So many fitness blogs, magazines and shows will casually reference the core muscles and how important their integrity is to a life of wellness. Many people adopt the fallacious idea that the core is just muscles in the middle of the body, essentially the abdominals. In reality, the core is a complex network of muscle groups that includes just about everything besides muscles in the limbs. Almost every single movement that a human performs during the day will use some combination of core muscles.

The core muscles can commence movement, limit and stabilize movement, and transfer forces across the body. At Scorca Chiropractic, we seek to impart upon people the knowledge of just how important a healthy core is: training your core properly allows you to achieve core stability. Core stability is the ability of the core muscles to control the force we produce: a healthy core can be used to protect the spine and surrounding muscles from extreme movements. As we age and grow heavier, more burden is placed upon the discs that accentuate the vertebrae, making a stable core all the more important.

For people looking to strengthen their body to improve back pain or prevent it, the core is a great place to start. Simply doing crunches everyday may not be cutting it. You can make each movement count more by ensuring you have the professional knowledge we offer at our office in Fremont. 

Dr. Francis Scorca, D.C.

How much time do you spend commuting during the work week? The answer usually surprises people when you total the daily values: 30 minutes each way per day of the week adds up to 5 hours a week in which your sitting posture really counts. Unfortunately, very few car seats are engineered to support a healthy resting position for the spine. From our perspective, driving is a temporary activity and therefore we place less impetus on our posture in the car. This is unfortunate because the same rules apply to the car as to any other part of the day: sitting with consistently poor posture can leave the muscles and structures of your back in jeopardy. 

• Hands at 9 and 3
• Face forward, with head balanced over the spine. This may mean actually using your head rest.
• Sit up straight with your butt touching the back of the seat; keep your hips square. 
• Avoid leaning one elbow on the center console. 

Of course, strictly following this posture code for every minute of the drive will make you look like a robot, so make sure that your seat is adjusted properly to allow your shoulders to relax while your arms grip the steering wheel. Use a jacket or small pillow to support a healthy lordotic curve and above all, guard against getting stiff. This may mean adding minutes on to your trip by pulling over to stretch it out, but those minutes will be worth it at the end of the trip.

Posture is an easy way to influence your health. For more tips on how to boost the health of your daily life, give our office a call at (510) 656-9077  to schedule an appointment today. 

Dr. Francis Scorca, D.C. 

The answer is yes, absolutely. Headaches result from a complex mix of physiological and psychological reasons that can seem as limitless as the pain that they cause. These factors are further exacerbated by the lifestyles we lead: the foods we consume, activities we pursue and stresses we exert on our body each day. At Scorca Chiropractic Center, we want to stack the odds in your favor by defeating headaches through prevention. Because your headache reflects your lifestyle, it is worth looking at what you do to your body on a daily basis and how this contributes to your condition. One way to do positively affect headache pain is through conscientious good posture.

As hours pass you by in the office, intangible stresses are accumulating, leading you to lean your head forward toward the screen. The back now rounds and the shoulders tighten into a tense position. Rather than being centered and balanced above the spine, the head is now contributing exponentially more stress to the back, requiring muscles in the neck and shoulder to compensate. In this position, muscle spasms ensue and the pain is referred to the nerves in your head and voila, you have a headache.

Surely this is a simple example, but it is overlooked by many of us who spend or days deskbound. For ways to break these cycles of accumulated stress and headache, give our office in Fremont a call at (510) 656-9077.

Dr. Francis Scorca, D.C. 

Is there an ideal runner’s form? Well, looking at it from the other direction, there is very poor runner’s form. It is quite easy to distinguish someone who is running upright from someone who is obviously winded, but there are more insidious ways in which running can take a toll on your joints. Focus on these tips to ensure your body is not absorbing too much damage as you run across the world. 

• Face forward: Your head sets the tone that the rest of your body follows. If you are staring down, your shoulders will likely start caving forward and your upper spine will resemble a hunchback. Plus, you may miss some pretty sights. Face forward and stay upright. 
• Keep your shoulders loose. If you feel them tensing at any point during the run, take a break and shake them out to break the tension. 
• Remember that your hips are your center of gravity. Staying upright prevents your pelvis from tilting forward, which often causes low back pain. 
• Try to vary the surfaces you run on. Only running on concrete is very rough on joints in both the knees and back. 

This kind of running posture will save you a lot of trouble if you are a consistent runner. If you come home aching after runs, it is best not to push yourself further before checking in at Scorca Chiropractic Center. We screen your back for any underlying injuries that may be compounded by a steady diet of running and offer you the treatment that gets you back on your feet in no time. Call our office in Fremont at (510) 656-9077 to schedule an appointment today. 

Dr. Francis Scorca, D.C. 

Moving: as easy as a walk in the park. But modern lifestyles are causing us to lose sight of this. You may have to sit at work to make money, and you may feel like sitting at night to unwind from the day, but how can you recapture the moments in between: the moments when you are scrolling mindlessly through news feeds or staring absent-mindedly out the window. If you can get yourself moving, your spine will thank you. 

• Park far away. Gone are the days of finding the nearest possible parking place for your daily bit of shopping. Park in the back of the lot, and carry your bags to the car.
• Vacuum yourself. Gone are the days of the roomba sweeping up your crumbs. But this is simply an allegory for all kinds of activities: mowing the lawn, picking weeds, cooking and walking the dog. Don’t pay other people, or pay for a robot to do tasks that enable you to sit around immobilized. As long as you perform tasks with proper posture, your spine will strengthen and repay you.
• Don’t drive to every little place: consider alternate modes of transportation such as walking or biking.
• Stand up while talking on the phone. Maybe pace a bit.
• Challenge yourself to stretch once an hour. 
• Take the stairs (for reasonable amounts of flights). 

A healthy back care lifestyle is not a walk in the park: it is about changing a mentality. At Scorca Chiropractic Center, we can help! We have the knowledge and experience to help you heal your own spine, whatever its condition. If you want to get serious about sitting less and moving more, give our office in Fremont a call at (510) 656-9077. We believe that once you get a taste for how good your spine can feel, you will propel yourself.

Dr. Francis Scorca, D.C. 

If you are suffering from back pain, one of the best things you can do for your ailing spine is one of the simplest and oldest methods of therapy in the world: soak it! Taking hot baths for pain is a great way to restore the body and mind. If you can get into a warm-water pool to fully suspend the gravitational pull, all the better. While the bath can be as simple as plugging the drain and pulling the tap, there are some ways that you can maximize your bathing time to ease back pain, promote circulation, and relax your brain.

1. Warm>scalding hot. Baths approaching the scalding level threaten your body’s homeostasis and set your nervous system on edge, which can interfere with sleep afterwards. 
2. Your extremities as radiators: keeping your head, feet and hands out of the water can help your body shed heat, making the bath more enjoyable
3. Massage yourself, stretch your shoulders and neck and practice deep breathing. Baths are all about releasing tension!
4. Stay hydrated as you are sweating while you bathe. 

Baths are incredibly therapeutic for the back pain sufferer. If the pain is muscular in nature, as many low back injuries are, warm baths are great at easing the tension that builds up in trigger points. The next step is to use water for exercise! At Scorca Chiropractic, we believe in the power of water to help you heal and recover from back injuries of all kinds. At our office in Fremont, we evaluate the condition of your spine, converse regarding your personal health goals, and set a plan for improvement that could include a regime of regular bathing!

Call our office at (510) 656-9077 to schedule an appointment today.

Dr. Francis Scorca, D.C. 

Sitting is a disease and as time progresses, it is causing the premature degradation of spines that are subject to extensive daily sitting. At Scorca Chiropractic Center, we believe it is our responsibility to not sit idly by on the sidelines and let this happen. Computerized jobs, computerized lifestyles and television leisure is leaving more people on the couch rather than out in the garden. At our office in Fremont, we don’t ask people to uproot what they are comfortable with. Rather, we focus on getting you moving sneakily: how can you capture 5 minutes out of an hour, or multi-task while on the telephone, to instill some healthy habits for your body.

Come in and talk to us, we promise we won’t ask you to upend anything you are comfortable with. We simply help you find out your realistic health goal. We seek to make sure you have your full range of motion into old age. The little things make all the difference:

• Get a step counter: it is a fun way to track your movement and stokes the pleasure centers of your brain when you see how many steps you have taken- it becomes a kind of personal competition.
• Make a playlist or find a favorite podcast that you can take walking or jogging. Getting lost in music or historical chatter makes the time pass by before you even know it.
• Stop letting other people do your work for you. Gardening and housework are rewarding in of themselves. A big way we stop moving is by hiring other people to do this work for us.
• Try a new sport: running is not for everyone, and it creates a lot of repetitive stress on the body. Swimming is an alternative that works out the whole body gently.
• Stop smoking and take the stairs.
• Don’t look for the nearest possible parking spot. Every step counts. 
• Finally, reward yourself (healthily)

At Scorca Chiropractic Center, we can help you rediscover an appreciation for the simple things in life. Don’t let computer screens be the reason that your spine goes downhill. Call our office and let us help you bring movement and health back into your life.

Dr. Francis Scorca, D.C. 

In the chiropractic world, much importance is placed upon the vertebrae, those structures that build the spinal cord and provide you with your body’s structural integrity. Sometimes this is to the detriment of the spinal muscles, whose role in spinal health is critical in their own right. Problems with any of these muscles often lead to back pain, and it is therefore a responsibility of the chiropractor to listen to your particular problem to determine if any of the muscles may be in jeopardy. 

These muscles have different functions but one thing that unites them all is that lack of activity creates problems, including atrophy. Too much sitting, too little exercise or not enough attention to a specific muscle group can leave you in pain, which then limits your movement further. Our lifestyles often perpetuate this kind of vicious cycle that leaves our backs stiff and our heads aching.  

Let purposeful movement back into your life and feel your back come alive. If muscular pain or spinal degeneration is holding you back from pursuing activities, let us treat your pain and get you back on your feet. Call our office in Fremont at (510) 656-9077 to schedule an appointment today.

Dr. Francis Scorca, D.C. 

Running is an activity that borders on a spiritual experience for its devoted followers: people swear by the runner’s high in a way that no other sport seems to have captured. At Scorca Chiropractic Center, we value running as an integral part of a healthy lifestyle. As with all physical exertion, there is a toll on the runner’s body: it involves repetitive trauma and impact that will wear down joints in the legs and back over time without the person’s awareness. That’s why we encourage people to temper their enthusiasm for the sport with an enthusiasm for preventative measures against injury.

We are born with spines that expect a lifestyle full of running and heavy physical exertion. But the lifespan of a spine is often shorter than that of the human, making prevention and adequate support for the spine more important as you age. Chiropractic care will help you in the areas of prevention and injury recovery:

Concrete is hard on the knees and lower back: if possible, varying your running surfaces is highly advisable. Keeping up with changing shoes every few hundred miles is also important. If your back is feeling sore after a run, give our office in Fremont a call at (510) 656-9077 to schedule an appointment. We specialize in treating the kind of trauma that is imparted upon spines during running.

Dr. Francis Scorca, D.C. 

Stand up on your own two feet and beat back pain by performing the most natural human endeavor: going for a walk. As the 21^st century progresses, perhaps we are losing sight of the simplicity and healthful power of the typical walk. For people who have back pain, walks are an essential piece of returning to a pain free life. Without even realizing it, you are strengthening the bones and muscles of the entire body and improving your flexibility to boot. Spinal joints are called into action for gentle articulation and a previously stagnant spine is now moving as it should

So how does it help the back pain sufferer?

• Improves circulation of the blood throughout all the vital systems of the body, bringing the values of oxygen and nutrients to all of your cells.
• Promotes movement of previously immobile joints allowing them to hydrate and find their state of balance.
• Reduces back pain by mildly releasing endorphins.
• Reduces weight, one of the primary contributing factors to back pain in America.
• Improves range of motion and makes you more resistant to injury.

It is not inconceivable that you could walk your way back to health by making minute lifestyle adjustments. Going for an hour long walk in place of one show in the evening or walking to work are examples of considerations that you could make to institute more walking into your life. At Scorca Chiropractic Center, we offer the spinal adjustments that keep your spine in alignment, but we also offer knowledge of a total body of health that begins with a walk.

Call our office in Fremont at (510) 656-9077 to schedule an appointment today

Dr. Francis Scorca, D.C.