Author: Cole Maranger
-
Mind over Spine: Using Word Cues for Better Posture
Are you struggling to remember to fix your posture? Using word associations from the things all around you is a good way to train your brain to sit taller, stand straighter, and move about your day with confidence. You’ll go from someone who has family and friends poking your back or telling you to “straighten…
-
OUCH: How to Tell Where Your Pain is Coming From
Pain can be a frustrating experience, especially when it’s hard to pinpoint where and why it’s happening. This article is going to give a framework for what bones, muscles, and nerves typically feel like when they are the pain initiators. Starting with the most common aggravators – the muscles! Muscles can give different sensations depending…
-
What’s the Deal with Ergonomic Snow Shovels?
With Canadian seasons changing from winter to spring like an alternating current motor, we have been bringing snow shovels to and fro to clean up mother nature’s bounty of slush. On my walk to work, I witnessed many houses that had typical shovels, some that had pushers, and others with ergonomic shovels. Some houses bought…
-
Making SMART Adjustments for the New Year
The new year has come which means everyone has started following or breaking their new year’s resolutions. Many people want to change an exercise, diet, or alcohol habit. Others want to read more, spend time with family, or go for a vacation (yes please). Regardless of what resolution you have or have not set out…
-
Sit Happens: How to Make Your Desk Work for You
We get a lot of questions about what the best desk position is when working from home. The issue is that everyone has different spaces, different desks, and different body proportions to give a blanket “correct” answer. I’ve found that to prevent low back pain and postural injuries, you have to make your desk work…
-
Breaking down the problems
New Year’s resolutions… they’re strong lasting in the first week, become good in the second, by the third or fourth week they feel impossible; “How could I ever have been so silly to think this was going to work out”. Losing that 5lbs that you want gone… week one at the gym, week two focussing…
-
Why Stretching Alone Doesn’t fix Anything
If you’ve ever dealt with nagging muscle tension or recurring body aches, someone has probably told you, “just stretch more.” And while stretching can feel great, relying on it alone can lead to continual and repetitive aches, pains, and tightness. You stretch, it offers you some temporary relief, and then the tightness comes right back.…
-
Age VS Function
Whether you are 3 months anew or 103 years advanced, your age doesn’t define you when you’re able to do the things you love. That means getting older doesn’t mean slowing down—it means training smarter. Age is just a number, but maintaining strength, balance, and mobility through functional movement keeps you doing what you love…
-
Kick up don’t pick up
Imagine this: your back has been killing you and the action of bending over is painful and difficult. For some of you reading this, there isn’t any imagination needed as it’s just normal life. But what happens when you can’t avoid picking things up? There is a fun solution, and it may be easier than…
-
The Cure-all Exercises for Low Back Pain
There are a thousand ways to exercise the low back. There are bodyweight vs weighted exercises, yoga vs tai chi programs, plyometrics vs crossfit workouts. You name it, something is designed to work the core and low back. But knowing what programs to do when low back sprain or strain, spasm, or disc herniation occurs…