blog

Sitting on your backside all day in various forms of repose and poor posture can wreak havoc with weak backs. In lieu of the last blog, it is probably worth reminding people about good posture and a few simple ways to keep yourself accountable. Try to remind yourself that every time you catch yourself slumping or slouching and correct, you are making an investment in your overall well-being. 

• Feet flat on the ground. This is a test: how long can you last before you cross your legs or adjust “comfortably,” yet crookedly in a chair. One thing that will help you stay grounded is keeping both feet flat on the floor. 
• Shoulders back. Draw back your shoulder blades and take a deep breath. You have relieved the pressure of slumping from the diaphragm and relieved shoulder tension at the same time. 
• Ears over shoulders: this maxim helps you remember not to lean toward the screen, as is the natural human impulse as the hours drag on. Whenever you can remember, hit the reset button so that you don’t strain the muscles in the neck and upper back. 
• Simply keep your butt back in the chair. This encourages you to also keep your back straight, using the chair as a rest. If you really want to up the ante, stick a rolled up sweater or small pillow in the low back to support the natural curvature of the spine. 

Stop leaving work reeling from the effects of 8 hours on a chair in front of a screen. Call our office to enact a proactive plan that will help keep you invested in your health and productivity by keeping the pain at bay. If your muscles are sore and stiff, we provide the hands-on therapy which will relieve tension and open them up to an influx of nutrients through enhanced blood flow. Chiropractic is essential for maintaining spinal balance and thereby regulating the function of the nervous system. Call our office and find out how we can help you today!

Dr. Jeff Haynes, D.C. 

It is not easy to pinpoint the source of a headache: while certain headaches certainly correspond to specific triggers, the majority of headaches are cumulative and specific to the individual: your headache is a manifestation of synergism between genetics, physical and mental health, environmental and other factors. While these are broad categories, the point is that there are innumerable factors pertaining to your headache. Managing the symptom by masking the pain is ineffectual; like procrastinating with any problem large or small, it is unsustainable. A factor that you may not immediately consider is posture, and it serves as a great case in point. 

For those deskbound workers, the office can be a barbaric place for the back. Without a proactive plan in place for stopping it, physical and mental stress is likely to accumulate and whether it be over a matter of days, weeks or months, the body is going to reach a breaking point. Persistently poor posture in the workplace contributes directly to headaches because it puts the spine out of balance. When we slouch down, or slump forward, we are putting a disproportionate amount of weight burden on the spine. The muscles, usually already in a state of weakness, are called on to compensate which often results in painful muscle spasms. Often times, this pain is referred from nerves in the neck to the head, manifesting as a headache. 

Treatment for chronic headaching must therefore be as cerebral in order to combat the wide range of irritants. Keeping muscles strong and the body limber is critical, because if you are going to put it through 8 hours of (mostly)sitting, it needs regular conditioning to combat the weakening that is happening. Learning to love posture is the next great step, because you spend most of the time sitting. And finally, learning to break the cycles of accumulating tension by stretching regularly on the job is a great way to stay headache-free. 

Before all this, we need to get you pain free. No health plan can be successfully implemented if your body is holding you back; we lend you a helping hand to get back to a pain threshold that is manageable so you can focus on living life to the fullest, both within the workplace and without. 

Dr. Jeff Haynes, D.C. 

Welcome to Haynes Chiropractic with a friendly smile.

Our Waiting room

Your journey to the therapy and adjusting rooms.

Full line of therapy modalities.

Full Rehab Facility.

Comfortable and private adjusting rooms.

Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.

It has been said that sitting is the new smoking and to a certain degree it’s true: as a whole, we are sitting more than ever, with poor posture and the added strain of cell phones and computer screens causing us to crane our neck in all sorts of awkward positions. Creating and sustaining a “healthy level of activity,” means preserving the health of your body into old age and in this scenario, every movement is precious. At Haynes Chiropractic, we like to think that big changes start with the smallest of building blocks. If you are deskbound 9-5 and find yourself sitting in the evening to relax, we would like to motivate you to move, even for half an hour a day, to the benefit of your spine. 

When it comes to getting moving, why not start with walking? Walking encourages and provides your body with:

• Spinal balance, which also happens to be important in chiropractic philosophy.
• Improved circulation, getting your blood moving and moving oxygen and nutrients to parts of your body that are in need.
• Better range of motion, a result of more flexibility, which helps you stay strong against injury.
• Reduced pain, through endorphin release. Simply put, walking makes you happy and the body responds by producing more of the chemicals which make us feel that way.
• Fights stiffness, by freeing up the pressure and strain that accumulates from long days spent stagnant. 

If we can just sneak 30 minutes of walking into your daily routine, whether it be a pre-breakfast stroll or a post-dinner digestive walk, we believe you will naturally acquire a thirst for the healing properties you experience. From there, who knows what kind of success you can achieve down the line. If pain is holding you back from walking, give our office in Bakersfield a call. We provide you with chiropractic adjustment, therapeutic massage, spinal decompression and traction modalities that can help you shed the pain and get on your feet again. 

Dr. Jeff Haynes, D.C. 

Consider your core: is it an ambiguous muscle group in the middle of your body, or is it a dynamic group of muscles that synergize to influence just about every movement (sans limbs) your body makes. So many people hear “core,” and think, “crunches/situps.” While this is good for establishing the center of your body as a force producer, people with back pain may want to consider conditioning the core as a stabilizer to lend support to beleaguered structures in the lower back. 

Core strengthening is a key tool in any health plan attempting to rehabilitate an injury that is causing back pain and stiffness. Exercising these muscles regularly prevents them from weakening and keeps them strong enough to bear some of the burden of the upper body. Exercises that treat the core as a stabilizer include: 

• Planks and side-planks
• Bridges
• Deadlifts
• Twisting crunches>regular crunches

These exercises help create a powerful center of the body to help prevent rehabilitate injuries and prevent their recurrence. Any plan that is made in light of injury should be discussed seriously with a medical professional. At Haynes Chiropractic, we can help you address pain and stiffness with the following modalities: chiropractic adjustment, therapeutic massage, spinal decompression and spinal traction. From there, we can discuss what level of activity you could possibly maintain in support of your health plan and help you make subtle lifestyle adjustments to support the health of your back. 

Dr. Jeff Haynes, D.C. 

How do you define success in sport? Regardless of whether you are setting out to win a competition, achieving a new personal best or putting up a higher weight on the bench, staying healthy should always be a primary objective. At Haynes Chiropractic, we offer athletes of all levels and abilities the expertise and treatment that helps them prevent and recover from the wear and tear of athletic endeavor. High and low-impact sports each come with their own set of risks and rewards: for example, football is a sport that involves a lot of direct trauma to the spine while tennis injuries often result more from the torsion that you put your body through during the swing. No matter your sport, here are some benefits to be derived from adding chiropractic as an adjunct to your fitness plan.

• Increased blood flow
• Improved range of motion 
• Better flexibility
• Better respiratory function 
• Lowered risk for injury
• Promotes proper biomechanics

Routine spinal adjustments help reduce the irritation of nerves in the back, shortening the recovery time between training. We utilize other modalities including massage and trigger point therapy to deliver oxygen and nutrients to injured muscles, helping them heal faster. For Olympic athletes, casual runners and everyone in between, chiropractic is a good way to optimize your training. 

Dr. Jeffrey Haynes, D.C.