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In the adult human body, muscles make up between 60-70% of total body weight, meaning that there are a lot of them! Designed first for movement, a secondary purpose of the muscular system is to provide for maintenance of posture and body positioning. It’s no wonder that muscles are among the most sensitive parts of our body.

Trigger points are tight areas within muscles that create problems (namely, pain) in other parts of the body. Through a process called referral, whereby the actual pain is felt in a spot other than the point of painful stimulus, a tight muscle in the back can cause you a headache or neck pain. This is not a matter of scar tissue within the muscle, but of a heightened level of sensitivity in a specific muscle; with trigger point therapy, we seek to release this painful point from tension through targeted pressure and release. 

The most common method of treating trigger points involves using direct pressure from the chiropractor’s finger or thumb! This may not be the most comfortable part of the massage, but once the trigger point is released, we can follow it up with a more relaxing massage that increases circulation and provides an influx of oxygen and nutrients to the site, helping it recover quickly. 

Trigger points are a daily irritation that should not be allowed to exist; call our office in Bakersfield to schedule an appointment and find out how we can release these problematic points and teach you how to do it at home or in the office as well!

Dr. Jeff Haynes, D.C. 

Lower back pain is epidemic and even the healthiest people we see in our office have had some experience with a stiff, achy lower back. While it maybe normal for a pregnant woman in the final trimester, an anterior pelvic tilt is not good news for anyone else. It is a positioning of the body that often results from chronically poor posture and regular inactivity, and it looks like this: 

• shoulders rounded, 
• abdomen protruding 
• head tilted forward, also known as anterior head carriage

This is a position that, if carried on regularly, can lead to unhealthy curvature of the spine, leave the muscles of the back out of balance and magnify the weight of the head to the spine. If this is you, there has never been a better time to start fighting back! The pelvic tilt is a stretch that can be used just about anywhere to provide relief in the lower back. 

• Lay on your back with knees elevated and feet flat on the floor. 
• Place your hand in between the gap formed by the small of your back and the floor. This will be the space you fill with the stretch, so now remove your hand. 
• Inhale and tilt your pelvis, lifting the buttocks and using the abdominal muscles until your back touches the ground. 
• Hold for five seconds then exhale and return to the starting position. 
• This makes 1 rep, repeat 3 times. 

15 seconds to provide relief from the daily accumulation of stress on the lower back. Be diligent! Try performing these stretches when you wake up and right before bed; consistency is the key to a successful stretching program. If you need help addressing postural deficiencies, structural and muscular weakness, or something more serious that is creating a drag on your life, give our office a call so we can help you start on the road to health today. 

Dr. Jeff Haynes, D.C. 

The syndrome of overtraining is a pitfall that only the human can have: under the influence of the reward system in the brain, we innately believe that more exercise should always bring more muscle or more stamina, but this is not always the case. There is a point of optimization beyond which you can actually cause more harm than good to your own body; it is not always easy to realize exactly when you have reached this point, but you can usually tell by listening to your body. Here are some key signs:

• Feeling drained after a standard workout
• Depression
• Chronic fatigue
• Inability to concentrate
• Abnormal aches and pains

The problem could be nutrition, especially if you are not hydrating fluidly or providing your muscles with enough protein after a heavy workout to help them rebuild. But even the most hardcore athlete, who thinks they have perfected their gym routine down to the perfect formula, can push themselves too far on a given day, particularly when you take into account the presence of nervous system imbalances. At Haynes Chiropractic, we offer specialist support for the athlete’s body to help them improve recovery time between workouts, rehabilitate injuries, work on stiff, strained muscles and keep the spine balanced, thereby influencing the efficiency of the nervous system as it relates to working out.

Chances are, if you have overtrained, you feel it. If you need help getting back to your personal standard of excellence, give our office in Bakersfield a call to schedule an appointment today.

Dr. Jeff Haynes, D.C.  

Regardless of your chosen sport, chiropractic can help keep your body in conducive shape for growing muscle, increasing stamina and avoiding injury. For competitors in high-impact, low-impact and no-impact sports, we can help ensure that your biomechanics are sound so that you can retain your maximum possible athletic advantage. Regular chiropractic helps to: 

• Maintain range of motion, by contributing to more flexibility
• Improve reaction times 
• Improve pulmonary and respiratory functions
• Naturally increases energy levels
• Regulates the nervous system 
• Improves immune function
• Focus on relieving muscle tension build-up, inflammation and break up scar tissue. 

