Activate Chiropractic

05/05/2020

💪 McKenzie Back Extensions 🧠
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McKenzie Back Extensions are a well researched and great exercise for those recovering from a posterior disc bulge. The repeated low back (lumbar spine) extension aids to help "centralize" the posterior disc bulge by pumping and stretching the disc material back into the disc space.
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Perform 10 reps of this exercise 1-2 times a day. For each repetition, pause at the top of the movement and hold for 2 seconfs before lowering yourself back down to the ground.
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You may experience some discomfort the first few times you perform the exercise but you should feel some relief afterwards, if symptoms worsen then cease performing the exercise and visit a health professional in your local area for assessment.
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You may also start to notice that the symptoms decrease in the legs and lower back and begin to only be felt in a specific spot in your lumbar spine - this is a good thing known as localisation! It means that your disc bulge is recovering!
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24/03/2020

🧠NERVE FLOSSING/NEURAL GLIDE 🧠
▫️Part 1 of 4 - Dural tension
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With the isolation measures increasing it's important that we are able to help ourselves as much as we can to look after our health and wellbeing. For those of you suffering from nerve pain (whether this is caused by a disc bulge, stenosis or other means of compression/injury) there are some exercises we can do to help manage the pain, reduce symptoms, and improve our quality of movement.
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Neural gliding (or nerve flossing) uses the idea that instead of stretching the nerve (which will aggravate it further) we try to move the targeted nerves back and forth (kind of like how you floss back and forth between your teeth!) allowing the nerves to regain some freedom of movement and release any areas that have built up tension. This means more pain-free ranges of motion!
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This particular exercise is focused on reducing tension in the spinal cord and particularly helps those with nerve pain that is either in the back, the hips or radiating into the legs.
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1️⃣ Tuck your chin to your chest and slouch/slump forward
2️⃣ With your toes pointed up towards your head, slowly extend one leg allowing it to straighten out at the knee
3️⃣ As soon as you start to feel any tension while straightening the leg, also start to lift your head up and straighten your back out of the slouching position while continuing to straighten the leg.
4️⃣ As you lower the leg back down, also start to slouch and tuck your chin in to your chest again.
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✅ 5-10 repetitions once daily for each leg
✅ Perform slow and controlled movements
✅ Stay in a movement range that is relatively pain free
✅ Stop if symptoms worsen
❌ Push into pain or force the movement if it hurts
❌ Do too many sets or repetitions, it may aggravate symptoms instead of helping

20/03/2020

💪 Home Arm Workout 💪
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With so many of us stuck at home due to the corona virus situation we have to get a little bit creative with our workouts. Here is a quick little arm workout that uses nothing but yourself and a towel!
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You can use your own body to increase or decrease the difficulty and resistance allowing you to still get an effective workout in without needing any equipment.
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12/03/2020

Looking to improve your workouts? Visit our website at www.activatechiropractic.com.au and follow the steps in the video below to purchase your personalised 8-week training program!

09/03/2020

💪 DIPS 💪

Dips are a great bodyweight exercise to incorporate into your routine. They mainly target the chest and triceps but also have significant involvement from various shoulder and abdominal muscles, making the dip an effective and energy efficient upper body exercise.

When performing a dip there are a few key things to remember:

1. Leaning forward will slightly increase the activation of your chest muscles, while remaining aligned more vertically will increase the activation of your triceps.

2. Maintain a straight line from your head to your hips, don't move either during the exercise.

3. Ensure that at the bottom of a dip your elbows are directly above your wrists (stacked) and that your shoulders lower only to the height of the elbows and not below.

06/03/2020

https://youtu.be/I1Mjk80VUJU

Our first video is now up! Check out this 8-minute home ab workout (HIIT) that you can follow yourself without any equipment!

Workout:
HIIT - 45 seconds on, 15 seconds off. This mean for 45 seconds do as many reps as you can and then take a 15 second rest before moving onto the next exercise.

1. Crunches
2. Leg Raises
3. Heel Taps
4. Wipers
5. Plank
6. V-Ups
7. Cross-body Climbers
8. Hollow Hold

8-Minute HIIT Home Ab Workout! Train your core strength and develop six-pack abs (or 4 or 8 depending on your genetics!) by following this quick abdominal ro...

06/03/2020

"We are all failures - at least the best of us are." J.M. Barrie.

The comfort zone is easy, it's consistent, reliable and most of all it's known. That's why we like it and why we don't like to leave it. But to develop ourselves further (in any aspect of life) and reach our goals, hopes and dreams, we need to sometimes step out of this zone and become uncomfortable. It's in these moments that we are pushed and challenged, and where we also learn more about ourselves. There is nothing wrong with failure, if we've never failed then have we ever really tried?

Whatever your circumstances or aspirations are, push yourself to your maximum potential and ditch your comfort zone!

03/03/2020

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9Qm8XznJV8/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

💪 PUSH-UP VARIATIONS 💪
Click the link to view on Instagram.

Push-ups are such a versatile bodyweight exercise that you can alter in so many ways to achieve different goals. Here are just 4 variations you can try out:

1. Jumping push-up. This is a great explosive exercise to develop those fast-twitch muscle fibers. When in the air make sure to keep your shoulders and hips level so that you return to the ground evenly!

2. Superman push-up. This variation allows for recruitment of the lats and turns this into an exercise that also works your back!

3. Diamond push-up. By bringing the elbows in close to your side and below the height of your shoulders this exercise helps to better target the triceps muscles.

4. Regular push-up. The original and a great chest focused exercise.

Remember to keep your body straight during these movements and be mindful of the angle of your arms (watch closely to see how to position them).

01/03/2020

The plank and the side-plank. Two great home core exercises that don't require any equipment.

We've already talked about how good the standard plank is for developing your core and in particular your transverse abdominis muscle (which has co-contraction with your spinal intrinsic muscles too!), but the side plank is a great variation that targets your oblique muscles. The obliques are important core muscles that are involved mainly with rotation, when we twist and turn.

For more information on what muscles make up the core head to our website and check out our blog!

18/02/2020

Exercise doesn't just impact the way our body looks or moves but it changes our mind in so many amazing ways as well!

Studies even show that different types of exercise activate different areas of the brain:

High intensity exercise has a higher association with the areas of the brain that deal with emotion, whereas low intensity exercise is associated more with the cognitive function areas of the brain (concentration, thought processing etc.)

It's important to remember that we need to take care of our health in all areas, not just physically.

09/02/2020

What is the core and why is it important? Our new article is up and briefly explains the basic function of the core and what muscles are involved in it (with pictures!).

Visit our website or click the link below to read:
https://activatechiropractic.blogspot.com/2020/02/what-is-core-and-why-is-it-important.html?

The core has such an important role in our function and quality of life, it is an often neglected group of muscles and if you aren't already training it then now is as good a time as any to start! It's never too late to improve your core 💪