October 2022 Newsletter
Activate the Abdominals!
This month, I will continue to showcase highlights from the book, The Reality Check, by Dr. Heidi Haavik. I will again be quoting the book directly as needed. There are “painful facts of abnormal movement when a person is in pain.” Major limb movements require a coordination of contracting one set of muscles while simultaneously relaxing the opposing muscles. For example, to bend the arm the biceps must contract as the triceps must be relaxed. If the triceps won’t relax, the arm cannot be bent. “Scientists have discovered dysfunctional sequences of muscle activation in people who suffer with pain (even subjects with experimentally induced pain). What they find is that people who are in pain recruit muscles in the ‘wrong’ order compared with people who have no pain.” The brain seems less able to send the correct sequence of what muscles to relax or contract when it is distracted by pain. However, on further evaluation of the data, researchers started to wonder if the problem of faulty signaling existed before the injury that was causing the subject pain. “It has been suggested by some that faulty neural muscle reflexes may predispose people to the development of pain which led to the injury.”
Remember, there is a ‘feed forward’ sequence to just about all movement; that before you move anything (limbs, head, etc.) the abdominals tighten or “activate” to support the movement. “This happens very fast and without your conscious awareness… It is ‘pre-planned’ by the central nervous system to ensure healthy movement of the body, without injury…” What is so interesting about this study is that they found that in a group of ninety, healthy, asymptomatic, young men that seventeen of them could not pre-activate their abdominal muscles before they moved their arms. So, these guys, without the protective pre-activation of the core stabilizing abdominal muscles, may have been more prone to injury.
No follow up on this theory occurred. Fast-forward six months, and the researchers
managed to contact thirteen of the original group of seventeen men. They retested the men’s ability to pre-activate their abdominal muscles when they lifted their arms and found that they still couldn’t do it (which showed it was not a fluke event at the earlier assessment). This would indicate that nothing much had changed after six months of daily living. However, when these young men were assessed, they all had tightness and restriction of the sacroiliac joints in their pelvis. When the participants were given a single session of sacroiliac adjustments there was an almost 40% improvement in their ability to pre-activate their core abdominal muscles! This study is really important because we also know that people who have low back pain have delayed activation patterns of their core abdominal muscles with various movements or perturbations. Additionally, we learned that six months of daily living for these active young men did not make a difference in this protective postural function. Yet, one single session of pelvic adjustments made a dramatic difference to the way their brain controlled their core stability and potentially reduced their risk of future injury. This begs the question, “How many budding athletes would function better if they had chiropractic care?”
Last month, we reviewed the phenomena of multisensory integration. “In the past it was thought that humans perceived each of their various sensory modalities (e.g., vision, hearing, proprioception, etc.) separately. It was thought that each of these sensory modalities operated independently of each other. However, we know now that this is not the case. Scientists have found that our brains create our very own inner matrix made up of information from all our different senses which is integrated together to accurately and efficiently represent what is happening in our body AND in our environment.”
It’s very complex, and studies are done in hopes of helping people with difficulties related to having had a stroke or Parkinson’s disease. “What may be happening is that there are glitches in the muscle routines that your motor cortex gets from the cerebellum. You may experience that you are having an off day. Maybe you keep stubbing your toe. Maybe you knock your elbow on the door frame. Maybe you just cannot hit that golf ball like you know you usually can.” This was something of note to me because I think we have all had “off days” and wondered what was going on. We might blame the full moon or low blood sugar, but then not think much more about it. In my mind, I’m asking myself how can we get the auto-pilot abdominal activation kicking into gear. I wonder if the reason my low back hurts after a long day of just sitting and driving is because I have not been activating those protective abdominal muscles. I’m just sitting in a car with my seat belt fastened and my mind only engaged on staying on the road, not hitting any other cars, etc. The last thing on my mind is to tighten the tummy muscles. Later, Dr. Haavik does mention that after thirty minutes of exercise, the core muscles of those who did not “automatically” activate them, were functioning in the same protective way that the other subjects whose abdominals had activated ‘automatically”. Movement in general seemed to get these muscles back to work.
