How To Prevent Shoulder Pain While Driving

Do you have shoulder pain while driving ? Do you struggle to relax your shoulder ?

Does your shoulder pain distract you from driving ? Do you feel like you can no longer hold your hand into that steering wheel anymore? If so , you are not alone !

I am here to let you know how you can put an end to this . Now make sure you read this important blog to ensure you are not making it worse .

Shoulder pain is a very common problem . It basically affects everything that we do on our normal day and most importantly “driving “.

It could be very debilitating being in pain everyday when driving to work or one of those days you plan out for a long drive as a family trip and you are worried about the pain .It could be very frustrating to be in pain and discomfort  every time you drive . So let’s get into it and work it out !

Our shoulder is surrounded  by 4 different muscles that are called rotator cuff and we use them all the time , especially when holding our arm and forearm in the air.If your job requires you to constantly lift your hands or if you are using them frequently at home , these muscles tend to be inflamed causing shoulder pain  . If these muscles are overused they change their texture , become more hard and then eventually tear 

These groups of muscles when inflamed or injured need more rest to avoid further injury .So , let’s learn how not to make it worse and give them a break .

1 Do not slouch forward, while you are on the driving seat.

While you sit on the driving seat make sure , you relax your shoulder .Avoid the tension building up on your shoulders by bringing your shoulder slightly down and then pulling it gently back.This position helps to rotate your shoulder joint outward . Slouching makes your shoulder rotate inward which makes it uncomfortable and painful to hold your shoulder all a long while you drive.

 

2 Stop placing your both hands on the upper part of the steering wheel.

The steering wheel is the most important aspect here. It’s very important you keep your arm close to your body so that your shoulder does not have to work lifting the arm, placing your hand on the lower part of the steering wheel provides great relief to your shoulder . It’s important to know how your arm position affects your rotator cuff .You could choose to place the affected arm lower and the good side arm slightly higher on the wheel.

 

3 Stop reaching forward and holding your arm in awkward position.

Stop reaching forward while your arm is up in the air  and away from your trunk . You can easily do this while you try to grab car keys while getting out of the car or try doing and undoing the seat belt buckle .Use the good side hand while pulling those seat belts down. The important aspect here is to keep your arm down and let your rotator cuff rest while they are recovering.

You don’t have to put up with pain while driving . We hear from our patients that they have put up with the pain , changed their lives and relied on medication and injections for nothing more than short term relief if they are lucky .I have been successfully helping my patient out with shoulder pain and we get great results .Our patients are very happy to get back to work and enjoy recreation routine without having shoulder pain.

If you’d like to get these results too then click Click HERE to book an appointment or give us a call at 905-457-7475 so we can get you back to doing what you want to do and what you love. 

I honestly want you to get rid of this pain and back to doing the things you love.

Robert Kappes, Registered Physiotherapist

Click HERE to view our video on this topic on Facebook

* Blog post written by Bimala Odari

How to setup your workstation

Are you working from home and starting to notice more stiffness and pain in your back and neck. You’re not really sure what to do about it.

Well keep reading as I will be showing you my top three things that you can do at home to improve your work station. Set up. Let’s get started.

Hi, my name is Robert Kappes from Action Physiotherapy here in Brampton.  I want to welcome you to part one of four on how to manage neck and back pain when working from home.

So I want to know. Have you guys noticed any more stiffness in your neck and back now, after working from home, do you find that at the end of the day you feel more tired and drained of your energy?

Are you aware that your workstation is not ideal but don’t really know what changes to make? Well you are not alone and I am here to help.

All right, so let’s help you set up your workstation. So we are going to look at three main things here to help you have a better workstation set up.

One is the chair and how we’re sitting in it.

Two is the desk,

and number three is the monitor.

So first, before we begin, let’s grab a couple books, make sure they are pretty thick.  I would also like you to get a towel as well.  So the number one thing I want you to work on is how we’re sitting in the chair. Doesn’t matter what chair you’re sitting in. I unfortunately have been dealing with a lovely folding chair, which is pretty much the worst chair in history.

CHAIR

But I am going show you how to use this chair effectively. So the number one thing I want to focus on, is making sure that your knees are not higher than your hip because what that does it causes a compression in the hip and causes us to around our back, causing more discomfort and pain.

So what we’re going to do to fix that is going to use your two books and wrap them up in your towel that we’ve got and then you’re going to place them on your chair.

