Good morning to the blog reading faithful. Today came entirely
too quickly; I need a weekend to recover from my weekend. I hope
everyone is enjoying weekends now, because soon enough the
trimester is going to be ramping up and so will the studying. I
will give everyone some hope, once you hit clinic the weekend
workload drops substantially and I took full advantage this
weekend.
The SPAM Allstars
Saturday, my pals and I were charged with the task of
entertaining some friends from Miami and showing them a good time.
Far be it from me to not show someone a good time! We started off
the day with some brunch at a friend of mine's restaurant with some
breaded steak and fried eggs sandwiches(a Tampa special). Once we
had our fill, we took off to Cigar City Brewery, a local Tampa
brewery, for a tour and some drinks. If you have the time, you're
in Tampa, and you like beer, definitely check it out. The rest of
the day was killed at a bar watching the Champion's League final,
and the Rays. The day went by surprisingly fast, and before I knew
it we were in Ybor City for dinner and a show. The SPAM Allstars, a
Cuban reggae band from Miami, were playing at a dive bar in Ybor,
so our Miami pals felt right at home. All in all, our pals had a
good time, and so did I.
Breathing and Low Back Discomfort
I've been seeing an increase in low back cases as of late in the
clinic, so today I'd like to share my personal answer to the low
back riddle. As Dr. Rudy Heiser (our clinician) would say, "The
only things you can cure are ham and tobacco," so this is not a
cure all, but more of a protective and preventive measure.
My secret to low back discomfort is breathing. Yes, everyone
breathes, but do you breathe correctly? Abdominal breathing using
your abdominal diaphragm, your pelvic floor diaphragm, and your
transverse abdominis muscle, creates a negative pressure within the
abdomen that pushes back on the lumbar spine offering support. I
know this sounds easy, but training yourself to abdominally breathe
on the regular can be a challenge for most.
I train my patients to breath from their stomach by having them
place one of their hands over their chest, and the other over their
belly. Once their hands are in place, I instruct the patient that
as they inhale, their bottom hand (on their belly) should protrude,
and as they exhale, their bottom hand should retract, all the while
keeping their top hand (over the chest) from moving. There is a lot
going on during this breathing exercise, so it may take some time
for your patient to get the hang of it, but when they do, I throw
in some abdominal bracing techniques and they're golden. If anyone
has any more questions regarding low back health and protective
measures to take, shoot me an email. (See
this handout for easy instructions for low back pain
prevention.)
I hope everyone has a killer week. The weather has been
beautiful down here in Florida (hope the same is true up in
Lombard) which makes it that much harder to get schoolwork done.
Keeping current with all the material coming your way is the key to
not becoming overwhelmed, which can happen easier than you
think.
Catch ya'll on the flip side,
Dex