Kezia - Hope Clinic Care

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This day and age, stress is something that we all experience quite often. Whether we feel stressed out at school, at work, at home, or anywhere else, stress can easily build up over time. Before we know it, our muscles become tense. Worry not, this is where progressive muscle relaxation technique becomes handy! Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is a deep relaxation technique that is mainly used to manage stress, anxiety, insomnia, and muscle tension.

PMR is based on the simple and specific practice of tensing or tightening one muscle group at a time, followed by a relaxation phase by releasing the tension. The purpose is to recognize what a tensed muscle and a relaxed muscle feels like, so that when you begin to become tense due to stress or anxiety, you will realize it quicker and be able to control it and return to a relaxed state.

How does progressive muscle relaxation work, exactly? It’s pretty easy! First and foremost, you need to find a quiet place, free from any distractions. You can start by lying on your back or sitting down. Make sure to remove any glasses or contact lenses if you are wearing them. Loosen any tight clothing, too.

Next, take several slow, deep breaths. Let’s try doing PMR from the bottom part of your body: your feet. Take a deep breath, then pull your toes downward as much as you can to tighten the muscles around that area, and hold them for about five seconds. Afterwards, let go to release the tension. Exhale slowly as you do this step. You should feel your muscles become loose. Shift your focus on the difference between tension and relaxation; remember, it is necessary to notice how different tension and relaxation feels. Remain in this relaxed state for about 15 seconds before working on the next muscle group.

Moving on to the next muscle group: your calves. Squeeze your calf muscles as hard as you can and hold for another five seconds before releasing the tension. Stay relaxed for 15 seconds, then work on your knees and thighs by moving your knees toward each other and squeezing your thigh muscles for five seconds. Like you’ve done before, loosen your muscles afterwards.

The steps are basically the same with every muscle group. You can work on your buttocks, arms, hands, shoulders, jaw, eyes, and eyebrows. With your hands, for example, you can tighten the muscles by clenching and unclenching your fists. With your shoulders, you can raise them toward your ears, and with your eyebrows, you can just raise them as far as you can. Of course, every session needs to end with a tension-release and relaxation.

Now that you get a hang of progressive muscle relaxation, let’s jump into how it can be beneficial in managing stress and anxiety. Progressive muscle relaxation has been proven to be effective in reducing symptoms or feelings of anxiety, depression, stress, and anger. By practicing PMR often, you will learn what relaxation feels like, enabling you to recognize whenever you start to get tense during the day. Progressive muscle relaxation can also improve your sleep and eases neck pain, because it induces relaxation.

But that’s not all! PMR helps decrease the frequency of migraine episodes as well, and it does so by balancing your serotonin levels. Furthermore, a high level of stress might lead to the clenching of jaw or grinding of teeth, which may cause you to develop a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder. TMJ is the joint that connects your lower jaw (mandible) to your skull, and a temporomandibular joint disorder may cause facial pain, tenderness at the joint, and trouble in moving the joint. Through a consistent practice of progressive muscle relaxation, tension or stress levels can be reduced and TMJ disorder symptoms will be alleviated.

Progressive muscle relaxation is a simple practice, yet it turns out to have many benefits! So, if your days are filled with fast-paced activities, or if you tend to get stressed a lot, we recommend you to set aside some quiet time to do the PMR method regularly as one way to improve or maintain your overall well-being. Your body, and your mind, will definitely thank you!

We probably think that seniors and lifting weights are an unlikely combination. However, as we get older, our physical bodies will naturally experience changes. Our bones may shrink in size and density, our muscles may lose strength and flexibility as well. On average, after you reach the age of 50, your muscle tone declines by 15 percent per decade, leaving you more susceptible to poor balance. Staying active and lifting weights can help slow down the weakening process of your muscles and bones. How? Well, here are the 3 reasons why strength training is important for seniors!

Strength training develops stronger bone mass and slows down the pace of age-related muscle loss (also known as sarcopenia).

Sarcopenia occurs faster once you’ve reached the age of 75, and its symptoms include muscle weakness and loss of stamina. There are several factors that cause sarcopenia (source: https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/guide/sarcopenia-with-aging), which are:

Reduction in nerve cells responsible for sending signals from the brain to the muscles to start movement.
Lower concentrations of some hormones, including growth hormone, testosterone, and insulin-like growth factor.
A decrease in the ability to turn protein into energy.
Not getting enough calories or protein each day to sustain muscle mass.

