Hi Everybody! It’s Karen with Wellness Works NW. The seasons have changed and the air is different. Feeling good, huh! Until you go to do something and you feel this pain. It stops your whole world. You were getting ready to get into your car and the pain is all you can think about. When you talk to people and they ask you anything, you tell them about this pain that starts in your back and goes down your leg and out your big toe. You can’t help but tell everyone about it.
Pain can be top of the mind because that is how pain is and you are willing to tell anybody who will listen to you about it because you feel so bad. Now pain is relative. You can have someone else that had the very same pain and they thought was a walk in the park. You never want to discredit someone’s pain and tell them to get over it.
Back pain is probably the number onw chronic pain that can nearly cripple you. It makes you not want to do anything, go anywhere and you definitely don’t want to exercise. We have to watch that. We have to proactive with our pain.
We know we are not used to having that pain. We know it is there. We need to know what to do about the pain. We have all kinds of options.
First we to the doctor to get a diagnosis. We may have try different meds. You don’t want to just keep ignoring it until it gets worse.
Maybe you are sitting to much. That is easy to do, especially if you have job where you sit. Often times what you can do when you do sit too much is exercise. Exercising is normally a great way to go because if you don’t exercise, the pain is going to get worse, especially with arthritis and similar chronic conditions. You hear people saying: its that time of year…I ache. And that is when you still have to move.
If you don’t feel like you can get up, I understand that because pain is real, try exercising in whatever chair you are in. Try moving. One of the places we hold the most stress is in our shoulders. So just try moving by doing some shoulder shrugs. You have to keep moving because you don’t want to be in a situation where your joints are all locked up because you weren’t moving. Try going back the other way too.
Next you can put your arms out straight from your sides at shoulder level. Next criss cross your arms over in front of you, slowly, one at a time. This exercise will reach your obliques. Even if you are in pain a lot of times just taking your time and doing about 4-5 reps and then resting will help you feel a bit better.
Another good exercise is to hold your arms straight down to your sides and lean over slowly on one side and then the other. Raise higher shoulder up when you get to the top and then bring it down and move slowly over to the other side. Sometimes you are going to hear a pop and that is ok. Just move slowly and make sure to breathe.
You have got move it, move it, move it. When you move you are going to have much better results with your pain. I promise you. One thing you can get to help you move through the pain are some resistance bands. You can get resistance bands at lots of stores or even on line. You want the resistance is our friend. Try raising your arms above your head, palms facing each other with the bands on the backs of your hands and slowly stretch the band. Take your time. This working your biceps and triceps. As you can do more, that is fine and you might develop a little routine.
If you need a little music to get going, do that. Don’t be upset because you can’t go 10,000 steps right now. Find out what you can do to fight this pain. There is a reason for the pain. We want to get in there and find the reason and see what we need to do. Take all the preventative tests you need to take and find out what is going on.
Remember, even in the chair there are all kinds of exercises that you can do. You can put your legs up. You can do this while watching TV, talking to a friend, drinking moonshine…I am kidding about the moonshine. Whatever you are doing, you can still move. Don’t let the pain get you. Say I am going to move and make this happen.
If you have any other questions or maybe you would like us to cover a topic just go to our website at WellnessWorksNW.com. There are all kinds of great articles there. One of our business partners, Jamie Holloway does writing there, my Summer writes. All kinds of topics that you are going to be interested in. This is another way to be proactive.
Find out why the pain is there. What you can do. And we are going to be standing right there with you because we believe in you. I am sending you are all kinds of prayers for painless evenings, and positive vibes. Keep smiling and move it, move it!
One way you can suggest topics to us to go visit the Dear Jamie page on our website where you can email us with ideas that you want to learn more about.
#KeepMoving #WellnessWorks #WootWoot
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Karen G. Clemenson is not a doctor or a scientist. She is a real person that eats too much sometimes and misses her workout on occasion but is mindful of her path toward wellness, all the time.
Karen understands that your physical wellness does not begin and end with your membership to a local gym. She knows that weight loss management begins with steps; some small and some large. These steps include diet, physical activity and retraining of the thoughts and habits that keep you from being successful on your path toward wellness.
