It all started with a tautness in my hip flexors and all the stretching I did, failed to bring any positive results. I took the obvious measures in the form of reduced running and cardio exercises, spent more time for yoga and finally cut down the number of days for workouts, yet no relief seemed to be coming my way.

Fast-forward two months. My lower back would be stiff, like a rock in the mornings: it hurt and took pretty long to loosen itself. Next were the hamstrings they were so reluctant to loosen up that I could feel them when I bent over to tie my sneakers. I especially felt this in the mornings Till I couldn’t take anymore of it.

I like to think I’ve always been athletic, at least throughout my adulthood.  I simply adore an activity that causes me to sweat. I adore running and biking. I have to my experience teaching of spinning classes for a number of years. I’ve completed triathlons and half-marathons, all for kicks, and mostly with no foundation of training. I just would get up, felt like going for a race and joined others, just like that.

Well, I used to be, to say the least. I have no patience for these nagging physical limitations. I’m 45years of age, but new norms make it 29!.

My husband (who I met at a 5K road race by the way) would also want me to mention that my personality tightened as well as my hamstrings. Hope you get it, on missing my regular workouts, the whole family suffers.

I do believe in divine intervention though and about this time I discovered the foam roller exercises through a fabulous New York City teacher, Susan Hitzmann, owner of Longevity Fitness, Inc. I certainly believe in divine intervention and thru His grace happened to learn of the foam roller exercises through a remarkable New York City teacher named Susan Hitzmann; the owner of   Longevity Fitness Inc.. She is the conductor of a program called M.E.L.T., meaning Myofascial Energetic Length Technique. Now, foam roller exercises is all I want to use.      

I coincidentally ended up in one of her many workshops about fascia and what to do about it.   She employs tools , many on the foam roller  for adding length and thus easing muscular uneasiness. That made me realize that it just wasn’t muscles that were tight, but I was being disturbed by the surrounding sheath of fascia that was causing me problems.   

What’s fascia? Think of it like a wet suit that fits snugly over your muscles, like a web or a net  Some have it more than others.

She educated us on how to roll on a foam roller to re-hydrate the body to bring forth a sense of length, space and release. God! What an intense release; like loosening your belt at the end of a heavy meal.

I was totally hooked after one workshop. I was prompted to purchase an exercising foam roller, akin to a yoga mat with foam in it and slightly bigger.

My muscles began to lose their stiffness, causing my lower back to loosen up and that encouraged a more comfortable sleep. As a result I would wake up feeling more rested and flexible.  I could start again with my daily cardio routine and strength training. To cut the story short, I began having better moods. Finally, I retained all my good old affection for my family and life got normal for everybody in the family.

Technorati Tags: back, exercises, fitness, foam roller, health, pain

You don’t need anyone to tell you about the difficult symptoms of fibromyalgia if you are someone who suffers from the pain created by it. The painful symptoms can be widespread, taking place above and below the waist, and involve both sides of the body. The deep aching that accompanies the condition often radiates, shoots, stings, and even gnaws at your body.

As if the acute pain and suffering from fibromyalgia weren’t enough, a surprising ninety percent of fibromyalgia sufferers also have chronic fatigue syndrome, perhaps you may be one of them. This “double whammy” can leave you not only suffering from pain and fatigue, but also melancholy, headaches, numbness and pins and needles, dizziness, sleep disturbance, swollen feeling in tissues, stiffness, sensitivity to noise and stress, and cognitive impairment.

If you are suffering from one, or both, of these two pernicious conditions, you may find it impossible to participate in even the simplest activities in life, and you may even be experiencing depression and feeling defeated. The good news is that your chiropractor can assist you. Chiropractic treatment has been found to be highly effective in reversing trauma-induced injuries by decreasing inflammation to the nerves in the brain stem and spinal cord that can cause pain, neuromuscular dysfunction, and fatigue.

What do “trauma-induced injuries” have to do with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome? You may find the connection surprising

While the precise cause of these conditions is not known, recent research has pinpointed traumatic neck injuries, such as whiplash and concussion, as risk factors for the onset of both fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. And, here’s the thing: though the pain and fatigue produced by spinal injuries can come on immediately, in many cases it can take quite a long time, perhaps months or years to develop. These types of injuries may no be remembered by the time fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms arise.

your Chicago chiropractor is an expert when it comes to knowledge and treatment of the spine. Chiropractic management has been shown to be highly effective in reversing trauma-induced spinal injury. See your chiropractor today to see if chiropractic treatment the pain and suffering you’ve been experiencing from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Technorati Tags: Chiropractic, chiropractor, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, pain

With reference to headaches, most common ones are the tension headaches, with the ache being experienced around the whole head or in a particular spot, such as behind the eyes or the base of the skull. There are a lot of factors that trigger tension headaches such as anxiety, depression, poor posture, even stress, and your sleeping pattern can also play a major role. Headaches should never be taken for granted, as they often turn out to be signs of a severe medical condition. For example a weakened blood vessel or perhaps even a tumor.

Maintaining a headache diary will help in distinguishing this. It will also help you establish if it is particular foodstuffs or work stress giving you headaches, occurring 4 to 12 hours after you have eaten a triggering food. Furthermore, you want to give your headache rating pointed at its severity i.e. 1 to 5 scale, one pointing to slight tension and little discomfort and five referring to a severe migraine. Only you can judge for yourself the severity of the pain you are experiencing. There are various tension headache solutions like chiropractic, acupuncture, and other alternative remedies which are popular amongst people who experience tension headaches. The Journal “Headache” published a survey of about 110 people who were sufferers of constant tension headaches. Only 41% believed alternative remedies and methods had any positive impact.

The Harvard teaching hospital, named Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, have of late conducted placebo-controlled studies of chiropractic impacts, and acupuncture on tension headaches. One particular study even concluding that out of 29 people suffering from various forms of tension headaches, just one session of acupuncture reduce the amount of days, when they had headaches in comparison with the placebo studies in which false acupuncture was conducted. However, on a separate research on tension headaches, 39 of them had no convincing proof that acupuncture had helped them. Whereas studies conducted on over 150 people at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, revealed that chiropractic spinal manipulation for a six-week period showed similar levels of improvements. Even four weeks after the treatment people who had been given the therapy showed a marked decrease in headache intensity and frequency.

BIDMC also concluded some natural tension headache remedies were equally effective, like Tiger balm, which is also applied to help ease muscle pain. It consists of camphor, menthol, and cajaput resulting in a form of aromatherapy. Studies conducted on 57 people compared Tiger balm, applied to the fore head, against some placebo ointment that had a mint essence smell. Tiger balm ended up being more helpful in over 60% of the case studies even in comparison with acetaminophen popularly known as Tylenol.

In the search for remedies for tension headaches, there is also a small list of herbs and supplements you should avoid. Kava, which is suggested as a muscle relaxant and will help ease stress has not been proven to reduce headache tension or increase muscle relaxation. Its use has also been linked with severe liver failure. As always, use caution and consult a doctor before using any natural  or herbal remedies.

Technorati Tags: headache, headache remedies, headache treatments, headaches, health, pain, tension headache