"Just the facts Ma'am" - Get The Facts On Warming Up and Cooling Down!

Whether you are starting a rehabilitation program or an exercise program, the importance of warming up prior to your workout and cooling down afterwards cannot be overlooked. However, many people skip these important steps and jump straight to their workout. Though taking time to warm up and cool down does prolong a workout session, these are vital steps to promoting the benefits of exercise as well as helping you not to injure yourself during your workout.

So why is it so important to warm up before your workout? Warming up your body readies your body for your workout: you increase your heart rate and respiration slowly, your muscle temperature increases, as does your blood flow. So before jumping straight to your workout, take 5 to 10 minutes to walk at a moderate pace, jog slowly, ride a stationary bike or go on the elliptical to get your body warmed up.

Cooling down is just as important. A cool down can be the same activity at the same pace as your warm up. This will allow your heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration to slowly return to normal. This is very important to help prevent dizziness or light-headedness once you’ve finished your workout.

A great way to warm up the neck is to do half circles.  Roll the head from shoulder to shoulder with the head flexed forward slightly and then with slight extension.  You can also use a hot pack to warm the muscles up even more.  On the same token, for a cool down you can again do gentle neck rolls, as well as ice, and even breathing exercises.

Now next time you hit the gym, or do your home neck or back exercises you’ll know the importance behind your warm up and cool down as you’re doing them. Giving your body this time to prepare for and overcome a hard workout is vital to the success of your workout regime.


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What You Should Know About Stretching Your Neck Muscles

There are a variety of reasons why stretching your neck is good for your body. Whether it is before an exercise program, as part of a rehabilitation program, or simply a way to relax your body, stretching your neck muscles is highly beneficial. It helps to prevent injury or re-injury during and after workouts. However, if done incorrectly, stretching can do more harm than good. The following is a list of things to remember when doing your stretching routine:

1. Perform your stretches slowly, and fluidly. Don’t jerk your muscles.

2. Hold each stretch for 10-20 seconds.

3. Perform each stretch 3-5 times.

4. Stretch until you feel a pulling sensation in the neck muscle you’re targeting. Do not push yourself to the point you feel burning, tearing, or pain of any kind.

5. Stop immediately if you do feel any neck pain.

6. If you are unsure about a stretch, ask your doctor for a demonstration to make sure you are doing it correctly.

Stretching is a great way to keep your muscles safe and relaxed before and after a workout, while on the computer at home or at work, during a break from a long drive, even a stressful situation. It’s also a great way to warm up your body after first waking up. However, it’s important to always make sure you are taking your time and performing each neck stretch correctly so you won’t injure yourself.


Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

Tips For A Good Night’s Sleep, And No Neck Pain When You Wake Up!

1. Keep your bedroom as dark as possible, and as quiet as possible, and as comfortable as possible. Leave the cell phones in another room.  Keep the TV in the livng room where it belongs.  Get a quiet fan to kkep you a little cooler and relaxed.


2. Try to keep a regular sleep schedule. For example, try to go to bed and get up at similar times each day.  Getting your body in habit is important, this one can be tough sometimes but do your best.

3. Use a good neck pillow.  My favorite is the cervical traction pillow!

4. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, or smoking close to bedtime.

5. Limit eating and exercise too close to bedtime as well.  Try reading in bed to relax the body.  This is the best pillow to do that comfortably: Arc4life Bed Wedge.

6. Exercise for at least 20 minutes at least a few days per week. Studies have shown that this helps your body.  Sometimes you may find when you do alot during the day and get tired you can fall asleep easier.

Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

Useful Tips For Living A Long, Healthy, Pain Free Life!

There are many amazing benefits to living a healthier lifestyle; more energy, less stress, less pain, weight loss, and a sense of accomplishment for achieving your fitness goals. However, by altering your lifestyle to a more healthful one you can also help increase your longevity and vitality throughout your life. Here are a few easy steps that can have amazing benefits both in the short and long run:

1. Get more Vitamin D! Studies show that high levels of Vitamin D can help to prevent risk of the leading cause of death in the United States: heart disease. You can get more Vitamin D in your diet, with foods like fish, mushrooms, milk, or you can buy a supplement to take daily. But best of all - get out in the sun!

2. Exercise more. It’s a common suggestion, and an important one. Exercise can help us lose weight, tone our muscles, and increase our endurance, but studies also show that maintained physical activity throughout life can make us at less of a risk for age-related diseases later in life. Exercise keeps our joints in motion which especially helps reduce neck, back or spine pain. This also means reduced risk for chronic diseases, heart surgery, and cognitive impairments, so keep up that exercise routine!

3. Give yoga type exercises a try. It’s a great way to get exercise to become a part of your daily routine, but there’s another great benefit too. Yoga has been found to reduce chronic inflammation, which is associated with heart disease and certain forms of arthritis. Regular yoga practice has shown a reduction in inflammation response to stressful situations, creating a healthier response to stress overall.

4. Workout your brain! Physical fitness throughout life is important, but mental fitness is just as important. By keeping your brain mentally stimulated on a regular basis you can help maintain your memory and cognitive skills as you age. So keeping yourself busy with things like reading, writing, crosswords and other games and puzzles will keep your brain active throughout life.

5. Maintain healthy relationships. People are social creatures, and having strong relationships with our friends, family, and kids can help with overall happiness. But studies also show that keeping these relationships strong throughout life leads to overall better health.


