So I was talking to several of my patients and clients yesterday, and there were an awful lot of them who were moving pretty slowly from really over doing it at their Superbowl parties the day before.

Apparently those New Years Resolutions have come and gone!

I ended up listening to a youtube video by Eric Thomas, and he talked about having a “Lion vs Gazelle Mindset.” When the gazelle sees a lion in the wild, it immediately gets scared. When a lion sees a gazelle, it gets ready to hunt. So many things in life come down to your mindset.

Do you ever think “Why me?”

“Why am I broke?”

“Why do bad things happen to me?”

“Why are my kids bad?”

“Why am I in so much pain?”

Did you wake up this morning and hit snooze 6 times and want to just lie in bed all day? Or did you get up early, get your stuff done, and live with passion, drive, and desire? Winners win and losers lose. Get moving, jump out of bed, do your exercises, and work hard.

Work on your weaknesses and triple down on your strengths. While people wake up hung over today, this weekend, or next week, what do YOU do?

Maybe it’s time to make a commitment to yourself. Stop worrying about what others think of you. Start caring what YOU think of you!

Set new standards for yourself so you can accomplish new heights!

Get working on your greatness. Start by doing whatever it is you need to do. If you’re having trouble with things holding you back, click here.

-Dr. Darius Veleas, D.C.

Founder, Healthy Back & Wellness Institute

 

Well, kids sports have started up this weekend. And beyond all the screaming and cheering for little Sally because she’s just so good and going to go pro soon, there was another thing I noticed the other day while I was at the fields-

All the fold up chairs people bring to the fields…

Whether you’re at the fields or at a summer concert, or sitting out front roasting marshmallows, those fold up chairs are just so bad for your backs.

These are the types of chairs I’m talking about:

Yes, they’re super convenient and have an easy case to carry them in, but they allow your back to round out, and they put a lot of pressure down low. It creates tension and stiffness in the low back, and it leads to problems soon after you get up.

I’ve had several patients come into my clinic this week complaining about that, and it’s just week 1 of the soccer and baseball season (at least here in Southern California anyway- it was 91 degrees here yesterday! These winter sports sure are rough…).

Some other alternatives would be to:

1. Stand. Yep, sorry. But standing up, moving around, keeping your joints in motion is going to be the best option. Plus, you can cheer even louder when you stand up!
2. Sit on the ground. You can put something behind you for a little bit of back support, but sitting on a blanket is actually going to give you less issues than sitting in one of these chairs.
3. Choosing a chair with a firmer back, and one that is more of an L shape like the old school ones. The Eddie Bauer ones aren’t too bad. Their more L shaped and firm, so your glutes don’t sink into them as bad. But they ARE closer to the ground and can be more difficult getting out of to stand. Even the old school ones like this can be better (as long as they don’t dig into the soft ground or get laughed at for bringing it to the fields!)

Be careful out there, and enjoy those sports seasons without all the aches and pains!

Reach out to me at drv@healthybackandwellnessinstitute.com if you need any advice on a good chair to get. I’m happy to help!

And to get more tips on positions you need to absolutely avoid doing, or ways to properly position yourself so those daily activities aren’t so detrimental on your back and spine, check out my Eliminate Your Back Pain For Good Program here.

For those of you who have known me for a while, you know that I have a love/hate relationship with my kids and their softball season.

While I love being involved and watching them grow, and I’m fascinated by the mental aspect of the game – (you get one shot, and it’s the pitcher against the batter. And 99 times out of 100, whoever is the more aggressive player wins that battle…)

I really do love getting out there with my girls and watching them grow, but geez- the parents sure can be a drag! The complaining, the high maintenance, the lack of appreciation for all the VOLUNTEER work the coaches put in to helping their kids. Plus, I’m on the board for the softball league, so that’s a whole other block of time devoted to them…

Well, the season is about to go into full swing here pretty soon, and this past weekend was one of the last weekends we had for other stuff. And 3 of my 4 kids had a piano recital. It was pretty cool to watch them, especially my little guy. He’s 6, and he’s SUPER shy. He had to get up in front of the whole audience, say his name, how old he was, and what songs he would be playing.

I’m pretty sure he was the only one in the whole room who could hear what he was saying. Lol.

He told me afterwards that his hands were shaking SO BAD the entire time, and he was surprised he could even play the songs!

Well, there were about 20-25 kids who performed, ages 5-17. And some of these kids were really, really good.

Of course, while I sat there admiring their hard work they’ve all put into practicing and developing their music skills, I also was watching their position while they were in front of the piano. For the most part, they were all sitting up very straight, their arms were moving quite a bit, and they all seemed pretty limber.

I couldn’t help but think about the average adult sitting at a desk, or sitting in the car- hunched over, head out in front of themselves, and using a mouse creating carpal tunnel.

You see, we didn’t used to have these problems we have now. People have played the piano for hundreds of years, and we never had issues of carpal tunnel like we do now during the computer age.

