hive-natural-health

When You Want a Homebirth, But Your Husband Doesn't

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 21:56:01 GMT

Make him read this.

Think back to the birth of your first child. What were the sounds you remember? Maybe it was their first grunts and cries as they came earth side, maybe it was the sound of a nurse or your midwife telling your wife to breathe, or better yet, it was the sound of your father-in-law candidly coming in the room at the last second to say, “yep, he looks just like his grandpa.”

For my wife and me, it was the sound of car tires on the empty roadways at 2 in the morning. Huh? By the grace of God, we were able to have our first son at home in our living room. But upon his entry into this world, my wife had a minor complication, and our birth team deemed it best to go to the hospital. Thankfully, momma and baby were totally healthy, and the minor complication was handled quite handily.

Let’s go through the top three reasons we hear from families on their objections to having a homebirth.

Objection: I want to make sure my wife and baby are safe.

Totally fair, and as the spiritual leader of your house, that’s exactly what you should desire. I honor you for wanting that. Let’s return to our homebirth journey. To say going to the hospital in the middle of the night with a brand new baby wasn’t a part of the plan is an understatement. We were so unprepared for this to happen that the car seat hadn’t been fully installed, so my wife held him during the entire car ride (If you’re law enforcement, please don’t hate me). In the moment, I don’t know if I’ve ever been more concerned about my wife. We had literally gotten into bed and were moments from telling everyone to go home so we could let our new family spend our first night together. Then, in an instant, I’m learning how to put a diaper on an actual human, and we’re packing a bag to head to the hospital.

You might hear this account and think, “See, that’s exactly why you don’t have a homebirth. It’s safer to be at the hospital.” Was there part of me that thought that in the moment? 100%. I’m thinking, “Did we make the right decision?” And “is there something different I should have done differently to ensure this didn’t happen?” But let me remind you: momma and baby were both totally fine, and the minor complication could have just as easily happened in a hospital setting.

Now, let’s talk numbers.

A 2015 study out of the New England Journal of Medicine did find a nearly 2.5 fold increased relative risk of infant mortality with a homebirth compared to a hospital birth. But, huge but here, it went from 1.8 out of 1,000 , to 3.9 out of 1,000. Mathematically, yes, that is a nearly 250% increased risk (3.9/1.8), but in absolute real-life terms, with a homebirth, the infant mortality rate is 0.39%, and with a hospital birth, it was 0.18%. That’s tiny, nearly identical. If these were investment opportunities, and I gave you $1,000 to invest, the difference between the investments would be $2.10. That’s tiny.

What about safety for mom? A 2014 study of nearly 17,000 homebirths in the United States found there was only one death in the entire sample. So your wife’s chance of survival is 99.99% based on those data. You might now be wondering about other safety parameters or any emergency situations that may arise. A 2024 study showed “outcomes for planned home and birth center births in the United States are comparable to each other, for low-risk pregnancies.” Outcomes refer to things such as moms health (emergency situations, C-sections, excess blood loss) and the baby's health. If you’re wondering, “How do we know if we’re low risk or not?” your birth team will know the answer to that one.

I’ll say again, the numbers for homebirth vs non-homebirth are comparable. Hearing that one story your mom recounts of your childhood next door neighbors’ cousin homebirth that went south is the exception, not the rule. In considering these factors, it’s essential to weigh the emotional connection you have with your wife against the hospital staff's unfamiliarity. Reflect on the deep bond you share with your wife. Your commitment to each other is profound, especially as you navigate this journey together. On the other hand, the hospital staff may be new faces you spend only brief moments with throughout the pregnancy.

So you should ask yourself, “Whom do I trust more. My wife? Or the hospital system?”

There’s no right or wrong here; it’s simply about understanding where your trust lies. Taking a moment to consider this can help guide you through this experience with confidence and support.

Objection: Finances.

Let’s state the obvious: Money matters. But what is it that money communicates? Value. You know this quite well. When you meet up with your old buddies for a round of 18-holes, you’re willing to pay over $100 for the round because you value it. If you were to tell someone who doesn’t value golf that’s how much you paid to hit a bunch of t-shots into the woods, they’d think you’re crazy and wasting your money. But, big but here, you don’t care. Because you value it. The memories you created with your buddies will live on for years. That’s priceless.

