Here at Woodland, we call ourselves 'Movement Based Chiropractors'. SO... what does that mean? At it's core, we use movement based healing as the main part of our treatment plans. Let's dive in to see how that works.
Here at Woodland, we believe movement is medicine. We truly believe that movement is the key to healing and success. Research has shown that to make the most lasting and permanent changes to your musculoskeletal system requires training through exercises and stretches. This means, that to really create a lasting healing impression, we need to load different structures in your body to heal.
So, how do we implement this into our practice?
#1: We get you out of pain so you can start moving
Obviously if you threw your back out, we can't expect you to pick up heavy weights anytime soon. Therefore, our first main goal when you are hurt, is getting you out of pain, or at least improving it, so we can start the movement healing process.
We do this through our in-office services. This includes adjustments, muscle work, decompression, spinal traction or other specific therapies catered to you. These are therapies that we, as chiropractors, do to you, to help improve motion and reduce pain.
How long does this take? Well, that is the million dollar question. Healing is dependent on a multitude of factors, like your age, medications, prior medical history, injury details, and much more.
During this time, we love utilizing light stretches that can help relieve your pain. We typically don't start exercises in the acute phase, since they can be uncomfortable. But light stretching and walking are typically recommending during the acute phase to help get your blood flowing.
#2: We help find you specific exercises and stretches that can help you create lasting changes
This is the movement part of your healing. Once we feel like your pain has been managed enough to incorporate movement, we start this step.
This process starts with an analysis. We take you through a series of ranges of motion to see a) what hurts? b) what doesn't look like it's moving as well as it should?
We use these findings, mixed with our exam, to find what movements work for you. Let's use an example to show you how it works on our end:
Person A, let's call her Sally, came in with upper back tightness from her office job. After doing some muscle work and adjustments, we were able to calm the area down. We noticed that she has tightness when turning her head left to right, tightness in her mid upper back, and headaches. This is a very common movement - pain pattern we see.
So, how do we incorporate movement? For starters, showering her some great stretches to help relieve some tension in the area. We suggest that she stretches throughout the day at her job. General stretching is great, but personalized stretching is better.
Okay the stretches feel great, but we also need to strengthen the surrounding areas, too. When we strengthen the midback, we can reduce the tension off our upper back. So with her, we go over some mid back strengthening exercises, like rows, and other banded exercises. These will help build up strength in the area, creating more of a lasting pain relief.
So first step, improve pain. Second step, create a permanent change through stretches and exercises.
#3: We encourage daily movement in our patient's lives, and work with other professionals if needed.
Okay, my favorite quote of all time, "If exercise could be condensed down into a pill, it would be the single most prescribed medicine in the world". That is SO powerful!!
Your body needs movement. And I don't care what it is! If it is weight lifting, walking, hiking, running, yoga, Pilates, at home YouTube workouts, I don't care! You need to move.
BUT! We understand that that is not always attainable for everyone. If you are someone in chronic pain, we can understand how hard this is. To heal, you need to move, but what if you can't move? That is where we come in, and why we focus so much on getting you out of pain. Because when we can get you out of pain, we can get you back to living.
After we have set you up for success with a personalized treatment plan for you, we encourage you to a) do the plan, but also b) incorporate other movements into your life.
We want you to work with us, or a personal trainer, or a physical therapist, or someone who can help get you moving like you should. Your body will thank you.
SO in conclusion, here at Woodland we believe in the power of movement. And if this gets you as fired up as we do, let's get started on your healing journey.