The North, as a famous Northerner rapper pegs us, loves to travel during the North’s hallmark—a chilly winter. Many opt for a brief southward migration to bask beneath a sunnier sky, cocktails and bug spray in hand, sand in toes. Others prefer to buy local, venturing to nearby powdery hills for a log-cabin chalet and local brew filled weekend of winter sports and festivities. Some, those super beings among us, accomplish a flawless transition from beachy vacay to annual ski trip, shunning the vertiginous difference in climate and geography: the Adventurers. 

But trips take their toll, and not just on the chequing account. Our bodies can only handle so much moving about, so much sleeplessness, and so much wear and tear. Even the G.O.A.T.s among us (think of one Lebron, of the house James) know their limits, push beyond them, and then mitigate the effects through therapy so they can repeat. The body needs its repose, and Physiotherapy during the winter is the perfect antidote to an activity or work filled winter that may predispose you to an injury filled spring and summer that frustratingly holds you back. Not to mention the seasonally-specific injuries that occur during the winter (take note of how many of your friends and colleagues have casts after that ski trip at the cabin).

Many of us tend to experience activity and occupation related injuries during the warmer months, and attribute it to the increase in our output during those times. And yes, while we tend to be more vigorous during this time, those aches and pains we feel can be attributed to the general, albeit unwitting, neglect of our bodies during a crucial period for preventative rehab (prehab). Research has demonstrated time and again that being consistent with bodily treatments throughout the year not only enhances performance and output, but also helps ensure prevention of injury when we intensify things. Once an injury takes place, however, reversing it is certainly more arduous and protracted than simply averting it with prehab.

Physiotherapy during the winter is one of the most effective ways to remain active and prevent injury in the cold, and stave off injuries that are likely to occur when activity intensifies as the climate heats up.

​ Taking advantage of physiotherapy prehab during the winter not only ensures that you thrive during this season, but also banks forward the advantage of a stronger, fitter, more resilient body during the rest of the year. Don’t simply wait till you injure your knee on the slopes, or your wrist on the keyboard and mouse, optimize your health with regular physiotherapy to ensure a pain-free and activity filled year. 

- Daniel Rashid C. PT
Curious to learn more about Daniel and his Physiotherapy practice? View his bio here!

​

When you see a physiotherapist at Remedy Wellness Centre, you can expect an in depth assessment to find the root cause of your back and neck pain. Your physiotherapist may use techniques to mobilize your spinal joints, and will give you advice on how to best maintain your thoracic mobility, essential for a healthy low back and neck. The thoracic spine (mid back) can often become immobile, which can cause compensatory hypermobility and strain in the lower back and neck. Back pain can be driven by tight hamstrings, underactive or tight quads, poor core engagement, unstable SI joints and a long list of other things. We have the tools to figure out where it's coming from so we can fix it and teach you how to take better care of yourself. No need to waste time doing stretches and exercises that aren't really helping you. 

Using manual therapy and other treatment techniques like myofascial release, IMS, and MET, your physiotherapist will help you to regain lost mobility, provide you with instructions on how to achieve ideal postural alignment, and prescribe therapeutic exercises that will support your spine. Patient education is very important to us and we like to empower our patients to take part in the treatment process by prescribing exercises and stretches to be done at home. 


 TIPS FROM OUR PHYSIOTHERAPIST

• Stay flexible. Optimal spinal health means having flexibility and ease of movement in all directions. If your mid-back has limited rotation movement, more load and stress can be transferred to your lower back, neck or other body parts. You can check your rotation by sitting in a chair with your arms crossed across your stomach; with a flexible spine, you should be able to turn equally to the right and left, and see behind yourself easily. 

 

• Vary positions at work. We are not meant to sit all day. Sitting at computers and desks all day puts increased pressured on your spine. After about 30 minutes of sitting, you should get up and walk around to keep the flow of blood and fluids to the spine. You should also bend forward, backward, sidebend and rotate through your whole spine.  Move your arms around in circles as big as you can without pain to get the shoulder joints moving. Squat down and get back up if you can to mobilize the hips, knees and ankles. Take all your joints through their full range of motion to keep them flexible and loose. You can also set up a standing workstation to vary your position while working at the computer. You should make sure your work desk and computer are set up properly for sitting or standing, to encourage optimal posture. There is a blog post here about desk ergonomics that you may want to check out.

