Spinal health is an important part of overall wellness and can help you lead a pain-free life. Maintaining a healthy spine requires good posture and body mechanics when exercising, working, sleeping and sitting at a desk.

Regular exercise, movement, proper posture and spinal manipulation are all essential to a strong and resilient spine. Follow these tips to keep your spine healthy and active for years to come.

Strengthen Your Core Muscles

Your spine is one of the most vital structures within your body, allowing you to sit, stand, bend, twist, and move. It’s important to keep your spine healthy so that you can continue living your active lifestyle. To do this, you need to strengthen your core muscles and maintain good posture. Fortunately, this can be done through regular chiropractic treatment, stretching, and other exercises designed to strengthen the core.

When you have strong core muscles, your spine supports the weight of your body much more effectively. This reduces the amount of work that your spine has to do, minimizing the risk of back pain and injury. In addition, strong core muscles promote better balance and stability. This makes it easier to walk, run, and perform other activities without putting too much strain on the spine or other muscles in your body.

The core muscles include the abdominal muscles, the iliopsoas muscles (the muscle that runs along your pelvis), the transverse abdominus muscles, and the erector spinae and multifidi muscles (back muscles). These muscles are used to control movement of the trunk and pelvis. They also help maintain the curve of your lumbar spine and protect the spinal nerves.

Many of these muscles are strengthened naturally through regular exercise, such as running and climbing stairs. However, you can further improve your core strength by practicing some specific exercises. For example, the plank exercise is an excellent way to strengthen your core muscles. To do the plank, lie on your stomach with your knees bent. Lift your hips off the ground to make a straight line from your shoulders to your feet. Hold the position for 10 to 20 seconds, then rest for a few seconds before repeating.

A sedentary lifestyle can have serious consequences for your spinal health, including back pain and even herniated discs. This is because sitting for prolonged periods of time increases the load on your spinal discs by 40%. To prevent this from happening, try taking a few walking breaks throughout the day or using a standing desk at work.

Practice Good Posture

Practicing good posture is the best way to maintain spinal health. It reduces the pressure on spinal discs and helps protect muscles and ligaments from strain. When you are standing, walking, or sitting, try to keep your shoulders back, chest lifted, and core engaged. Avoid slouching or rounding your spine, which can increase the pressure on spinal discs and lead to pain or injury over time.

A sedentary lifestyle, which often includes long hours of sitting, can also impact your posture and spinal health negatively. Sitting for prolonged periods of time puts excessive stress on the lower back, which can result in muscle imbalances and poor posture. Try to take regular breaks throughout the day to stretch and move around to promote your postural awareness. It may help to use a stability ball while working, or try alternating between sitting and standing at your desk to encourage movement in your back and neck muscles.

Chiropractors offer rehabilitative exercises and stretches to strengthen the core muscles, which are crucial for maintaining proper posture. They can also educate patients on how to best practice posture during daily activities and provide tips for better alignment while sitting, standing, or moving around. In addition, chiropractors will work with patients to address posture problems that occur due to a variety of factors.

Spinal manipulation is another important part of chiropractic care, as it helps to reduce pressure on spinal discs and improve the overall function of your spine. The chiropractor will apply gentle manipulations to the vertebrae of your spine to restore their alignment and to help relieve your pain.

Maintaining spinal health is essential for a high-quality life in Denver, from exploring the great outdoors to tackling daily challenges at work and home. By warming up before physical activities, optimizing workspace ergonomics, eating a well-balanced diet, and utilizing chiropractic care when necessary, you can preserve your healthy spine to enjoy the Mile High City.

Stretch Your Muscles

The spinal column is designed to provide flexibility, balance, structural support and a conduit for nerves that carry messages between the brain and the rest of the body. The spine’s intricate network is prone to injury and stress, but a few simple self-care tips and exercises can help maintain the health of your back and neck.

Your chiropractor will evaluate the condition of your spine and recommend a treatment plan, which may include chiropractic manipulations or “adjustments.” Spinal adjustments promote movement in the vertebrae to help correct misalignments and boost nervous system function. To maximize the benefits of your adjustments, it is important to follow through with a regular stretching routine. Stretching keeps your muscles limber, improves muscle flexibility and helps you move more easily. There are two types of stretching: static and dynamic. Static stretches involve holding a position for a short period of time to loosen muscles and are good for your spine. Dynamic stretches involve moving parts of the body to improve flexibility and are best for your joints, very much so in line with the expert advice coming from the Richmond chiropractors.

Tight hip flexors can cause lower back pain, so it is essential to stretch these muscles regularly. Start by kneeling on the floor, with one foot flat on the ground and the other in front of you. Bend your knees to a 90 degree angle and slowly shift your weight forward until you feel the stretch in your lower back. Hold this stretch for 30-60 seconds. Repeat on both sides.

Using your back to lift objects increases the strain on the spinal muscles and also puts more pressure on the discs (the spongy material between the bones of the spine). To prevent additional stress and strain, always bend at your knees and hips and keep the object close to your body. If something is too heavy for you to lift, ask for help or use a tool such as a ladder.

If you work in an office, sitting for long periods of time can lead to “tech neck,” a condition characterized by tension in the cervical spine (neck). To prevent this, be sure your chair supports the natural curves of your spine and don’t slump in your seat. It’s also helpful to take frequent breaks and to stretch or exercise your back muscles during the day to prevent stiffness and soreness.

Get Regular Adjustments

While many people think of chiropractic care as a treatment for back pain, it offers much more than that. Regular spinal adjustments correct misalignments throughout the entire musculoskeletal system, improving overall function and health. Here are some of the benefits you can expect from getting regular chiropractic adjustments:

Reduced inflammation: Many chronic conditions, such as back and neck pain, arthritis, headaches, and migraines, have an inflammatory component that is tied to muscle tightness. Chiropractic care targets the source of inflammation to reduce symptoms and improve your quality of life.

Increased flexibility: Tight muscles restrict your ability to move and can lead to back and neck strain. Regular chiropractic adjustments loosen these muscles, allowing you to move more freely.

Better sleep: Spinal problems, such as poor posture or slouching, can interfere with sleep patterns. Chiropractic adjustments can help address these issues, leading to improved sleep quality.

Enhance athletic performance: Chiropractic adjustments are not only effective at alleviating pain, they also improve balance and coordination, making you a more effective athlete. This is especially true for athletes who play high-impact sports like basketball, volleyball, football, or soccer.

Maintaining good spinal health is essential for enjoying Denver’s active lifestyle. By practicing simple, yet powerful strategies such as warming up before physical activities, optimizing workstation ergonomics, eating a diet rich in nutrients, and seeking professional chiropractic care, you can safeguard your spine’s structural integrity and stay healthy for years to come.

The most important step in maintaining a healthy spine is seeing a chiropractor regularly. A qualified and experienced chiropractic professional can assess your needs and recommend the right treatments, including manual manipulation of the spine and other joints, instrument-assisted manipulation, and trigger point therapy, to address a variety of musculoskeletal issues, including back or neck pain, headaches, carpal tunnel, fibromyalgia, and achy joints.

If you live in the greater Denver area and want to learn more about how to improve your spinal health, contact us at Ocean Health Center today to book an appointment. Our team is dedicated to helping you get healthy and stay that way!