With these tips, you’ll have the building blocks to living a long and pain-free life. But it’s important to remember that to truly get the benefits, you must be persistent with these steps. Once these healthy lifestyle tips are become habit, you’ll be sure to stick with them for the rest of your life.


Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

Five Simple Steps to Help with your Health Goal: End Neck Pain!

For many of us, it is easy to create our to-do lists of all the things we’d like to accomplish, but it is much more difficult to actually take those lists and stick to them until the goal is reached. With such busy day-to-day lives, it is easy to push aside our long-term goals in order to deal with our current situations.

However, there are a few easy steps to follow that can help you make your goals a higher priority in your daily life. By sticking with these steps, you’ll finally be able to start checking some of those items off your goals list:

1. First of all, you need to set a specific goal. The more specific, the better. If you keep it vague, for example “I want to get rid of my neck pain,” it is difficult to keep track of progress or even know when the goal has been met. However, stating “I want to work on improving my neck pain by improving my neck posture over the next six months” is much easier to plan for and achieve.

2. Secondly, you must be realistic with yourself when setting goals. Setting a goal to lose twenty pounds in two weeks is neither realistic nor safe. If you set a goal too high, or set too many for yourself at one time, it can be overwhelming and discouraging. By setting attainable goals, it will be easier to reach and you’ll get a great feeling of accomplishment when you do.

3. Next, you need to plan for your goal. Setting an attainable goal is a great first step, but the next thing you must do is break it down further so you know each smaller step needed in order to reach that higher goal. Start off with small enough steps that you can begin today. Another great idea is to make a timeline; without dates to keep you on track it is much less likely that your goal will be accomplished.

4. Now you’ll need to make sure you keep record of your progress. If your goal involves losing weight, write down everything you eat and drink for a week. If your goal is to improve your neck posture, write down every time your posture slumps and things that bring on forward head posture for a week. By writing things down, you become more aware of your habits. By becoming aware, it is easier to take control and change those habits. Recording your overall progress is also a great way to stay motivated as you see all the things you have accomplished so far.

5. Finally, you’ll want to take a look at your progress with a critical eye. If you’re trying to lose weight by running every day, but you hate to run, it’s likely your goal will not stick for the long-term. However, if you love to swim, then that would be a better fit for you to help you stick to your goal.

It’s great to have goals to strive towards, but it can quickly become overwhelming if you are not prepared. By setting a specific and attainable goal, planning, making timelines, and keeping records of your progress, suddenly that seemingly impossible goal is under your control and you’re on your way to achieving it!


Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

Make Your Neck Exercises Habit!

So often after asking a patient how they have been doing with their home stretches and exercises, they reply: “Oh yeah, I haven’t been doing them as much as I’m supposed to.”

One of the problems is this- he or she gets out of pain and tends to forget about doing them. The exercises, stretches, or our traction neck pillow may get you out of pain quickly, but that doesn’t mean you should stop using them. To really make change in the spine more permanent you need to continue with all of these things. If someone comes to see me that’s had neck pain or back pain for one year, the research shows it could take one year to get out of that pain and correct the problem. It depends on the severity and length of time the problem has been going on.

Once one relieves their neck pain they can cut back on their neck exercises, but still do them once in awhile. One of the reasons is that there are constant stressors on our neck- working at a computer all day, general stress, gravity …

One of the best ways to remember your neck stretches or exercises is to make it part of your daily routine, or habit! For example, do them every morning after you get out of the shower, do them in the shower, do them at work before your day gets going …

If you do them regularly they start to become habit. So even after you get out of pain, it’s a good idea to do some simple stretches and exercises to prevent future injury. It will only take a couple of minutes and is very important for your health. Don’t neglect your body, or it starts neglecting you!


Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

Amazon Testimonial #48 for Arc4life's Cervical Neck Pillow

Here it is, Amazon's Testimonial #48 for the Cervical Traction Neck Pillow:




"This is by far the most comfortable pillow I've used"

"After having trouble finding the right pillow and going through a number of mornings with stiff neck, I came across this pillow. This is a back sleeper pillow. What I like most about the pillow is the raised neck and shallow middle for my head. Most of the other pillows I've tried were either too soft and didn't have enough neck support, or were too firm and felt like I had my head tilted upwards. I even tried the memory foam, both normal and ergonomically shaped pillows. While the ergo memory foam pillow would have extra neck support which I wanted, I felt it was tall and stiff lifting my head up to high and exaggerating the curve of my neck. I would usually end up taking a softer pillow and scrunching it up behind my neck to add extra support without all the head elevation.

This pillow is almost 3 pillows (maybe 4) in one. The top main side (V shaped side) has the most neck support and bracing to help keep your head centered. If you rotate it 180 degrees, (so the V looks like an A) there is slightly less neck elevation/support if the V side is too extreme for you. If you prefer less neck elevation, flip the pillow over. The back side has a softer neck support area and but still has the shallow center for your head.

This is by far the most comfortable pillow I've used because of the neck support and shallow center for my head. If you're a back sleeper and can't find the right pillow to support your neck, try this out. "

- A.Forward, California 04/19/2010

The Cervical Traction Neck Pillow is currently available at Amazon.com and at Arc4life.com, under the category Neck Pillows > Traction for the Neck.

Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!