After you sit for an extended period of time, be sure to wake up the muscles that matter Everyone knows that sitting too much is bad for our health. But for those of us that sit for a living, it is hardly to be avoided. Which means that we must pay special attention to the…

Flexion-based exercises are useful if you know how to use them  Depending on the type of back pain you are experiencing, flexion may be the right choice for you. Flexion refers to bending forward, and incorporates a number of stretches, exercises and modalities that can help relieve pain, especially for people suffering from exaggerated curvature…

Standing = muscle fatigue It’s undeniable. Anyone who has had to stand, maintaining more or less the same position, for hours on end can attest to it: standing simply hurts. The human body detests static posture- even if you were able to maintain “perfect,” neutral posture while you stood, your spine would still suffer from…

No matter who you are… …your spine undergoes a whole lot of compression on a daily basis. Whether you stand or sit for a living, whether you consider your posture excellent or poor; all of this is immaterial because gravity never stops pushing down upon us! Therefore the onus is upon us to do everything…

A pain in the shoulders… Tension in the upper back, shoulders and neck are ubiquitous in the American adult population. Our lifestyles, from working, commuting and couchsurfing, are conducive to systemic tension in this region that includes the upper spine. It is likely that all the tension in these muscles is also causing some degree…

Posture is, quite possibly, the single most overlooked method for influencing health on a daily basis It is something that we are performing all the time, whether we like it or not. That means that if you ignore posture, and let your body slip into poor postural habits, your body will suffer. Your muscles will…

A lesser-known, but nonetheless potent form of headaches The cervicogenic headache receives a smaller portion of the spotlight than migraines or tension headaches, which are thought to affect up to one out of every six adults in the United States. The American Migraine Foundation defines a cervicogenic headache as a secondary headache- that is, caused by another…

What is cervical traction? Traction is a natural modality that affords your spine the opportunity to decompress at whatever level tension is accumulating. With cervical traction, we focus on releasing tension from neck muscles and alleviating the pinched nerves which cause so much stiffness and pain. At our office in Alameda, we use specialized tables…

What’s all the buzz over this freaky word Fascia? Have you ever wondered what keeps all your organs and muscles in place? Well, that’s the fascia- a thin layer of densely wound connective tissue, mostly collagen, that surrounds, stabilizes and connects every organ, muscle and structure in your body. It allows for the articulation of…

Sleeping fetal feels right No matter some estimates say that as many as 40% of adults in America prefer this position for sleeping each night. At least they aren’t sleeping on their stomachs- which most experts agree is the worst sleep position for the spine. On the flip side, sleeping on your back is recommended…