While chiropractic adjustments are awesome at putting your body back into alignment, staying in alignment requires some additional work on your behalf. Range of motion exercises are important because if you don’t expand your range of motion, your body will quickly go out of alignment to compensate for the areas with limited movement capacity. Limited range of motion leads to subluxation.
The homework we give you isn’t major but the improvements will be! You may walk out of our office feeling so good but if you want to keep feeling that good, it requires consistency in some simple exercises you can do at home to increase mobility, strength, and flexibility.
As chiropractors, we are looking for and measuring muscle tone and strength, range of motion and spinal stability in addition to looking for subluxation and addressing specific areas of pain. Oftentimes, due to muscle memory, our muscles develop long term ways of holding our bodies that are imbalanced and lead to weakness. If the right side of your neck is compensating for the left side or your upper back is holding all the tension because of weakness in your lower back, strengthening and improving mobility in those limited parts of your body is our goal in your homework exercises. This way, next time you come for your adjustment your body will have more ability to hold it, instead of quickly resorting to habitual ways of movement leading to subluxation.
At WellSpine KC, we know that chiropractic is done WITH you, not FOR you. This is a team effort. We will give you homework exercises that are personalized to your body’s unique needs and areas of muscle weakness or limited range of motion. We will also work with you to develop better posture and work habits as well as better ways of lifting and movement.
If you work hunched over your computer all day, we will give you exercise to release the tension in your neck and shoulders and stretch your upper back, neck and chest muscles. We will also work with you in developing better posture at work so that you aren’t overly stressing your neck and upper body. See our article on for some additional workstation tips. We also work with you on how you are lifting and carrying. If your work requires intense physical labor, we will help you with exercises that strengthen weaker muscles in your body so that you are lifting and carrying weight evenly throughout your body.
Parents often come in with subluxations from lifting and carrying their babies and toddlers in ways that put too much strain on one side or one part of the body. A lot of lifting, twisting and bending goes into carrying for young children. We have specific exercises that can help stretch sore muscles and strengthen weak ones, increasing movement and mobility in the areas that are often underused and providing relief to overworked muscles. We also teach you how to care for your kids in ways that are kind to your spine. This way as you care for your small children, you are also carrying for yourself in working gently and intentionally with your body.
We often see kids that come in with pain from sports injuries and just the wear and tear from playing hard as a kid. Exercises are just as important for your kids who are engaging in sports and physical activities that put strain on their necks or backs. We can’t keep our kids away from all injury risk but we can certainly teach them exercises that will prevent unnecessary strains or tears.
At WellSpine KC, we value each individual patient and work with you not as simply one of many patients but on a unique and personal level. You are important to us and we take your health and wellness very seriously! We take the time with each patient to offer adjustments based on your body’s personal needs and areas of pain and injury and we will teach you specific exercises based on which areas of your body need stretching, strengthening and increased range of motion. We will teach you these exercises during your appointment and do them along with you so you are clear on exactly what you need to do at home. Don’t be afraid to ask us to show you any exercise a second, third or fourth time! We will do it with you as many times as you need to be able to successfully practice at home.
Movement is healing. And the right exercises make all the difference.
Even just 5 minutes a day of homework exercises will give you double the improvement that you would get from simply adjustments alone. You are worth it!
Call WellSpine KC today and let us help you not just live life but live it feeling WELL. We take your wellness seriously and invite you to experience the difference that our chiropractic care can make.