But playing the piano, or using old fashioned typewriters (you know, the kind where you had to physically PRESS the keys and push hard enough to have the lever come up to stamp the paper)- your hands and arms work completely different using those things than our modern day computers.

While the keys on a modern keyboard are easier to press, it actually creates quite a bit of strain on our wrists. Our wrists are in more extension, for longer periods of time. Plus, we are able to type faster, so there is an issue with more overuse of these muscles and tendons…

Well, a lot of us still do need to sit at a computer, we do need to type and get work done- but we can absolutely set up our work station so we put as little load on our joints and muscles as we possibly can. If you’re someone who does this stuff minimally, you can probably get away with a crummy set up, but if you spend a lot of time at your work station or driving in a car, you have GOT to set things up properly so you minimize the toll it takes on your body.

Here are a couple diagrams suggesting how to set things up:

 

The key is to try and have everything at 90 degree angles as much as possible. And if you have space for a pad to put under your wrists, this will help keep the wrist out of extension, and it will take some pressure off that area.

And in your car, the same principles apply- I also recommend sitting in your car up straight, THEN positioning your mirrors. That way, if you do slouch- when you go to look in the mirror, it’ll be a reminder to sit up straight!

These tips should help decrease all that wear and tear you’re putting on your body. If you also want to start doing stretches to help with your posture and take the pain off your back, check out my 6 Dont’s of Stretching here…

Stay healthy!

Wow- I am finally feeling like I’m back at it again!

The holidays really got the best of me this year. I’m not sure if it was because of the days of the week Christmas and New Year’s fell on, perhaps from the two 4-day weekends, or maybe because I got sick beforehand- but i feel like the holidays really kicked my butt…

But I’m finally back at it, I’m finally organized and rejuvenated and ready to start the new year!

I’ve got my fitness goals, my family goals, my finance goals, my career goals, and my personal improvement goals all mapped out.

So now for the big question- do you??? Are you ready to make this year the best year yet?

I’m very excited to put my head down, create some amazing content for my followers, and really help you get your health where it needs to be.

I started with myself, and this past weekend I finally took care of me- I really sat down and visualized what I expect of myself this year on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis. If I hadn’t set aside the time to do this, I think I’d still be back in holiday mode.

But I sat down and took the time to revise my goals and started with my weekly itinerary of how I expect each day to go.

Here, let me show you what I mean- this is my weekly schedule:

As you can see, I’ve color coded each of the major aspects of my life- Family Time is pink or purple, Exercise is yellow, Working Treating Patients in the office is red, Working on my Online business is green, coaching softball for my kids is blue.

Without this, I would feel lost, and the same thing is true when it comes to your health. Are you setting aside time for YOU? Are you meal prepping on Sundays? Are you setting aside time to do your exercises? Are you getting physical activity? Are you putting aside time with your family and friends, or are you like how I sometimes get where I’m focused more on work when I’m home with my family (and missing out on a lot of good times together)?

Let’s do this together. You don’t have to do a whole excel spreadsheet (although I do encourage you to do that). But set some firm, concrete goals for yourself. Write them down and take action every day to improve yourself.

And if you’ve got some new, fun hobby you’re looking to start- let me know what it is! I’d love to hear about some positive changes you’ve got going on. The world needs you at your best, offering all you can to make this place better!

 

The other day, my wife took the kids to some new age style birthday party. They actually had an opportunity to go skydiving!

All the kids were able to do it. Well, all of them except little Fiona. She’s just 20 months, so…

But, this was quite an experience! No, they didn’t actually jump out of an airplane or anything. But this was some indoor place in San Diego, California where the kids all put on jump suits and go into some plastic bubble where air shoots out of the ground and makes them soar into the air.

 

My wife got video of all 3 of my kids and even an adult floating in the air sprawled out like some flying squirrel.

When I watched the video of my 6 year old son, I was amazed at how flexible he was. He looked like one of those Chinese acrobat kids you see at the fair doing those crazy back bends and putting their feet behind their heads. If you haven’t seen this, picture a scorpion stinging their prey with that long tail…

 

One thing I found very interesting when I watched all the videos is that each kid progressively got less flexible with age- my 10 year old was less limber than the 6 year old, 11 year old was less flexible than that, and the adult- forget about it- she looked like Ralphie’s little brother in a Christmas Story when he went outside in the full snow costume and his arms wouldn’t go down by his sides!

This was a total reminder of how we NEED to all be on a stretching routine! The older you get, the less flexible you automatically become. Those joints and tissues lose their elasticity, your movement becomes decreased, and you become this ticking time bomb where things are just gonna “snap” at any moment.

You’ve GOT to start incorporating a stretching routine into your day, and you’ve got to start now.

When you’re starting (which is now, right!), be sure to check out my “6 DONT’S Of Stretching” to help with the process.

Good luck, and stay limber!