Flexibility, Ergonomics & Motion

Picture yourself raking leaves, cleaning a bathtub, or being the weekend project warrior.

What would you do differently to lessen the risk of a back injury? Another way to look at it is to compare a house with a peaked roof to one with a flat roof. Which house would be better after a heavy snowstorm?

“Flexibility, Ergonomics & Motion” is a program designed to work at the root of back pain treatment and prevention. It was developed by Dr. Kartzman as an innovative approach to treat and prevent pain by making the patients an active participant in their care.

The effectiveness is based on two premises. First is the idea that spinal manipulation applies motion to a joint segment. It is this motion which helps to relieve back pain. By teaching motion we add to the positive effects of the manipulation.

The second premise is that motion is important if it works towards improving flexibility and the rhythm with which we do tasks or spend energy (ergonomics). Put another way, you want the spine to be like the peaked roof when you are doing tasks. If you are a golfer, a dancer, or were a football lineman in high school, you know the importance of balance and weight shift in your motions. Exercises are geared to this familiarity or muscle memory.

There are two goals to the program. First, we need to work with the pain which brought the patient to our office. The second part is what we term “treating the next problem before it occurs.”

All of the instruction is low-tech. As the program is based on muscle memory, the exercises and instruction are unique for each person. This is why motions like the golf swing or throwing a ball can be effective in back care. The ultimate goal is to use these learned and familiar motions in our daily tasks.