Pain In the Back of Your Arm? Here's A Possible Cause...

Last week I worked on a police officer.

I hate to say "worked on" because my feeling is that I work "with" people rather than "on" them. But, if I tell you I worked with him, you'd think I work with him, which I do not...

Anyway, back to my story - the officer was complaining of pain in the back of his upper arms.

As many people in law enforcement are, he was very involved with working out with weights. It is important to be physically strong in his field. Sometimes it is necessary to control a person, and an officer needs every advantage.

I noticed his shoulders were rounded very far forward.

When you lie on your back, your shoulders should be on or pretty close to the floor or bed.

But, this policeman's shoulders were not anywhere close to the treatment table he was on. I could slide practically my whole fist under his shoulders.

The gap behind his shoulders was huge!

I explained the necessity of getting his back stronger. I explained how his tight front muscles (pectoral muscles) were pulling his shoulders forward.

I explained how his forward shoulders were pulling on and overstretching the muscles in his back and the back of his arms.

His chest muscles were the cause of his pain!

And then I suggested that he lay off the pectoral muscle exercises while he gets back in balance.

He chuckled.

I knew what that meant.

Up to that point, he was with me - he heard what I was saying. But, when I said, "Lay off the pecs for a while," I lost him.

I saw it in his eyes.

He had no intention of stopping his chest exercises, even though they were causing physical pain symptoms for him.

In his mind, working his pectorals was important to his well-being and safety.

My suggestion was outside of his comfort zone.

But, sometimes, there comes a point when someone is so tired of their pain, they will do anything necessary to feel better.

They will stop blaming aches and pains on "I'm getting old," or "My aunt had the same pain."

Sometimes people get to the point where they realize that no one can fix them except themselves. And so they find out what to do.

And they do it.

And they feel better.

Because we can.

You can, too.

Bounce on over to SimpleStrengthening for lots of info on strengthening your back and getting back in balance.

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better!"

Uncommon Migraine Pain Relief Tips

Your head may actually pound. Light hurts your eyes. Every sound is noise and the noise is all too loud. You might even throw up. You feel bad, and you look bad, too.

I really can't think of anything worse than a really bad migraine. A broken leg may keep you from moving, but a migraine headache keeps you from being!

Migraines come in variations. Some are worse than others and some are merely horrible. They affect every system in your body.

Some people believe that headaches and migraines are closely related. I'm one of those people. For years and years, I never had "just a headache." Each time I started with a headache, I ended up with a migraine.

The best way to avoid migraines is to have perfect posture. For those of us who are prone to headaches and migraines, any little strain on the muscles around our neck or head can, and will, cause pain.

Keeping a strong back, including the muscles in the back of your neck, helps hugely.

Learning how to have perfect posture will make a big difference in the frequency and severity of your head pain. It's really important that you have good posture when you sit, when you stand, and you even need your neck and head propped correctly when you sleep.

Avoiding the foods that cause migraine pain for you helps, too. I had a friend who would get instant migraine when she ate an orange. After a while, she started avoiding oranges. Other times, it is not an instant reaction.

A varied and healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables helps for many reasons. One of the reasons is that constipation can create conditions for a migraine. It may be the pressure from the packed intestines on the blood vessels in the abdomen that causes a migraine, because migraines are vascular headaches. That means they are related to what is happening with blood vessels.

"Keeping things moving" through your intestines with a good diet helps prevent migraine. You might consider taking additional fiber from a bottle to avoid constipation. Also, many headache and other medicines cause constipation.

Avoiding a migraine in the first place is a much better strategy than trying to get rid of it after you are already hurting.

But, when a migraine sneaks up, or flat out attacks, despite your best efforts, here are a few tips to help ward off or lessen your pain.

* Ice. Ice the base of your skull. Use a cold pack and put yourself in the most comfortable position you can. Use a thin towel between your skin and the cold pack. You can ice and use the next tip at the same time.

* Cold. Place a cold, almost dripping wet, cloth on your forehead and eyes. You can flip it over as it warms up from your heat. You can keep a pan of ice water next to the bed to re-wet and re-chill the cloth. You can use put a plastic bag under a towel behind your head. That will keep your bed dry.

* Compress. Wrap your head in a long towel so that it is like a turban. Cover your eyes and ears with the turban, too. The idea is to compress your head, to squeeze it. This is comforting, blocking out noise and light, and helps reduce the pain.

* Alka Seltzer. Aspirin does not touch a migraine, but...two tablets of Alka Seltzer, if taken at the beginning of a migraine attack, often knocks out the migraine. I suspect that this happens because it is a large dose of aspirin all at once, rather than gradual.

Check out my web site for help to fix your posture. Good posture will help reduce your headaches.

"Because you deserve to feel better!"