It’s BackCare Awareness Week this week – which focuses on school children and teachers – Rob voices his concern about children’s posture.

Heavy school bags are often blamed for causing back pain, but Rob also highlights the danger of a ‘new media’ filled lifestyle putting unnecessary stresses on our children’s backs and necks.  He says; “Not only are children bent over their desks for a large part of the day, but in their spare time they are hunched over items such as smart phones, games consoles and iPads.  These activities intensify the daily stress already put on our children’s backs. Moving is key, taking a regular break from a bent over posture to sit up or stand up will ease the pressures put through the spine.  Even better would be to get up and walk around.”

Children and students often get stuck into their work, and can be hunched over a desk for many hours.  Likewise, outside of studying it is easy to sit on the phone (talking, texting and emailing), gaming or watching TV, with little concept of time.  All these activities promote poor posture, for example; leaning your head towards a phone handset or bending over a hand held device.   Rob continues, “Our backs and necks are designed to flex in various directions, but being held for a length of time in any one position (especially when bent or twisted) is potentially damaging. Excess pressure is put through the spinal joints and extra stress placed on the muscles.  Over time, the accumulation of this stress and pressure can result in an injury.”

Rob urges children and students to think about their posture and take regular breaks from these various activities to sit up, stand up and generally straighten up (every 20-30 minutes).   If nothing else, simply sitting up in the chair and rolling their shoulders a number of times and gently stretching the neck before bending over again will help. Parents of smaller children should be aware of these issues and try to limit the time little ones spend slouching or sitting awkwardly.

Tennis elbow is caused by inflammation of the tendons at the elbow.  It can be a very painful and debilitating injury.

To help avoid getting it for the first time or it returning this summer if you’ve suffered in the past, start your tennis playing gently, play a few games and progress to a 3 set match.  Stretch your forearm daily, and before /after playing (by holding your arm straight and bending your wrist downwards).  Also, it is worth looking at your technique to check the way you hold your racket and the grip size.  When a racket is held incorrectly the racket speed and force is likely to be generated by the elbow and forearm, rather than the shoulder as it should be.  This puts additional stretch and stress on the muscles and tendons, especially from the impact of the ball.    Likewise if the grip size is too big or small, you will end up gripping harder than necessary and again stressing the muscles and tendons.

If you feel tightness or a niggle of any sort in the forearm, rest for a few days rather than risking the injury taking hold.  If it does persist, look to get treatment as soon as possible to nip it in the bud, both Chiropractic and Physiotherapy (including the use of acupuncture) will help.

It is should be pointed out, that tennis elbow is not only caused by tennis, but by general over use or stress on the forearm through gripping and lifting (eg heaving bags, baby car seats etc, even repetitive mouse clicking).

To be suffering from low back pain, you are likely to have some form of joint or tissue damage/ wear and tear in your low back.  It is quite something to consider that during a golf swing the compressive forces found in the low back are 8 times that of your body weight. Therefore a 12 ½ stone golfer is putting 100 stone of compressive force through their low back with every swing. This means, if there is soft tissue damage, recovery is likely to be hindered at the very least.  With this kind of force going though your back for 18 holes, you can see how over time, this has to have an affect on your swing.  Playing with an injury will often result in you tensing up and therefore inhibiting your full swing.  You will find that you lose power, accuracy and consistency, and your handicap is unfortunately only going to go one way.

If you do decide to continue playing golf through any form of pain and injury, you should be aware of the more long-term issues. The body is designed to protect an injury and will place more stress on another area of the body to compensate.  For example if you have pain in your low back, you will put more strain through the upper half of you body trying to complete a swing, despite protecting the low back, this can potentially result in damage to the currently healthy ribs and shoulders.  If you suffer from stiff hips which don’t turn properly, the body will apply more rotation through the low back.  This means that while the hips are protected, but the low back is taking a lot more stress and is likely to become injured too.  A vicious circle occurs.

In short, by not looking after one area properly means another area will may well become affected.  So if you have a stiffness or injury in any area of your body, which is affecting your natural golf swing, I’d advise getting it looked and treated, before inadvertadly damaging another area.

As part of an exciting expansion, experienced Physiotherapist, Sarah Carpenter, joins The Regency Chiropractic Clinic this month.  She will be helping patients with all forms of musculoskeletal injury.  As well as looking after her own patients, she will be working alongside the chiropractors to offer a combined treatment when necessary.  This is a very unusual approach to patient management, as Chiropractors and Physiotherapists generally work independently.

Sarah says, “The Clinic is offering something quite different by incorporating physiotherapy into a chiropractic treatment plan.  It is an exciting opportunity for me to join the team of specialists, at this forward thinking clinic.”

Chiropractors and Physiotherapists use very different techniques to achieve the same goals; getting a patient out of pain and back to their physical fitness as soon as possible, as well as to keep them that way.

There is a strong working relationship between professionals in the clinic ensuring that patients receive optimal care though-out their treatment.  Inter-referral between professionals is possible when appropriate, offering a very important continuity of care.  A patient, who has benefited from Chiropractic treatment, may then see Sarah for rehabilitation sessions, likewise a patient who has seen Sarah for an ankle trauma, may then see a Chiropractor for a back problem caused as a result of their limping.

Rob Grace comments, “I’m thrilled that Sarah is joining us at The Regency Chiropractic Clinic.  She brings with her experience and expertise, which is invaluable to our multidisciplinary clinic.”  He adds, “We pride ourselves in a structured and comprehensive approach to patient management and now by incorporating Physiotherapy within the clinic, we offer our patients a complete care package.”