How to Maintain a Chiropractic Adjustment

The longer you can maintain a chiropractic adjustment, the sooner you'll be on the road to chiropractic recovery. More than just a quick snap and crack of the back, a chiropractic adjustment realigns the spine and retrains muscles to help hold the spine in proper alignment. There are things, however that the patient can do to help maintain the chiropractic adjustment.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Keep all of the appointments. One of the biggest mistakes that chiropractic patients make is to miss their chiropractic appointment. It is important to keep all of the scheduled appointments, as the frequency of adjustment is crucial for recovery. It’s especially important to maintain regular appointments even when you think you’re all better

2. Perform the exercises as prescribed by your chiropractor. Many times chiropractors prescribe exercise for their patients. These exercises, no matter how odd at times they appear to be, help to reinforce the chiropractic adjustment and retrain various muscle groups to respond in a fashion to minimize the skeletal mal alignment.

3. Refrain from repeating the problem behavior. This is tough to do because we tend to be creatures of habits. Slumping on the couch with a remote control in hand does nothing to improve the proper alignment of the spine. As a matter of fact, quite the contrary, poor posture pulls the spine out of alignment.

4. Get moving. Most chiropractors agree that an active patient is a healthier patient. Whether it’s walking, running or swimming, exercise encourages muscles and joints to stretch and engage through their full range of motion. It may be tough at first, but sticking with an exercise program can help to reduce the chronic need for a chiropractor.

5. Relax. This is much easier said than done, but stress adds tension to the body. The tension causes the muscles to tighten in various areas. The tight muscles serve to pull the skeletal structure out of alignment. The mal alignment causes you to run back to the chiropractor. Imagine how many ailments we can avoid if we learn to relax and take things in stride.

6. Listen your body. While the chiropractor is a trained professional, nobody knows your body better than you do. If it feels like something is amiss, have it checked out.

Resources

• BackDocOnline.com

[sunshine11219]

on 11/2/2008 I agree good advice

[Buckeye207]

on 10/29/2008 Great advice! I went to a chiropracter for a few months, and four years later I'm still free of lower backpain. The results exceeded my expectations. I agree, it's absolutely essential that you do the exercises, you'll need to strengthen your muscles to maintain the adjustments the chiropractor makes, otherwise you'll wind up back where you started from.