Weight and resistance training can delay this process by improving endurance, developing range of motion, converting protein to energy, and increasing lung capacity. It also helps with your hormones and neuromuscular system.

Strength training helps provide pain relief, especially for those dealing with arthritis.

By strengthening the muscles, tendons, and ligaments around your joints, weightlifting can significantly improve your range of motion. It can minimize your pain as well by increasing the strength of muscles surrounding the afflicted joint, which eases stress on the joint itself.

Strength training helps you to maintain your independence in doing daily activities and improves your overall well-being.

When you commit to a strength training program, it will improve your endurance and ability to walk. This is important because among seniors, insufficient leg strength is a powerful predictor of future disabilities. Your endurance comes in handy to maintain your independence as well, so that you won’t need to completely rely on other people to do day-to-day activities, such as getting up from a chair, carrying groceries, etc. Weight and resistance training is not only beneficial for your physique, but for your mental health and mood, too! You will feel good about yourself, you can sleep better, and it’s less likely for you to develop depression.

Before jumping in, however, it’s important to talk with a doctor first. Make sure that the workout and exercise program you want to do is suitable for you based on your health conditions and fitness status. Consulting with a healthcare professional will help you determine which exercises to include or avoid to keep your strength-based workouts safe.

When it comes to working out, there are two main components that everybody knows about. Yes, it’s cardio and weight training! Sure, both are significant for your health and fitness, but then the question becomes: which should come first? Is there something such as “the right order” in working out? And does it affect your exercise quality?

To answer those questions, it all comes down to your personal fitness goals. Are you aiming to lose some weight, improve your cardio fitness, or focus on building strength? If your primary goal is to increase your endurance or lose body fat, then it’s better to perform cardio first. However, if your main goal is to increase muscular strength, then perhaps you would like to commit yourself to strength training first. This way, you will get the most out of your workout routine to achieve your goals.

One of the most common misconceptions about cardio is that it burns more calories than weightlifting. But in reality, the two are equally good at burning calories. Cardio before weights has its benefits, and so does weight training before cardio. When you choose to do cardio first, it helps burn fat and reduces the risk of injury, and thus making your strength training more effective, helping you to get the desired muscle definition you are looking for.

Cardio also helps to get your blood pumping, produces an extra boost of endorphins, and prevents you from feeling sluggish during your workout. Your muscles will get warmed up and you’ll enter your strength training session more prepared. The idea is to work on cardio for about five minutes, then do some light, lower intensity strength training exercises for about 20 minutes, and then finish with another five minutes of cardio.

On the other hand, if you choose weightlifting first, it will prevent your arteries from becoming stiff and help you increase muscular strength. Cardio workouts, such as running and cycling, can leave you tired afterwards, which then impacts the amount of force you can exert during strength training. So, going for the weights directly is recommended if you aim to gain muscle mass. Strength training before cardio also contributes greatly to weight loss, because muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue does.

Whatever you decide to do first, the bottom line is this: be consistent! It is better for you to have consistency in your workouts and exercise plans than to worry too much about which one to do first. Analyze your goals and plan accordingly. More importantly, be patient! It will take a while before you can see any results.

Be careful to not get injured as well. Maintain good posture in every workout you do, since it’s easy to get your muscles pulled and strained if you’re not paying attention. When this happens, though, there’s a perfect solution for you: Hope Clinic Care, a pain management clinic in Scottsdale, AZ where you can get non-invasive and non-opioid treatment.

With an over 93% success rate, Hope Clinic Care offers excellent treatment procedures that are 100% drug-free! Using verified hands-on techniques and dual modality devices, Hope Clinic Care provides solutions to relieve pain by facilitating your body to maximize its healing and repairing ability. No drugs needed, yet just as effective—if not more. Make an appointment now at www.hopecliniccare.com, or call (1) 480 659 5470.

