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Sometimes it feels as though we’re living through a movie, not reality. For many of us, our daily routines have been trimmed down from trips to the office, shopping, hiking, time with friends, gym, going out for drinks, and date nights, to getting up from the bed and moving to the sofa… only to move back to bed when the sun sets. We’ve been flung out of our ‘normal’ into an unknown, sedentary world. And, of course, it’s not just your gin and tonic craving that’s not getting fulfilled – it’s your PT program, too. In the course of a few weeks, many of you reading this may have effectively stopped your physical activities and given up on doing your regular physical therapy routine. So, it’s time we wrote you a blog.
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The good old days… , strolling down your driveway to wave at a neighbor and perhaps share in some gossip, meeting your friends at the local sushi restaurant for a bite to eat… we miss that, don’t we? Self-isolation and quarantine can be really tough on our minds, hearts, and bodies. We tend to see things differently and we may even start to become down-hearted, feel less energetic, and, in general, we may start forgetting what it means to stay healthy in mind, body, and soul. In fact, some of you reading this might be avoiding the scales like a plague because tucking into a bag of chips has now replaced your regular walk! Don’t worry – this is much more common than you think. So, we’re writing to share some thoughts on how to stay healthy and active during these unprecedented times, not only for your mental wellbeing, but for your muscles, heart, immune system, and general physical health, too.
Peter Chirico:
Hi, I'm Peter Chirico with Chirico Physical Therapy and Wellness, and today we're going to do a free online workshop in how to avoid coming down with a low back pain or sciatica problem. While it's nice to be home, there are a lot of changes in our behavior from what we normally do. So some of the things that change are, we are spending a lot more time in front of the television and or the computer and what that means is we're sitting a lot more of the time. Sitting is probably the number one cause for developing a case of low back pain or sciatica so it's important to understand what we can do to avoid that because we don't want it to come to that. There's three simple things that most people are able to do and they're very easy and we're going to go over them. And the first thing is how long you're sitting for. If you're sitting for more than 30 minutes, it's time to get up and just stretch for a minute, move around, just take 30 seconds or a minute and get up and move around then sit back down. And try to remember to do that, especially if you're sitting for hours and hours and hours. The second thing you can do that's also very important is to remember not to slouch. While, when we're tired, sometimes we'll slouch and we'll ... shoulders will go down, our back will bow out. The problem that creates is it puts the back in an awfully dangerous position. We're pushing the spine in the wrong direction, an unnatural direction and it will, if it's done often enough and long enough, it will definitely cause problems so you want to avoid that. The other thing, the third thing that's ... all it is a very simple, third thing to do, it's very simple, is simply use a pillow or a folded towel, anything you can think of that will feel comfortable in your back when you're sitting. Make sure there's a back to the chair or to the couch where you can put something there and you want it to be soft, you want it to be just enough to fill the void of your back. Everybody has a different amount of curvature to the back, so it'll fit differently for each person but you always want it to be comfortable for you. It's not supposed to be pushing into your back, it's just supporting your back. So those are it, and those three things will go a long way to helping avoid back pain or sciatica. If you are currently ... They're not intended though as a cure or as a means of treatment if you already have back pain. So if you're already struggling with low back pain or sciatica, these are not going to be enough to help you, they're not intended as treatment. So if you are struggling with low back pain, we offer a free 20 to 30 minute tele-health phone or in person consultation or assessment so that you can ask questions and we can help tell you if we can help you or not and if we've seen your condition before and what we think is going on. So if you're ... want to reach out to us if you want our help, you can reach us by phone or text at area code (909) 345-3370 or you can email us at pcptnwellness@gmail.com or you can contact us through our website at, chiricopt.com. And I want to thank you for your time and God bless you. Bye, bye. |
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