Ask your wife how much she values the ability to have a homebirth. Odds are, she’s going to value it more than you will. But guess what? You’re called to love your wife, and to lay down your life for her. What does that mean? It means if she finds value in something, you’re to honor that thing. You don’t have to love it, but you do have to respect it. In the same way, she allows you to go play 18 for four hours on the weekend, when she likely couldn’t care less about “well” your short game was. She doesn’t value it, but she honors and respects that time for you because she loves you. Now it’s your turn.

Objection: I’m afraid.

Now we’re talking. The fear you’re feeling is 100% real. It’s important to acknowledge that, call a spade a spade.

One of our friends strongly desired to attempt a homebirth, but her husband was worried about a few things. “I don’t think you’ll be able to handle the pain,” and while yes, that statement requires a lot of unpacking, who am I to judge him? I mean, who knows his wife better than he does? He’s likely been with her through many painful moments, and if his analysis of those moments is guiding his decision-making regarding a homebirth, I trust his thinking. Most importantly, after he brought it up, his wife agreed.

Who knows your wife better than you do? Ask yourself, do you think your wife would be able to handle the physical, mental, and spiritual load of laboring at home? No wrong answer here; you know your wife better than any other human on the planet, but you should be able to explain your answer to her.

The last question I’ll ask of you: Do you believe it’s your role to protect your wife from all pain and suffering? Unjust pain and suffering for sure, but what about challenging moments that allow for deep personal and spiritual growth? You put yourself through “pain and suffering” at the gym, so why do you put yourself through that? Because you know the growth that will come on the other side of it (Unless we’re talking about growing your calves, those things will never grow). Shouldn’t your wife be allowed that same opportunity to grow from her challenging moments?

In the case above, maybe the husband didn’t believe his wife could grow from that challenge, and maybe he thought it would lead to unjust pain and suffering. Huge speculations on my part.

“25Husbands, love your wifes, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy…” ( Ephesians 5:25-26) . To make her holy is to set her apart; having a homebirth would for sure statistically follow that. To be set apart isn’t easy, but Jesus doesn’t call us to an easy life. Let me speak truth into you right now, if your wife feels at peace with having a homebirth, if she’s aware of the benefits, risks, and alternatives, and still chooses a homebirth, man, I’m telling you loving her means trusting her God-given intuition. If the Spirit is tugging on her to do this, listen to Him (the Spirit).

“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them” ( Joshua 1:6). Contextually, God gave this instruction to Joshua as he was leading the Israelites into the promised land. Even though it was the promised land, the book of Numbers tells us that the people were afraid to enter the land. Even though God promised it to them, they were still uncomfortable about it.

Why do you think God told them to “be strong and courageous”? Because they were fearless? Not by a country mile! They were terrified! The book of Numbers mentions that the Israelite spies saw giants in the land (the very giants from whom Goliath descended). But God tells Joshua in verse 5, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Amen brother.

The journey of choosing between homebirth and hospital birth is deeply personal and requires you to weigh the values of safety, emotional connection, and financial considerations together with your wife. Trust in her instincts and the relationship you’ve built as a team—her well-being and comfort are paramount. Open and honest discussions about your hopes and concerns will not only strengthen your bond but also empower you both to make informed decisions that reflect your family's values. And ultimately, know you’re not in control of everything. Release that burden, and watch how freeing life can be.

Why Stretching Isn’t Helping (Your Might Need This Instead)

Thu, 28 May 2026 19:00:08 GMT

Mobility or Stability?

What happens when you try to update the software on your phone with 10% battery? The same thing happens when you tell your toddler to “calm down” in the grocery store. A whole lot of nothing. In your iPhone's case, it needs more battery life before it can update the software. In your toddler's case, who knows what they actually need? So, when you update your phone’s software, is it important to know how much battery is left? Thankfully, your iPhone tells you, “Hey, I need more battery life before you make this update.”

But does the same thing happen in your body? Does it tell you when to charge your batteries versus when to update the software? And I’m not talking about being in pain vs. not – that’s a whole other conversation – I’m talking about knowing if your body needs more mobility or stability?

It comes down to freedom (mobility) vs. control (stability). If your body needs more freedom, it needs its battery charged. If it needs more control, it needs a software update. So what do you think happens if you try to add stability to an area that needs mobility? The same thing happens when you try to do a software update with 10% battery. A whole lot of nothing.

