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It’s that time of the year again, and by that I mean we’re back into MCO (number what again now?). This time around, running is allowed with adherence to physical distancing. And boy have we seen more and more people coming out for a walk/run now. Look outside your neighbourhood and if it’s a warm sunny evening, you’ll know what we mean. With so many people taking the opportunity to be outdoors, improper running can cause different types of injuries. For example, when you and your family member are out running together, have you realised how, even though you’re doing the exact same activity, both might feel very different after the run (assuming you both have similar fitness levels)?  Therein lies the question — On your next run, observe how you’re running. Are you landing with your heel, your mid-foot or your forefoot? It is important to understand how the foot contacts the ground because it looks into the types of impact, how it affects the body and most importantly how your body reacts to it, giving you a better idea of how your body is working when you run!   Types of Foot Strikes  There are three types of foot strikes: Rear foot strike  Midfoot strike  Forefoot strike  With these three different foot strike patterns, the ankle is placed through different positions in order to cushion the impact from the ground, hence using different muscles and the different kinds of injuries that could be sustained.   Rear Foot Strike (RFS)    This is the most common foot strike pattern amongst all recreational runners, where the heel of the foot contacts the ground first. In this landing position, the leg is positioned with the knees straight, and the ankles facing towards the ceiling.  With this landing pattern: Larger amount...

A common comment that we often get is, “I’m not sure who I should be seeing – the chiro or the physio?” That is a really good question, because both chiropractors and physiotherapists have their own unique skill sets to treat physical conditions.  On deciding which to see, it will help to identify what the issue is. Chiropractic Chiropractors concentrate on your nervous system, and how it relates to pain management and the body’s ability to heal itself. Is your issue… Restrictions in the spine can interfere with your nerves, causing you pain or discomfort in areas of your body that you may not realize are connected to the spine such as headaches, sciatica, or numbness in the arms and feet. Feeling stiff and sore frequently, which is relieved by movement or massages, usually indicates restrictions that can be aided by chiropractic care.   Physiotherapy Rehabilitation Physiotherapists assess your range of motion, pain, strength, and movement patterns to identify any movement and muscle dysfunctions that are contributing to your pain. Is your issue… Physiotherapists help to restore strength, balance and mobility of the muscles through rehabilitative exercises to restore function in your daily life, and to prevent future injuries. It may also include dry needling, sports massages, or shockwave therapy to aid your body in healing.    Chiropractic Physiotherapy Related to the spine/back/neck OR joints? Feeling stiff, achy, and sore all the time? Are these episodes not frequent? Does it feel worse if you sit or stand for a long time, and improve when you get some  movement going? Helped with any form of manual therapy before (Such as massages)? Do you feel any pain or unusual sensations in places other than your neck/low back? If you’ve checked off most of these boxes, you might be suitable to have...

Myth 1: Chiropractic Care is Expensive…. Fact: Yes, it is… BUT in comparison to medication like painkillers! One strip of painkillers may cost RM7 and relieve pain for a week. However, expensive is relative and depends on perspective – in relation to the cost of surgery, which is anywhere between RM36,000-50,000 (Source), the cost of chiropractic care is less than 10% of that. And it provides a natural way for your body to heal without invasive procedures like surgery, or the side-effects of medication!   Myth 2: Once You Begin Chiropractic Care, You Should Continue to Receive Treatments…    Fact: The most frequent treatment sessions that you need are usually in the first 2-6 weeks of your injury, depending on how severe it is and how much pain you are in. What happens when you’re out of pain and back to daily life without being bothered by pain? Do you still need to come back to maintain the good effects of a happy spine? Yes and no! YES, regular check ups with your chiropractor is an important routine. Just as it is important to receive regular dental care, receiving regular chiropractic care is a healthy practice to keep your spine at its optimal level. And NO, it doesn’t have to be every single week once you’re feeling good – a regular spine adjustment once every 1 or 2 months can keep pain away and ensure a healthy spine for life. And here at Spinefit, we only recommend what is needed based on our professional diagnosis and the choice after that is completely up to you.   Myth 3: Chiropractors Mostly Just Treat Back and Neck Pain…   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Fast Track Your Recovery 🚀 (@spinefitchiro.physio) Fact: Yes, a big part of...

