What do these three objects have in common?  They can all be used for self myofascial release!

Foam rollers are becoming very popular among athletes.  They are used to help maintain healthy tissue between ART, Graston or other myofascial treatments.

I am constantly educating my patients on ways to keep themselves healthy outside of the clinic.  Rolling is something I often recommend.  When patients cannot afford to buy a foam roller or they don’t have enough space to store one in their home, I suggest a “budget”, space saving, and more environmentally sustainble option.  If you roll a tea towel around an empty wine bottle or rolling pin, the same results can be achieved as with a foam roller.  Yes, the foam roller provides more distance from the ground which makes rolling easier; however, these cylindrical objects can release tissues just as well.  You can modify the intensity of your self-release by the thickness of towel wrapped around the object you choose roll on.

Take home points:

1. Be gentle!!!
2. It shouldn’t hurt more than seven out of ten on a pain scale with ten being the worst pain you have felt.
3. Remember, your tissues need to recover from treatments just as they do from activity.  Therefore, begin gently and increase your time on the roller SLOWLY!
4. Give yourself at least a day inbetween rolling at the beginning.
5. This is great for ITBs, calves, forearms, etc..
6. Check in with your practitioner if you have questions about how to apply this to your body.
7. Remember that if something is tight, it is normally because something is weak, so get checked out by your practitioner to see what exercises need to be incorporated into your regime.
8. If you are rolling heavier parts of your body and are concerned about the wine bottle breaking under you, choose a rolling pin for those body parts instead.
9. HAVE FUN being healthy!

One of my recent articles is featured in the new Squamish Climbing Magazine (on page 30).  In this article, I discuss the importance of our scapular stabilizers in both shoulder injury prevention and rehabilitation.  If you are a climber, a surfer, a tennis player, landscaper, or a parent lifting a child all day long, this article will be beneficial for you.

If you haven’t seen CTV’s segment on yoga related injuries, click here to learn what Dr. Rhonda Low has to say.  CTV decided to air the segment in which Dr. Cupido and Jesse Enright were interviewed again.  Dr. Low wants people to understand how to both achieve their new year’s resolutions while remaining injury free!  She also promotes our upcoming workshop on January 25th at UBC.  She emphasizes that our workshop is not only for yogis wanting to take their practice to the next level, but also for those who currently suffer from low back pain as Dr. Cupido will be covering strengthening tactics that are supported in the medical community as safe and effective methods of avoiding low back pain.  The more you know, the safer you are!

The ski and snowboard season has officially commenced in Vancouver!  Whether you travel the mountain on one or two planks, or even snowshoes, mountain sport injuries are common.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that we all choose to begin the season with one mind-blowing, full day on the mountain.  Why don’t we consider starting the season off gently with a half day or a less aggressive full day?  Maybe because that just wouldn’t be as much fun!

So, let’s talk about a few generic things we can do to prevent some mountain sport injuries.  First off, if you are a skier, get those quadricep and buttock muscles good and strong ASAP!  These two muscle groups when strong and firing properly will help to decrease the risk of knee injuries.

Due to restrictive boots, our feet and lower legs often end up injured or at least very sore for a few days.  To help prevent this, try working on these small muscles prior to your season.  Here are a few simple exercises you could try: stand on a towel and repeatedly pull it under your foot with your toes, draw the alphabet with your feet at your ankle joints, use a Theraband ® to strengthen your lower legs, try calf raises off the end of a step, and roll a tennis ball gently on the bottom of your feet to loosen overly tight plantar fascias and intrinsic foot musculature.

Balance training is something you can integrate into your everyday life and it will translate into developed muscle control and firing patterns.  This will decrease your risk of low back and knee injuries, never mind those you incur due to a bad fall.

Core strengthening is also very important in low back injury prevention, whether on or off the slopes.

If you are a skier, strong scapular stabilizers are central in avoiding shoulder and mid-back injuries related to using your poles.

I have written blogs and articles on the highlighted subjects in this blog.  To learn more about any of these, click away!

Enjoy yourselves out there and be sure to listen to your bodies.  Take your time out there, remember, a long season is more important than one long day!

When you bang your leg into a table or your elbow into the wall, what is the first thing you do?   You rub the sore spot, right?  The idea behind Kinesiotaping for pain is that the tape is essentially rubbing the area for you.  It is bascially replacing the pain you are feeling with the sensation of the tape instead, although you don’t consciously always feel the tape, your neurological system is recognizing it.

If you have a contusion from a football game or a sore sacrum from landing too many times on your bottom end while snowboarding or skiing, Kinesiotape could be another technique to help manage your pain.