 

• Keep the core in check. Regain optimal control of your deep spinal muscles (core) following an episode of neck or back pain with regular exercise to strengthen the core. Learning how to activate your core properly is something you and your physio can work on here at Remedy Wellness Centre. Healthy core engagement can be very beneficial for spinal health, but over doing it or clenching can make things worse. You don't want constant resting tension either. You want that happy middle ground. We can help you find it. 

Check out this article as well: https://fitnessvolt.com/lower-back-pain-athletes/

First of all, what is chronic pain? Chronic pain is pain that last 3-6 months or longer. Recovering from chronic pain is very different that recovering from acute pain, which is new pain that is typically, but not always, associated with an injury or incident. Here are some of the key factors to consider when you are trying to get out of a chronic pain cycle.

1. Pain Education: Understanding how pain works in your body, brain and nervous system will help you to understand what is happening in your body. Pain does not necessarily mean you are causing damage to your tissues, which can be a hard concept to accept. When you begin a new exercise routine or activity, you will likely experience pain. The initial increase in pain is not damage. It is a warning signal from a sensitized nervous system, a response that has become automated but is not accurate or helpful. Increases in pain are always expected when you first start a new movement, activity or routine. The key is changing your beliefs about the pain, learning where to start, how much to do and acquiring some tools to regulate your overactive nervous system. These tools can help you take control and minimize or eliminate the pain you experience.
2. Safety: Start with movements that feel safe. Fear is a big factor when dealing with chronic pain, even if you aren’t aware of it. Practice asking yourself, “Is this safe?”, and consider modifying the movement if you don’t feel safe. This could mean having your hand on the wall for support, using a smaller range of motion, or performing the movement more slowly. It is important that you start with movements that you believe will not damage your body. This may be a very small movement or not very much activity to begin with, and that’s okay. Slow and steady wins the race, as they say.
3. How Much Is Enough: Continue the movement or activity as long as you feel you won’t regret it later. This can be difficult to determine, so start with a less is more approach and go from there. If you find that the consequences of the movement outweigh the benefits, and especially if there is a significant increase in pain after or during each movement, back off or stop. Take a breathing break. If it’s possible to stick to pain free ranges of motion, do so. If not, try to stick to minimally painful movements.
4. Breathe: Ensure you breathe calmly while you are moving or exercising. Relaxed breath or deep breath can calm you down and stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system which governs your rest and digest mode. Try taking a break between each movement or exercise as well, to breathe and relax. This can help to down regulate your sensitization.
5. Relaxation: Try to keep your muscle tone and tension as low as possible while you move. This might be hard. Remember that less is more and by being tense while you move you might be using too much effort to complete the movement.
6. Dividing Attention: If you are hypervigilant or pay a lot of attention to your pain during activities, try to divide your attention and focus on something else while you move. For example you’re your shoulder is the problem, focus on how your feet feel. If you tend to ignore your pain, try paying more attention to it.

At Remedy Wellness Centre, our massage therapists, acupuncturists, chiropractor and athletic therapist have completed educational courses through Pain BC and other continued education venues. By staying up to date on most recent research and treatment approaches for treating chronic pain, we can help you achieve balance and get back to doing the things you love. We also offer Registered Clinical Counselling with a unique focus on chronic pain treatment and management.
​
If you are suffering with chronic pain, please come see us so we can get you started on a path to feeling better today.

When we first jump into the chaos of getting in shape or just improving our level of fitness, it can be appear to be a daunting and intimidating journey.  To be a healthier version of yourself you generally need to change what you eat, how much your move and how you make a lot of different decisions.  Physical transformation is exceptionally difficult because first, you must sacrifice things you are accustomed to and enjoy in some way (usually less than healthy lifestyles and foods) while initially gaining very little discernable benefits.   I will be writing on this specific challenge next month; however, for this month’s article, I’ll be focussing on the bigger challenge.  The reality that most people have few examples in their social circle or family of significant lasting and healthy change in health and wellbeing.   This is why testimonials or before and after pictures are used so heavily in the billion-dollar weight loss industry.  Look at person X, they are just like you and they did this 5 minutes work out or took a miracle pill/shake and now they are exactly like you want to be and it was easy.  Except it’s not and almost all of these examples are less than honest.   However, it is not a lost cause.  But it might require a mindset change and the ability to look outside of the experiences you and your network of friends and family have had with health and fitness.   If you are fortunate enough to know people that have succeeded in the kind of fitness and lifestyle changes you want to make, look closely at all the things you have in common (both good and bad) and recognise that they probably started out very similar to you with the same challenges and opportunities.  Then model what you can on their experience and lean on them for help because they have walked the same path as you and achieved what you are working towards.