“Okay, Nick, I need you to break this down for me super practically.” I would love to! Let’s say you're trying to raise your leg as high as you can (a movement we discussed at length in previous newsletters), and you raise it 450 off the ground. Then I go to raise it for you, and I can lift it 90° off the ground, 2x higher than you could. What did your body tell me? It has 45 degrees of control but 90 degrees of freedom. To be frank, it has more than enough battery life to update the software. If I were to give this person hamstring stretches, they wouldn’t be effective because stretching helps you gain more freedom, but doesn't help you gain control. This person needs stability work – a software update.

Same example from above. You can raise your leg 45 degrees off the ground – that’s your control – and then when I go to raise it, I also can only raise it 45 degrees; no difference. Your mobility and stability are the same. In this instance, you need mobility and stretching work, as well as battery charging, rather than stability work.

I have the pleasure of working with people across the spectrum; some need only stability, some only mobility, and most need a combination of the two. I’m currently working with a 1st time pregnant mom, in her mid-second trimester, who originally came to see us because of back pain that “started out of nowhere” during her pregnancy. She’d never experienced anything like it; “it takes my breath away,” she recalled to me, and even more nerve-racking for her was that “stretching has barely helped.” I felt for her. She’d taken the effort and time to try to support her body with stretches, but it wouldn’t budge. We assessed her, and wouldn’t ya know it, we found that her main need wasn't mobility (stretching) but rather stability. She had more than enough mobility; she just needed to learn to control it. She’d been trying to get her phone to work by charging the battery, but it was fully charged; it just needed a software update. How do we know that for sure? “My husband and I are able to take our dogs on longer walks again!” She said with an elated tone.

If you’ve found stretching hasn’t been helpful for you, maybe you’re either 1) stretching the wrong area, or 2) trying to add mobility to an area that needs stability. Just look in the corner to see what % battery life your phone has, and adjust your strategy accordingly. And if your kiddo still won’t calm down in the grocery store, take them to Costco and let them partake in the free samples; it still works for me even as an adult!

Core Strengthening: Do You Need It Or Not?

Mon, 25 May 2026 19:00:01 GMT

No crunches necessary.

You know when you read or listen to something that asks you to perform a physical task, and you either get really annoyed while doing it or skip it and keep reading? Well, if you’re going to do that, this article won’t be very insightful for you. No judgment here: when my toddler goes down for a nap, I need to be super efficient with my time so I can write these newsletters. I’d probably skip over it too! But if you’re one of the brave souls who decides to participate in the task that I’ve failed to mention yet, then let’s do this!

We will answer one question for you: Do you need to work on your core? In your feeding-time doomscrolling, I’m sure you’ve come across fitness/movement people who talk about the importance of training your core. “Train your core to fix your back,” or “if you’re pregnant, here’s the three core exercises you need,” or “30-day abs to get the six pack you always wanted.” Woof.

Let’s play a game:

Lie flat on your back with your legs straight and your toes pointing up.
Place both arms at your sides, palms facing up.
With the left leg remaining straight and the back of the knee maintaining contact with the floor, raise your right leg as high as possible.

Now do it 2 more times, raising the right side to get a rough average of how high your leg can reach. Do the same with your left leg (Or if you’re goofy like me and started with your left leg, do your right leg now). Take a mental note of what you felt side-to-side. One side easier? Harder to keep either leg flat on the floor?

Now take a light resistance band, lie flat on your back, grasp it in both hands, and pull the band apart by squeezing your shoulder blades together (If you don’t have a light band, or don’t want to get up and go find it in your garage, simply make a fist with both hands, and pretend like you’re pulling a band apart by squeezing your shoulder blades together). With this shoulder-blade-squeezed-together position, follow the same sequence you used before with your legs, raising each one as high as you can while keeping the other flat on the floor.

What do you notice this time? I’ll wait so you can do it now…Can you raise your leg higher? The same? Maybe even less? If you notice no difference, odds are your core doesn’t need to be at the top of your priority list. But if either leg went higher, your core needs some support.

Jaxson experienced this phenomenon firsthand. He visited after “tweaking” his back, and Jaxson trained in Jiu-Jitsu, so having his back in rough shape really affected his performance. During our assessment, we noticed he had difficulty raising his legs. He says to me, “Oh yeah, my hips are always tight.” I said, “Let’s try something.” We had him follow the sequence above, pull the band apart, and then he could raise his leg considerably higher. “What the heck. What just happened?” he says. His core needed support.