If your pillow wears out, or you realise that you’re not having such a good night’s sleep anymore, or you’re waking up with an aching neck or shoulders… You’re probably going to be in search of a new one! The difficulty is that the overwhelming choices available is enough to give you a headache. Which one should I choose? Which is the right pillow for me?  We’re not a fan of finding the right pillow through coincidence. We’re even less of a fan of buying a pillow that’s too high, then flattening it down through forcefully sleeping on it over the next few months, OR buying one that’s too low and having to layer more pillows on it. That just means that it wasn’t the right pillow in the first place. Here is a method that is widely used for providing a guide on the best pillow height for you, that many people don’t know of!  4 Steps to Confirm the Right Pillow Height Fold Four Towels Take out four towels, and fold them up into a square. Stack them up on top of each other, like the picture above. Lie Down On Pillows Lie down on the stacked pillows, as if they were a pillow. If your head is being pushed too far forward, that means that it’s too high for you. Remove one layer, or one entire towel, and try again. Keep removing the layers or towels until you find the most comfortable height for your head. Measures The Height Once you find the most comfortable height that supports your head and neck, measure how high that stack is with a measuring tape! Record that measurement down. This is your “Supine Sleeping Measurement”. Tip: How to know if it’s the right height is when you don’t feel...

The road to recovery is often not a straight line. And in between, rest stops are often needed. Massage — whether it’s a deep tissue sports massage, or a gentle lymphatic massage — is often what a person needs to remember how good their body can actually feel.  Why does massage therapy get recommended? People often don’t realise how many layers of muscles and fascia exists in their body. Let’s say you feel tension in your upper shoulders from stress and working in front of the computer daily. As the tension builds up, you start feeling an aching pull at the base of your head and neck. Eventually, your head feels heavy or you develop a headache. That’s a result of the many layers of tension that builds up over time! There are about 7 layers of muscle in your body, starting from deep inside near your spine, to the outermost layer where you may feel your muscles holding the greatest tension. These two pictures are an illustration of how deep some muscles can be!    The first picture shows the Splenius muscle, in the third layer. It often causes headaches after extensive computer work. The second picture shows the Levator Scapulae highlighted, which is often the culprit when people experience tension in their shoulder AND neck, with difficulty turning their neck. It is actually located in the 4th layer of muscle, and you can see the bigger muscles overlying it. Your therapist needs to be able to assess the correct muscles to target for maximum relief. With the right amount of touch, pressure, and stretch, your body will be able to relax deeply and recover. The tension from injuries or the stresses of life can melt away, and you allow your body to start healing again.  Does massage...

“What’s the best position to sleep in?” is a question we hear all the time.  But really, everyone’s body is different! Your optimal sleeping position should be the one where you feel the most comfortable and can get a good night’s sleep in.  However, when you’re injured or having a sensitive and painful neck, sleeping positions may affect us more than we realise. Those of us who have suffered a painful neck or headaches before can understand the feeling of tossing around in bed, not being able to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in.  Here we are going to help you understand a little bit more about the different types of sleeping positions, and how different neck conditions may benefit from one of these.   On Your Back If you are used to sleeping on your side, but find that you’re waking up with neck pain or are having increased pain down the arm, try changing it to sleeping on your back. Take note though — make sure that your pillow supports your entire neck and touches the top of your shoulders. Keep your head relaxed, and you will know your pillow height is good if you don’t feel your head tilting forward (chin wants to touch your chest), or tilting backwards (chin tilts towards the ceiling). Additional support: Keeping a pillow under your knees also helps to take some stress off your lower back.   On Your Side Sleeping on your side helps to relieve pressure on painful lower backs, and it also can help when you are having neck pain. However, make sure that your pillow supports directly under your head and neck (Top picture). Try to keep your head level with the rest of your body! If your pillows are too high (Bottom picture),...

“His body is changing. He will strip down and start getting even bigger and stronger over the next few seasons and, seriously, how scary is that? He will be unstoppable. He has just got to realise how good he is and what he can do in the game if he puts his mind to it.” – Wendell Sailor, Australian professional former rugby football player, said this about Jamal Idris when he was starting his professional career more than 10 years ago. The understanding that getting stronger improves athletic performance isn’t something new. Athletes have been training their strength for decades to turbo-boost their speed and dominance on the field. But how many of us know that strengthening also helps to PREVENT injuries?     Every sport has repetitive movements that are likely to cause injury if the athlete is not trained properly OFF the playing field. That’s why World Rugby launched a ground-breaking preventive exercise programme in 2019 called the ACTIVATE programme, designed to reduce injuries globally! ACTIVATE’s injury prevention programme consisting of movement control, pre-activation exercises, functional movement conditioning, and neck exercises REDUCED injuries by 72% when players completed the exercises at least three times a week, and REDUCED concussion injuries by 59%! (Rugby Football Union) When it comes to engaging in a specialised sport such as rugby, some roles like a forward would value working on the chest and core when thinking of strength work. However, injury is inevitable if the athlete doesn’t put in the proper strength work to counteract the overwork of certain muscle groups.      For example, a forward may do many push-ups and sit-ups to strengthen the core and upper body area. The problem is that when rugby players are required to be able to produce power quickly, only push ups are...

