Chiropractic Questions

Neck and shoulder issues

May 10, 2022 Brant Hulsebus DC LCP CCWP FICA Season 4 Episode 17
Chiropractic Questions
Neck and shoulder issues
Show Notes Transcript

Ask the chiropractor- do you have neck or shoulder issues?  Have you wondered if chiropractic could help?  Dr Hulsebus is a chiropractor and he explains how chiropractic could play a role in helping.  #healthy815

www.rockforddc.com

- Hello, and welcome to another edition of "Ask the Chiropractor." On today's episode of"Ask the Chiropractor," we get asked questions all the time from our patients. People email us, they send us messages about a question they have that they would like a licensed trained chiropractor to answer for them about chiropractic care. So the point of this whole episode is for you to ask the questions directly to a chiropractor. I'm Dr. Brant Hulsebus, I'm a doctor of chiropractic. I graduated the Palmer College of Chiropractic, my school where my dad, grandpa, my uncles, everybody went. I'm also the team chiropractor for the AHL Rockford Ice Hogs. That's an affiliate of the Chicago Black Hawks. And I have been in practice for just, just under 20 years already. Literally 19 months, or excuse me, 19 years and 11 months. So we're just coming up on 20 years here, really fast. And one of my pet peeves I have is when people have a question about chiropractic, and they don't ask a chiropractor. They ask their family physician, or somebody else who really has no training in chiropractic. So the point of this episode, the point of this whole show is to come on here and answer your questions from a licensed chiropractor. And today, I get asked a lot of questions about this neck and shoulder tightness. People complain about tightness going from their shoulder rating up to the on the side of their neck, up to the back of their head. A lot of times this is described as a pulling or a tightness. It can also be described as maybe like a knuckle from the inside, trying to dig its way out, or just an overall dull, achy pain in there, and maybe it hurts to turn your head one way or the other. And often this can also go into your hands and cause problems going into your fingertips. So this is a thing that we see here quite a bit. And what does this come from? What, what causes this? Well, what causes this is what we call the forward head posture. I'm sure a lot of you have seen pictures all over the internet with the head going forward, forward forward. There's different studies out there that report different things. Basically what they say is, every inch forward your head sticks out, you add 10 pounds of pressure to that area. And so the head gets heavier and heavier and heavier over time. Now, why is a head stick out like that? Why do we go in that forward posture? Well it has a lot to do with today's lifestyle, especially this whole COVID thing, and working from home has made it even worse. Because as soon as we sit down, and we, we use the computer, or watch TV, or drive a car, we sit down, our shoulders roll forward, and our head comes out and we create this forward head posture. Now, what happens is, as we get up and we walk around and we leave that, we tend to memorize that posture, with our head shoulders forward, and our head forward, our shoulders roll forward, head forward. And we walk around like that. So walking around like that, isn't great for you. It does increase the pressure, like I talked about the 10 pounds every inch forward, but what's even more promise, or problematic with this, is the fact that we are now in a vulnerable, vulnerable position. We have learned to change our posture, put ourselves in a vulnerable position. Now we go to grab something, bend over, to do something, and we have this quick sharp shooting pain going down our neck and shoulders. So, a lot of times some someone will say they just went to pick up a bag and now they have this problem. It's not so much that you just picked the bag and now you have this problem. It's the fact that you had this posture wrong first, and then you pick the bag up. So it's a combination of things. And when you think about the head going forward, and I want you to think about it as the average head weighs the same as a bowling ball, right? And if you were to hold a bowling ball, nice and square, with your arm tucked back underneath you, kind of like the way a waiter, or a server, would carry a tray out to your table. Then you have a nice round curve going on. Where if you would hold a bowling ball in your palm, straight out in front of you, you're not gonna be able to hold that, nearly as long, because that extra weight just comes crashing down. That's what happens in our neck. It comes crashing down on a bottom vertebrates. Those are the ones that innervate your hands and your fingertips. So this forward head posture puts a lot of stress and pull on that area. And a matter of fact, we often talk about how it change the entire biomechanics of that area. Meaning that you start to use your muscles different. You start to add even more stress now. So we start off with this bad posture, all this weight crashing down that we memorized, and this overloads it and puts so much stress on it, makes it work twice as hard. But then we also start to roll our shoulders forward. Not only are we putting too much stress in this area, but now we start using the muscles differently. And we start increasing the stretch, the stress, by using the muscles differently. And this all is a really, really bad formula. So, when we roll our shoulders forward, now the muscles don't work the way they're supposed to. And I tell this to my athletes a lot, when your shoulders are rolled forward, your range