We found some other stuff, did some stuff (including some specific core training at home), and got him back rolling on the mat pain-free. The interesting thing was that Jaxson also noticed his leg kicks could go higher: “I’ve always had trouble with those because of my hips,” he said. He would practice and practice, do some hip stretches, but nothing would help. Why? Because his hips weren’t the issue; it was his core.

So if you, like Jaxson, felt you could raise your leg higher, does that mean you need to do 100 crunches/day? Not in the slightest, in fact, I’ve never once recommended textbook “crunches” for core support. Doing crunches doesn’t train the function of your core – topic for another newsletter. But it does tell you that you could start with doing more awareness work for your core. What does awareness work look like? For some, it’s breathing exercises, for others, it’s placing your body in a position to engage the core, and then for some, it’s about combining the previous two, and learning to breathe in weird positions such as putting your child in the car seat or hunched over in the trunk of your car trying to change a blowout…not speaking from experience or anything.

Your Healing Story Is Bigger Than Today’s Pain

Thu, 21 May 2026 19:00:01 GMT

Pain fluctuates. Your worth doesn't.

If the stock market goes down 10% in a day, does that mean there’s a problem? If your retirement account goes into the red and doesn’t earn any money for several months, is it broken? Having studied finance and economics in undergraduate, and doing an internship in banking (many of you just went “How in the world did this dude become a Chiropractor when he studied finance? Topic for another day), we learned that having a “down day” isn’t bad. In fact, sometimes, it’s a sign of a healthy correction within the broader market. What goes up must go down.

Think about your own retirement/investment account: How often does your investment advisor recommend you look at your retirement account? Every hour? Every day? Heak, even every weak? Of course not! There’s so much fluctuation that can happen day-to-day, week-to-week, that all it would really do is scare you. So you check in with them annually to get an update on what’s going on. Where they politely advise you, once again, not to invest all your income in “that one AI company that’s supposed to be the next Google.” What do they advise you to do? Be in it for the long haul. Ride the highs and lows, and hopefully decades later, you’ll have reaped the rewards of compounding interest (fancy finance speak for interest that accumulates more interest).

The way your body talks to you – chronic pain in this instance – is exactly like that. If you pay attention to it too frequently, all it’ll do is scare you. There’s a healthy tension to strike between listening to your body and not letting it scare you – similar to your retirement account: you want to see your account balances, but not every day. You’re in it for the long haul. If you look up the list of things that could influence the price of a company’s stock, it’s nearly endless. If you think about the things that could influence how your body feels, multiply that by 100x.

Knowing this, when I talk with people, instead of asking, “How are you feeling today?” I’ll ask, “What have your biggest wins been recently?” Why that wording? It forces you to shift your brain chemistry into a state of gratitude and thankfulness, which directly affects pain perception and mood. When seeing it from this vantage point, it becomes slightly easier to be in it for the long haul. Please hear me: I'm not belittling the pain you’re feeling. It’s 100% real, and if it’s impacting your ability to serve others, please seek support. Rather, I invite you to shift your thinking about how your body talks to you.

At times, my left elbow talks to me a lot. It started after I was doing a lot of pull-up-type movements and grip-strength work in preparation for a Spartan Race (Nothing like being covered in mud 3 minutes into a 3-hour event!). Some days it would talk more, some less, and I remember the days it would talk more, I’d feel incredibly discouraged. “I need to fix this movement,” or “what exercise am I missing?” or “what’s wrong with my body?” plagued my mind. And then a friend reminded me of the retirement/investment account analogy, and by God’s Grace, it stuck. I felt like I could finally release the heavy burden I’d been carrying of thinking I was “broken” and “needed to be fixed.”

And guess what? I pray that you can too. Day to day, your body will fluctuate just like your retirement account, but be in it for the long haul , know you are not broken, and watch how God can bring you from the pit to the palace.

Why You're In Pain Despite Being So Active

Mon, 18 May 2026 19:00:03 GMT

First move well, then move often.