Feeling like your body has been beat up after a long game is something rugby players can understand well, but if these areas of discomfort are not properly addressed, they can lead to repeated movement injuries that require further care. Putting effort into recovery will significantly reduce the amount of time off training and off the field due to injuries, and increase the amount of quality practice you can get in! Read on to find out what can be done after an injury.   What do you do once you’ve had an injury? It’s easier to remember to “Recover well before paying the P.R.I.C.E. so you can show your body some L.O.V.E.” — and we’ll go through these recovery acronyms today.   P.R.I.C.E. Protect AND Rest: Reduce movement and loading of the injured part right after injury to protect from further injury. Use supports such as crutches if it involves the legs and slings for an injured shoulder helps to rest the injured joint. If there are any open wounds, protect them by dressing them up well.  Ice: Wrap an ice pack in a towel so that it doesn’t directly touch your skin and cause an ice burn, and apply for 10-15minutes every other hour.  Compression AND Elevation: If swelling is present, your doctor or trainer can show you how to wrap the body part specifically to reduce swelling (figure-8 compression bandaging). Elevating the swollen part above heart level drains fluid down and away from the injured area.  and  L.O.V.E Load: Recovery always requires an active approach, and early loading on injured structures has actually proven to accelerate recovery by improving remodeling and tissue tolerance! (Khan et al., 2009) Optimism: The brain also plays a significant part in healing — stay realistic but optimistic. Mental strength and having a...

Frequent physical contact and tackles causing falls on the shoulders makes it one of the most vulnerable areas of injury! Tackles are responsible for between 49-72% of shoulder injuries sustained from rugby trainings and games (Critchon, Jones & Funk, 2012).  And it’s not only the shoulders, but many other parts of the body that has to withstand the impact of a rugby game from amateur to professional leagues — muscle haematomas (where bleeding happens inside the muscle) or strains (tearing in the muscle), concussions due to head impact, and even spine injuries to the neck and back are all commonly reported injuries (Brooks et al., 2005).   How does Chiropractic and Physiotherapy care come into play here? After a thorough assessment to ensure that each client is safe for further treatment, chiropractic and physiotherapy care helps to improve the players recovery to ensure they can return to sport safely. Chiropractic addresses any restrictions in the joints, such as limited mobility in the neck or back. You may have seen videos where there are cracking and popping sounds during a chiropractic adjustment — those are gas bubbles being released in the joint. Since our body parts are all interconnected, even restrictions in the spine can impact our recovery! One example is when a player has pain and limitation when raising his arm upwards. Because that movement involves upper and midback spine extension, making sure that the spine isn’t restricted in those areas can improve recovery of the shoulder.  Fun Fact: Ex-All Black and 2011 RWC Champion, Mills Muliaina is currently studying towards a Chiropractic degree! Physiotherapy focuses on the movement patterns and activation of muscle groups during an activity or sport. Recurrent injuries may be because of weak muscles compensating, and it is important to address the root cause. For...

We’ve all experienced going to our parents when we were younger and complaining of a headache, only to be told, “See! You didn’t drink enough water, that’s why you have a headache!”  When we got older, headaches would come sometimes after a long day, but would go off after a good night’s sleep.  For some of us, though, headaches may appear more often, be more severe, disrupt our lives, and make us feel miserable. Conflicting answers to our questions may not help – we’re told to drink more water, eat different supplements, go for acupuncture… When we might not even know if what we’re having is a headache or a migraine, or if both are the same thing!   Here are 10 questions that are frequently asked in the clinician’s room regarding headaches, so that you can begin to understand your condition even better.  1) What’s the difference between headaches and migraines? How do I know which one I have? Headaches are divided into TWO categories: Primary headaches Based on SYMPTOMS, and include: 1) Tension-type headaches, 2) Cluster headaches, 3) Migraines, and 4) Cervicogenic headaches. Secondary headaches Based on CONDITIONS, and include: 1) Stroke, 2) Head injury, 3) Substance withdrawal (drugs, alcohol, caffeine, etc.), 4) Conditions of eyes, ears, sinuses, etc. and more   Many people with recurring headaches have primary headaches. Tick the checklists of these boxes to figure out which type of primary headache you have: A. Tension-type headaches – Feels like a pressure or tightening around your head – Doesn’t pulsate – No nausea or vomiting – No sensitivity or light or sound, OR only sensitivity to one – Still able to go about your daily activities B. Migraines – Pain on ONE side of your head, pulsating – Stops you from doing your daily activities...