6 Effective Tips to Less Back Pain with Sitting

Do you have difficulty completing work due to back pain with sitting?

Does your low back pain limit your social life with things like sitting at a restaurant, driving, and sitting through a movie.

Low back pain with sitting is common with disc and muscle injury.

To get yourself feeling better, try these 6 simple tips:

1. Use the back rest on your chair
   • Sitting up is hard! 
   • Give those muscles a rest by allowing your back to use the support of the backrest.
   • Don't sit at the front of your chair
   • Keep your chair close to what you are working on, so you can stay all the way back in the chair.
2. Use an extra and portable back support
   • Chairs are often not designed ergonomically for ideal posture.
   • Chairs are not one size fits all! Our bodies differ wildly in shapes and sizes from one person to the next.
   • You should maintain the same amount of curve in your back while sitting that you have while standing.
   • To assist with this, I recommend some thing like the Wonder Roll, which you can find online at www.wonderroll.com. It changes support quickly and easily while being portable, yet can stays in place on your chair with a simple strap.
3. Take frequent breaks
   • Let your body heal and get stronger, by planning and not sitting longer  that your back can tolerate. 
   • If it starts every 30 min, get up every 25 minute, etc.
4. Make sure your hips are flexible
   • Remember the song you sang about the human body? "The back bone's connected to the hip bone, the hip bone's connected to the thigh bone..." (You get the point).
   • Stretch the back side of your hips both the muscle and joint, so your back isn't being strained.
5. Increase the strength and endurance of your low back muscles
   • If your back muscles are tired, they will do one of two things.
     1. They will start to complain and be your source of pain.
     2. They will stop working and let you go into poor posture thus putting bad stress onto the passive structures in your back: discs, ligaments, and joints.
6. Watch your posture
   • If you saw your posture from an outside perspective, you might be horrified!
   • Set regular reminders in your calendar and alarms on computer and phone to remind you even when caught up in tasks and projects requiring your full mental attention.
   • Give permission to those around you to remind you when you are sitting with poor posture, so you spend less time there and thus strain your disc, ligaments, and muscles less.

Thanks for reading. If we get enough interest, we will make some videos about how to sit with less back pain. Leave a comment about how it works for you and what tips you use.

Let's Get To the Source, and TOGETHER, Let's Get Moving!

Climbing clinic: Upper Body Strengthening

An Upper Body Strengthening Clinic for Climbing Injury Prevention and Performance

Sound interesting? Join Liz tonight at Stronghold Climbing Gym in Los Angeles for an interactive clinic on upper body strengthening for injury prevention, performance, and longevity for climbers. Climbing can lead to overuse problems and muscle imbalance injuries. In this clinic you will learn principles and specific strengthening exercises for shoulders, elbows, and hands, to reduce the likelihood of such injuries occurring and to learn safe ways to strengthen.

7:30-9:00pm

What is Manual Therapy & Why is it so Effective for Pain?

Liz Bottrell, PT, DPT, FAAOMPT, manual physical therapist and owner of Artisan Physical Therapy in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA explains what manual therapy is.

Manual therapy, or "hands on," evaluation and treatment improves motion, mobility, decreases stiffness, tightness and pain, as well as improving circulation and speeding healing. The healing hands lead to areas of injury and work them out. It is a place where science and art meet.

Do you want to get better as soon as possible? Do you want to see an expert? Have you not seen the results that you hoped for with prior physical therapy. Maybe your therapist wasn't highly skilled in manual therapy. Liz is a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapist (FAAOMPT) - her specialized manual therapy training and skills set her apart from other physical therapists.

See a manual therapy specialist and experience the difference in your day to day - the ease of movement, the reduced pain and stiffness, and improved muscle activation (read strength, coordination, and balance). All of this helps you sleep, walk, run, stand, reach overhead, and so on more easily and with less pain.

Combine quality and focused physical therapy with your needed exercises and necessary modifications and get ready for amazing results beyond what you though possible!

A Simple & Effective Exercise to Minimize Headaches

A new video from Liz went live earlier this week! Do you have headaches or know someone with headaches who would like to reduce their frequency or intensity and even eliminate them entirely?

In this video Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Bottrell, PT, DPT, FAAOMPT, manual physical therapist and movement specialist, demonstrates a simple but effective exercise to reduce the frequency and intensity of headaches.

Many people have cervicogenic headaches - headaches arising from tight muscles and joints in the neck or poor posture - but think they are migraines or other types of headaches. This basic, easy exercise will stretch your neck muscles and reduce referred pain to your head. It is also effective for neck pain after a car accident or whiplash.