What do you do when you sprain a joint in your body or end up with any other injury that causes significant swelling?  Most of us use P.R.I.C.E.: protection, rest, ice, compression, and elevation.  However, we often feel that this just isn’t effective enough; ridding the area of inflammation seems to take forever!  Injuries are not fun and as long as inflammation lingers, nurturing must take place.  We all know that nurturing does not include doing the sports we love, playing with our children, or even wearing those fabulous heels you are dying to wear!  How can we speed the process of healing?

This Vancouver chiropractor has come to fully understand the effectiveness of Kinesiotape for the reduction of inflammation.  The principle behind Kinesiotape’s ability to decrease swelling is that it gently lifts the skin so that the lymph drainage under the skin is more efficient.  I know, it sounds nutty, but 90% of our lymph drainage occurs just beneath the skin.  This drainage system is what removes the chemical junk (junk: very technical term) that accumulates in the injured area.  Swelling is an essential part of healing; however, lingering inflammation will hinder the speed of recovery.  This is one of the reasons your doctor tells you to stay off a sprained ankle until the swelling goes down.

Kinesiotape can be applied to the skin immediately after swelling has occurred; icing can and should be done over the tape.  In the picture above, the areas that appear bruised on this individual’s leg were not Kinesiotaped, while the areas that are not purple were taped.  This shows you that the tape in fact allowed improved swelling circulation as blood pooling did not occur in those areas, subsequently avoiding bruising.  The overall result of a tape job such as this decreases the swelling in the area and the therefore overall healing time.

So, if you have any sort of injury that involves inflammation, even a contusion from ramming your leg into the corner of a table, Kinesiotape can help to get you back in action much more speedily!

Kinesiotape has many functions as I have previously mentioned; I would like to focus this blog on postural taping.  Kinesiotape can alter neurological function and when used properly, it can improve it significantly.  With postural taping, the goal is to facilitate the scapular stabilizer muscles.  The tape being on the skin essentially alerts the neurological system to pay more attention to the muscles under the tape; this heightens the neurological function and therefore, the ease of muscular contraction.

I have had Kinesiotape on my back for 5 days now and the constant pain I have had in my right shoulder due to weak scapular stabilizers has been non-existant since being taped!  Despite being pain-free and my shoulders resting in the correct position, I know I still need to strengthen my weak postural muscles.  However, with the tape on, it is much easier to do this as the muscles have been facilitated.  The good thing is that when the tape comes off, my body has been so accustomed to holding proper posture, it will be much easier to maintain healthy posture once the tape is off, amazing!

I have run 5 days with the tape on and showered everyday at least once.  The tape is heat activated and is expected to stay on for 3 to 5 days.  The properties of the tape mimic those of the skin, including stretch, and it is unique to any other tape on the market.

Stay tuned for more Kinesiotaping education!  Take care and come get taped if this is something you could benefit from!

Friday, November 7th, 2008, Vancouver chiropractor, Dr. Carla Cupido was featured on CTV.  Dr. Rhonda Low covered a segment on the prevalence of yoga related injuries in health practitioners offices.  Dr. Cupido was interviewed as a chiropractor who is seeing an increase in yoga injuries.  If you practice yoga, please watch this segment to learn some tips you should be aware of.  Practice safely and enjoy!

My Yoga Online recently contacted me and requested that I write them an article on the topic of neck safety during yoga.  This article discusses the dangers of particular neck ranges of motion which is relevant to all, whether on or off your yoga mat.  Take the time to read my article as it will help you avoid neck injury.  For those of you suffering with neck complaints, I am hoping this will provide you with insight how to protect that precious neck of yours.

Be sure to do what is best for your body whether you are at yoga class, sitting at your office desk, picking up your child, or out doing one of the sports you love.  You need your body for many more years, take the time to look after it well.   Take care and make it a fantastic day!

On October 19^th 2008, yoga instructor Jesse Enright and I hosted a workshop on the benefits and dangers of yoga at UBC.  We worked through some of the risks that can result from particular yoga poses and how to avoid them.  We also ran through selected benefits that can be gained from certain poses when performed properly.

More education needs to take place in the yoga community.  This goes for yoga teachers as well as yoga students.  It is everyone’s responsibility to learn how to practice yoga safely.  Without understanding the anatomy and biomechanics of the body to some extent, it is awfully challenging to understand how to safely perform poses.  Try to study/practice with yoga instructors who truly understand the body and the purpose of poses.  Ask questions of your instructors and of your doctors.  Read.  Knowledge will keep you safe and bring to you what yoga originally intended – improved health.

Jesse Enright and I will be hosting another workshop on “The Benefits and Dangers of Yoga” on January 25^th from 9:30am to 11:30am at the University of British Columbia.  Registration will be limited and will soon be possible at www.ubccamps.ca.   This upcoming workshop will be both experiential and fun in nature and will leave you with a greater understanding of particular poses and the relevant anatomy and biomechanics.  More details will soon be available both on my website and on UBC Camp’s website regarding this upcoming educational workshop.