Beds get blamed for things they don't deserve Does your back hurt in the morning? Putting on pants and socks difficult and painful? Or maybe pain wakes you up when you roll over in bed during the night. If so, you may be suspicious that your bed is causing your back pain. "Maybe my mattress […]

What are stretches for? If you're like most people, you may feel like you should be stretching more. Patients tell me this all the time. "Ugh, I know I should be stretching. It's just so confusing, trying to figure out which stretches I need, and I never know if I'm doing them right." But first, […]

Why did I throw my back out? One of the first things my patients want to know is, “Why did my back start hurting all of a sudden?  I wasn’t doing anything crazy or dangerous, then out of nowhere it hit me, and now I can barely get up from a chair!” In this post […]

What is a hip flexor? Hip 'flexion' is a movement we're all designed to do. If you're standing, then raise one knee in front of you, that is 'flexion' of the hip. The main muscles that make this movement happen -- the hip flexors (psoas and iliacus) -- routinely get accused of causing low back […]

If I'm in pain, which one works best? The short answer is -- whichever one feels best, is best! Both heat and ice fall into a category of therapies that don't fix anything, but they can be helpful by making you more comfortable. Neither will speed healing, and there's no danger of accidentally using the […]