by Dr. Brandon Chorney | Oct 8, 2013 | Health Articles
Doing sit-ups is an extremely effective way to strengthen you core muscles. These muscles help you to maintain a good posture and they allow you to twist and bend. Chronic back pain and disability can occur when these core muscles are weak. However, doing sit-ups alone will not give you that flat stomach and six pack abs. The abdominal muscles that you are toning will develop beneath the layer of abdominal fat and no matter how many sit-ups you do it will not reduce the amount of fat around your waist.
The only way to reduce that strip of fat around your abdominal muscles is to maintain a healthy diet and keep to a sufficient exercise regime. After you have slimmed down the six pack abs will start to show and can be maintained by doing sit-ups everyday. However, it is important to ensure that you are doing your sit-ups correctly. Incorrect form when doing sit-ups can lead to back and neck pain, it also prevents the core muscles from being fully engaged in the exercise.
Following are 5 tips to better sit-ups.
- Make sure your legs are bent at a 90° angle – This is the best angle to help reduce excess stress to the lower back while you are performing a sit-up. You should be sure to do your sit-ups on a cushioned surface such as a mat or carpet. There should still be just enough of a curve in your lower back so it does not touch the floor.
- Cross your arms over your chest – The traditional hands behind the neck posture for sit-ups sometimes causes people to pull on the neck during the upward movement, which can overstretch it and cause neck pain. Instead, cross your arms over your chest and tighten your abdominal muscles to slowly lift your head and upper body off the floor.
- Lift up only 6 to 10 inches off the floor – There is no need to sit all the way up when doing sit-ups. In fact, according to researchers at the University of Louisville, once you are above a certain angle, different muscles than the abdominals are being worked, so much of that extra effort to condition your abs is in vain.
- Go slowly, both up and down – The best workout for your abs is to go slowly, both on the way up and on the way down. This engages the abdominal muscles more fully and is more important than the number of reps you can do.
- Pace yourself – It is common to start off doing sit-ups quickly, then slow down as your abdominals tire. Start out at a slow, steady pace, and you are more likely to be able to keep it up than if you get burned out early on in your reps.
Keep At It!
If you practice your sit-ups with the correct technique and include it into your exercise regime and healthy diet, then you will see the results. Only hard work and discipline can bring you the results you want. Persevere with your diet and exercise and soon you will have your six pack abs!
by Dr. Brandon Chorney | Oct 3, 2013 | Health Articles
Whatever your reason may be for turning vegetarian, whether it be environmental, ethical or personal reasons, the question still exists: Are vegetarians really healthier than meat-eaters? A recent study of over 70,000 Seventh Day Adventists published in JAMA Internal Medicine has shown that male vegetarians in the group had a 12% lower risk of death...
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by Dr. Brandon Chorney | Oct 1, 2013 | Health Articles
Multiple studies have shown that people who are married tend to live longer than people who are single. However, is being married the only factor that determines this, or does the quality of the relationship contribute? A Happy Marriage Leads To Less Stress Another study has shown that those in a healthy, happy marriage lived...
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by Dr. Brandon Chorney | Sep 26, 2013 | Health Articles
We would all prefer to be healthy and well. Achieving this goal requires a lot of time and effort, but the rewards are definitely worth it. Regular exercise helps to lower your blood pressure, help to slow your heart rate, and helps you sleep better at night. Regular exercise generally helps people lose weight and puts a spring in their step.
Chiropractic care can help us to maximize the benefits of our exercise by allowing hidden reserves to become available for peak performance. Regular chiropractic care removes nerve interference and allows the joints of our spine to move more freely, eliminating the obstructions to full mobility and function. By helping to optimize our nerve systems and musculoskeletal systems, regular chiropractic care helps to get our bodies in shape so that we can engage in the physical activities needed to keep ourselves healthy.
When Should I Stretch?
When should I stretch, before or after I exercise? Should I even stretch at all? These questions are frequently asked by every busy adult whenever he or she is planning to begin an exercise program. The correct answer to the first question is to choose whatever way sits you and your body better. Some people need to lengthen their major muscle groups before they start an exercise. For others, they choose to stretch after they exercise, re-lengthening the major muscle groups so they’ll be ready to help you move through the rest of your day.
The answer to the second question is yes, you must stretch either before or after doing an exercise. This allows your muscles to lengthen or re-lengthen and to decrease the possibility of an injury. Stretching helps you either warm up or cool down, whichever is needed for you to get the most out of your exercise. Prevention is always the best policy when it comes to exercise-related injuries.
