Archive for the 'seat cushion' Category

“Bodybuilding Sins” Article #5 - Rest, Recovery, and Injury Prevention

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

Many of the injuries that bodybuilders suffer from could be easily prevented just by allowing the body enough time to rest…

While most bodybuilders dread hearing the word “rest”, many fail to realize that there is far more to rest than just avoiding overtraining. When you perform a tough workout you not only stress that muscle or muscle group, you also place stress on the cardiovascular, neuromuscular and components of the immune system…

For example, many bodybuilders will train their chest 2-3 times a week and spend an hour or more performing dozens of exercises just for the pecs…

While this may sound ok to some, when you add in the stress of other workouts it can quickly add up to too much stress in one or more ways. I hear bodybuilders all the time say “I let my body rest by splitting up my workouts” and “I worked chest yesterday so today I’ll train my back”… that’s NOT rest!

Click here to read more about propper workout recovery:


Can Proper Nutrition and Supplementation Heal Your Back Pain?

Friday, February 1st, 2008

Anyone looking to achieve optimal health has to consider nutrition as the single most important ingredient for success. In a perfect world, all of our nutrition should come from the food we eat. Supplementation should not even be an issue.

In the real world, however, most of the foods we eat are riddled with fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and hormones - not to mention that they are often hydrated with polluted water. In addition, an ever-growing percentage of our food comes from other countries, which don’t always have the best inspection track record.

And if all that weren’t bad enough, the natural nutrient value of the soil that produces these foods has also been diminishing over the years, a trend that will only continue. This is why it’s necessary for us to take a hard look at our diets and make a decision about whether we may need supplements.

As you can see, proper nutrition nowadays is not that easy; it does take some time to educate yourself. By proper nutrition, I mean eating clean and safe foods that have the nutrients your body requires to get and stay healthy.

Recipe for relief

Your two main purposes for eating a healthy diet and taking supplements are to give your body what it needs to heal itself and to minimize the level of inflammation that is in your body. The inflammation is what is causing your pain.

Click here to read more about proper nutrition and supplementation for back pain:


What to look for in a seat cushion when you have back pain…

Thursday, January 31st, 2008
1. Its needs to tilt the pelvis into the correct sitting posture:

Few cushions gently tilt your pelvis forward to induce a neutral position for your spine. Aligning the sacral region corrects the dysfunctional mechanics caused by sitting. The strain and pressure of supporting your body weight is moved away from the spine’s muscles and ligaments and placed on proper weight bearing bones (the Ischial Tuberosities). Less strain and pressure means less aggravation and pain.

 

2. It need to cup your muscle and hips to stop the strain:

 

Your body weight flattens your gluteus muscles. Even with corrected posture, your gluteus muscles will flatten under your body weight. Since the ligaments that connect your gluteus muscles to your back muscles require equal tension on both sides, your back muscles must tighten to equalize the tension. This tightening creates new pain causing stresses in your back.

I know of only one patented Orthotic Cradling System that can cup the gluteus muscles and stop them from flattening, effectively stopping the automatic tightening of your back’s muscles when you sit. This avoids pain and strain, and keeps more stress off your back’s muscles, joints, and ligaments.

3. It needs to cradle the pelvis and float your spine:

The lower pelvis spreads apart, and the upper pelvis pinches together, putting increased pressure on the the lumbar-sacral joint and ligaments. Like a pain relieving shock absorber, BackJoy lifts your pelvis up off the sitting surface so you sit as much as 3 inches taller. Your pelvis will float in a natural and protective cradle of muscle tissue.

Few cushions restrict the spreading of the lower pelvis reducing pressure on the lumbar-sacral spine. The six components of the pelvis can work fluidly as one unit, minimizing the wear and tear on the sacral joints.

 

Click here to read my review of seat cushions for help with back pain: