Tulsa Spine and Rehab

Charlie: Sean, sometimes there a words like quiche that men stay away from. Yoga and Pilates, may be two words that belong in the same file folder for most men. Is that right thinking?

Dr. Riley: I love quiche, Charlie. Good comparison. I mean, I had someone just the other day, a relatively fit guy. You could tell he exercised a fair amount. I’d seen him more frequently for low back pain and he was getting a little frustrated I think. This is a guy that goes to the gym four or five days a week. He says, “Sean, what are your thoughts on yoga and Pilates?” He said it sheepishly, maybe even, he was little embarrassed. I think he was thankful my door was shut in the office, here.

Charlie: Mm-hmm (affirmative). He even lowered his voice?

Dr. Riley: Yeah, yeah. And I said, I’ll tell you what? If you’re gonna do one thing moving forward, it should be yoga and Pilates. And I was exaggerating there, but I think it’s something that we need to start paying attention to, Charlie. You know, most men who have a history of exercise or were athletes when we were younger, played sports in high school, whatever the case may be, it was all about building strength and stability and mass. We’re doing a lot of lifting on dumbbells and barbells. I’m not saying weights are bad for you. I think there needs to be an emphasis on stability and strength training of course and weights, I think it’s fine to use weights. Not my favorite, I prefer bands and those types of things for stability but it also depends who we’re talking about, Charlie. We’re talking about the 45 year old man that wants to stay healthy and maybe play some golf and do some different things on the weekend. That’s who we’re speaking to but our mind, we continue to exercise in our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and our brain sometimes reverts back to that 18 year old boy, okay? I’m gonna go to the gym. What am I gonna do? I’m gonna do dumbbell presses, I’m gonna do curls, I’m gonna do dead lifting, maybe some overhead squats. A lot of that’s great exercises, but probably not the best thing for a 45 year old that sits at a desk all day. And what I mean by that is a lot of sadly have repetitive type lives. We wake up in the morning, we have breakfast with our families, we get in our car, we drive to the office. Unfortunately, we sit on our butts for six to eight hours a day, looking at a computer screen. Over time, that catches up with us. You may get away with it. You may not have low back, neck, whatever the case may be. You may not have pain in those areas, yet our margin starts to shrink. And what I mean by that is, the more we do something repetitively an over and over again, you start to get tight in certain areas. Whether it’s your hips, you lose flexibility and mobility in your back. Different areas of our body starts to get … Just like a rubber band, it starts to shorten a little bit.

Charlie: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dr. Riley: So, we lose flexibility. Then, I need to go to the gym. I started doing my weight training, doing these types of things, and you get away with it until that one day when maybe your biomechanics or your form just isn’t spot on, and Boom! We have an issue. Just like the patient I was speaking about, it’s been the same thing. It’s been a recurring low back theme with him. And finally, I had a discussion … I think we need to look a little deeper. Is there an underlying issue here? What’s going on? It’s not a disc problem and you continue to injure the part of your back and we talked about the importance of mobility and that’s why I said, please incorporate that into your routine two to three days a week because what happens is once I reestablish motion in those areas, I can increase flexibility. It widens that margin for error. If I have a shoulder that doesn’t move properly and then I load my shoulder into an overhead press, you set yourself up for injury. So, I always talk about the foundation. We wanna make sure our body has the ability to move properly and then from there, of course, let’s stabilize it. That is so important as well.

Charlie: We’re speaking with Dr. Sean Riley with Tulsa Spine and Rehab, an integrated clinic providing chiropractic and physical therapy, massage therapy, yoga of course, and naturopathic medicine including acupuncture. Dr. Riley, you talk about building on the foundation. What are our ext steps?

Dr. Riley: Sure. What I like about yoga and Pilates is that we’re not only focusing on flexibility and mobility but a lot of times, there’s some strength training to it, meaning you might get in a position that is challenging your trunk or your core or your glutes, yet you’re increasing thoracic spine mobility. So, it’s kinda like a twofer. You’re getting two for one there. You’re not only getting that flexibility and mobility training, there’s also gonna be some type of stability component. A lot of times, you’ll hear me and Charlie talk about stability versus strength. It’s kind of the same thing. Stability, I get more focused on stabilizing areas. Then you think about strength training, like building, developing more muscle mass. That’s what’s great about Pilates and so forth. First off, I think it’s safe for a lot of folks. Especially, if you’re in a supervised class or whatnot, where an instructor can get a set of eyes on you and say, hey charlie, make sure to get your hip up, get your head up, whatever the case may be. Trying to get you in good positions posturally, and that also activates some of these stabilizers. That’s why I’m a big fan of these Pilates, these restorative yoga, these other types of yoga classes that obviously get you in positions that stresses some of these areas. You might feel tightness and tension in some of these areas, which is okay. Obviously we wanna pay attention to our body. Pain should not be … We should listen to pain. Meaning if you experience pain or discomfort, you should modify or shut it down. But these instructors are able to give you feedback and so forth, to set you up for success, so to speak.

Charlie: Let me ask an elemental question here. What is the difference between yoga and Pilates?

Dr. Riley: Well, a lot of times, yoga, you will be in a more static type position, you know? I don’t know if you’ve heard of these downward dog, and these just very elementary yoga poses, but it’s more of a static and hold meaning once you get into the position, you’re gonna hold that position for a handful of seconds. Pilates, it’s more dynamic. They utilize reformers and different types of machines typically to get you in these type of positions. When I think Pilates, I think a little bit more stability and that you’re gonna get a little more strength training with that. And then yoga is just a great option for a lot of people that were trying just develop fundamental mobility in their bodies. The great thing about yoga too, Charlie, there’s that … Oh, man, there are all kinds of yoga classes out there from elementary, beginner type classes, to more extreme type classes, hot yoga and so forth. I always recommend, just like with anything, like at the gym or anything that you do in life, start very basic. Get yourself comfortable, get your brain use to some of these types of movements and then potentially progress to other types of yoga.