Holistic Healing, Fitness, Pain Management, Rehabilitation

Snow shoveling is one of the most common causes of back injuries during the winter season. The good news is with the proper equipment and preparations you can go this season unscathed. Here’s the list: Pick the Right Snow Shovel  Ergonomic shovels can help take some of the effort out of snow removal chores. A shovel with a curved handle will minimize bending, helping you to use more of your knees then your lower back. A small, lightweight, plastic blade helps reduce the amount of weight that you are moving. Warm Up as if You Were About to Exercise  Cold muscles are more prone to injury. By warming up for just a few minutes before shoveling you can stave off serious injury. Get your heart pumping with a brisk walk, jogging in place, jumping jacks or another full-body activity. Stretch your legs by doing some hamstring and quad stretches.  Stretch your arms and trunk  Hold poses for 10 - 15 seconds Use Ergonomic Lifting Tech

I want to share with you all an interesting experience I had.  Over the last week, ~3x/day I had extremely intense Level 10 stabbing pains under my R rib cage that lasted 15-20 min each. Friends and family warned me this problem may be an issue with internal organs. I started researching classic shiatsu points, which correlate with our organs, and was indeed showing signs of gallbladder and stomach dysfunction. This led to  a costly E.R. visit with no conclusion except a script for painkillers and a recommendation to follow up with a surgeon. Feeling discouraged, I decided to investigate my initial intuition: that these pain episodes were due to a classic muscular referred pain, especially after reflecting on other contributing factors like dehydration, poor nutrition, and overworking myself over the last 3 weeks. I booked a session with a fellow medical massage therapist, and sure enough we found a classic trigger point in a muscle called iliocostalis (Pictured below). Delighte