Now we come to the heart of the problem for many.  What to do if you feel alone in this battle?  What if making all the changes and sacrifices are just too difficult and you do not feel up to the challenge?  To start with, you are going to have to find ammunition, but of a different kind of calibre than some of you might be used to.  For psychologist Alfred Bandura, “the most effective way of developing a strong sense of efficacy is through mastery experiences.”  Performing any task successfully strengthens our sense of self-efficacy and the bigger the success the more we are emboldened by it.  Succeeding at difficult, daunting and challenging tasks is like a power up or boost to our own personal sense of efficacy (the idea that we can be successful in creating change), even if it is in a different avenue.  The first reaction when you feel intimidated or that you are failing to meet the challenge of your new fitness and health regime, should be to make a mental list of the big things you have accomplished in your life.  The bigger, more bad ass and hard earned the result, the better.  These don’t have to be fitness related and frankly for those starting out, they probably aren’t going to be.  Start with your proudest accomplishments, military or civil service, past sports success, charitable work or community involvement, with successfully raising children an often neglected source of awesomeness.  Stack all of those great things you’ve done on top of each other and by the time you are done, you should hopefully have built up a large arsenal of difficult and challenging things you are proud of.  Use this list as a touchstone for when things get tough.  Say to yourself, “I did x, y and z which were incredibly difficult, and they didn’t stop me, break me or defeat me.”  Then, when you struggle to eat breakfast, exercise regularly or plan your eating, recognise that these things can’t beat you either.  They are not much of a challenge compared to what you have already achieved.  If you build up this ammunition as you slowly work towards improvement, physical or otherwise, there is nothing you won’t be able to take down.
 
James McDonald is a certified Athletic Therapist and Strength and Conditioning coach, experienced in working with wide variety of clientele.   From recreation level runners and MMA fighters, and from Pro Hockey players to amateur Quidditch players, he loves to work with anyone and everyone he can help.  So, if you need to get healthy or be better at what you love to do, FREE individual consultation sessions as well as one on one treatment sessions can be booked online with Remedy Wellness.
​

This is the first in a series of articles on common problems, of the aches and pains, that active people regularly put up with and alternative solutions that an Athletic Therapist can suggest given our background in working with both active individuals and elite performers.  As a clinician and coach with extensive experience in high-level sports including work with Hockey Canada, in the Western Hockey league and multiple provincial and national level programs in a variety of different sports, I can help someone see things most would miss.  The perspective I can offer as an Athletic Therapist is different from other professions and will help you fully understand your injury or limitation and how we can work together to help you move, play and feel better.

Today’s example is one I’m sure that any person working in an office or sedentary industry can easily relate to.  Perhaps it shows up in the mid afternoon or during an especially long commute home. It is that nagging pain in your upper back, just near your shoulder blade.  Your first instinct is you try to reach around and massage it, but you can’t quite get it and besides you look like your giving yourself a one arm hug while sitting in the Colwood crawl.  You try rolling your shoulder around and maybe you find a position where it’s manageable, but you just end up looking like a turtle.  While a little bit of self massage, a few Advil or a glass of wine when you get home might help a bit, really what’s going on is a battle for stability around your shoulder and you are the main casualty. 

The two combatants in this situation are potentially the Rhomboids (they are located around where you feel the discomfort in your upper back) and the Pectoralis Minor situated where your chest and the front of your shoulder meet, just under the much large Pectoralis Major.  Many of us spend a large amount of time sitting at work and mouse or slumped over our phone and generally not moving enough.  When this happens, the front of our chest tends to move into a tightened position and the pec minor gets the signal to remain shortened and contracted to help stabilise our shoulder blade (scapula) and this can lead to a shoulder shrug like motion and a forward rounding of our shoulder.