If I give you the equation 2+(6*2) - 72, how would you know how to solve it? Or even where to start? There’s an order of operations – PEMDAS – or “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” that informs us what should be done first. And I don’t know Aunt Sally, but whatever she did left enough of an impression for math folks to remember her name. Anyways, PEMDAS would tell us that the first step in solving the equation is to evaluate the parentheses: (6*2) = 12. Next, we’d solve the exponent: 72 = 49. We’re getting somewhere!

Things have gotten a little muddy, so let’s rewrite the equation to clean it up a bit: 2+12-49. I bet you can do that one! But me, not so much (After two minutes of trying to subtract 49 from 14 in my head, I broke out the iPhone, which enlightened me that the answer is -35). Bravo! Now, how would we know what to do without this order of operations – PEMDAS? You might add 2 to 6, subtract 7 from 2, or who knows what else.

Your body also has an order of operations for its movements. If you’re reaching overhead to put something on the top shelf, you’ll need 1) shoulder flexion, 2)thoracic extension/rotation, and 3) maybe some plantarflexion from your ankles to get on your tippy toes. If you can’t extend from your mid back (#2), more demand will be placed on #1 and #3. Then, your shoulder might start to take too much of the stress, and you’ll get pain! So if your shoulder hurts whenever you reach for the top shelf, it may be because your body didn’t follow its order of operations; it tried to perform multiplication before it handled the parentheses.

I had the pleasure of working with a gentleman named Sean. Sean managed a warehouse and was constantly on the move, lifting boxes, putting away parts, and helping unload shipments. Sean came to see us because he was having chronic back pain, and each time he tried to lift something off the ground, his back would flare. Seeing that he lifts things every day, this really interfered with his work. He was also very confused and frustrated with his body, echoing, “How can it hurt so much if I’m so active”? I felt for him. We Americans struggle with general activity levels, and here was someone meeting the requirements, yet still dealing with chronic pain. Then we got to discuss the idea of first move well, then move often .

After looking through his movement, we found he couldn’t extend his mid-back very well. He also lacked some hip mobility. It’s like each time he tried to lift something, his body’s order of operations started doing addition before even considering exponents. Rather than PEMDAS, his body was using APSDEM (sounds like an obscure software company's stock ticker).

We were able to re-order his order of operations – get his mid-back and hips moving – and he could once again lift boxes without having to fear his back might “go out.” He came in one day and said, “Whatever we’ve been doing, my back is fixed!” Then I reminded him that his body wasn’t broken and didn’t need “fixing” in the first place; we just needed to do things in the proper order. “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally,” I told him. His response, “What did your Aunt Sally do?” She tried to move often, before she moved well.

“I’m scared exercise will make my pain worse.”

Thu, 07 May 2026 21:26:34 GMT

If it feels better when you move, keep moving.

Jake came in looking very distraught and defeated. “I know I need to lose weight, and exercise will help, but I’m afraid exercise might make my back pain worse.” I felt for him. He knew exercise would be beneficial for his health, but chronic back pain had kept him from pursuing many of the things he enjoyed, including the career he so desperately wanted. His greatest worry was that he might be “harming himself” and making things “worse” by doing certain activities. Adding insult to injury, he struggled to hold or rock his newborn baby to sleep because it “felt like knives were stabbing my back.”

Maybe you can relate to Jake. Maybe your back pain has kept you from getting on and off the floor with your kiddos. You’ve also been trying to get back on track with exercise, but the last time you tried squatting, your back bothered you so much that you’re wary to try again. The word frustration doesn’t even do justice to how you feel. You're wondering, “Will I ever be able to get on and off the floor with my kiddos again without feeling like I’m 40 years older?” “Am I doing harm to my body by exercising if I’m in pain?” “Is there another method besides just pushing through it?”

All fabulous thoughts. Let’s start by identifying what makes your body feel more or less comfortable.

Garbage and Groceries

If your pain improves as you move throughout the day, or if a hot shower or hot tub makes your back feel ten years younger, that’s generally a sign your body is craving blood flow.

Think of it like managing the basic tasks of living: getting groceries and taking out the trash. Why do you get groceries? To help nourish you and your family. Why do you take the trash out? Besides “because my spouse wouldn’t do it,” you want to get rid of the waste! Your body works the same. Your lymphatic system manages a lot of the by-products your body creates – garbage – and your blood vessels bring in a lot of the nourishment your body needs – groceries.