Waking up with a stiff neck is definitely not a pleasant way to start your day. It can be painful, extremely inconvenient, and interfere with your daily routine and activities. With a stiff neck, even simple movements can be a little more difficult to do. In a lot of cases, strained neck muscles are a result of incorrect sleeping positions, but how could you have noticed the way you sleep when you are… well, asleep?

Fret not, although it might sound impossible to control how you sleep, there are some things you can do to minimize awkward sleeping positions! In addition to that, take a look at these main causes for a stiff neck and how to treat one.

Awkward sleeping positions

We all have our own preferred sleeping positions, but there are 3 main positions: back, side, and stomach. The position that is a total no-no is sleeping on your stomach! Why so? When you sleep on your stomach, your lower back will become strained, because your belly sinks into the bed, adding pressure on your spine. Your neck may also be twisted to one side for a long time, leading to strained neck muscles. Thus, in the morning, you will wake up feeling sore instead of feeling refreshed.

If you continue sleeping with this pattern for quite some time, your stiff neck problems may develop into something more serious, such as herniated disc or radiculopathy. Meanwhile, sleeping on the back may cause brief episodes of sleep apnea and some problems on the lower back as well, which is why professionals recommend sleeping on your side.

Unsuitable pillow

Choosing an appropriate pillow is crucial for a good quality of sleep. You need to make sure that your pillow can support your head and neck properly. A hard pillow might feel a tad uncomfortable, but oftentimes, neck problems are actually caused by a pillow that is too soft. Soft pillows cannot hold your head and neck properly like firm pillows do, creating tension in your neck muscles. When you use a firm pillow to sleep at night, it will help you in keeping your spine straight and aligned—from your atlas (located in the neck) to your tailbone, posing less of a risk to having a stiff neck. Using a feather pillow or pillows made with “memory foam” is recommended because they can conform with the shape of your head and neck, but make sure to change your pillow once they lose their firmness and shape.

Sudden movements

Sudden movements during your sleep, especially when you’re dreaming, such as flinging your limbs, rolling over, tossing and turning may create tension in and sprain your neck muscles.

Now that you know the primary causes of a stiff neck, what should you do when you experience it one morning? Should you just accept it and go on with your day with discomfort and pain? Absolutely not! Here are some simple, easy, and fairly quick ways to deal with a strained neck.

Ice or heat therapy

When you wake up with a stiff neck, put some ice on it for about 20 minutes to limit the swelling and cut down on inflammation. If the pain lingers until the next day, try replacing ice with heat (perhaps by using a warm towel or a heating pad). Put it on your strained neck for 20 minutes as well. Heat is known to relax your muscles and improve blood flow, which may reduce the pain and increase your neck’s range of motion.

Stretching and massage

Massaging the sore area of your neck gently can also help relax the muscles and increase blood flow, gradually improving your flexibility. However, you need to be careful to not overdo it and make it worse. Other than massaging, doing some stretching will help with your stiff neck, too.

Some stretching techniques that you can do:

Touch your right ear to your right shoulder and push the left side of your head gently for 10 seconds. Do the same with your left ear and left shoulder. Repeat these movements for 10 repetitions per side.
Slowly turn your head to the left until you feel a slight stretch (it’s alright if you cannot turn too far due to the strain) while standing with your neck and your back straight. Hold it for 10 seconds, then turn to the right and do the same thing. Repeat for 4-5 times per side. This is to increase your flexibility little by little without causing more pain.
Stand up straight, look up to the ceiling as far as you can, hold it for 10 seconds and come back to the starting position. Next, look down to the ground as far as you can (while still standing straight) and hold it for 10 seconds as well. Do 10 repetitions for each up and down movement.

Another thing that you can do to manage a stiff neck, especially if it’s getting worse, is to visit Hope Clinic and get appropriate treatment. Located in Scottsdale, AZ, you can get non-invasive and non-opioid treatment for your injuries. With an over 93% success rate, Hope Clinic offers excellent treatment procedures that are 100% drug-free!

Using verified hands-on techniques and dual modality devices, our therapists and professionals provide solutions to relieve pain by facilitating your body to maximize its healing and repairing ability. No drugs needed, yet just as effective—if not more. It’s time to say bye-bye to neck pain!

Contact us and book your session through (1) 480 659 5470 or visit https://hopecliniccare.com/contact-us/.

