STUFF TO DO AT HOME
Maintaining spinal health has always been a wildly essential part of maintaining our overall health. Now, more than ever, is an exceptional time to stay committed to tending to our bodies. However, we are experiencing a unique moment in history where all our normal day to day flows have been disrupted. Collectively, we have been forced into a position where our sanity depends on establishing new ways to weave in our usual routines in this new normal. If you’re a regular patient at In8love Wellness, you know how important it is to keep up with regular adjustments - but if you have chosen not to come into the office during this time - it’s essential that you maintain your spinal health progress by doing at home exercises. Taking care of your spine from the comfort of your home will ensure that all of the work you’ve done to improve your spinal health will stay intact. Making it easier to pick up right where you left off after all of this blows over.
Here are some of the ways In8Love is encouraging you to stay on track:
Traction Pillow
Using your traction pillow daily will maintain and reinforce the backwards C-shape that is essential for optimal neck functionality. This is especially important now more than ever since we are home, working or scrolling on our phones probably more than usual - which causes tons of strain on the neck bones. Avoid subluxation, tension, and headaches by using your traction pillow daily. Keeping up on neck health also decreases your risk of ear infection, improves eye sight, and subdues allergies - which are now officially in season!
Lumbar Wedge
The lumbar wedge is going to act as a curve remover, and will bring immense support to your upper back. Again, very important for being cooped up at home and probably getting less movement than usual. It will also fortify your spinal health by preventing the re-establishment of curves in your spine, and will help to get your spine nice and straight and aligned.
Prolordotics
A super progressive resistance neck exerciser which tractions the lordosis into the cervical spine. Basically a strength training exerciser that will train the muscles in your neck to support and re-establish the backwards C-shape in your neck. It’s a maximum efficiency exercise because it targets many different muscle groups in the neck when you utilize a variance of movements. This is a great warm up to do before using your traction pillow to get your muscles warmed up and ready to receive the shape of your posture pillow.
Wobble Disc
One of my personal favorites! It’s just plain fun to move your hips around, almost like a seated dance. But you can think of the wobble disc as the great spinal disc equalizer. It creates equal space between the vertebrae in your low back. Your discs should be, as Dr. T says, “fat and juicy” and they receive hydration through movement. Hydration of your discs also creates a fullness in them, allows for discs to sit tall, and stacked which creates space for proper alignment and range of motion.
Posture Noodle
So simple, yet so effective. Strap it on and forget about it for 3 minutes. Repeat as needed! The posture noodle pulls your shoulders back to keep you from slouching - it’s a gentle love note and reminder to your neck and shoulders to pull back and realign to keep from slouching. While it may feel like you want to keep this on forever, the 3 minute rule is important because if left on for a prolonged amount of time, your posture noodle will act as a brace. The reason we don’t want that is because your muscles become dependent on the prop, rather than activated to build muscle memory and self support.
Practicing these exercises will be so effective for your health in a multitude of ways. We know that spinal maintenance improves immunity - which is CRITICAL right now! It will also help to just simply bring you back into your body, which is always extremely critical right now as the times we’re experiencing at the moment can take us for a ride in our mind. Which, really isn’t effective in the long run. Your health is your best investment, and maintaining all the progress you’ve made, the time you’ve committed to your spine, will only serve you in the long run. So what are you waiting for? Go get your spinal health on!