Here’s the best part: within the body, you can take out the trash and bring in the groceries with the same thing: low-level movement. If only household chores were that efficient! Speaking of which, those chores that you get “tired of doing” are one of the low-level movements you can do to get your lymphatics and blood vessels moving. So, the next time you (or your spouse) doesn’t feel like taking out the trash, remind yourself (them) that you’re helping the body take out its internal “trash”.

When to “push through”

There’s great value in learning to “listen” to your body. But as we’ve discussed in previous newsletters, in the same way financial advisors wouldn’t have you check your retirement balance every day, you can “over-listen” to your body. I’ve been there and still am at times. But there are also times when the age-old mantra of “push through it” can be highly valuable.

If your knee feels “achy” as you're warming up for squats or as you start running, that’s one thing. If, as you warm up or continue running, the whole garbage-out-groceries-in thing starts happening and it feels less achy, that’s promising.

If your back feels “sore” when you first get out of bed in the morning, but after the first 30-45 minutes of your morning routine, it loosens up, that’s also promising. In general : If things feel better when you move, keep moving.

When to proceed with caution

It’s one thing if formal exercise causes certain types of pain, but if even low-level movements (walking, getting out of bed, household chores) cause certain pains, that’s when you should seek support. What are those “certain types of pain?” Any pain that you would describe as “sharp, stabbing, or shooting,” I would advise staying away from whatever exercise or movement is flaring that.

“But Nick, rolling over and getting out of bed causes those pains. Did you just give me permission to not get out of bed and sleep more?” Nice try! All joking aside, I feel for you. When even those movements are extremely painful, life just isn’t the same. But know that that state doesn’t have to be your norm. There is a way out. Find someone or something that can help you not only identify what hurts – joint, muscle, ligament – but also why it hurts. They can also provide guidance on which postures to include or avoid based on your specific situation; for example, your back pain may only be “sharp” when you're hunched over folding laundry, so shifting to a more squatting pattern may help reduce stress on your lower back.

Just as taking out the trash and getting groceries need to be done consistently to keep your home functioning, working on your body needs to be done consistently to keep it functioning. I know it’s easy to neglect things. “I’m not in that much pain, I don’t need to see anybody, it’ll just go away on its own, I’ll just keep pushing through.” All this may be true, but if your body’s giving you the signs of caution tape – sharp, stabbing, shooting pains – do something . Maybe come visit your friendly, neighborhood chiropractor.

"Why do you keep adjusting the same spots?"

Thu, 07 May 2026 21:12:39 GMT

One shirt daily

Drop. Pop. Exhale. I was recently adjusting someone, and in the midst of the visit, they asked, "Why are you always working on that same spot?" I paused for a moment, as I do when I'm presented with a question that greatly challenges me, and thought, "Why do I find myself working on some of the same areas with people? Should I have transitioned to another area by now? How quickly should someone's body change?"

Let's say you throw a single shirt into your laundry pile every day, for years. Aside from your toddler coming to "help" you with the laundry, you let the shirts pile up without doing anything with them. What's going to happen after several years of adding one shirt to the pile each day? You'll have a whopping big pile! Now, let's say you hire someone to help you find the bottom of the laundry pile because you're beyond overwhelmed. This laundry pile picker-upper – who you found for a great deal on Etsy – starts by taking the shirt on the top of the pile. They spend a couple of hours doing that, and then they come back the next day, and the next, and the next, and the next. And you're wondering, "Why on earth do they keep having to come back?" Because you'd been adding shirts to the pile every day for years. Years. Removing all the shirts from the laundry takes two things: time and consistency.

The same goes for your adjustments. You've been living a certain way for years – similar postures, similar shoes, and in general, similar habits. You've been putting shirts in the laundry every day. And just like the picker-upper needs time and consistency to do the same thing to help you get to the bottom of the pile, your body needs time and consistency to see change. Why do you go back to "the same" fitness classes you've already done? Because today is a new day and you're a different person than yesterday (my morning Wheeties cereal box used to remind me of that). It'd be great if you only had to go to that fitness class once and get all the results ever, but it doesn't work like that! Your body needs time and consistency.