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How many of you reach out for aspirin or ibuprofen whenever you experience pain and discomfort? Most of us visit the hospital when we get sick, and we usually receive antibiotics prescriptions from our doctor. Athletes and fitness junkies may also consume appropriate doses of muscle relaxants to ease their sore muscles. Although they are scientifically-proven and beneficial, medicines and prescribed drugs may have a fair amount of unwanted side effects.

Let me break it down for you.

Antibiotics

There are several common antibiotics that your doctor may have prescribed: penicillins, cephalosporins, macrolides, and fluoroquinolones. They are useful to treat various infections from skin, respiratory, and ear infections to joint problems, sexually transmitted diseases, and meningitis. Unfortunately, the side effects of these antibiotics include allergic reactions, nausea, diarrhea, upset stomach, and drowsiness.

Aspirin

Aspirin is known as a quick fix for relieving pain, reducing fever, and soothing inflammation. In some cases, aspirin is beneficial for people with high cardiovascular disease risks, if consumed in appropriate doses under the doctor’s supervision. However, some side effects of aspirin are definitely unpleasant, which involves diarrhea, constipation, drowsiness, rash, headache, heartburn, abdominal pain, and nausea.

Muscle relaxants

When you struggle acutely with neck pain, back pain, or other types of muscle cramps, even doing simple daily tasks can be agonizing. To alleviate the pain and improve your mobility, muscle relaxants may be prescribed for you. While it can help, it also has a few side effects that should not be underestimated. Most doctors prescribe muscle relaxants to be consumed for no longer than 2 weeks, because ingesting them for a long time can cause you to be dependent or addicted. Not only that, they may cause fatigue, drowsiness, dry mouth, dizziness, headache, anxiety, and decreased blood pressure as well.

Muscle relaxant should not be the only option to treat muscle spasms, rather, it should be as a part of the treatment, because it does not cure the pain completely, but it basically has a sedative effect that prevents your nerves from transmitting pain signals to your brain. A more effective way is to get physical therapy while also taking the prescribed muscle relaxant. However, with its side effects in mind, and the fact that it does not actually heal, letting it go altogether is not a bad idea, is it? There is a better alternative that does not require muscle relaxants consumption.

Hope Clinic Care is a place where you can get non-invasive and non-opioid treatment for back pain, neck pain, or any other muscle strain. With an over 93% success rate, Hope Clinic Care offers excellent treatment procedures that are 100% drug-free! Using verified hands-on techniques and dual modality devices, Hope Clinic Care provides solutions to relieve pain by facilitating your body to maximize its healing and repairing ability. No drugs needed, yet just as effective—if not more.

Decide to live pain-free naturally, today. Visit us and book your session now at www.hopecliniccare.com.

This day and age, we all suffer from some kind of pain, whether it is from injury, illness, or something alike. Yet, we tend to not take good care of ourselves. Dr. Oei of Hope Clinic is here to help, and he specializes in healing the pain from the inside out, not with injections, but with a permanent healing process. The name says it all—Hope Clinic truly gives us hope.

As a medical doctor, Dr. Okky Oei started off in the ‘70s. One thing that sparked his interest in the area of pain management was his own experience he had in medical school. He injured his back, and when he sought treatment for it, all he got was drug prescriptions. Soon enough, he realized that his body reacted sensitively toward prescriptions and could not handle too much of it.

This led him to think that there had to be a better way to manage pain without using drugs. Medicines and injections are helpful, but most of the time, they do not fix the root cause of chronic pain. He studied medicine and pain management using different modalities for over eleven years. People with chronic pain began coming to him, and in many cases, pain really affected their quality of life. Dr. Oei dove deeper into studying the human body and the way it works, and eventually, came up with non-invasive and non-opioid treatment methods using advanced technology, including microcurrent electrical stimulation modality.

In this podcast, Alicia Haygood shares her experience with Hope Clinic after dislocating her shoulder due to snowboarding. She sought treatment elsewhere, and although it did not hurt as much anymore, her shoulder still felt weak. Her brain blocked the pain, but her mobility was not improved. Eventually, she came to Hope Clinic and got treated using microcurrent electrical therapy. Afterwards, she felt a lot better—and she stated that, “My mobility had turned a complete 180 since I came to see you [Dr. Oei].”