This made me wonder if the advice to get out of the car every hour on a long road trip to stretch is helpful for another reason; it may be because when we do that the abdominals get activated along with the other muscles we stretch once we get out of the car. In the last eight or ten years, the lack of movement for people with desk jobs has been given more attention. We now hear the phrase, “Sitting is the new smoking.” There is a danger in sitting long periods of time that has spawned the creation of changeable desk tops that lift up so a person can stand at the computer or sit only for a while and give their body a break from too much sitting.
I am certain that the research from Dr. Haavik provides us with enough information to cause us to think more about doing core exercises, taking breaks from sitting, and incorporating movement into our days. Last month I discussed how these experiments used toe-tapping to measure the ability to avoid falls. Last weekend, I went to the October festival at a local restaurant, where live music played polkas and people were dancing those “old-fashioned dances”. I thought of how my parents and grandparents danced those traditional folk dances, had a great time and maybe kept their feet and brains better coordinated.
To conclude, I strongly encourage my readers to make a plan for how they will not let the cold months of winter decrease their physical activity. Find a way to get yourself regular exercise. You can look up what is offered at local gyms, or swim at the pool, or join a program at a church or the senior center. There are square dance clubs, yoga clubs, dance classes, hiking groups, skiing, cross-country skiing, etc. There just has to be something you can find to do – “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Just for Laughs
A woman noticed her husband standing on the bathroom scale sucking in his stomach. “Ha! That’s not going to help!”, she said. “Sure, it does.” He said, “It’s the only way I can see the numbers.
Did you know ants never get sick? It’s because they have little ant-ee-bodies.
I was at the bar last night and the waitress screamed out, “Anyone know CPR?” I said, “Heck, I know the entire alphabet!” Everyone laughed… well except this one guy.”
Activate the Abdominals!
This month, I will continue to showcase highlights from the book, The Reality Check, by Dr. Heidi Haavik. I will again be quoting the book directly as needed. There are “painful facts of abnormal movement when a person is in pain.” Major limb movements require a coordination of contracting one set of muscles while simultaneously relaxing the opposing muscles. For example, to bend the arm the biceps must contract as the triceps must be relaxed. If the triceps won’t relax, the arm cannot be bent. “Scientists have discovered dysfunctional sequences of muscle activation in people who suffer with pain (even subjects with experimentally induced pain). What they find is that people who are in pain recruit muscles in the ‘wrong’ order compared with people who have no pain.” The brain seems less able to send the correct sequence of what muscles to relax or contract when it is distracted by pain. However, on further evaluation of the data, researchers started to wonder if the problem of faulty signaling existed before the injury that was causing the subject pain. “It has been suggested by some that faulty neural muscle reflexes may predispose people to the development of pain which led to the injury.”
Remember, there is a ‘feed forward’ sequence to just about all movement; that before you move anything (limbs, head, etc.) the abdominals tighten or “activate” to support the movement. “This happens very fast and without your conscious awareness… It is ‘pre-planned’ by the central nervous system to ensure healthy movement of the body, without injury…” What is so interesting about this study is that they found that in a group of ninety, healthy, asymptomatic, young men that seventeen of them could not pre-activate their abdominal muscles before they moved their arms. So, these guys, without the protective pre-activation of the core stabilizing abdominal muscles, may have been more prone to injury.
