Colder than normal May here in Michigan this past weekend. I was watching my daughter run in a track and field meet and was talking to some of the parents and they joked how they all needed adjusted after sitting in the bleachers and freezing. Of course I thought this would be a good teaching moment here on a blog. It is true you can cause subluxations of your spine from shivering in the cold and especially from sitting on bleachers.
Shivering is the mechanism your body uses to keep your vital organs warm, it is basically a survival technique. You can live without some fingers or toes but your heart, lungs, liver, kidneys etc are all vital to survival. What happens is your paraspinal muscles in your back contract and relax quickly causing the shivering that you feel. This generates heat, just the same as when you are working out. Your muscles warm up and you sweat, except in this case you aren’t sweating.
This contraction of the muscles pulls and pushes on the spine causing the bones to become misaligned. Then add in sitting on those hard cold bleachers and this is a perfect recipe for subluxations and back and neck pain. Getting adjusted after an event like that can realign your spine and help prevent future injuries and nerve pinching. It’s a quick and easy process and usually only takes about 15 minutes. Besides you deserve a treat after enduring the cold for you child 🙂