It’s the dawn of a new year and that means that it’s time for one of the most common New Year’s resolutions: getting in shape and improving your fitness levels. Gym memberships spike at this time of year, but unfortunately, most people abandon their fitness goals before January is even over. This is because people often set very ambitious fitness goals, which, while admirable, can have the adverse effect of making you discouraged rather than motivated when you don’t immediately see the results you want. 

There are several ways chiropractors help with your fitness goals, so you can both stay motivated and healthy. Here are some of the ways chiropractors help with your fitness goals, ranging from our top fitness tips to how chiropractic treatments will keep you in good condition so you give yourself the help you need in order to reach your fitness goals. 

Set Yourself Up For Success With Chiropractic Fitness Tips

So, you’re fresh into the new year and ready to tackle those fitness goals. Let chiropractors help with your fitness goals with some tips to help you achieve them.

Be Mindful Of Your Fitness Levels

A common mistake people make when they resolve to get in shape is to forget that it takes time in order to up your fitness levels, especially if they used to be very active, but aren’t anymore. When you try to do something you used to be able to, but can’t, it can be very discouraging. Keeping your current fitness levels in mind and being aware that it takes months in order to go from being inactive to an athletic lifestyle will help you set realistic goals. 

Rather than “I want to lose 20 pounds in a month”, which may be possible, depending on your body fat percentage and how overweight you are, but generally is very unrealistic, as most people can only lose 1-2 pounds in a week, try goals like “I want to be able to run a mile without stopping by the end of the month”.

Though you may roll your eyes at small goals like “a plank a day”, those small goals are easy to incorporate into your routine and are easy to build on as your fitness levels progress. This makes sticking with your fitness goals so much easier and will help you see the results that you want in the long run. 

Warm-Up Properly

If there’s one way chiropractors help with your fitness goals more than anything else, it’s emphasizing the importance of warming up before doing any exercises and providing you with the stretches and exercises in order to do so. If you don’t warm up, you’re exercising with stiff and cold muscles, which greatly increases your risk of injury. If you’re not sure what warm-ups you should be doing before you hit the weights, let chiropractors help with your fitness goals by advising you and showing you how to do the best warm-ups for you and your body. 

Ensure You’re Doing Exercises Correctly

It’s easy to just see exercise videos online and think there’s nothing more to doing said exercises than following along. However, many people do exercises incorrectly and don’t even realize it unless they get a set of professional, trained eyes on them. Doing exercises incorrectly will increase the likelihood of injury, since you could be doing something in a way to hurt rather than help your body. 

Hydration Is Key

Yeah, yeah, everyone says drink more water, we get it. It’s such a common statement because it’s true, though. Our bodies are comprised of 70% water, which makes staying hydrated an absolute must, especially if you’re exercising and sweating, which expends moisture from your body as it tries to cool itself down. 

Cool It Down

Warming-up is important, but cooling down is just as much. If you’re unsure of how to cool your muscles down in order to prevent soreness and cramping and injury, a chiropractor can help. Chiropractors help with your fitness goals by making it so that you have all the tools you need in order to exercise safely. 

See A Chiropractor Regularly

There’s a reason why so many athletes see chiropractors, and that’s because regular chiropractic care keeps your body in good condition, can treat any injuries like sprains or back pain or the like, and will ensure that you have the knowledge about stretching and exercises and how your body works that you need in order to set yourself up for success. 

How Chiropractors Help With Your Fitness Goals

Chiropractors help with your fitness goals through more than just professional advice, though. With regular chiropractic treatments, you can prime your body to better achieve your fitness goals. This is because regular chiropractic care comes with the following benefits:

• Pain Reduction
• Improved Range Of Motion
• Improved Bodily Functions
• Improved Nerve Communication
• Reduced Risk Of Injury

Exercise Rehabilitation

So, the worst has come to worst, and you got hurt while exercising. Luckily, chiropractors help with your fitness goals through the use of exercise rehabilitation to get you back to life as normal as soon as possible. With chiropractic treatments, exercise rehab technology, and personalized care, we’ll help you rehabilitate from injuries you sustain in a way that gets to the very root of the problem. 