Now, when you sit down on your chair, you can see that your hips are actually a little bit higher than your knee. Just a slight slope going down is going to help you prevent any rounding at the back and compression of your hips.

DESK

So step number two. You want to make sure your forearms are sitting flat in a 90 degree angle? What that’s going to do is prevent us from reaching, because when we reach using the mouse that causes a significant amount of tension in our neck and shoulder and that’s where a lot of our tension and pain is.

So you’re going to bring that chair closer to the desk so that you can have your forearms resting nicely on the table so you don’t have to reach for your mouse.

MONITOR

So the next thing we’re going to do is make sure that our monitor is at a slight angle here. So that we are looking just down slightly at it. So we’re not looking too far down or too far up just slightly below eye level.

And what that does is make sure that we’re not getting our heads looking forward and causing tension. If you’re working from a laptop. You’re gonna find it very difficult to obtain this position.

So what you’re gonna do is make sure you get a book and your going to elevate the laptop on the book. But to do that, you’re gonna need then a wireless keyboard, and that is the key to working from home.

Using a laptop, you’re going to need a wireless keyboard. Otherwise you are going to be crunched over at your desk. That’s going to cause you more pain and discomfort.

So again, just to recap, you want to make sure that your hips are higher than your knees, make sure your forearms are resting at 90 degrees and you want to make sure the screen level is slightly below eye level.

So why is having a workstation set up properly important?

Well, chances are when you were at work,  you probably already had some muscle aches and pains. Now transfer your workstation to home. You’re probably going to notice 10 times the amount of that pain.   We have been successfully helping our clients on virtual physiotherapy set up their workstations and I want to be able to share this information with you. In our next blog, we are going be covering how to manage your stiffness and pain during your work day, which is an important aspect of pain control.

So if you would like some help setting up your workstation, click here to book a virtual appointment where I can help you set up your own workstation.  I hope you found this information helpful and I look forward to continuing this conversation with you.

Robert Kappes, Registered Physiotherapist

P.S please check out our video we performed on this topic here on Facebook.

 

What we CAN do!: Art Therapy

Welcome to “What we CAN do”. This post is inspired by the “What you CAN do!” video posted below  from The Pain Truth Program depicting what Stephen Hawking and W. Mitchell were able to do despite having a disability.

I will be posting fun and pleasurable activities we can do to keep our sanity and enjoy social distancing through this covid-19 pandemic.  “Don’t allow our pain, disability, or situation to define us. We must focus on the activities that we are able to do.”- Bahram Jam

Art Therapy

Art Therapy can be a great tool to help with chronic pain.  If you have pain that is lasting more than 3 months, then your nervous system may have become overly sensitive because it perceives it is still in danger even when there is no longer actual damage to your tissue.  Pain is crucial for our survival because it is our body alarm system to danger and stress.  However, our body cannot distinguish between physical and emotional stress.  To effectively treat the pain, we must remove the feeling of danger or stress by focusing on enjoyable things in life.  There are numerous scientific studies which conclude that art therapy can improve one’s quality of life by reducing pain, suffering, depression, and anxiety.

Incorporate art into your daily routine to build up your resilience to danger and stress or do it the next time you feel that the pain is coming on.  Sometimes you may need to take your pain medication and that is ok as well.  

OPTION A: Learn to draw (from a book, youtube, or phone application) and decorate your office or window.

OPTION B: Learn to paint virtually with “YAYMAKER” or from a Youtube channel, such as “WOW Art”. 

“Don’t allow our pain, disability, or situation to define us. We must focus on the activities that we are able to do.”– Bahram Jam 

What we CAN do! 

Welcome to “What we CAN do”. This post is inspired by the “What you CAN do!” video posted below  from The Pain Truth Program depicting what Stephen Hawking and W. Mitchell were able to do despite having a disability.

I will be posting fun and pleasurable activities we can do to keep our sanity and enjoy social distancing through this covid-19 pandemic.  “Don’t allow our pain, disability, or situation to define us. We must focus on the activities that we are able to do.”- Bahram Jam

Now that spring is here, what better activity to start than gardening…

OPTION A: Car Greenhouse

You can start seeds indoors and use your car as a greenhouse if you don’t have a grow light. Just remember to roll the windows down slightly on a sunny day or you’ll get cooked seedlings.