Try this exercise, 3 sets of 10, without pain or just to the point of pain.

If you have more questions about what other exercises to do for your condition or would like hands-on, manual therapy to improve joint range of motion, reduce pain, improve circulation, enhance muscle flexibility, and increase ease of movement and maintaining good posture, contact Artisan Physical Therapy to schedule an appointment for your physical therapy evaluation and treatment session.

Let's get to the source, and TOGETHER, let's get moving!

2 Simple Exercises for a Healthy Rotator Cuff

Want to have healthy shoulders and rotator cuff? Want to prevent injury when swimming, doing yoga, while weightlifting or crossfit? Want to rockclimb better? Want to play tennis and volleyball for years? Then take a couple minutes and learn a few strengthening exercises for the rotator cuff using an exercise band. The exercises are simple and easy to do wherever you are! No fancy or expensive equipment needed!

Have lingering shoulder pain, a prior rotator cuff tear, aching or weakness? Try these as some basic strengthening.

The rotator cuff is extremely important for basically all arm movement and certainly all shoulder motions. Make sure your rotator cuff is strong and has a lot of endurance to prevent injury!

For recommendations specific to your situation and body, contact Liz in Los Angeles or your neighborhood physical therapist. We are the movement specialist.

Let's get to the source, and TOGETHER, get moving!

Until next time,

Liz

5 Best Neck Posture Exercises

Have you noticed a prominence or lump developing in your upper back and wondered what it was, and if you can do anything about it?

A friend of mine last week asked a question. What is this lump on the back of my neck? When I heard the word "lump," I was not hopeful that this was something a physical therapist could help with. A quick examination revealed that his spine was changing shape over time and he was developing a bony prominence where his neck and upper back meet. Why? This often takes place from repeated stress on the area over time. The forward slouched sitting posture so many of us find ourselves throughout the day while we are doing activities such as studying, working on the computer, driving, and reading.

Think about the elderly person with the stooped posture and rounded upper back. This didn't happen over night but was from poor sustained postures that resulted in progressive stiffness and weakness that eventually prevented them from sitting and standing with a straight back and neck. I like to say the body adapts to what we do to it and the spine is like wet cement that is hardening - what position do you want it to stiffen into?

(Disclaimer: Some people with stooped postures (aka excessive kyphosis) have pathological conditions in their spines that lead to these deformities, not simply due to impaired posture).

What can be done about it? My friend wanted answers! He might not be able to change his "lump" that is already there due to bony changes that have already occurred but maybe we can help it from increasing by working on some posture exercises to improve the flexibility of the thoracic and cervical spine and improve the strength of the muscles that hold these positions. Fortunately for him, His condition isn't painful yet. Doing some simple posture exercises can prevent painful conditions from forming in his neck and shoulders and even reduce headaches.

Subscribe to the blog and get access to the to 5 Best Neck Posture Exercises delivered to your inbox! Who doesn't love free professional advice?

Comment below for any questions you have for a physical therapist and Liz may answer your question in a future blog post!

Exercise recommendations for Minimizing IT (iliotibial) Band Tightness

Did you watch the first video in my 2-part series about IT (iliotibial) band tightness and have been waiting ever since for video 2? Well, wait no longer, for that moment has finally arrived! In part 1, I explained the anatomy of the IT Band and how it can become tight and problematic. It is often muscle imbalances that lead to this or sometimes just shear volume of activity and training.

In this video, I detail some of the practical, basic stretching and strengthening exercises that I recommend for people's whose IT Band and tensor fasciae latae (TFL) are tight, particularly due to the TFL/ITB serving as an "overachiever" muscle in the hip.

Enjoy the video.  Contact me with any questions and/or suggestions for future video topics.

Let's get to the source, and together, get moving!

Liz

Iliotibial (IT) Band Tightness/Syndrome - Anatomy, the Why, & the What

Iliotibial band or IT band tightness effects a large segment of the population and can manifest itself in many negative ways. It can get tight in the sedentary (aka non-active) population but is a common problem with runners, bikers, and cross fit participants or those regularly lifting weights.

Liz created a 2-part video series to help you understand the issue and what to do about IT band tightness and IT band syndrome. In this first segment, Liz talks about what the IT band is and why it becomes problematic. Then discusses some general ways to manage or prevent it. The follow-up to this video will go through specific stretching and strengthening exercises that are beneficial for minimizing IT band tightness.

Subscribe to the blog and the Artisan Physical Therapy YouTube channel to benefit from free advice and education from a movement specialist including part 2 of the IT band tightness series to get the exercise recommendations and demonstration.

Together, Let's Get Moving!

Liz