Bay Ridge Sports Chiropractor

Dr. Jason J. Peloquin of Brooklyn, NY, has obtained the postgraduate designation of Certified Chiropractic Sports Practitioner (CCSP) by the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians™ (ACBSP™). The CCSP certification requires the doctor to attend a minimum of 100 hours of a 120 hour postgraduate program. This instruction is specific to physical fitness and the evaluation and treatment of injuries encountered in sports. Following the completion of these hours, the doctor must then take and successfully pass a comprehensive written examination.

This training will aid the doctor in the prevention and treatment of athletic injuries by enhancing his diagnostic skills and patient care. The CCSP accreditation exists to provide a uniform standard of education that assures teams and athletes that the doctor has met a minimum level of competency in chiropractic sports medicine. Dr. Peloquin joins over 5200 others internationally who hold this designation.

Fort Dr. Peloquin's current involvement please check the American Chiropractic Sports Practitioner database or read more about his involvement with sports at Hands of Gold Sports

HANDS OF GOLD VOTED 2014 BEST IN BORO

 

Hands of Gold Chiropractic Voted Best In Brooklyn

Bay Ridge Brooklyn chiropractor, Dr. Jason Peloquin and staff at the Hands of Gold Chiropractic have won "Best Chiropractor in the Boro" by The Home Reporter, The Brooklyn Spectator and The Sunset News.  This makes their second 1st place award in the last three years.


The contest ran from late March to early August. During this time, voters logged into The Home Reporter's website and casted their nomination for the Best of the Boro contest. After the nomination period had ended, all of the users were given the chance to vote on their favorite picks during the second round.

Dr. Peloquin was very excited about the good news and exclaimed, "It is a true testament to what we are trying to accomplish for our community. Individual personalized attention, quality care and long lasting results!"

Hands of Gold Chiropractic offers a wide array of alternative therapies. Patients seeking treatment at their Bay Ridge location are able to consult or be treated by a licenced acupuncturist and massage therapist. Nutritional counseling as well as non-surgical spinal decompression are also offered.

For more information on Dr. Peloquin and his office, Hands of Gold Chiropractic, please feel free to log onto his website http://www.handsofgoldchiropractic.com/ or you can catch up on their latest blog and health related topics by liking their Facebook page Hands of Gold On Facebook Link.

REPAIRING AN INURED ROTATOR CUFF

 

As we get older, rotator cuff injuries become more common, a result of the natural aging process. A similar mechanism operates in the discs separating the vertebras in your lower back. These cartilaginous structures lose water over time, becoming less flexible and more brittle as the decades roll by. In the case of the shoulder, the rotator cuff tendon is pulleyed to and fro as the arm swings forward and back and up and down. As the years pass, this constant motion may cause fraying in the rotator cuff tendon and inflammation in the muscles that comprise the rotator cuff. Eventually, partial or full thickness tears may develop in one or more of these musculotendinous units, causing pain and some loss of function. Importantly, conservative care may be all that’s needed to reduce pain and restore needed motion.

The shoulder joint is beautifully designed and a marvel of engineering. Its construction makes possible a full 360-degree arc of motion in both the sagittal and frontal planes. In other words, you can swing your arm in a complete circle from front-to-back and to-the-side-and-up-and-around. In the third, horizontal, plane, 180 degrees of motion is available. The overall combination of movements in three-dimensional space makes the shoulder joint the most freely movable joint in your body. However, as with all freedoms we enjoy in this life, there is a price. The shoulder joint’s great mobility is countered by its very limited stability.

The shoulder’s lack of stability needn’t concern us in our average day-to-day tasks. Protection to the joint is built-in by way of the rotator cuff muscles, which form a strong hood that envelops the intersection of the arm bone and shoulder blade. Falling on an outstretched arm may result in a dislocated shoulder, so we need to have some care in this regard.

If you’re a young athlete and have suffered a rotator cuff tear, surgery may be an appropriate option. But for the vast majority of people, especially for those over age 40, most rotator cuff injuries are chronic rather than acute and can be treated with rest and rehabilitative exercise. Again, if you’re a 60-year-old skier who has torn his or her rotator cuff in a downhill accident, surgery could be indicated. For the rest of us, rehabilitative exercise is the key.

Four or five primary strength training exercises are involved in shoulder or rotator cuff rehabilitation. The three basic shoulder exercises are (1) seated overhead press, which trains all the shoulder girdle muscles simultaneously; (2) standing side [lateral] raise; and (3) seated or standing bent-over raise. The lateral raise specifically trains the middle deltoid muscle and the bent-over raise specifically trains the posterior deltoid muscle. Specific rotator cuff strength training exercises include internal rotation and external rotation on a flat bench using very light dumbbells. More painful injuries with greater loss of mobility may require (1) Codman pendulum exercises and (2) finger-walking (up a wall) to the front and to the side.

The goals of rotator cuff rehabilitation, as for any mechanical injury, include decreased inflammation, decreased pain, return to more full active range of motion, return to more full muscular strength, and restoration of function.

10 Minutes Of Stretching Can Make All The Difference

 

Should I stretch before or after I exercise? Should I even bother to stretch at all? These are the questions that every busy adult asks whenever he or she is planning to begin an exercise program. The correct answer to the first question is "do whatever is right for you." Some people need to lengthen their major muscle groups, such as the quadriceps (front of the thigh), hamstrings (back of the thigh), and calves, before they run, walk, swim, and/or lift weights for exercise. For others, it's best to stretch at the end of a workout, re-lengthening the major muscle groups so they'll be ready to help you move through the rest of your day.

