable their patients to get the best outcomes possible. They get together weekly to practice their hands-on skills and share ideas, all in an effort to improve the overall care for their patients. Here’s what they’ve been working on to get you better faster. Student Physiotherapist Kristen Bolivar from Western University is working over Clinical Instructor Stephen "this feels awesome" Hogan. This technique is used frequently by all our therapists to mobilize C6 on C7 to help with neck pain and stiffness...wait, WHAT? That's physio speak for moving the bottom two vertebrae on your neck. By performing this mobilization, Kristen is helping Steve with the stiffness that comes from long days at the computer and that "hump" that can show up at the base of your neck. Think your posture is causing you to stiffen up? Do you feel that your back might be rounding out to something akin to Quasimodo? All of our therapists practice their skills regularly and have the ability to straighten you out and have you walking tall and feeling great. Don't wait any longer. Give us a call and use the New Year to create a new YOU!
Sandro Cestra Sandro is a second year student in Western's Masters of Physical Therapy program and will be graduating in 2019. This is his second clinical placement and he has spent the past 6 weeks with us at SOS Elmira. He will be returning to school in the new year with a brand new set of tricks to wow his classmates. Since the beginning of November he has been learning from our Elmira Physiotherapists (Amy and Melissa), where he has been able to develop his manual therapy skills and knowledge base. It has been quite an educational experience for him, and he hopes to take these skills forward into practice with him once he graduates. "SOS has been such great place to learn. The clinic is just full of wonderful people who just want to help people get better, and they have been extremely helpful in facilitating my learning and making me a better clinician. Thank you very much SOS!" - Sandro
Comic Corner!
Our Clinic to YOUR Community
Aria Weber was our SOS Physiotherapy Elmira 2018 Fall Coloring Contest Winner! She received a $50 gift card for Toy Soup in St. Jacobs and the clinic donated $260 to Woolwich Community Services for their Christmas Goodwill fund. Thank you to all our participants for decorating our windows and we look forward to another coloring spectacular next year! www.sosphysiotherapy.ca
ATTENTION PEOPLE WITH BACK PAIN! NEW WORKSHOP COMING UP SOON!
BACK PAIN & SCIATICA WORKSHOP
Belmont Clinic Location // Saturday, January 12 @ 10:00am
Workshops are free but seats are limited. Don’t delay, register today by calling now!
Belmont Clinic Belmont Centre for Physical Medicine 564 Belmont Avenue West, Suite 301 Kitchener, Ontario N2M 5N6 TEL: (519) 743-4355
Present This And Receive A Complimentary Postural Screen
Bring in This Coupon Today For A Complimentary Postural Screen
Campus Clinic University of Waterloo Student Life Centre
200 University Avenue West Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1 TEL: (519) 884-0767
Not sure if your posture is correct? • Have your posture assessed for both sitting and standing. • Get strategies to help you fix it!
Elmira Clinic Behind Wellness Centre (Clock Tower) 3 Wyatt Street East, Suite 2 Elmira, Ontario N3B 2H4 TEL: (519) 669-1212
Call Today!
For use at Belmont and Elmira locations until February 28th only.
POSTURE DOS AND DON’TS WITH SOS
1
2
3
A
B
C
Perfect posture is somewhat of a myth, a unicorn that you could chase forever and never truly find. But there are some basic principles that you can follow that will help you take the stress off the joints, discs and ligaments, and use the muscles in your body to keep you where you should be. Sitting Look at Sandro here in the first picture (picture 1), slumped in the chair looking downright depressed and definitely down in the dumps. Rounded back, forward head, shoulders slumped. The stress on his back and neck is intense. He looks like he’s had a tough go at his placement at SOS…..Does this remind you of being slumped over a computer at your place of work? In picture number 2 he’s no better. His buttocks are several inches from the back of the chair and that has allowed his low back to round into curved ugliness. The stress on the discs here is intense and he’s going to need physio shortly! The last picture (picture 3) has Sandro sitting tall and looking good. He’s put his backside right up against the base of the chair and this forces him to use the back rest and sit up straight with a small curve in his lower back. And look closely! Check out that sweet lumbar roll he is sporting to help maintain that lumbar curve. Legendary! Standing Poor Melissa (picture A), her parents must have told her to stand up straight all her life! Not bad advice but her rounded mid back from sitting and writing all those physio notes makes her put a lot of stress on her lower back.
Knees straight, hips locked, weight back on the heels. No muscles in the legs working. See how much she has to curve into her low back to get that upright “military” style posture? Not good! There’s a lot of stress on the joints of her low back here. Now slumped (picture B) is no better! Her rounded upper back puts her neck and shoulders in a bad position and she is just waiting for headaches or a nasty repetitive strain of her rotator cuff (but that’s a whole other article!). To fix this? Get athletic! Now we might not all be professional sports enthusiasts out there but imagine how different athletes play their game. They are bent at the knees and hips, weight slightly on the balls of their feet, torso is flat, shoulder blades engaged (slightly back), and core and abdominals firing. Mind you we’re not going to walk around all day like we’re playing defense in basketball but this idea is not far off. When Melissa demonstrates GOOD posture (picture C) she is just slightly more upright than if she was going to take a golf swing or play tennis! Knees slightly bent, low back is flat with only a slight curve. She looks active here, muscles are firing! Balance is good! Notice her torso is almost leaning forward as opposed to leaning back in picture A. Remember, the best postural position is going to be different for everyone. The key is you have to work at it! If it seems too easy and/or it hurts when you’re there for any length of time, you’re likely not in the best position. Try to use some of the tips above and if you feel you’d like some more help, come in for one of our Complimentary Postural Screens, and we’ll see if we can straighten you out!
Belmont Clinic Belmont Centre for Physical Medicine 564 Belmont Avenue West, Suite 301 Kitchener, Ontario N2M 5N6 TEL: (519) 743-4355
Campus Clinic University of Waterloo Student Life Centre
Elmira Clinic Behind Wellness Centre (Clock Tower) 3 Wyatt Street East, Suite 2 Elmira, Ontario N3B 2H4 TEL: (519) 669-1212
200 University Avenue West Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1 TEL: (519) 884-0767
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker