Chiropractic Care for Musicians: Improve Neurology, Speed, Precision & Performance
Chiropractic Care for Musicians: Improve Neurology, Speed, Precision & Performance Why Musicians Need More Than Just Practice If you’re a musician, your body is your first instrument. Hours of rehearsal demand not only skill, but also optimal brain-body communication. Even minor changes in nerve function, muscle coordination, or posture can mean the difference between effortless playing and ongoing struggle. Chiropractic care for musicians isn’t just about pain relief — it’s about optimizing your neurological performance, so you can play faster, more precisely, and with greater endurance. The Neurological Connection: How the Spine Affects Musical Performance At the heart of every performance is your nervous system — the network that coordinates every movement, breath, and note. Research by Dr. Heidi Haavik shows that when spinal joints aren’t moving well, the brain can receive distorted sensory input. This affects what is called “sensorimotor integration”, or your brain’s ability to process body position and movement. Chiropractic adjustments have been shown to: * Improve cortical processing (how the brain interprets sensory data) * Enhance proprioception (awareness of hand and finger position) * Optimize muscle coordination For musicians, this can translate to better bow or hand control, cleaner finger placement, and more...
read moreMusicians, Neck Pain and Neck Dysfunction: It’s impact on playing, performance and comfort.
Musicians, Neck Pain, and PRMD: Chiropractic Care, Management, and Prevention Musicians pour countless hours into perfecting their craft, often repeating the same postures and movements for extended periods. This dedication often leads to a specific category of injuries known as Playing-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (PRMDs). Among these, neck pain is particularly common—especially for those who play string instruments, piano, or wind instruments that involve prolonged static postures and repetitive use of the upper body. What Are PRMDs? PRMDs are injuries or pain that interfere with a musician’s ability to play or perform or execute daily activities unrelated to music at their usual level. These can signal muscle strains, nerve compression, inflammation, or even chronic musculoskeletal dysfunction affecting performance and quality of life. While injuries can strike almost any area, the neck, shoulders, and upper back are especially vulnerable due to the physical demands of playing an instrument. Why Musicians Suffer With Neck Pain Sustained Forward Head Posture: Reading sheet music or looking at their hands or strings encourages hunched shoulders and a jutting chin. Instrument Position: Violinists and violists hold their instruments under the chin, risking asymmetrical strain. Cellists, pianists, and guitarists may lean forward for hours and often with...
read moreMy exercises are not helping. My back pain is worse. Dr. Lou’s Mini Blog
The exercises I was given and that I’m doing, aren’t working for my back pain. In this quick installment of Dr. Lou’s Mini Blog, one thing needs to be highlighted. When a provider gives you specific exercises for your problem, based their knowledge and experience of your problem and what helps, do what they tell you. Don’t add your own exercises, don’t modify the prescribed exercises, don’t lie about doing them. Do them as prescribed without any changes unless you discuss those changes with your provider and they sign off on the changes. In over 23 years of working with patients on a variety of nerve, brain, muscle, joint, and other types of issues, including back pain, I have made a horrifying discovery. Many people who say they are doing their exercises are not. Many of these patients have created their own protocols that are wrong. Often times, the exercises the provider has prescribed are being done wrong. Patients often don’t do the physiotherapy component as often as they were told to. IF you do the exercises wrong, in the wrong amount, or do something different “in place” of those prescribed, you may not get better. Different exercises do different...
read moreLow Back Pain and Body Weight – The Secret Relationship
What Role Does Body Weight Play In Low Back Pain & Healing? Body weight plays a significant role in the chronicity of low back pain. Multiple studies and reviews consistently show that higher body weight-especially overweight and obesity-increases both the risk of developing chronic low back pain and the likelihood that pain will persist over time 1 2 3 7. Increased Risk and Prevalence: Obesity and overweight are established risk factors for chronic low back pain. For example, being obese can increase the odds of chronic low back pain by up to 1.7 times compared to those with normal weight1. The prevalence of low back pain rises with increasing BMI: less than 3% of people with normal BMI reported low back pain in the past three months, compared to 7.7% of obese and 11.6% of morbidly obese individuals 2. Dose-Response Relationship: There is a linear relationship between BMI and chronic pain rates. Overweight individuals have a 20% higher rate of recurring pain, while those with class I, II, and morbid obesity have 68%, 136%, and 254% higher rates, respectively, compared to normal-weight individuals 2. Mechanical and Structural Impact: Excess body weight increases the mechanical load on the spine, leading...
read moreWhy does low back pain sometimes take so long to heal? Patience. Knowledge. Action. Back Pain in Portland, Maine
Top 25 Variables That Contribute to Slow Healing of Low Back Pain It is very common to feel like your healing process is going way too slow. The frustration is understandable, but so is keeping a level head, objectivity and reasonable expectations. Without maintaining these, we set ourselves up for frustration, disappointment, selling ourselves short, and streamlining drugs and surgery. Patience and a clear head lead to identifying “perpetuation factors” of what we are suffering with, which prompts change in daily life if we are conscious enough to see what we are doing and acknowledge the need for change. If you are going to be frustrated, discouraged, disappointed, do it after you have done everything right. A wide range of factors can contribute to the slow healing of low back pain, influencing the risk of pain becoming chronic and recovery being delayed. These factors span physical, psychological, social, and lifestyle domains. Based on the evidence from systematic reviews and authoritative sources, the following are the top 25 variables most commonly associated with slower healing in low back pain. Use this as a partial checklist for your own contributing factors to slow healing, then assess, and make changes to that...
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