Shoveling Advice from Our Yorkville Chiropractor

At Advanced Physical Medicine of Yorkville, we see many chiropractic patients who have back pain or injuries from snow shoveling. Although the weather is currently going back and forth between rain and snow, we want you to be prepared if more snow is around the corner. Here are some tips for preventing that unplanned trip to the chiropractor this winter:

Prepare your muscles. Soft tissues tend to become stiff in cold weather, so make sure you perform some stretches of other exercises to warm them up before attempting any heavy physical activity.

Bring the right gear. Dress warm in multiple layers. Make sure your footwear grips the ground firmly -- slipping and falling is a very common way to damage discs or vertebrae. The right snow shovel can make a difference as well. Choose a shovel with a relatively small blade to reduce the weight load on your back, even if it means taking more time to do the job. Some shovels come with an ergonomically curved handle to make shoveling even safer for your back. You might also consider a snow shovel that pushes rather than lifts, since lifting blade and blade full of snow is a physical strain.

Work carefully. Maintain a straight posture, bending at the knees instead of from the back, and keep your feet planted flat on the ground for stability. Twisting your body puts you at risk for injury. Let your abdominal muscles take some of the load off of your back muscles as you work. Take your time, and stop at regular intervals to rest. You may even want to get a snowblower to reduce your shoveling burden.

Relief for Back Pain

If you wind up straining your back despite your best precautions, stop by and we will ease your pain with massage therapy or chiropractic adjustments. At the same time, think about what you might have done wrong in shoveling your snow -- or consider hiring someone else to do it next time!

What is the tallest accumulation of snow you have ever had to shovel out of your walk or driveway?

Welcome to the New Blog for Advanced Physical Medicine

Welcome to our very first blog entry for Advanced Physical Medicine of Yorkville! We are pleased to offer chiropractic services to patients in the Yorkville, Oswego, Aurora, Sugar Grove, Plano, Sandwich, Somonauk, Lake Holiday, Newark, and Bristol areas. Our facility is owned by physicians and staffed by a medical doctor, chiropractor, physical therapists, massage therapists, and athletic trainers. Our ultimate goal is to help patients through their rehabilitation process with the least invasive treatments and the most effective pain relief methods available.

Chiropractic Care for Car Accidents, On the Job Injury, and More

The chiropractor and staff at our facility treat auto injury patients, which often includes patients suffering from whiplash, neck pain, shoulder pain, back pain, headaches, disc problems, and decreased range of motion issues. We are also experienced with treating work injury cases, which can include back pain, neck pain and stiffness, disc problems, headaches, and range-of-motion problems. We are also skilled in the treatment of chronic injuries or ailments that have been unresponsive to traditional medical treatments. Our treatment methods can help with allergies, migraine headaches, arthritis, and many nagging chronic pain conditions — and we do not use medications or surgical procedures to accomplish it.

We use the most advanced diagnostic methods such as DMX digital motion X-ray and sophisticated electrodiagnostic technology to pinpoint the precise areas causing physical issues in our patients. We then treat them with the best methods or combination of methods to rehabilitate the injury or pain condition. Our treatments include physical therapy and massage therapy, which can be combined with chiropractic care for the ultimate healing results.

In the upcoming entries of the blog, we plan to tackle topics our patients find especially interesting. We want to show you what makes Advanced Physical Medicine special — we will discuss our treatments, our wellness philosophy, tips on achieving good health, and other topics our patients are interested in.

Do you have a suggestion for future topics? Please let us know below!