Dr. Oei explains a little more about how the human body works, and the way these non-invasive modalities help the body to heal itself. Aside from microcurrent electrical stimulation, Hope Clinic also offers a balancing treatment to help people with insomnia and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Learn more and listen to the full podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5xcXMLJIVDrFIThC8pntK5?si=pDrvnehyRJ2P39_u8a1FJg&nd=1.

Are you familiar with the term myofascial release? It’s a therapy technique commonly used to treat myofascial pain syndrome, which is a chronic pain disorder that affects the musculoskeletal system, caused by sensitivity and tightness in your myofascial tissues (“myo” means muscle, and “fascial” means fascia). Fascia itself is a thin casing of connective tissues that surrounds every organ, muscle, blood vessel, bone, and nerve fiber to keep each one of them in place. The muscle tightness sets off the trigger points within your myofascial tissues, where the pain originates.

Due to the pressure upon these sensitive trigger points, you may even feel pain in seemingly unrelated body parts. For instance, the trigger point is located somewhere in your upper back, yet you can feel the pain from your upper back all the way to your arm. Myofascial pain occurs in about 85% of people sometime throughout their life stages, yet it is often underdiagnosed, misdiagnosed, or overlooked. Both men and women are equally impacted, although middle-aged inactive women possess the highest risk.

To help people with this chronic pain disorder, healthcare professionals and physical therapists often resort to myofascial release therapy. Myofascial release aims to ease the tightness and tension of your trigger points, thus reducing the pain you feel. However, determining the source of your pain might not be an easy task, which is why myofascial release is often applied over a broad area of muscle and tissue instead of at single points.

How does this work? Normally, myofascia should feel elastic and pliable, so, first, your therapist will gently apply pressure to the myofascial areas on your body while searching for stiff or tensed areas. Next, your therapist will conduct focused manual pressure, massaging, and stretching to loosen up restricted movement, and thus, lessening the pain. Sometimes, therapists will use essential oils as well during the therapy.

Due to its non-invasive and non-opioid nature, myofascial release has little to no side effects and risks. Nonetheless, this kind of treatment is not suitable for people with: burns and painful wounds, fractured or fragile bones, deep vein issues, and under blood-thinning medications. Overall, myofascial release therapy is beneficial and effective in treating pain—both mild and chronic. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Now, are you wondering where you can receive myofascial release therapy? We got you! Located in Scottsdale, AZ is a non-invasive and non-opioid pain clinic: Hope Clinic Care! Here, you can get myofascial release therapy for your muscle strains and any other injuries.

With an over 93% success rate, they offer other various excellent treatment procedures that are 100% drug-free! Using verified hands-on techniques and dual modality devices, Hope Clinic Care provides solutions to relieve pain by facilitating your body to maximize its healing and repairing ability. No drugs needed, yet just as effective—if not more.

Learn more and make appointments at www.hopecliniccare.com.

Our brain is a vital part of our body. It is the center of our decision making process, controls the function of the other body parts, regulates our breathing and heartbeat, and so on. However, the brain is also very delicate. Some of our daily habits may harm our brain, and we may not even be aware of them. So, pay attention to 6 common habits that can damage your brain!

Doing nothing.

Yup, doing nothing can damage your brain in the long run. Think of your brain like a muscle: If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. Your brain is designed to think. Acquiring new skills, learning different languages, having interesting conversations, reading, challenging old belief systems, or even puzzles and crosswords can help stimulate your brain and develop neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to adapt).

Consuming too much sugar.

Sugar is usually linked with health conditions like diabetes and obesity, but it turns out that consuming too much sugar can harm your brain, too. How so? High blood sugar can shrink the brain and affect the brain’s functional connectivity, disrupting the brain’s ability to learn and memorize.

Sitting all day.

A lot of jobs require us to sit for long periods. However, this is detrimental to our brains and overall health. Sitting means inactivity, and inactivity is the opposite of healthy. When you are physically active, it keeps the brain arteries open, boosting blood flow, which carries oxygen and other essential nutrients to the brain. On the other hand, if you sit too much, your brain could look just like that of someone with dementia. Sitting too much also raises your risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

Listening to loud music.

Hearing loss is linked to brain shrinkage and an increased risk of developing dementia. One possibility is that the brain has to work harder to process what is being said and it is not able to store what was heard into memory. Using your earphones and listening to music for 30 minutes continually can permanently damage your brain.

Not getting enough sleep.

A third of American adults don’t get the recommended seven hours of sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Lack of sleep may cause excessive daytime sleepiness, depression, and problems with cognitive performance, including memory, reasoning, problem-solving and communications skills. Moreover, poor sleeping habits are associated with an increased risk of dementia.

Smoking.

It is well known that smoking harms a lot of organs in our body, and that includes the brain. Smoking can shrink your brain, causing memory loss and damaging blood vessels, thus reducing blood flow to the brain, which also means that your brain receives less oxygen and nutrients.

To fix these habits, there are a few things you can do. You can keep your brain active by learning new languages and doing crossword puzzles. Finding delicious and healthy alternatives to replace added sugars, such as fruits, will help you cut back your sugar intake as well. Other than that, doing simple home exercises, or simply walking around the neighborhood, can be good for your brain and your physical health.

If you want to listen to music, you can! But keep the volume under 60% of your device’s maximum volume, and make sure to not listen to it for long hours. Try to also fix your sleep schedule by keeping a consistent bedtime schedule and ditch the distractions. Deep breathing and meditation might help improve your sleep quality, too. Lastly, learn to quit smoking! If you need help to quit smoking, talk to a doctor about nicotine patches and prescription medications. There are quit smoking programs and other resources that your doctor can recommend for you as well.

Have you ever pulled a muscle and had to visit a physiotherapist to treat it? Physiotherapy, also known as physical therapy, is beneficial in many ways! Generally, physiotherapy helps restore movement and function when a person is injured or disabled, and it is suitable for people of all ages. Physiotherapists usually perform a combination of hands-on manual and exercise-based techniques to help patients achieve the best results, such as improved range of motion and flexibility.

Some of the health problems that physiotherapy can help include:

Bones, joints, and soft tissue – for example: back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, and sports injuries.
Brain or nervous system – for example: movement issues resulting from a stroke or Parkinson’s disease.
Heart and circulation – such as rehabilitation after a heart attack.
Lungs and breathing – such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis.

Other than these, physical therapy encompasses a wider range of varieties and benefits. There are several specific kinds of physiotherapy that serve different purposes. Here are 5 types of physiotherapy that you may not know!

Sports physiotherapy

This branch specifically deals with sport athletes and professionals, assessing and treating sports injuries at all levels. The main goal is to ensure that the athletes are not in pain anymore and are in their best condition, supporting their athletic performance and their overall health development.

Rehabilitation and pain management

Physiotherapy can help patients manage and get rid of various body aches and pains. The treatment methods are typically personalized to cater to specific patient needs and requirements.

Musculoskeletal physiotherapy

This type of physical therapy deals with pain experienced throughout the musculoskeletal system, which consists of the muscles, joints, bones, ligaments, and tendons. The purpose of the treatment is to increase mobilization, relieve pain, manage injuries, treat soft tissue damage, improve flexibility, and decrease the risks of getting injuries in the future.

Paediatric physiotherapy

If you have infants, toddlers, children, and adolescents who experience neuromuscular, developmental, or skeletal disorders, paediatric physiotherapy is the answer you need! The treatment techniques basically aim to enable children to move around freely and participate in the day-to-day activities, but physical therapy may also alleviate pain, improve fine and gross motor skills in children, help them regain range of motion & strength, and facilitate better cognitive processes.

Vestibular rehabilitation

Vestibular rehabilitation is an exercise-based program to improve balance and reduce dizziness-related problems. Signs of dizziness include: feelings of unsteadiness, being lightheaded, floating, tilting, sensations of moving and whirling (vertigo). Before the treatment plan is developed, a few tests must be conducted, such as balance, leg strength/flexibility, gait (the way an individual walks), neck mobility, neck & arm strength, visual stability & mobility, and positional testing (including an inner ear exam). The goal of your treatment plan is therefore to improve any deficits that were identified through the tests and the overall function of the body.