The Purpose of a Dynamic Warm-up
A dynamic warm-up is a fun and entertaining way of changing your stretching routine if you’re a stretch-first person. In a dynamic warm-up, you allow your important joints such as your hips, shoulders, and lower back to go through their complete ranges of motion, using your large muscle groups for support. Dynamic warm-up activities are similar to core strengthening exercises and they generally have unique names such as scorpion, hip crossover and drop lunge. You can implement a variety of dynamic warm-up activities on your different workout days, creating this ongoing interest will help you sustain your exercise routine for a longer period of time.
A dynamic cool-down can serve as a similar way of mixing up your stretching routine if you’re a stretch-after person. If you’ve been walking or running, rather than simply completing your walk or run, spend an additional few minutes walking or running, but changing your stride lengths or your pace. Walking backwards at a slow pace is another fun method for achieving a dynamic cool-down. If you’ve been lifting weights, a few sets of deep-knee lunges will stretch your lower back and hips. Moving your arms through big circles, both clockwise and counterclockwise, will help to open up your shoulder girdles and lengthen the muscles of your rotator cuffs.
Regardless of whichever method you choose, stretching is an extremely important part of your regular exercise activities. The extra few minutes spent either warming up or cooling down will help you maintain your exercise program and achieve long-term health and well-being.
by Dr. Brandon Chorney | Sep 24, 2013 | Health Articles
The best prescription for illness is to give your body the tools to avoid becoming ill in the first place. Preventing a disease or condition is much easier and less costly than treating it once it has developed. Regular chiropractic care can be a very useful component in keeping you healthy. Like health insurance, chiropractic...
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by Dr. Brandon Chorney | Sep 22, 2013 | Health Articles
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) estimates that workplace-related injuries cost businesses nearly $170 billion each year. With this kind of money at stake, it’s easy to see that maintaining your healthy workers through an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) program can have a very high return on investment! Chiropractors can play a major...
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by Dr. Brandon Chorney | Sep 19, 2013 | Health Articles
Regular vigorous physical exercise, a healthy diet, and sufficient rest are not the only factors to having a healthy body. Although Chiropractic has been around for over one hundred years, the importance of Chiropractic care has only become more mainstream in the last few decades as pro-active health care has become more popular. The full benefits are now more readily seen and shared as rising health costs have more than tripled and insurance no longer covers a disease processes that could have been prevented with healthier lifestyles and optimally functioning nervous system.
Each lifestyle choice contributes to the positive or negative effect of a person’s health. In the case of regular chiropractic care, maintaining a healthy spine and nervous system should be the strong foundation in which all other choices are built. A healthy spine helps keep your muscles and joints limber so you can maximize the benefits of your exercise. By identifying and correcting nerve interference, regular chiropractic care helps your digestive system to efficiently metabolize the nutrients that are the fuel for your cells rebuilding process . Chiropractic care even enables a better nights sleep by reducing unwanted pressure that is effecting your joints and causing pain. The better mobility and lack of inflammation allows your body to address , heal, and repair. A natural process that is to occur when you sleep. Overall, regular chiropractic care helps your body be more at ease and helps you enjoy increased health.
Screening Exams are an Important Factor
The majority of us have undergone some type of screening exam in the last several years. Depending on your age, personal history, and family history, you may have needed to go for an annual mammogram, prostate exam, or a cardiac stress test. If everything was fine, you have probably been instructed to follow-up next year, in three years, or in accordance of early detection management. If a treatment is required, it is generally more effective and easier to accomplish in the early stages of illness. Most people are generally aware of the usefulness of periodic screening exams for chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease but are not as aware of the importance of a spinal screening.
Your spinal column is designed for two primary purposes: to provide for an extensive range of motion in three directions (forward and backward, side-to-side, and rotation) and to house and protect the spinal cord which provides the lifelines from your brain to your entire body. Both of these functions are critical to ensuring continuous health and wellness. A qualified Chiropractor’s expertise is to perform a chiropractic spinal screening exam, to analyzes your spine to identify localized regions of limited mobility and to detect the presence of nerve interference.
The Spinal Cord and its Importance
Pain is your bodies best way to let you know that there is a problem in your body. The same premise holds true in regards to your spine. If your spine is not freely movable, you will likely begin to experience neck, mid back, or low back pain. As the inflammation or bodies natural protection system increase the mobility and pain increases. Our lifestyles are most often the attributable factor to our disease and pain processes. Unfortunately, most people are searching for a traumatic event to connect their aches and pains to.
