Exercise Rehabilitation . . . Active Chiropractic Care is the Key to a Full Recovery

For years patients have heard, "Take this three times per day and if it isn't better by Friday, call me." People have relinquished health responsibilities to their doctors since childhood. They have taken passive "quick fix" approaches to covering up their symptoms with medications. The primary goal has often been, "Get me out of pain, so I can continue with my live as if nothing had ever happened; "out-of-sight ...out-of-mind". But, what is the cost for this way of thinking?

It is a well known fact that sickness and disease do not just happen, they accumulate. By covering up your symptoms you achieve a false sense of well-being. Health is not merely the absence of aches, pains or symptoms. Dorland's Medical Dictionary defines health as, "a condition of optimal physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity." Webster's Dictionary defines health as, "a condition of wholeness in which all of the body's systems are function at 100%, 100% of the time." You can see, there is a much greater dimension to health than simply "feeling good"!

If one wants to maximize one's health, one needs to play an active role in its' achievement. Correcting the cause of body imbalance is essential; whether it be misaligned spinal vertebra resulting in interference to normal body function (subluxation) or nutritional deficiencies due to poor dietary intake. Our experience shows exercise rehabilitation is an essential ingredient in achieving a more complete recovery from any musculo-skeletal condition or injury. Our patients can testify to this!

To better understand why exercise rehabilitation is so important, we must first distinguish between two basic types of muscles. The first type corresponds to "fast twitch" (anaerobic) fibers. These muscles are designed for short spurt activity, not endurance. When they fatigue they produce lactic acid. Lactic acid is a well known tissue irritant and pain producer. The other type of muscle corresponds to "slow twitch" (aerobic) fibers. These muscle fibers are designed for endurance. They resist fatigue and help the body resist gravity.

When normal ranges of motion become reduced in any joint, whether it be from injury, postural or occupational stresses and strains, aerobic (endurance) type II muscles take on the characteristics of anaerobic (short spurt) type I muscles. This results in excessive accumulation of lactic acid which not only inhibits the function of these muscles, but also reduces the muscle's frequency to contract. When muscle firing (contraction) is decreased, muscle protein is lost. Any change which modifies a spinal muscle's ability to function normally results in muscle atrophy. The longer these muscles are allowed to deteriorate, the more problems can result and the longer it takes to fix them.

Take the case of a person with a neck problem who spends his/her day looking down at a desk or computer keyboard. This places a tremendous amount of strain on the neck muscles, usually resulting in pain as the day wears on. Over time, these muscles become less able to sustain this endurance activity and their ability to provide spinal joint stability diminishes. As this progresses, joint cartilage breaks down which ultimately leads to joint degeneration (arthritis). This cycle is difficult to break without active exercise rehabilitation.

In order to return the atrophied endurance muscles back to normal, rehabilitation of the spinal joints is required. This is accomplished through progressive resistive firing of these "slow twitch" muscles. The more you work them, the stronger they become, thus leading to an increase in joint stability.

Our complete exercise rehabilitation facility affords our patients faster pain reduction, improved muscle strength and conditioning to prevent injury, increased joint stability and mobility, reduced spinal stress and improved posture.

As always, we try to stay on the cutting edge of the latest innovative methods to afford our patients the best available health care.

Exercise Rehabilitation . . . Active Chiropractic Care is the Key to a Full Recovery

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