of motions gone on your shoulders. You're not nearly as strong, you can't reach as far, or grab as far when you're rolled forward. So what you have to do is, you have to work on pulling them back all the time. When you pull them back all the time, then you increase your range of motion. I would even challenge you right now, if you're not driving, just stand up, squeeze your shoulder you know, first stand with your normal posture, put your arm above your head, and then bring it down, and then pull your shoulders back, and then bring your arm above your head, and feel how much higher you can go, and how much looser that feels, and how much stronger that feels like that. So whenever you're like in a gym working out, cause exercise is good when it's done right, you always wanna visualize every time you pull in, that you're squeezing your shoulder blades together as you go, sticking your chest out really big. That way you're not overloading those muscles wrong. I often, you know, talk about this with a table. I put my fist straight out, and I barely touch a table. Then I pull my shoulder blades together back behind me and bring my chin in, Then I reach out again. I usually gain about two to three inches of my reach, to show you how much better or different works, you know. For golfers, if you were to stand up, squeeze your shoulder blades together, count to 10. Well actually lemme start over. Stand up nice and tall, retract your chin. Not looking down, just retract your chin straight back, squeeze your shoulder blades together, and then try to side them into your back pockets, like your shoulder blades straight down, and you count to 10. Then you go to grab the golf club. And what happens is, now that your shoulders are back when they're supposed to be, the tensions gone, you actually will swing the golf club with a bigger range of motion and faster and more speed and more powerful, and it should help your golf drive tremendously. So I always have my golfers stand up, squeeze those shoulder blades together, back and pull down. So what have we learned? We learned that this ache and pain comes from constant hunching over, rolling our shoulders forward and our head out. We know the head weighs the same as a bowling ball, so you take all that weight and pull on that, and then you keep it there. Now, not only that, but now you've made these muscles working over time, holding the head out here, where it's easier to hold the head back. So you stick your head out forward, you increase the workload. You make them work overtime to do nothing. Then you roll your shoulders forward. Now you're using your muscles wrong. We learn that because your range of motion will change. So we end up with as a bad posture, overloading the joints using the muscles wrong, and it all adds up to inflammation, aches, and pains. So what does your chiropractor do to help you with this? Well, the first thing we do is we go in there and we start doing chiropractic adjustments. We free those joints up and make them move again. Get rid of the fixation that causes all these problems. What's the other thing that we do? We, a lot of times, we'll find muscle errors, any that are tight, We'll tell you how to work those muscles. We give you exercises. One of my favorites is just taking a tennis ball, put it against the wall, lean back against that tennis ball, and roll around on there and try to work out some of those knots. I mean, obviously a good massage every day is gonna be better, but the odds of somebody having a good massage every day, are slim to nil. So the tennis ball get us through until we can get there. The best time to use that, by the way, is right after a shower. There's no bad time, but there's a best time. So the best time is after a shower. Again, there's no bad time, but there's a better time. So use it right after a shower really work those areas really good. I also like to stand up, nice and straight up against the wall, have everything touch the wall, my heels, my hips, my head my shoulder blades and my hands. And then 25 great big snow angels with my arms every day. I try to train that to stop leaning forward, and start pulling back more. If you can do this on the floor as well, as long as you know how to get up off the floor. And then, you know, for me, you know, a lot of people notice I've had multiple surgeries on this arm. It's really hard for me to get that arm back at first,'cause of all my previous injuries. So what you do is you just sit there, and you take deep breaths. And when you exhale, you can get more. That's something that yoga taught us, that the more we go back, the more we can do it. So how do we fix this? We get adjustments. We get our chiropractic adjustments. Then the chiropractor will work with you on some soft tissue stuff. The chiropractor will also teach you some exercises and stretches to avoid this. Because in all realistic, we're never gonna get rid of chairs, we're never get rid of sitting. So we have to change us,'cause we can't change the sitting part. So change your, the chiropractic will teach you exercises and stretches. So, go to the chiropractor and get your x-rays taken. You'll see it and what, what your posture's doing by the x-rays. Get your chiropractic adjustments, chiropractor will teach you exercises and stretches, and take it from there. If you have any questions about this, or if you would like to learn more about this, leave us a message below. If you have a different question for the "Ask the Chiropractor," go ahead and leave a message below as well. We'll get back to you as soon as we can, to answer your questions the best we can. Other than that, it's good to talk to you, and we'll talk to you real soon.