The answer to the second question is "yes, stretching is important for everybody and is often the missing link in trying to understand why you injured yourself when you were exercising." Stretching helps you either warm up or cool down, whichever is needed for you to get the most out of your exercise. Not stretching in the way that you need puts you on the fast track to sustaining an exercise-related injury. As always, prevention is the best policy.

A dynamic warm-up is a fun and entertaining supplement or replacement, at times, to stretching if you're a stretch-first person. In a dynamic warm-up, you take important joints such as your hips, shoulders, and lower back through complete ranges of motion, using large muscle groups for support. Dynamic warm-up activities are similar to core strengthening exercises and have unique names such as scorpion, hip crossover, drop lunge, and quad circles. You can mix-and-match a variety of dynamic warm-up activities on different workout days, creating ongoing interest that helps you maintain your exercise routine.

A dynamic cool-down can serve as a similar supplement or replacement to stretching, at times, if you're a stretch-after person. If you've been walking or running, rather than simply completing your walk or run, spend an additional few minutes walking or running with shorter strides and/or at a slower pace. Walking backward at a slow pace is another method for achieving a dynamic cool-down. If you've been lifting weights, a series of deep-knee lunges will stretch your lower back and hips. A yoga-style downward dog will lengthen your spine, hamstrings, and calf muscles. Moving your arms through big circles, both clockwise and counterclockwise, will open up your shoulder girdles and lengthen the muscles of your rotator cuffs.

Regardless of the method you choose, stretching is an important part of your regular exercise activities. The extra few minutes spent either warming up or cooling down will help you maintain your exercise program achieve long-term health and well-being.

For more information on Dr. Peloquin and how his team at Hands of Gold Chiropractic can help you, please research his abilities by clicking the link to his website at Bay Ridge Chiropractor or liking his facebook page @ HANDS-OF-GOLD-CHIROPRACTIC ON FACEBOOK

Healing Chronic Shoulder Pain

Chiropractic Care and Rehabilitation of Chronic Pain

Chronic injuries require specific rehabilitation and a long-term approach. Patience is required and it is important to recall that the problem has developed over the course of years and will not be fixed in a matter of weeks or months. Progress should be obtained in the short-term, but such situations usually require consistent, ongoing attention to achieve a long-term solution.

Performing the appropriate rehabilitative activities is critically important and chiropractic care can be of great assistance in getting the most out of your exercise program. Regular chiropractic care improves the mobility of your spinal column and removes nerve interference which may cause tight, inflamed muscles. The result is a body that is optimized for good health and full function. By enabling maximum spinal mobility and maximum function of your nerve system, regular chiropractic care helps maximize your body's ability to recover from chronic injury.

As we get older, years and decades of mechanical stress may lead to deterioration of joints, ligaments, and tendons. This degenerative process, commonly known as arthritis, primarily affects weight-bearing joints such as the hips and knees and those found in the lumbar spine. The shoulder, too, is especially prone to undergo arthritic changes owing to its extreme mobility. The extensive range of motion at the shoulder is built-in to the design of this structure, but the tradeoff is instability. The design of the shoulder sacrifices stability for mobility.

Degenerative disorders of the shoulder typically involve the rotator cuff. This broad, flat structure is composed of the muscle-tendon units of the four rotator cuff muscles: the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor. The thick covering of the rotator cuff surrounds the head of the arm bone and supports and strengthens the shoulder joint. But owing to the shoulder's inherent instability contrasted with its great mobility, the soft tissues of the rotator cuff undergo repetitive stress and strain. Ultimately, degenerative changes may occur, leading to the two prominent symptoms of pain and restricted range of motion.

An entire orthopedic sub-specialty focuses on treatment of chronic shoulder pain and includes long-term use of anti-inflammatory medication, corticosteroid injections when medications do not provide sufficient relief, and eventually surgery to repair tears in the various rotator cuff tendons. "Revision" surgery is commonly performed when the benefits of prior surgery are exhausted.

The good news is that in many cases, a more optimal approach is available, one that utilizes the body's own natural recuperative powers. For many people, chronic shoulder pain can be reduced and chronic loss of mobility can be improved by engaging in specific activities and performing specific rehabilitative exercises. The goals of rehabilitation are to increase shoulder range of motion and build up shoulder strength. As these goals are accomplished, the likely result is reduction of intensity and frequency of occurrence of shoulder pain.

Engaging in an overall strength training program is an important general approach to managing chronic shoulder pain. Strength training should be done progressively, starting with light weights and building up over time. Exercises specific to the shoulder include seated dumbbell or barbell presses, dumbbell or cable lateral raises, seated bent-over rows, and internal and external rotation exercises done with very light dumbbells on a flat bench. If one has experienced an acute shoulder injury, early rehabilitation should precede rehabilitative strength training. Early rehabilitation includes pendulum exercises and finger-walking up a wall in both forward-facing and side positions.

Your chiropractor is experienced in injury rehabilitation and will be able to help you design an effective flexibility and strengthening program for improved shoulder function.

For more information on how Dr. Peloquin can treat your shoulder injury, please visit his website at www.handsofgoldchiropractic.com or Facebook him at HANDS OF GOLD ON FACEBOOK.