Have you ever had a low back injury, shoulder injury, knee injury, ankle injury, etc. and googled exercises that you can do to rehabilitate the area? This is generally the first thing people do then they have pain. Unfortunately, the exercises you will find online are extremely generic and unspecific. Rehab or Physical Therapy has almost become synonymous with strengthen, so most of these exercises are no more than resisted range of motion exercises to strengthen the muscles that cross the affected joint. The problem this poses is that a great deal of injuries do not stem from the area where the pain manifests (i.e. knee dysfunction causes low back pain or low back dysfunction causes shoulder pain), so strengthening the area of pain may be missing the cause of the problem completely. At our Pittsburgh chiropractic office, we place an emphasis on how mechanical dysfunction at the core can lead to neck pain, headaches, low back pain, hip pain, or a wide range of other musculoskeletal problems.
Much of the rehabilitation taught in chiropractic schools is very generic. Don’t get me wrong- clams, bird dogs, cat camels, etc. are great exercises, but they are the very generic and unspecific type of exercises related to chiropractic treatments that I mentioned above. As the chiropractor of Robinson, PA I wanted to provide more for my patients, so I took the advice of a colleague and began studying DNS, or Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization. Rehabilitation Prague School, where DNS was developed, describes DNS as the following: “The nervous system establishes programs that control human posture, movement and gait. This ‘motor control’ is largely established during the first critical years of life. Therefore, the “Prague School” emphasizes neurodevelopmental aspects of motor control in order to assess and restore dysfunction of the locomotor system and associated syndromes." In other words, DNS is a rehab system based on our innate developmental motor and movement patterns. Have you ever seen a baby slouch? A toddler with back pain? Neither have I. That’s why DNS is so effective- it allows for identifying the functional problem, which is usually a core deficiency, and corrects it.
I am sure you have heard “once you go to a chiropractor, you have to go for the rest of your life”. This is because many chiropractors are very good at temporarily relieving your pain, but fail to identify the cause of the pain. You may be told that spinal misalignment is causing your pain, which it very well may be, but WHY is your spine misaligned? This is where DNS comes in. In cases like this, you may go to the chiropractor, get adjusted, get massage, and feel great for a week, only to find the pain return. Then you are faced with two health care options if you want to stay on the conservative side of treatment- stop getting treated and live in chronic pain or “go to the chiropractor every week for the rest of your life”. This is why DNS and chiropractic care work so well together. The combination of the two will prevent lifelong chiropractic adjustments. At 412 Performance Chiropractic of Robinson Township, PA, we achieve quick and efficient results with traditional chiropractic practice AND give every patient DNS exercises to correct the functional deficit, and keep the condition from recurring. Would you rather go through a 36 visit, 3 month treatment plan where you spend countless hours at the doctor's office or a 1-2 week, home based treatment plan with dedicated DNS homework where you receive the tools to keep the pain at bay? Give 412 Performance Chiropractic in Robinson Township, PA a call and give DNS a try, you won’t regret it.