If you would like to book a physiotherapy session, feel free to contact Hope Clinic! Located in Scottsdale, AZ, Hope Clinic provides non-invasive and non-opioid treatment methods to treat your chronic pain. Our therapists and professionals are equipped with adequate knowledge and skills to give you the best possible personalized treatment. Reach out to us through +1 480 659 5470 or visit our website: https://hopecliniccare.com/contact-us/.

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Your workout posture may determine the quality of your workout routine.

How many of you put hitting the gym as your 2022 resolution?

Maybe you want to lose weight. Or maybe you want to gain weight. Or maybe you don’t care so much about it, and instead, you’re aiming for better stamina, better endurance, and overall, just a better lifestyle. Whatever it is, there are several things you need to pay attention to, especially if you’re a beginner. One of them is your workout posture.

Fitness is a world of its own. There are countless articles, hacks, tips and tricks out there. You’ve probably heard about how important correct posture is while exercising, but why? Well, to put it simply, posture is the body’s alignment and positioning in relation to the force of gravity. Gravity exerts pressure on our joints and muscles, so, maintaining a good workout posture ensures that the force of gravity is distributed evenly throughout our body as you exercise.

Let’s say you’re doing squats without a proper form. Your back is rounded, your knees go too far beyond your toes, you’re not going low enough… if you do this repetitively, it will not only strain your joints, but it also won’t train the muscles you’re targeting enough. Eventually, you’re left with knee, ankle, or lower back injuries instead of a leaner lower body.

Now, let’s take a look at the proper postures of 2 popular exercises: squats and push-ups.

1. Squats

Squatting is a popular exercise method for training lower body muscles, such as glutes and hamstrings. To do it correctly, these are the steps you can do:

Stand with your feet a little wider than your hips.
Make sure that your toes point slightly outward.
You can put your arms straight, or you can bend them while clasping your palms together.
Your heels and the balls of your feet must remain glued to the surface.
Keep your core tight and your upper body straight as you squat down, reaching a little over a 90-degree angle. Make sure that your knees remain facing outward and stay in line with your toes.
Straighten your legs to lift back up.

2. Push-up

Ah, the classic upper body strength exercise… push-ups. Seems simple, yet apparently, a lot of people still do it incorrectly. So, here are a few steps of how to have a proper push-up form:

Get down on all fours, straighten your legs, and place your hands slightly wider than your shoulders.
Keep your core and glutes tight, and your back straight.
Your buttocks must be in line with your body, not higher in the air or lower to the ground.
Gradually lower yourself, arms bent all the way while keeping your posture straight until your chest is close to the floor, but not entirely touching it.
Push yourself back up. When you do this, maintain your posture. Do not hollow out your back, as it would hurt your shoulders.

So, have you been doing it right? If not, well, it’s not too late to correct your workout posture. However, we know that sometimes, accidents occur. Sometimes, things just go wrong. Maybe your muscles ache, or your joints are strained. Fear not! When injuries happen and it seems like your body is giving up, there’s a convenient solution for you: Hope Clinic Care.

Hope Clinic Care is a place where you can get non-invasive and non-opioid treatment. With an over 93% success rate, Hope Clinic Care offers excellent treatment procedures that are 100% drug-free! Using verified hands-on techniques and dual modality devices, such as a proprietary 3D Motion analysis, we are able to identify areas that are either misused or dysfunctioning. This enables us to more specifically identify and treat the problem.

Hope Clinic Care provides solutions to relieve pain caused by incorrect workout posture by facilitating your body to maximize its healing and repairing ability. No drugs needed, yet just as effective—if not more. Make an appointment now at https://hopecliniccare.com/contact-us/ or call (1)480 659 5470.

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Strength training develops stronger bone mass and slows down the pace of age-related muscle loss (also known as sarcopenia).

Sarcopenia occurs faster once you’ve reached the age of 75, and its symptoms include muscle weakness and loss of stamina. There are several factors that cause sarcopenia (source: https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/guide/sarcopenia-with-aging), which are:

Reduction in nerve cells responsible for sending signals from the brain to the muscles to start movement.

Lower concentrations of some hormones, including growth hormone, testosterone, and insulin-like growth factor.

A decrease in the ability to turn protein into energy.