High-impact sports have been shown to deal as much damage to the human body as automobile collisions, and at a much higher rate of repetition. As a result, vertebrae are regularly out of alignment and muscles are strained, making it hard to avoid injury, let alone reach your peak performance levels. For low-impact athletes, chiropractic helps to reduce your vulnerability to injury, especially those sustained from twisting motions. At Haynes Chiropractic, our services act as an augment to the athlete:  we specialize in keeping your body resistant to injury during activity, and in receptive shape for regrowing muscle and rebounding between workouts. 

Dr. Jeff Haynes, D.C. 

Everyone is their own type of athlete: no matter where you find yourself in the spectrum, from novice to Olympian, the endeavor to specialize in a sport and discipline the body and mind is always worthwhile. At Haynes Chiropractic, we want to support your athletic ambition by keeping your spine balanced and your body lithe against injury so that you can enjoy your sport long into life.

Chiropractic works to remove interference from the nervous system by correcting slight misalignments of the spine, the body’s main conduit for nerve communication. In doing so, we effect improvements in key aspects of the body’s functioning involved in physical exertion, from helping you capture more oxygen in the respiratory process, to optimizing muscular development. Along the way, we help you preserve your range of motion and recover quickly and efficiently in between work outs. 

Chiropractic is for those concerned with: 

• building muscle faster. By regulating the nervous system, we ensure that your muscles contract and release properly, helping you to build muscle quickly.
• breathing better. Subluxation in the cervical region interferes with the nerves that power the diaphragm, limiting your potential for capturing oxygen and expelling CO₂ effectively. 
• staying flexible. This is a key to preventing injury. The more your body can bend without breaking, the harder you can go.
• healing faster. Injuries happen, but they don’t have to keep you off your feet for long. We have the modalities that will help you get back to your pre-injury standard in a reasonable amount of time. 

Essentially, we want to help you optimize your athletic routine. If you are interested in our services, give our office in Bakersfield a call and schedule an appointment today. 

Dr. Jeff Haynes, D.C. 

You read it right: text neck is now a viable ailment and it is causing the premature onset of spinal degeneration in many young people. Cell phones have become the preeminent device in our daily lives: business can be conducted, social engagements can be made, info can be accessed and things can be purchased from your pocket. In the process, we forget that our spines are suffering. Chances are, when you pull out your cell phone you hold it at hip level. Whether for discretion’s sake or to look casual, or because it is simply ingrained, we hold the phones down low and ask our necks to crane downward to view them. In this picture, your shoulders are slumped forward, and because the neck is out of neutral alignment, the burden of weight from the head to spine is magnified and muscles in the shoulder and neck are strained trying to compensate. 

This quandary is particularly problematic because the people using cell phones the most heavily are teens and young adults. For these young people, their spines have not even finished developing fully and already we are creating a problem of persistent poor posture and spinal imbalance. At Haynes Chiropractic, we believe that awareness is our greatest tool in the fight against text neck. It is a problem of posture: everyone knows the maxim, “sit up straight,” but it is still easier to slouch and, as lazy creatures, we usually end up slouched or slumped. The same rule applies with cell phones: odds are you are not going to stop conducting cell phone business from the hip and lap, but having an awareness of the damages it can cause may make you pause for thought. 

If your neck or shoulders are feeling stiff or painful for any reason, we can help. Keeping your spine balanced through chiropractic adjustment, and your muscles in a state of good health are some of the best ways to prevent against the incursions of poor posture. Furthermore, we can help you establish posture as an institution in your life: whether it be for sleeping, sitting, standing or texting, the are always ways to improve. 

Dr. Jeff Haynes, D.C. 

Here is a simple truth, of which the importance cannot be stressed enough: maintaining a healthy weight is the best thing you can do for yourself moving forward in life. Whatever your health goals, priorities or needs, they can probably be helped by learning how to keep off the excess pounds. A perfect example of this is the health of your spine: every extra pound is increasing the burden on the structures and muscles in your back, particularly in the lumbar region. Besides throwing off the balance of your spine, excess weight can lead to subluxation, herniated discs and a host of other conditions that irritate spinal nerves and cause pain. 

• Chiropractic adjustment: our penchant for exercise is severely reduced when we are experiencing pain. An adjustment can alleviate the nerve pressure involved with subluxation and restore spinal balance. By increasing your range of motion and making you less vulnerable to injury, you can exercise with more confidence.
• Exercise: what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for the other. Your fitness plan must necessarily be a unique plan, including stretches and muscle building for core stability to ease the burden on the lower back. We can help you come up with a customized plan that you feel comfortable with and keep you accountable.

