Common Reason for Surfers having Low Back Pain and Neck Pain

Congrats to Santa Cruzian Nic Lamb for winning Titans of Maverick last week.

Quick Tips and Tricks for while you are surfing to prevent low back pain neck pain

1. )  Cross your feet.  Once crossed, push them against each other and you should be able to feel more core engagement.  This can should be a light engagement otherwise you will fatigue them out.
2. )  while laying on your board a few cat/cow or pelvic tilt exercise get a sense of what your end-range is in extension, and how far you can tuck your pelvis posteriorly. Do this should straighten the lumbar curve.  Listen to a point where it feels like you have taken pressure off of the facets, but still has a lordosis in the lumbar spine.
3. )  If you are having trouble engaging those muscles then pressure your knees into your board.  This will hlep you engage your lower abs pelvic floor and hips flexors,

For the most part surfing is really great for your back.  All day long we are usually in a flexion position ie sitting at a desk, sitting in the car, sitting on the couch.  

Everyone could benefit from incorporating a type of extension exercise regime into their life.  Yoga, swimming, or surfing are a great way to make sure you are getting enough extension and opening up your heart.

A common cause in the surfers that I treat for low back pain and neck pain is that have lost mobility in the thoracic spine.   They try to make up for it in the lumbar spine, especial at the lowest vertebral joint L5/S1. Usually the lower abdominal core is not also not engaging either which allows the person while surfing to repetitively hyper-extend at the L5/S1 area.  Over time this will cause irritation, inflammation, and pain and can lead to earlier degeneration of the facet joints.

Don't let this kill your Stoke.  Its all about Prevention

If this is an issue for you, there are a lot of things you can do proactively.  If I were you, I would go to your trusted movement specialist weather that is a physical therapist, chiropractic, personal trainer ectera. Have them see what your score is on the functional movement screen (FMS), or if you are in pain, see what shows up on the Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA).  These assessments will really help to find the underlying causes and not just treat the pain symptoms.

Usually the underlining cause is a Combination of a mobility issue and a motor control issue.

Typically we have have to address the restrictions and pains in the muscles and joint complexes.  We find that HMT, a acupressure technique is usually the fastest and most effective for releasing these restrictions, but often we incorporate Active Release Technique (ART) and Graston Technique as well.

Commonly we will prescribe daily home mobilization of the Thoracic spine for long term success.  In our office we show people how to this with a combination of; miracle balls, Yoga tune up balls, foam rollers,

The Pain from the Facets joints can be relieved with some an side posture chiropractic adjustment.  This not only will increase blood flow to joint, and help to increase synovial fluid, it will help break up the fibrosis laid down by the inflammation.  This fibrosis over time will thicken causing restriction and decreased range of motion of the spine. 

For those that aren't ready for an adjustment a series of body work treatments to the muscle and fascia is essential to maintaining elastic and strong tissues fibers.

I hope this helps you get back in the water

In Health,

Dr Justin Mcleod - Santa Cruz Spine & Sport 

Pro-Football Player Andy Leivitate at Spine and Sport

Pro-Football player and local boy Andy Levitre knows how important getting a tune up is and some deep tissue work.  Posing here in our new office with Tiffany Logan CMT, his go to deep tissue massage therapist when he is home on the off-season. 

Text us at 831-713-8400 to schedule your tune up with Tiff.

What I love about Tiffany is she get in there and makes a real change.  Being a beach volley ball player, rock climbing, surfer, crossfitter, and mountain biker she has had her fair shares of sports injuries and know from personal experience what it feels like not being able to do the things you love.  She is amazing at dealing with sports injuries in the shoulder, low back, neck, hips and knees.

If you have want to thank Tiffany her work on you go to our Yelp page or Facebook page to let her know with a review.  

In Health,

Dr. Justin McLeod

Follow Dr. McLeod on Instagram at scspineandsport

Santa Cruz Spine and Sport's Grand Opening

 

Thank you everyone for coming out and supporting us at our Grand Opening party in our beautiful new location on River St.  We had a great turn out of about 150 people.  It was really fun giving away some of my favorite health and wellness products at the raffle, and that taco bar was insane.

With this bigger space we announced that we not only will have Chiropractic and Massage, but will be a introducing Yoga and Personal Training as well.

Amie O'Donovan, yoga teacher will be here Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10am.  We are going to also start opening up chiropractic hours on Tuesday and Thursdays sandwiching the Yoga class at 10 a.m. so that following your chiropractic visit you can step into a yoga class, or after the yoga classes you can do a Chiropractic Adjustment add-on for $20.

We also have brought on two amazing personal trainers.  Tammy is a fitness consultant certified as a personal trainer for general athletic, & pre/post natal conditioning.  She is also a corrective exercise specialist which through assessments, designs programs to address muscle imbalances and movement deficiencies to improve function and decrease risk of injury & chronic pain. On Wednesday afternoons she will be co-managing patients with me and on Thursdays from 2-6 she will be doing privates or semi-privates.  When she not training with us she can be found training at Rocky's.

 Niki Pettel is certified personal trainer that works along side me Monday, Wednesday, and Friday  mornings.  Her back ground is in gymnastics and power lifting.  She is has a her AA in Kinesiology and is currently finishing up her BS at San Jose University. She also trains at NorCal in Scotts Valley, and teaches gymnastics at Vargas

Tiffany Logan, Certified Massage Therapist came with me to the new location and is giving deep tissue massages Monday thru Friday.  Her schedule is usually booked out 2 weeks, so make sure you schedule well in-advanced.

Our mission at Santa Cruz Spine & Sport is to help you Move better so that you can feel better so that you can live better.  We do this through Chiropractic, Massage, and Personal Training.

In Health,

Dr. Justin McLeod