Your vertebrae are incredibly important for they house and protect our spinal cord which is a direct extension of your brain. Your spinal cord connects your brain to the rest of your body through numerous pairs of spinal nerves. These spinal nerves branch out and create a complex communication network, sending signals from your brain to your body and from your body back to your brain. A mechanical problem in the spinal column can cause irritation to local spinal muscles, ligaments, and joints, which in turn can irritate spinal nerves and cause nerve interference. Nerve interference can cause disturbances in your body’s neural network, delaying nerve signals or causing information to be transmitted incorrectly or at the wrong time. Over time, symptoms develop in the affected region or regions as cells, tissues, and organs can no longer do their job effectively. Eventually, symptoms may develop into full-blown chronic diseases.
Prevention is the Best Strategyw
Spinal Compression can be a silent killer that develops over time and can effect your entire nervous system and all of your life processes. A spinal screening performed by your local chiropractor is the best way of detecting underlying problems. Chiropractic care then corrects any nerve interference, helping your body perform optimally and if maintained relish long-lasting health and well-being.
by Dr. Brandon Chorney | Sep 17, 2013 | Health Articles
According to a recent report, cardiovascular disease takes more lives worldwide than any other disorder. Diseases of the heart and blood vessels, are accountable for just over 4 million deaths in Europe every year and nearly one-third of all deaths worldwide. In the United States, coronary artery disease claims responsibility for nearly 20% of all the disease-related deaths. Each year about 1.5 million Americans suffer from a heart attack. Despite decades-long public health campaigns across the globe, heart disease still remains a powerful, formidable force.
A large part of this problem is related to three risk factors for heart disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels in the blood, and diabetes. As worldwide epidemics of obesity and diabetes continue to worsen, it is easy to see why heart disease remains the number one killer. Obesity is strongly linked to high cholesterol levels, and the combination of diabetes and obesity is very strongly linked to high blood pressure. As the epidemics continue to persist, so does the prevalence of heart disease risk elements. There are no public health issues that exist in isolation, and this is especially true for heart disease.
Your Lifestyle Affects Your Health
Heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, high serum cholesterol levels, and obesity are all examples of lifestyle disorders. This means that we can take action on our own behalf and start to do things that will positively impact our long-term health and well-being. Such lifestyle changes are vital for everyone, as people of all ages, races, and genders can be affected by these lifestyle diseases.
Lifestyle changes primarily involve changes to your diet, participating in consistent vigorous exercise, and getting sufficient rest. For example, it is well-known that many people in developed societies consume more calories than they require everyday. The excess calories are primarily stored as fat. Reducing your daily food consumption, while obeying the basic principle of eating from a wide variety of food groups, will likely result in weight loss and a allow high cholesterol levels to return to normal. Assisting in this process is engaging in regular vigorous exercise. A proven method is to exercise for 30 minutes, five times per week. This exercise can include walking, cycling, running, swimming, or strength training. The choice of exercise is less significant than the consistency of the exercise. The reward for your commitment to a healthy diet and regular exercise is extremely significant. Research has shown that prevention strategies, such as lifestyle modifications account for a 50% reduction in the mortality from heart disease.
Time and Effort are the Key to Success
But in order to gain these rewards, the large commitment of time and effort is required. In today’s society, good health doesn’t just happen. We have to work at it. It’s our decision on whether we’re worth it, whether we want to continue to enjoy a full range of relationships and activities, whether we want to be healthy and well for many years to come. If the answer to these questions is affirmative, lifestyle changes become very important.
by Dr. Brandon Chorney | Sep 12, 2013 | Health Articles
Chronic injuries require rehabilitation programs that cater for the specific needs of the injury and a long-term approach. Patience is required for these rehabilitation programs and it is essential to remember that the problem has developed over a period of years and will not be fixed in a matter of weeks or months. Progress should...
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by Dr. Brandon Chorney | Sep 10, 2013 | Health Articles
"Dowager's Hump" can affect any person who spends a lot of their time hunched over or has a severe case of osteoporosis. The professional term for Dowager’s Hump is hyperkyphosis, which is an increase in the forward curvature of the lower cervical and upper thoracic spine. It is a condition that can either be relatively...
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We would all prefer to be healthy and well. Achieving this goal requires a lot of time and effort, but the rewards are definitely worth it. Regular exercise helps to lower your blood pressure, help to slow your heart rate, and helps you sleep better at night. Regular exercise generally helps people lose weight and puts a spring in their step.
Regular vigorous physical exercise, a healthy diet, and sufficient rest are not the only factors to having a healthy body. Although Chiropractic has been around for over one hundred years, the importance of Chiropractic care has only become more mainstream in the last few decades as pro-active health care has become more popular. The full benefits are now more readily seen and shared as rising health costs have more than tripled and insurance no longer covers a disease processes that could have been prevented with healthier lifestyles and optimally functioning nervous system.