At Haynes Chiropractic, we support your weight loss plan by making sure your body is in conducive shape for exercise. If your days are filled with chronic back pain, give our office in Bakersfield a call. The health of your spine is an excellent reason to consider dropping a few pounds and we want to inspire you with a bit of practical wisdom and some hands-on, all-natural help. 

Dr. Jeff Haynes, D.C. 

Walking is a profound activity: it gets us off our butt and out the door to interact with the day, to take part in the human experience, to see, hear and smell new things. But something equally profound happens to your musculoskeletal being during the average walk as well: every step you take is contributing to the longevity of your body. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of a walk is that it contributes to spinal balance, which is something we take seriously at Haynes Chiropractic. Taking a walk contributes to your well-being in the following ways: 

• Preserving range of motion: walking helps tone your “everyday muscles,” the ones used most frequently, keeping you more flexible and less susceptible to injury. 
• Improving circulation: getting your blood moving means that the cells in your body are receiving the oxygen and nutrients you need to feel your best.
• Reducing pain: you feel more at ease during a walk. This is because your body naturally releases endorphins and promotes the movement of sedentary joints. 

The next time you go for a walk, whether it be to the grocery store, to the mailbox or to the bathroom, think about the importance of each step. At Haynes Chiropractic, we believe that walking is purposeful and we want to help you rediscover its power in terms of well being; no matter what health goal you have in mind, it can benefit from an after dinner stroll.

Dr. Jeff Haynes, D.C. 

In the last post we discussed stretching on the job, which, when done correctly, should not get you in trouble with the boss. However, more humans than ever are seeking out electronic entertainment from the comfort of the couch, which means that after a day of trauma in the workplace, the spine is subject to overly-plush couches or outdated recliner chairs which offer virtually no real support for the spine. The same principal applies at home: to prevent premature spinal degradation, we must be proactive to preserve a comfortable range of motion in the joints of the spine. A great way to do this is with simple yoga poses that can be performed in your living room during your next Netflix marathon. 

One of the most basic yoga moves is child’s pose, a full body exercise which:

• calms the mind and body
• Enhances respiratory function
• Increases circulation 
• Eases anxiety and stress, both physical and mental
• Lengthens and stretches the spine, relieving tension in the neck and back
• Stretches the hips, thighs and ankles.

As you are sitting through hours of television, you may not be aware of the tension accumulating in the different parts of the back. Break this tension with the child’s pose:

• Kneel on the floor with knees touching and buttocks resting on your heels. 
• Inhale deeply
• Exhale and rest your torso over your thighs, touching forehead to ground. 
• Lift buttocks slightly and stretch arms out over the head.
• Touch your palms to the floor until you feel a stretch in the shoulder blades. 

Hold this position for as long as feels comfortable. Try 1 minute at the end of every hour spent sedentary. We promise you will feel a difference. At Haynes Chiropractic, we want to help you unlock the secrets of spinal longevity and greater well-being. Being disciplined about stretching is a great place to start, especially if you have the advantage of an already “healthy spine.”

Dr. Jeffrey Haynes, D.C. 

Can you dedicate a few minutes out of every hour to keeping your body limber and inoculated against the worries of the workplace? It keeps your body free from the distraction of the pain, and increases circulation to all parts of the body including the brain, making you a more productive you. Whether its work or relaxation which has you dedicating your time to sitting, throwing in a stretch every now and again is the greatest way to ward off muscle tension and headaches.

Simple stretches include: 

• Shrugging your shoulders. Give them a wriggle and get creative: it’s all about the movement to defeat stagnation. 
• Put one leg over the other and gently twist in the opposing direction. Chances are you will feel this one all over: from core to hamstring, upper back and neck this stretch is a great reliever. Hold it for as long as feels comfortable, then repeat in the opposite manner. 
• Clasp your hands together in front of you with arms fully extended and palms facing outward. Stretch by pushing your fingers against the back of your hands. 
• Stretch the neck: ear down to shoulder, chin to chest, and looking up at the sky. Do all these gently and stop while you are still comfortable. 

These stretches barely take any time at all, but your body will thank you. Chiropractic is all about optimization, and that is why stretching in the workplace is so exciting. It is a microcosmic example of how the littlest factors can make the biggest difference in your health plan. For achieving spinal balance throughout all phases of the day, give our office a call. 

Dr. Jeff Haynes, D.C.