Geaux Chiro Blog & News

It’s been shown that high-impact sports can place the same amount of strain on the body as an auto collision. Some of these common injuries in many sports or physical activity can knock your spine out of alignment, causing stress on your pain-sensitive joints, muscles, nerves, discs and ligaments. In study after study, chiropractic care outperforms other medical options at reducing pain and restoring normal function.

Just this past week, I’ve spoken to 2 separate friends in the gym that have tweaked their hamstrings while exercising outside the gym. This can only be a result the training in the gym didn’t carry over to the activity.

When it comes to changing movement, it’s vital that we address the soft tissue. We know that hotspots, trigger points and excessive muscular tension can limit range of motion and compromise movement patterns. Foam rolling and self-massage has been proven to improve both short-term flexibility and long-term flexibility when performed on a regular basis. The key is to find the areas that will have the greatest positive impact on whatever movement pattern you’re trying to improve upon. If your goal is to improve the active straight leg raise, we need to address the soft tissue in the posterior chain. To be more specific, we should be focusing on the calves, hamstrings, and glutes.

When I do a musculoskeletal examination and find soft tissue problems—a muscle that’s doing too much or not enough—in the past as a Chiropractor, I could use a laser, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, Active Release Technique, different tools, manipulation or mobilization.

There are many techniques to try to get muscles to reset so I could then take the patient into exercise, maybe tape a little bit and provide some re-training.

Running or jogging is a great way to stay in shape, improve functioning of all physiological systems and could help reduce your risk for Alzheimer's, dementia or other age-related cognitive problems. Unfortunately, runners may occasionally overdo it by running too much, running too hard or wearing improperly-fitted shoes.

An Achilles strain is a common condition treated by chiropractors at Geaux Chiro and can even affect people who do not regularly jog. You could strain your Achilles tendon by wearing high heels, having flat feet or taking medications like glucocorticoids or certain antibiotics that break down and weaken tendon tissue. A strained Achilles tendon can occur when running or walking uphill, exercising vigorously on a hard surface, rapidly climbing the stairs or trying to carry heavy objects from one area to another. Abruptly increasing your speed while running or not properly warming up muscles before engaging in physical activity may also strain your [...]

The shoulder is an intricately formed joint composed of a ball and socket, muscles, ligaments and tendons that is particularly prone to suffering diseases caused by aging and injury. If you overexert or overuse a shoulder joint by lifting improperly, carrying heavy objects or engaging in repetitive activities involving shoulder movement, you could experience the pain and stiffness produced by strained, sprained and/or torn soft tissues.

Numbness and tingling of the shoulder may indicate another type of injury involving irritated or compressed nerves. For example, misalignment of the spinal vertebrae (vertebral subluxation) can cause bony vertebrae to move out of their normal positions and compress nerves that extend out of the spine and into the shoulders. When shoulder numbness and tingling (which is often accompanied by radiating pain) does not respond to over-the-counter pain relievers, cold/hot compresses and rest, consider making an appointment at Geaux Chiropractic for a complete evaluation of your symptoms.

Continue Reading for 5 Common Causes of Shoulder Numbness and Tingling

The rotator cuff is a set of four muscles stabilizing shoulder joints while allowing your arms to rotate freely. These muscles provide shoulder cohesion, stability and prevent easy dislocation of the shoulder joints. Major muscles comprising the rotator cuff include infraspinatus, supraspinatus, teres major and subscapularis muscles. They are attached to the shoulder blade and humerus bones and assist in various rotational movements involving the shoulder.

Athletes and weight trainers are especially vulnerable to rotator cuff damage due to overstressing muscles and creating an imbalance of muscle strength. Non-athletes may also suffer rotator cuff pain if shoulder joints are affected by bursitis or arthritis.

A spine disease causing abnormal curvature to the spine, scoliosis is mostly an idiopathic disease (a disease of unknown origin) but may occur due to neuromuscular or congenital disorders. Mild to moderate scoliosis is generally asymptotic, remaining undetected until a physician discovers curvature during an examination. Curvature severity varies, with visible curvatures mostly involving the left lower back to the right upper back. Noticeable signs of scoliosis include:

• One hip or shoulder may be higher than the other
• Left or right rib cage is higher than the other
• Tilting of the body to one side
• One leg is shorter than the other
• Ribs protrude when the person bends fully forward

Herniated discs (also called bulging or slipped discs) are vertebrae discs that get pushed out from between vertebrae and impinge on sensitive nerve endings extending throughout the spine. Spinal discs are gelatinous cushions composed of fibrous soft tissues designed to protect bony vertebrae from rubbing and scraping against each other. In other words, if you didn't have spinal discs, your spine would be nearly inflexible, preventing you from bending, twisting or even walking without experiencing severe pain. [...]

Sports injuries affecting your feet are categorized as acute or repeated trauma injuries. An acute injury involves a sudden impact or force striking the foot that causes some kind of bone and/or tissue damage. Acute foot injuries happen frequently during a collision with another player. Overuse/repeated trauma foot injuries occur when an athlete engages in vigorous and repetitious activities, such as running or jumping, and sprains, strains or tears soft tissues in the foot. [...]