The Benefits of Massage Therapy

The Benefits of Massage Therapy

Massage was once only available at luxury spas and high-end health clubs. Today, massage therapy is offered in companies, clinics, and even airports. If you’ve never had a massage, keep reading to learn why it’s so good for you.

What is massage?

“Massage” is the term for manipulating your skin, muscles, tendons and ligaments. Massage may range from light strokes to deep pressure. The common types of massage are:

• This is a gentle form of massage. The therapist uses long strokes, kneading, and deep circular movements to help relax and energize you.
• This massage technique uses slower, more forceful strokes to target the deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue. It’s commonly used to help with muscle damage from injuries.
• This massage is similar to Swedish, but it’s designed for people involved in sport activities to help prevent or treat injuries.
• Trigger point massage.This massage focuses on areas of tight muscle fibers that can form in your muscles after injuries or overuse.

Benefits of massage

Massage is generally considered complementary medicine. It’s increasingly being offered along with standard treatment for a wide range of medical conditions.

Studies of the benefits of massage demonstrate that it is an effective treatment for reducing stress, pain, and muscle tension. And while more research is needed to confirm the benefits of massage, some studies have found massage may also be helpful for:

• Anxiety
• Digestive disorders
• Fibromyalgia
• Headaches
• Insomnia related to stress
• Myofascial pain syndrome
• Soft tissue strains or injuries
• Sports injuries
• Temporomandibular joint pain

Beyond the benefits for specific conditions or diseases, some people enjoy massage because it often produces feelings of caring, comfort, and connection.

You can schedule an appointment with our on-staff Licensed Massage Therapist here!

Effective Chiropractic Adjustments

What are the components of an effective chiropractic adjustment?

Just like you rely on your physician and dentist for annual check-ups, it’s also important to make sure you have a plan for ongoing chiropractic care. Chiropractic care is a part of effective, holistic maintenance for your body, and it can help you avoid surgery and ongoing medications.

Visiting a chiropractor may be able to help you overcome some or all of your symptoms like back pain, headaches, or stress.

A chiropractic adjustment can have myriad positive benefits without the stress or invasiveness of surgery or other more intense medical techniques.

Most people do not know what an adjustment actually looks like. In the feature photo, Dr. DeClerk is performing a full body adjustment to free up any restriction of the spine as well as any misalignments that could cause stiffness, pain, nerve irritation or even dysfunction to any area that the nerves supply.

What happens during intake?

An initial chiropractic consultation is similar to that of a standard medical intake. You’ll fill out a questionnaire detailing your health history. Typically, the chiropractor asks you to indicate where you are experiencing discomfort by marking the areas on a drawing of the human body.

What happens during the physical exam?

The chiropractor starts with a physical exam that focuses on the spine, paying special attention to the areas you marked on your intake form. Rather than simply focusing on the areas of concern, the chiropractor will most likely examine your entire spine. For example, if you complained of lower back pain, the chiropractor would also perform a neck exam because the adaptations resulting from injury in one area can result in secondary pain elsewhere in the spine.

The physical exam typically consists of a variety of assessments, such as range of motion tests, palpation, reflex testing, muscle strength comparisons, and neurological and orthopedic tests focused on the main complaint.

What goes into a treatment plan?

Following the physical exam, the chiropractor develops a treatment plan that takes into account:

• Your general health
• The extent of your injury or irritation
• The condition of your spine
• Your goals

Your treatment goals should result from the discussion you have with your chiropractor. Many people seek simple relief of pain or discomfort, while others want to begin a regimen of ongoing care meant to improve their general health.

In initial consultations, your chiropractor will tell you the status of your condition and recommend an approach to care. Ask questions. As in any professional-patient relationship, trust and mutual understanding are vitally important.

What is a typical treatment?

Adjustments are usually the central part of chiropractic treatment. The chiropractic adjustment is a therapeutic manipulation that uses controlled force, leverage, direction, amplitude, and velocity directed at specific joints. In other words, an adjustment involves a lot more than simply opening up a joint.

Your chiropractor will most often make these adjustments to the spine, but he or she might adjust other joints, such as the ankle, knee, wrist, elbow, or shoulder in order to restore structural alignment or to improve joint function. Again, proper structure is necessary for appropriate function, and good extremity function is an important part of healthy daily living.

When being treated for a complaint such as back or neck pain, you will most likely receive a series of adjustments, separated by either a day or a few days, to incrementally reduce irritation and improve normal function. This might continue for several weeks, usually diminishing in frequency.

Adjustments are often accompanied by non-manual therapies such as application of heat or ice, electrical stimulation, orthotic supports for your shoes, rehabilitative exercise, counseling about diet, weight loss, and nutritional supplements.

