As the weather warms up and we start to increase our outdoor activities such as gardening and spring cleaning we want to be mindful of our body movements so we can reduce the likelihood of injury.  We have usually heard plenty about bend and lift from your knees and not your back but less so about the importance of minimizing how we twist our backs.  Simply bending forward with only our body weight creates around 700 pounds of compressive force on the low back.  If we are bent forward and twist that force will be shifted more to one side of the spine instead of being evenly distributed, this increases the potential for injury.  One of the most common joints we see injured in these cases is the facet joints in the low back (lumbosacral region) followed by sacroiliac joints (where the bones of the pelvis meet).  Additionally, excessive repetitive twisting like this can start to injure the discs in the area potentially leading to a more severe injury with a longer recovery time.

At Vallejo Chiropractic and American Canyon Chiropractic, we remain open at this time.

This update pertains to our safety and sanitation procedures for those visiting us during the Covid-19 outbreak.

First, we have taken steps minimize patient and staff's potential exposure,  And we will continue to do so as directed by the board of chiropractic.

Sleep apnea is a breathing-related sleep disorder that causes brief interruptions of breathing during sleep. These interruptions can last 10 seconds or more and can occur up to 400 times per night. Sleep apnea is a serious and potentially life threatening condition that often goes unrecognized and undiagnosed. Sleep apnea occurs in both sexes and across all age groups. Not all sleep apnea is the same, a diagnosis of sleep apnea can range from mild to severe. 

Sleep apnea is serious because shots of adrenaline are going into the heart 20-400 times per night to re-start your breathing. Sleep is when your body is supposed to rest, and this increased stress causes an overload for the heart, possibly leading to a heart attack or stroke. 

Some of the symptoms of sleep apnea are obvious (snoring, etc.) while some symptoms such as loss of sex drive and irritability may be less of a signal that something is interfering with sleep. Here is a list of some of the symptoms of sleep apnea:

• loud snoring
• morning headaches/nausea
• gasping/choking while asleep
• loss of sex drive/impotence
• excessive daytime sleepiness
• irritability/depression
• disturbed sleep
•  concentration difficulty/memory loss
• excessive urination at night
• restless leg syndrome

The “perfect” deadlift does not exist, if it did the person executing it would lift a weight so heavy that setting it back down would punch a hole in the earth and cause a major earthquake. This is no different than the perfect swim stroke not existing. Michael Phelps does a pretty damn good job of executing a swim stroke, but it was still never perfect. It doesn’t mean that he never stopped chasing it or never stopped getting coached on how to do it better.

That being said…the deadlift is so amazing for the posterior chain of muscles and for strengthening the back and preventing low back pain when it is DONE PROPERLY. When it is done improperly, people make their way into my office to fix them because of their poor deadlift technique. My goal with righting this article is to give you the latest information on how to do a proper deadlift, as close to perfect as possible, to reduce injury and enhance your performance.

For a while I was down on the deadlift. I may have even told you face to face that I was because it caused so many patients to make appointments to come see me. Luckily for me I have some amazing colleagues that put me on to some great information that allowed me to expand my knowledge that I can share with all of you.