Not getting enough calories or protein each day to sustain muscle mass.

Weight and resistance training can delay this process by improving endurance, developing range of motion, converting protein to energy, and increasing lung capacity. It also helps with your hormones and neuromuscular system.

Strength training helps provide pain relief, especially for those dealing with arthritis.

By strengthening the muscles, tendons, and ligaments around your joints, weightlifting can significantly improve your range of motion. It can minimize your pain as well by increasing the strength of muscles surrounding the afflicted joint, which eases stress on the joint itself.

Strength training helps you to maintain your independence in doing daily activities and improves your overall well-being.

Fret not, although it might sound impossible to control how you sleep, there are some things you can do to minimize awkward sleeping positions! In addition to that, take a look at these main causes for a stiff neck and how to treat one.

Awkward sleeping positions

Unsuitable pillow

Sudden movements

Sudden movements during your sleep, especially when you’re dreaming, such as flinging your limbs, rolling over, tossing and turning may create tension in and sprain your neck muscles.

Now that you know the primary causes of a stiff neck, what should you do when you experience it one morning? Should you just accept it and go on with your day with discomfort and pain? Absolutely not! Here are some simple, easy, and fairly quick ways to deal with a strained neck.

Ice or heat therapy

Stretching and massage

Massaging the sore area of your neck gently can also help relax the muscles and increase blood flow, gradually improving your flexibility. However, you need to be careful to not overdo it and make it worse. Other than massaging, doing some stretching will help with your stiff neck, too.

Some stretching techniques that you can do:

Touch your right ear to your right shoulder and push the left side of your head gently for 10 seconds. Do the same with your left ear and left shoulder. Repeat these movements for 10 repetitions per side.

Stand up straight, look up to the ceiling as far as you can, hold it for 10 seconds and come back to the starting position. Next, look down to the ground as far as you can (while still standing straight) and hold it for 10 seconds as well. Do 10 repetitions for each up and down movement.

Using verified hands-on techniques and dual modality devices, our therapists and professionals provide solutions to relieve pain by facilitating your body to maximize its healing and repairing ability. No drugs needed, yet just as effective—if not more. It’s time to say bye-bye to neck pain!

Contact us and book your session through (1) 480 659 5470 or visit https://hopecliniccare.com/contact-us/.

Learn more about stiff neck here:

Let me break it down for you.

Antibiotics

Aspirin

Muscle relaxants

Decide to live pain-free naturally, today. Visit us and book your session now at www.hopecliniccare.com.

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Now, are you wondering where you can receive myofascial release therapy? We got you! Located in Scottsdale, AZ is a non-invasive and non-opioid pain clinic: Hope Clinic Care! Here, you can get myofascial release therapy for your muscle strains and any other injuries.

Learn more and make appointments at www.hopecliniccare.com.

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Doing nothing.

Consuming too much sugar.

Sugar is usually linked with health conditions like diabetes and obesity, but it turns out that consuming too much sugar can harm your brain, too. How so? High blood sugar can shrink the brain and affect the brain’s functional connectivity, disrupting the brain’s ability to learn and memorize.

Sitting all day.

Listening to loud music.

Not getting enough sleep.

Smoking.

It is well known that smoking harms a lot of organs in our body, and that includes the brain. Smoking can shrink your brain, causing memory loss and damaging blood vessels, thus reducing blood flow to the brain, which also means that your brain receives less oxygen and nutrients.

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Some of the health problems that physiotherapy can help include:

Bones, joints, and soft tissue – for example: back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, and sports injuries.

Brain or nervous system – for example: movement issues resulting from a stroke or Parkinson’s disease.

Heart and circulation – such as rehabilitation after a heart attack.

Lungs and breathing – such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis.

Other than these, physical therapy encompasses a wider range of varieties and benefits. There are several specific kinds of physiotherapy that serve different purposes. Here are 5 types of physiotherapy that you may not know!

Sports physiotherapy

Rehabilitation and pain management

Physiotherapy can help patients manage and get rid of various body aches and pains. The treatment methods are typically personalized to cater to specific patient needs and requirements.

Musculoskeletal physiotherapy

Paediatric physiotherapy

Vestibular rehabilitation

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Your workout posture may determine the quality of your workout routine.