Little Rock Chiropractor Care

Omnis Rehab is here to help people across Central Arkansas get back to the activities they love with as little pain as possible (and without undergoing surgery).

Give us a call at (501) 313-2844 or Request an Appointment and we will follow up quickly to make sure you’re at your best as soon as possible.

Let’s Talk About Disc Injuries…

Do you have radiating symptoms to your extremities such as numbness, tingling or weakness?

Have you been told you have disc injuries and/or disc degeneration and surgery is the only option?

By pairing regular chiropractic adjustments with decompression therapy, we can not only relieve some of these symptoms, but in some cases restore health to the area.

Helping Avoid Back Surgery

Spinal decompression is a type of motorized traction to help relieve neck and back pain. It works by gently stretching the spine and taking pressure off the discs which can decrease nerve irritation.

Back Pain Relief from Your Little Rock Chiropractor

If you’d like to discuss how we can help you possibly avoid surgery and get back to feeling healthy, please schedule an appointment today.

Chiropractic Care after Car Accidents

Little Rock Chiropractor – Dealing with Car Accident Aches and Pains

If you have recently been in a car accident, then you know how stressful in can be.  One thing that usually takes a backseat to all the activity is your health.

Do not ignore symptoms such as neck pain, back pain and headaches no matter how major or minor they may be.  These things may seem small at the time but tend to linger and turn into other issues down the road.

The last thing you want is to have to change your way of life because of something that was left untreated after an accident.

At Omnis Rehab we are experts in these types of injuries and treat them quickly and effectively.  We want to help you get all aspects of a motor vehicle accident behind you.  We will work with your insurance company, the at fault insurance company and with any attorneys involved.

If you think you could benefit from seeing us after an accident, please give us a call and we will set you up with an appointment ASAP.

Our Services Include:

• Chiropractic Adjustments
• Spinal Examinations
• Back Pain Treatment
• Joint Pain Treatment – Neck, Shoulder, Elbow, Knee, etc.
• Pain Relife
• Massage Therapy

Holiday Deductibles

Holiday Deductible Season First off Happy Holidays from us at Omnis Rehab.  From now until January we know that your schedule is packed, and you do not need one more thing on your plate.  We wanted to remind you, however, that you may have a deductible that will reset at the beginning of the new year.  This means that your price for visits may go up until that amount is met again in 2018.  Please try to get in before the new year if this applies to you.  If you are not for sure, call Sara at our front desk and she will let you know. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! Sincerely, Dr. Brady DeClerk, D.C., CF-L1 Omnis Rehab:  Joint and Performance Center 501-313-2844

Headaches????  We can help!!!

Do you have headaches?  You are not alone.  9/10 Americans suffer from some sort of headache on a daily basis.  What do you do for these?  Pop a pill?  Go to bed?  There is another option…Chiropractic.

Chiropractic adjustments of the Cervical spine, along with soft tissue release of the musculature around the area can provide relief to many types of headaches. Sometimes instantaneously.

By making corrective adjustments to the upper Cervical spine, there can be a decrease in pressure in that area.  This can also take pressure off some of the nerves and blood vessels that supply the brain.  With the spine and surrounding tissues functioning properly, there can be a relief in the headache.  If we can we want to fix the headache by CORRECTING THE PROBLEM AT THE SOURCE.

There are many ways to treat injuries and pain, but most people jump to the extreme treatments first instead of the most conservative.  This cannot be more true in regard to headaches.  People go from treating with over the counter drugs, to major sedatives and opiates in their first visit to the doctor.  There is a time and place for these medications, but if the problem can be treated from the source, without medication and without side effects, please try that first!!!!

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I Have a Disc Injury, Now What?

Omnis Rehab

So something happened.  You lifted something with your back, not your legs, you sneezed, you reached for something that fell, or you just woke up and you are experiencing back pain with radiating symptoms to you arms or legs.  This could be numbness, tingling, deep aching, or even weakness.  What’s next?  You probably go to your PCP and get some anti-inflammatories, XRAY’s and maybe a MRI.  Then with the findings you are told you have a disc bulge, herniation, protrusion, or extrusion.  Panic mode sets in because all you can think of is that you have a spinal injury and surgery is the only answer.

I talk to people daily in this scenario and tell them the same thing.  Lets take our foot off of the gas and just relax for a second.  People live and die by MRI’s of their spine.  The truth of the matter is, if we took 10 random people off of the street that were not experiencing any back pain whatsoever, probably half of them would have some type of disc injury and not have any symptoms.  You go through life running, jumping, falling, and lifting, and those disc are absorbing all the  shock through your spine.  People get disc injuries or disc pain all of the time and just brush it off as a little ache that eventually goes away.  At some point this pain will linger, and you might also get the radiating symptoms stated above and that is when you get checked out.  Sometimes you never know you have anything wrong.