No follow up on this theory occurred. Fast-forward six months, and the researchers
managed to contact thirteen of the original group of seventeen men. They retested the men’s ability to pre-activate their abdominal muscles when they lifted their arms and found that they still couldn’t do it (which showed it was not a fluke event at the earlier assessment). This would indicate that nothing much had changed after six months of daily living. However, when these young men were assessed, they all had tightness and restriction of the sacroiliac joints in their pelvis. When the participants were given a single session of sacroiliac adjustments there was an almost 40% improvement in their ability to pre-activate their core abdominal muscles! This study is really important because we also know that people who have low back pain have delayed activation patterns of their core abdominal muscles with various movements or perturbations. Additionally, we learned that six months of daily living for these active young men did not make a difference in this protective postural function. Yet, one single session of pelvic adjustments made a dramatic difference to the way their brain controlled their core stability and potentially reduced their risk of future injury. This begs the question, “How many budding athletes would function better if they had chiropractic care?”
Last month, we reviewed the phenomena of multisensory integration. “In the past it was thought that humans perceived each of their various sensory modalities (e.g., vision, hearing, proprioception, etc.) separately. It was thought that each of these sensory modalities operated independently of each other. However, we know now that this is not the case. Scientists have found that our brains create our very own inner matrix made up of information from all our different senses which is integrated together to accurately and efficiently represent what is happening in our body AND in our environment.”
It’s very complex, and studies are done in hopes of helping people with difficulties related to having had a stroke or Parkinson’s disease. “What may be happening is that there are glitches in the muscle routines that your motor cortex gets from the cerebellum. You may experience that you are having an off day. Maybe you keep stubbing your toe. Maybe you knock your elbow on the door frame. Maybe you just cannot hit that golf ball like you know you usually can.” This was something of note to me because I think we have all had “off days” and wondered what was going on. We might blame the full moon or low blood sugar, but then not think much more about it. In my mind, I’m asking myself how can we get the auto-pilot abdominal activation kicking into gear. I wonder if the reason my low back hurts after a long day of just sitting and driving is because I have not been activating those protective abdominal muscles. I’m just sitting in a car with my seat belt fastened and my mind only engaged on staying on the road, not hitting any other cars, etc. The last thing on my mind is to tighten the tummy muscles. Later, Dr. Haavik does mention that after thirty minutes of exercise, the core muscles of those who did not “automatically” activate them, were functioning in the same protective way that the other subjects whose abdominals had activated ‘automatically”. Movement in general seemed to get these muscles back to work.
This made me wonder if the advice to get out of the car every hour on a long road trip to stretch is helpful for another reason; it may be because when we do that the abdominals get activated along with the other muscles we stretch once we get out of the car. In the last eight or ten years, the lack of movement for people with desk jobs has been given more attention. We now hear the phrase, “Sitting is the new smoking.” There is a danger in sitting long periods of time that has spawned the creation of changeable desk tops that lift up so a person can stand at the computer or sit only for a while and give their body a break from too much sitting.
I am certain that the research from Dr. Haavik provides us with enough information to cause us to think more about doing core exercises, taking breaks from sitting, and incorporating movement into our days. Last month I discussed how these experiments used toe-tapping to measure the ability to avoid falls. Last weekend, I went to the October festival at a local restaurant, where live music played polkas and people were dancing those “old-fashioned dances”. I thought of how my parents and grandparents danced those traditional folk dances, had a great time and maybe kept their feet and brains better coordinated.
To conclude, I strongly encourage my readers to make a plan for how they will not let the cold months of winter decrease their physical activity. Find a way to get yourself regular exercise. You can look up what is offered at local gyms, or swim at the pool, or join a program at a church or the senior center. There are square dance clubs, yoga clubs, dance classes, hiking groups, skiing, cross-country skiing, etc. There just has to be something you can find to do – “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Just for Laughs
A woman noticed her husband standing on the bathroom scale sucking in his stomach. “Ha! That’s not going to help!”, she said. “Sure, it does.” He said, “It’s the only way I can see the numbers.
Did you know ants never get sick? It’s because they have little ant-ee-bodies.
I was at the bar last night and the waitress screamed out, “Anyone know CPR?” I said, “Heck, I know the entire alphabet!” Everyone laughed… well except this one guy.”