OPTION B: Winter Sowing www.wintersown.org

Make holes on the top and bottom of clear plastic containers, milk jugs, or 2 liters pop bottles and use them as mini “greenhouse”.  Fill them with 2-3 inches of potting soil, plants the seeds, water, put the lids on, and leave them outside where they will get moisture and full sun. Perennials, cold-hardy annuals, herbs, and cool crop vegetables (spinach, kale, lettuce, swiss chard) are good candidates for winter sowing. This method will give your plants 1-2 months head start.

…and this is the current state of my living room 😀😄😂…

…until next time…have FUN!!

Physiotherapy clinic in Brampton

Finding a Physiotherapy clinic in Brampton is not that difficult to do.  In fact a simple search for Physiotherapy clinic in Brampton and you are given pages upon pages of results.  This amount of choice can make it difficult to make a decision.  So you have to ask yourself, what qualities make up a good physiotherapy clinic?   How do I know I will be getting quality service?  These are great questions that we will dive deep into later in the article.

Before moving on there is one very important thing you need to know before selecting a physiotherapy clinic.  No matter what clinic that you attend you must always make sure that the physiotherapist you are seeing is registered.  What does that mean?  It means that they are a member of the college of physiotherapists of Ontario and are qualified to use the term physiotherapist.  By making sure your Brampton physiotherapist is registered you know that they have gone through the appropriate training.  The other benefit of seeing a registered physiotherapist in Brampton is that only those who are registered are recognized by your insurance company.  That means if you have physiotherapy benefits you will only get your money back if you see a registered physiotherapist.  Otherwise you may be responsible for paying the bill.  So if a clinic states they provide “physiotherapy services” you need to ask immediately are your physiotherapists registered.  An easier way to determine if your physiotherapist is registered is to look them up on the College of Physiotherapist of Ontario website.  By clicking here you can search their name to see if they are registered.  Every year registered physiotherapists are required to renew their license with the college so if they are on this list they are registered.  Do your research.

How to find a physiotherapy clinic for my condition

Although all physiotherapists go through similar training when they are in school, their out of school training can be much different.  For example you can have a physiotherapist who specializes in sports injuries, or one that has extra training in treating spinal cord injuries.  If you are looking for a specific type of treatment you can search for a physiotherapist that specializes in your condition.  Simply click here and it will take you to the Ontario Physiotherapy association where you can type in your condition and be matched with a physiotherapist in Brampton.  Just because a physiotherapist is qualified to treat a condition, doesn’t mean they have the resources or experience to do so.

Okay so now you have identified which Physiotherapy clinic in Brampton have registered physiotherapists and which ones treat the condition you have.  Now what? You are still left with a handful of clinics that you believe can help you but how do you decide now.  Here are a few tips that can help you narrow down your selection.

1. Is the person answering the phone friendly and helpful?

You do not want to be dealing with a clinic whose front desk is not helpful and welcoming.  I mean you are already in pain, you may feel anxious and stressed and maybe even a little fearful.  Your physiotherapist may be great but if the front desk is not welcoming or helpful this could be a deciding factor for you going forward.

2. Do they offer the hours that suit your schedule

some clinics offer evening and early morning appointments that can be helpful if you work shift work.  So always check to see if the hours are compatible

3. Do they have an appointment available in a reasonable time frame?

If your injury can’t wait and the clinic you are looking into can’t get you in for another 3 weeks this may be a wasted opportunity for recovery.  If your injury is not urgent and the clinic is checking off all your boxes then it may be worth the wait.

4. Is your physiotherapist available on the days you are

Although some people don’t mind seeing another physiotherapist during their care, others prefer to see the same therapist each time.  By seeing the same physiotherapist each time you build trust and know what to expect with each session.  This is a personal preference however as long as the other physiotherapist taking care of you is following your plan

5. Ask how long will you with your physiotherapist during your sessions

Some clinics employ physiotherapy assistants and although they can be great at assisting the physiotherapist, they do not have the same education and skill set as a physiotherapist.  Therefore, the more time you are able to spend with your physiotherapist, the better quality care you are receiving.

Conclusion

After gathering all your answers you should be able to narrow your search down to one or two clinics.  From there I would suggest going to visit the clinic and then choose based on how you feel when you enter the clinic.  Follow this process when looking for a physiotherapy clinic in Brampton and you should be more than happy with the quality of care that you receive. If you want to learn more about our physiotherapist click here to read their bios.  Thanks for reading and we hope you found this guide helpful.