Therapeutic Instruction | San Francisco: Even if you came in every day for an hour, there would still be 23 hours in the day when your condition could be getting worse. Quite often the bulk of improvement comes from minor changes in your diet, work station, or simple stretches and exercises. Dr. Smith loves to give homework. Below is presented an ongoing and growing list of resources for current clients. If you do not see what you are looking for, ask and it will be added.
Growth happens in the hours after work.
Low Back and Leg Stretches & Exercises | SF
Abdominal Diastasis Exercise: Following a pregnancy your abdominal muscles do not always pull back together. If you find yourself with residual “mom belly” or low back pain, this exercise may help.
Standing Hamstring Stretch with Isolation: The hamstrings are really long, and it can be difficult to find an adequate stretch. Tightness often contributes to pain in the knees and low back. Watch Dr. Smith demonstrate his favorite approach.
Standing Calf Stretch with Isolation: The calves can be difficult to stretch effectively. Tightness can contribute to problems in the foot such as plantar fasciitis and achilles tendinitis. Here is Dr. Smith’s favorite stretch.
Standing ITB Stretch: A tight ITB can contribute to low back pain, SI joint pain, hip pain, and knee pain. It crosses multiple joints and finding an effective stretch can be confounding. This is Dr. Smith’s favorite means of lengthening the Iliotibial Band.
Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch: The hip flexors get tight from sitting and are sometimes injured by improper lifting technique. Learn an effective stretch to get into the deeper fibers of your iliopsoas. Tight hip flexors can contribute to low back and hip pain.
Glut Activation Exercise: Glut Inactivity results i the over-engagement of the hamstrings and quadratus lumborum. More often than not, this results in low back pain. Activating the Gluts is the first step in reversing this cycle of pain.
Hip and Low Back MRT with Lacrosse Ball: Self-care for the hips and low back is essential. This simple series shows one method for loosening the TFL, Glut Medius, and QL with a lacrosse ball.
Neck Stretches and Exercises
Neck Stretching Series: Neck movement is controlled by a wide array of muscles. These three simple stretches address muscles commonly associated with pain syndromes: the upper traps, the levator scapula, and the scalenes.
Nutrition/Lifestyle Topics | SF
Leaky Gut Syndrome: Leaky gut, or “intestinal permeability” is a condition in which the lining of the small intestine becomes damaged, causing undigested food particles, toxic waste products and bacteria to “leak” through the intestines and flood the blood stream.
Adrenal Fatigue: Prolonged periods of stress can diminish your body’s capacity to cope and thrive. Read about symptoms of adrenal fatigue and how it can be managed through diet and lifestyle with a touch of supplementation.
Anti-Inflammatory Diet: A diet rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids can help reduce chronic inflammation in the body which is associated with many health issues. Learn more about what foods you can eat to improve your health.
Probiotics: Learn which foods are rich in these helpful bacteria and why you should have more of them in your diet.
The Elimination Diet: An elimination diet is an eating plan that “eliminates” a food or group of foods believed to cause an adverse food reaction, often referred to as a “food intolerance.” By removing these foods for a period of time and then reintroducing them during a “challenge” period, you can deduce which foods are causing symptoms or making them worse.
Dysbiosis: You have literally trillions of microbes – bacteria, fungi, viruses, even parasites – all living together in your gastrointestinal tract. Together they create a virtual ecosystem. This is known as your microflora. This “Garden Within,” under certain conditions, will shift out of balance. This mimics how a garden becomes overgrown with the wrong plants or weeds. When that happens, we say a person has dysbiosis.