Let’s go ahead and preface this.  I am not saying spinal surgery is not necessary in all cases.  There are times and places for people to have surgical repairs, but with disc injuries it seems like it is used as a first option so often, and once some of these procedures are performed there is no going back.  Also surgery, as with any type of treatment, is not 100% guaranteed to work.  So in my opinion let’s be more conservative, and see if we can treat the injury with non-invasive care, then if they symptoms persist, talk about other options.

SPINAL DECOMPRESSION:  Initially for any disc injury we need to take pressure off of the spine.  With any case, the disc will lose some of its height.  This not only irritates the area, but also makes the foramen, the holes where your nerves come out of, smaller making it easier to irritate the nerves causing radiating pain.  With spinal decompression, we place you on a table that gently distracts the spine at gradually increasing and decreasing weights.  By doing this at the specific angle of the spine we can rehydrate the disc, get better blood flow, take pressure off nerves and hopefully get the disc to go back to its original height.  This is typically non-painful and work wonders for people with disc symptoms.

CHIROPRACTIC ADJUSTMENTS:  Next it is very important to make sure that the vertebrae in that area are in the correct alignment and moving properly.  Therefore when the patient is ready, adjustments can be performed so that all structures are moving and functioning properly.

Omnis Rehab

CORE STRENGTHENING:  Now here is arguably the most important part and often the most neglected.  If we have done all this work to correct the problem, lets now make sure it stays corrected.  The goal of Omnis Rehab is to take care of the issue, but also treat the what may have caused it in the first place.  Your core is not only the muscles in front, your abs  Your core is actually a very complex system of muscles that intertwine all around your back, sides and front that keep you stable and protected.  They basically form a natural back brace for your body.

Now the system above just highlights a treatment plan for a disc injury.  There are also other modalities that we can use such as laser treatment that can speed up the process.  The main thing to take away is this:  Please do not live and die by your MRI findings.  There are often multiple treatments for any injury.  You just have to find what works best for you.  Also surgery can be great, but it is often permanent if it works or not.  I often tell people to try our treatment plan first.  We will not hurt anything any further and in MANY cases we can return you to full function.  Please give us a call if you have any questions or would like to talk with me about possible treatment options.

Dr. Brady DeClerk, D.C., CF-L1

Omnis Rehab:  Joint and Performance Center

501-313-2844

Wellness Care and the Athlete

Since opening Omnis Rehab in connection with Omnis CrossFit, the running joke is CrossFit hurts people and Rehab fixes people.  Although a interesting business model, this was not the intended purpose at all.  If you are a member of Omnis CrossFit, or know a member, you have probably heard that our coaching staff’s first priority is form and function then we add speed and weight when our athletes are ready.  The goal of Omnis Rehab is not only to get a person back to the activities they love, whether it be football, baseball, CrossFit, walking, or playing with their children/grandchildren, but also to let them be able to do these things for as long as possible.

When people think of healthcare, especially chiropractic and physical therapy, it is usually after they feel an injury or after they are sick.  What most people do not realize is that if they took small steps before this, they could eliminate many future ailments.  You get your teeth checked, you get your eyes checked, you even make sure you get your oil changed in your car on a regular basis, but most will not get routine joint and muscular check-ups.  Here’s the thing.  When you finally feel your lower back “go out”,  or when you all of a sudden feel that sharp pain in your shoulder, nine times out of ten it is not that singular activity that caused that pain or injury.  There has been some type of movement error in your body that has built up over time and now you feel the pain.  By the time you feel pain, the damage has been done.  Now instead of a month, 2 month, or 3 month check-up, you need a three to four times a week treatment plan while you lay off most of the activities you love to do.

Another issue we need to look at is what caused the injury or pain.  If we keep treating the same thing just to get the person better, but continue seeing again and again with the same symptoms, we are missing the boat completely.  We need to treat the injury, then fix the movement so that the injury will not occur again.  In the world of CrossFit, we hear everyday that CrossFit will injure you.  This is false.  CrossFit will not injur you, but bad movement patterns will.  If you are physically capable, do not quit your activities because someone says so.  Get assessed and fix what causes you discomfort. 

So as you are reading this, think about your activity level.  The more you demand from your body, the more maintenance you will need.   A well oiled, well maintained machine will work longer and harder for you, and your body is no different.  The pro’s far outweigh the con’s when you think of activity.  Please get your spine, extremities, and muscles checked on a regular basis, and let’s keep you active for a long time to come.  

“AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE.”

         Benjamin Franklin

Brady DeClerk, D.C., CF-L1

Common Chiropractic Questions

Omnis Rehab

I wanted to write a series of posts answering common questions we get at Omnis Rehab.   Today I want to address this.  If I see a Chiropractor, will I have to see a Chiropractor for the rest of my life?

First off let’s think about how the human body should work in a perfect world.  In this world you would be symmetrical, even, from right to left, from front to back and from top to bottom.  When you perform an activity such as lifting object, or when you perform any non-activity like sitting or lying, your muscles should be put in a position where there are equal forces pulling on your bones.  This simply is not possible.  Think about how you are sitting right now while reading this.  Are your shoulders rounded forward?  If your head tilted up or down or ever to the right or the left?  When you talk on the phone, do you hold it between your ear and shoulder?  I think you get the picture.  The world isn’t perfect and neither are the people living it.

Next is the adjustment.  What are we actually doing?  At Omnis Rehab we look at all joints of the body, but for this conversation lets stick to the spine.  Chiropractors look for what are called subluxations.  In the simplest terms, a subluxation is when a joint does not work properly and causes dysfunction in that joint or another part of the body.  Chiropractors will add motion into this joint to restore motion and alignment so that it will function properly.  This is the adjustment.

Now let’s go through a scenario.  A patient comes into Omnis Rehab with no complaints but heard that it was good to get adjusted.  Right after the adjustment is performed the patient gets off of the table with increased range of motion in his or her neck and back and feeling great.  They did not realize that this is how their body should move.  Now the person goes back to their desk job where they sit all day, or their construction job where they bend over all day.  The restricted joints will eventually return, and now they “need” to go back to the Chiropractor.

Your body performs work all day.  Therefore your body will need maintenance. If you feel better and perform better after you see a chiropractor, that just reinforces that you needed to go.  We all perform routine care for our teeth, our eyes, and even our vehicles but most fall short with their spine which houses the most important system of our body, the nervous system.  Each person is different, but everyone should be on a wellness schedule with your Chiropractor whether that be weekly, monthly, or yearly.

Dr. Brady DeClerk,  D.C., CF-L1

The Misdiagnosed and Uncorrected Shoulder

In recent weeks I find myself treating more and more shoulder injuries.  Most of the time it presents the same way.  The patient comes in, points to the front of their shoulder, and says I have biceps tendonitis.  They rested and took anti-inflammatories and still the pain returns.

First off just because you have pain at the front of the shoulder, it does not mean you automatically have problems with your biceps tendon.  The muscles of your rotator cuff can also be the issue.  Especially if you have been doing multiple overhead movements and pushing movements. The muscles of the rotator cuff come across the scapula and attach the the top of your arm.  These contract and act as a pulley system on the arm to take it through external and internal rotation.  Nine times out of ten when a patient comes in with the front of the shoulder pain, I can pin-point an area near the back of the arm pit that is very tight and recreates the pain at the front of the shoulder.  This should be the area we need to treat.

So how do we treat this?  If caught early and not ignored, this is typically an easy fix.  We need to make sure the muscles and tendons of the injured area are moving through the joint space with ease.  You can stretch a muscle all day, but if the muscle fibers, the fascia around the fibers, and even the skin above are not moving independently of each other,  pain and dysfunction will continue to arise.  Techniques like A.R.T (Active Release Technique) and Graston can help release these muscles and tendons and void any adhesions in them.  Along side this we can speed up the healing process.  TENS is one way to help speed this process by stimulating the muscle fibers to heal quickly.  Another treatment that has been shown to greatly speed up the process is using a cold laser therapy (K-Laser).  This can also be beneficial to many other types of soft tissue injuries.

Now that the shoulder is healed, we need to make sure the injury does not recur.  The most common way to do this is to strengthen the muscle of the rotator cuff.  The system we use and in my opinion the best program on the market is the Crossover Symmetry.  The next thing and the most often ignored is fixing the faulty movement that created the injury in the first place.  We need to have a movement evaluation to find out what ranges of motion are hypo or even hypermobile and fix this.  We also need to make sure we are putting the joints in the correct position to be able to perform the activities needed.

The purpose of this post is to not ignore even the most minor discomforts and to know that you cannot chase pain.  Just because an area hurts, does not necessarily mean that is the area to treat.  Find the cause, the root of the issue.  Fix that then correct what caused it in the first place.

There are no bad movements, there are only bad movement patterns.

Dr. Brady DeClerk, D.C., CF-L1