Let Our Chiropractors Help With Your Fitness Goals

Health And Wellness Clinic values the health and wellness of each and every one of our clients. Our chiropractors help with your fitness goals with expert advice, chiropractic adjustments, and exercise rehabilitation. To learn more or to set up an appointment, please contact us today!

The holidays are an exciting time of the year, with travelling to visit friends and family, parties and events, and general spiked enthusiasm and cheer. Unfortunately, the holidays are also when car accidents increase. Nothing ruins the holiday spirit like being a victim of a car accident. But why is this time of year so much worse than the rest of the year for car accidents?

Reasons Car Accidents Increase During The Holidays

In order to do your best to avoid car accidents, it’s important to understand the factors behind why they increase during the holiday. Here are some of the main reasons why you see car crashes spike this time of year.

Increased Traffic

More cars on the road means a higher likelihood for accidents. During the holidays, many people are taking work off to travel, and there’s a general increase in activities. More people are going shopping in order to get presents, running errands, eating out, going to events and parties, and visiting their friends and family. This buzz of activity results in an increase in traffic volume – and potential for crashes.

Bad Weather

If you live somewhere or visit somewhere where it snows, this is another contributing factor to increased automobile accidents. Snow storms lower visibility, and snow and ice can make the roads slick, causing cars to slip and slide.

Buzzed Or Drunk Driving

Holidays come with parties and many parties come with alcohol. Unfortunately, in spite of all the warnings about how you shouldn’t drive after drinking, many people still do. Alcohol impairs your judgement, vision, and ability to drive, which makes driving while buzzed or drunk extremely dangerous. Since there are more parties during the holidays, there are also more buzzed or drunk drivers, which makes the roads much more hazardous.

Holiday Stress

Traffic gets on the nerves of the best of us, and with increased traffic volume during the holidays, traffic only ever gets worse. This combined with how the holidays themselves can already be stressful due to everything you have to get done can lead to extremely stressed out drivers who ignore traffic rules or who drive distracted and ergo, recklessly. 

Neglected Car Maintenance

For many people, the holidays bring on financial stress, since you have gifts to purchase in addition to all your normal bills. This can lead to people neglecting their car maintenance in order to prioritise other things financially. However, keeping your car in good condition is essential to driving safely and avoiding accidents from an issue maintenance could have prevented.

Common Injuries From Car Accidents Chiropractors Can Help With

If you’ve been in a car accident, it’s vital to seek medical attention right away and call 911 if necessary. There are some injuries resulting from car crashes that chiropractors can help with. Many doctors will recommend chiropractic treatment in addition to medical care if you’ve experience any of the following injuries: 

Whiplash

Whiplash is when your spine and head snap back and forth rapidly, like if you go from driving to an abrupt stop in a crash. Chiropractors can help with whiplash in a number of ways, depending on how it has affected you. Your treatment options may include: spinal manipulation, muscle stimulation, specialized exercises and stretches, and suggestions for lifestyle changes to reduce muscle strain.

Pain In Your Back, Neck, And Shoulders

These are some of the most common kinds of pain resulting from a car accident. Chiropractors specialize in the spine and joints, so they can give you expert, personalized care in order to determine the specific cause of your pain and develop a treatment method tailored to you. 

Inflammation

Spinal manipulations and muscle relaxation techniques can stimulate your body’s natural healing process, including the release of IL-6, which is a natural substance in your body that works to reduce inflammation. 

Reduced Range Of Motion

Chances are, you’ll probably be feeling stiff after a car crash, and it’s harder to move. Stimulation therapy can improve your blood flow which can assist your muscles in their healing journey, restoring your range of motion.

Dizziness/Blurred Vision

If your spine gets misaligned after an accident, you may end up feeling dizzy or with blurry vision. While seeing an eye doctor should be your first step, chiropractors can help with blurred vision and dizziness if they result from obstructed pathways in your central nervous system, which is located in your spine and affects your optic nerves. Spinal manipulations can realign your spine and potentially resolve dizziness or blurred vision, if this is what was causing them.

