Eggs Get Cracked. Spines Get Adjusted.

6 months ago I was a firm believer in physiotherapy and chiropractic practitioners were all about the Snap Crack and Pop philosophy – well I’m here today to say, I’m now a convert to the work done by chiropractic’s. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m still nervous about the crack but nowadays there are mechanical options the chiros use so you can opt not to have, what they call, a manual adjustment.

Of course, physiotherapy and osteopathy have its place, and to be honest when I tore my ACL along with a slit tear in my meniscus and had to have a knee reconstruction nearly 10 years ago, the wonderful physios who worked with me, pre and post rehab did wonders on getting me back on the touch footy field which I am every so grateful.

However, 10 years on and a change of career has moved my focus to viewing my body in a more specific way. From sitting sedentary at a desk with ‘office posture’ for 16 years in between travel trips spending time in airports and on planes to now constantly moving my body, lifting weights and my own bodyweight, running up stairs and hills, sprinting on flat surfaces and swimming in oceans…..my focus now is how my body moves and what I can do, with professional help, to make it move in a more safe functional way. Therefore it is time to adjust my musculoskeletal framework and release tight muscles so I can enhance what I’m already doing without putting additional strain on my body.

For 6 months, I have been affiliated with my local Maroubra chiropractic clinic Chiropractic Health Quarters and their holistic approach to wellbeing. Every time I walk through their door, my mind boggles as I see clients walk in ‘broken’ but walk out ‘repaired’ mentally as well as physically. You see, chiropractic adjustments to the vertebral subluxation in the spine affect your general health via the nervous system. The image below how each vertebra affects different areas and parts of the body and possible symptoms that may occur due to specific vertebrae and/or disks either being compressed, out of alignment or simply deteriorated over time.

For example, this is an X-Ray resident chiro Dr Gina Martins took of my spine in January this year. You will see the vertebrae looks squished on the left hand side of my neck, or throat area if you will, compared to back of my neck. This deterioration of my vertebrae has been etching away maybe for 20 years or so and unfortunately cannot be mended BUT through chiro adjustments I can avoid it getting any worse which could result in possible degenerative diseases such as kyphosis otherwise known as ‘hunchback’; osteoporosis due to compression of the vertebra; and arthritis.

Now we could see what was going on with my spine through X-Ray, a postural screen and measurements were taken before setting up a course of adjustments to get my body into alignment. Below is my ‘Before’ and ‘After’ Posture Screen after a 6 week program visiting Dr Gina at ChiroHQ twice a week. At first, I must admit, I was disappointed with the frontal view as the vertical red line looked worse in March than it did in January however if you look at my shoulders, they are now fabulously horizontal compared to the left being hitched up slightly in January. The big results over the 6 weeks is shown in the side view. WOW!!! Check out where my elbow was/is and have a look at my scapula and lordotic (lower back) arch – they have flatten out nicely plus you can see my shoulder is not as rounded but aligned with the green line where it should be. All this in just 6 weeks – without any snap crackle and pop!

Click on the image for a larger view

Going back to the holistic approach these wonderful practitioners operate by is evident with the additional services each individual chiro offers. I’ve experienced Dr Gina use Applied Kinesiology on me to diagnose what is going on with my gut flora and using this information to prescribe homeopathic remedies to get my gut health back on track. I have also witnessed Dr Martins’ young clients, as young as newborns, be transformed when they come into the clinic to when they leave with their parents who also comment on how well they now sleep, or how calmer they have been between adjustments.

I was first introduced to Dr Evan Sgammotta 18 months ago during the Maroubra Fat Loss Challenge where he spoke about the Neuro-Emotional Technique and I wondered if he could help me overcome my fear of sharks while training for ocean swims. He spoke to the participants of the Fat Loss Challenge last year and performed a short demonstration on me focusing on my fear. I didn’t really think much of it back then but while I was on a holiday visiting family on the Gold Coast, I did a swim across Tallebudgera Creek – not far but deep, dark and scary. I got to one side and thought, huh that seemed okay….then returned and remembered Dr Evan’s demonstration 12 months prior and concluded this NET stuff works. I’m looking forward to overcoming more fears and conflictions through sessions with Dr Evan and sharing more about NET with you in a future post.

Dr Carl Thistlethwayte has blown my mind with his Functional Neuromuscular Assessment (FNA) and rehab he and I are currently working on. Naturally in my line of work, my body performs muscular movements that can be challenging and/or maintains my strength. The issue is that working with so many fantastic clients and going from one session to the next, I neglect to give my body a proper stretch and rest. This has resulted in mobility in the 3 areas – the ankle, hips and thoracic spine – to be extremely tight with my lower lumber, knees and shoulder regions sustaining mobility when the ankles, hips and thoracic spine should have 100% mobility with the lumber, knees and shoulders being the stabilises. Talk about being body backward. Over the coming weeks, maybe months since I’m so ‘broken’ eeeekkkk, Dr Carl will work on getting that mobility through these 3 key areas. I have a very keen interest in FNA and will be attending a 2 day seminar in September to learn more about this so I can work with my PT clients on their mobility and rehab. Alongside the guidance of Dr Carl, who combines FNA and chiro adjustments to ‘repair’ clients bodies like mine, I aim to offer FNA to all my PT clients however in the meantime, stay tuned for a more in-depth blog post on FNA and my body rehab journey.

I cannot highly recommend the team at ChiroHQ Maroubra enough so if you live, play or work in Maroubra stop by and get adjusted by one of these 3 practitioners.

If you are more around the inner city area, my friend Dr Daniel Yazbek heads up The Chiro Hub in Rosebery. Daniel specialises not only in general chiropractic adjustments but also sports and exercise rehabilitation. He also uses videos on social media to educate people on different elements of chiropractic and rehabilitation movement so check out and follow The Chiro Hub on Facebook and Instagram to learn more about what Daniel is demonstrating on what is happening in the Chiropractic world of medicine.