Chiropractic Treatments After A Car Accident

Injuries from car accidents shouldn’t be ignored. Left untreated, many have the potential to worsen into more serious issues. If you’ve been in a car accident recently, you may consider going to a chiropractor to help treat your injuries. 

Have You Been In A Car Accident?

Health And Wellness Clinic specializes in auto injuries. We know how even though the holidays should be merry and bright, they also come with a lot more car crashes than is normal. We can help you with chiropractic treatments to get you feeling healthy again. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please contact our office today!

Are you experiencing spells of dizziness and nausea? You might be suffering from vertigo. Although this condition is not necessarily dangerous, it can seriously impact your quality of life. It’s hard to go about your day and do everything you need to when it feels like the world is spinning and like you may be sick. Fortunately, chiropractors can help relieve your vertigo in a variety of very effective ways. 

What Is Vertigo?

Vertigo is a sensation of feeling off kilter and like either you are spinning or like the world is spinning, even though you are not. 

What Causes Vertigo?

Many things can cause vertigo. In most cases, inner ear problems are the culprit. Vertigo can stem from migraines, Meniere’s disease, labyrinthitis (an issue usually related to infection), head or neck injury, brain problems, car accidents, and more. The most common cause of vertigo is a condition called benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). 

BPPV happens when the miniscule calcium carbonate crystals from your inner ear organ end up in the canals of your inner ear. This can affect how your inner ear communicates with your brain, ergo, impacting your balance and creating a spinning sensation. 

Symptoms

Vertigo is most commonly associated with a spinning sensation. Its most common symptoms are feeling like you are spinning, tilting, swaying, unbalanced, and generally unsteady. These are not its sole symptoms, though. Other effects of vertigo include: nausea, vomiting, jerking eye movement, headaches, ringing in your ears, and sweating. You may experience any of this symptoms for anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. 

Treatment Options

Vertigo usually goes away by itself within a few weeks. This is because typically, your brain will be able to adapt to how your inner ear changed and switch maintenance of balance to other areas. Sometimes, though, it can last for months or even years. Luckily, it’s a treatable condition, so you don’t need to worry about just waiting for it to fade on its own. 

What treatment looks like for you depends on the cause of your vertigo. They can range from physical therapy, to head and body movements designed to restore balance, like what a chiropractor can perform, to medication which will help with the nausea or inflammation, to surgery in the worst of cases, which are when the vertigo is an indicator of a serious problems such as a brain tumor. 

How A Chiropractor Can Help

If you suffer from vertigo, a chiropractor can help. Chiropractors have a number of treatments from spinal manipulations to head and neck movements such as that doctors will also do which can alleviate your vertigo. 

Chiropractors specialize in the spine and the central nervous system. This means that chiropractic adjustments can improve how the inner ear and the brain communicate, which can then improve your balance and reduce that spinning sensation. Chiropractic adjustments are also great for reducing inflammation, which can affect your inner ear, especially if you recently had an ear infection. 

The Epley maneuver is a proven method to treat vertigo, especially if it is BPPV. This treatment method affects the vestibular system, which is what maintains our balance. If our vestibular system is off, our balance is off. This maneuver is non-invasive, and involves moving and holding your head in certain positions for a set period of time. The reason why this works to treat vertigo is because it uses gravity to allow the crystals in your inner ear to move into another position, which can resolve the problem.

The effectiveness of the Epley maneuver depends on if there are multiple crystals in the ear or if the problem is in both ears. In this case, repetition over the course of a few days should fix the issue. This maneuver can be challenging sometimes, because vertigo can cause nausea, and this head movement can make you nauseous, which makes it hard to hold a set position for the designated time frame. 

This maneuver has proven to be effective for over 90% of people who suffered from vertigo, and is an extremely safe method of treatment. 

As you can see, there are a number of ways that a chiropractor can help your vertigo. You don’t need to just wait for it to go away on its own. Treatments can help get rid of it faster. 

Do You Need Help With Vertigo?

Here at Health And Wellness Clinic, we offer professional chiropractic care. If you’re suffering from vertigo, we can help you. We also offer a range of other treatments to get your body working properly again in a natural way. For any questions or to schedule an appointment, please contact us at Health And Wellness Clinic today!