While it may seem like we're working on "the same" spots, on many occasions, it's a slightly different spot. Just like how every day your laundry picker-upper person picks up something that looks the same – a shirt – each shirt is different. Maybe one is your old sports shirt from high school, one is that Lulu workout shirt your best friend got you, and one is that shirt your grandma got you for Christmas one year that says "Grandma's trouble maker." So while we may be pressing and pushing on your lower back, one day we may be improving your lower lumbar spine's flexion, one day it's your sacroiliac joints' ability to counter-nutate (move back). One day, it's releasing the erector spinae muscle group: same area, dramatically different shirts.

A mom of five kiddos reinforced this lesson of time and consistency for me. She came in with some lower back and foot pain that started after her recent birth. We "looked through her laundry" and found some stuff to work on in her ankles, pelvis, and mid-back. Each time she came in, I was finding the same stiff areas: ankles, pelvis, and mid-back. I started thinking to myself, "Self, why is it always the same areas that feel stiff on her? Is it something I'm missing? Am I not adjusting those areas correctly?" I really wrestled with this. Then one day, she comes in after returning from a long family road trip, one where she would have previously been in "incredible amounts of pain." She enters the room with this peaceful energy about her and says, "By the grace of God and whatever we've been doing here, this is the best my body has felt after a long road trip." Selah.

This illustrated two things for me: 1) God is always in control. Of everything. Including taking away pain. 2) Time and consistency of working on "the same areas" bear much fruit. The most important work is usually the most repetitive, done intentionally day after day. So if you feel like your laundry room is always full, I'll give you the contact for that laundry picker-upper person, so they can do the work, while you take your "helper" kiddos to the park. Works at our house! (In which I'm on park duty, and my wife is on picker-upper duty).

Here’s Why You’re Waking Up With Neck Pain

Thu, 07 May 2026 21:03:55 GMT

It's not from your pillow

Do you know anyone who seems to be extraordinarily efficient with their time? Like they seem to get so many things done in the same timeframe it took you to scramble the eggs for your kiddo’s breakfast (a massive win in and of itself). Believe it or not, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. Now let’s assume you’ve made it your New Year's Intent to improve your sleep, and you’d like to reach that magical 8-hour number that all your friends and coworkers without kids say they get every night. If there’s one thing 4 years of wearing an Oura Ring has taught me, it’s that if I want to get 8 hours of sleep, I need to be in bed for about 9 hours. That’s a long time to lie horizontally!

So let’s assume you’re only in bed for 8 hours, and there are 24 hours in a day, how many hours do you spend not sleeping? 16! Bravo! I still broke out my phone just to ensure I did the calculation correctly… force of habit. You spend 16 hours awake. Now onto the second part of this elaborate math problem: What’s greater, 8 or 16? By that logic, you spend more of your day (and therefore total life) in postures while you’re awake . So then, which postures do you think matter more: the ones while you’re asleep, or the ones while you're awake? Hopefully, you see my point. Rule 1: Pay more attention to your posture while you’re awake.

“But why do I wake up with so much neck pain? It must have to do with my sleeping postures or the type of pillow I’m using.” Phenomenal thought. First off, I commend you for taking ownership of your health and looking for habits to help ease the aches and pains you’re experiencing. You shouldn’t have to wake up feeling so stiff and achy that you need to stand in the hot shower for 15 minutes just to loosen up. Secondly, I don’t believe sleep is causing your aches and pains. Rather, it’s amplifying ones that are already there in the first place. What leads me to think that? Let’s return to our math problem: Did you spend more time the previous day in a sleeping posture or an awakened posture? More importantly, what postures did you find yourself in more throughout your waking hours? At a desk? A car? Or lying down in your home office (bedroom)?

Maybe you’re the parent who’s at home all day with the kiddos, and you're constantly shifting postures throughout the day. You go from changing diapers, cleaning up the kitchen, to pushing a swing all within a matter of 20 minutes (and that’s just for your toddler). That’s great. I love that you get the opportunity to change your posture so frequently, but you’re likely still repeating many movements, such as bending over, hunching over at the kitchen sink, or holding your kids on the same hip. Again, ask yourself: which postures/movements am I performing most often in the day?

Now let’s address the pillow situation. I used to think that if I found the best pillow or the best sleeping posture, all my morning aches and pains would go away. I wish it were that easy. I went through a phase where I was so hyperfixated on my posture that I would sleep on a hardwood floor, flat on my back, with a rolled-up towel under my neck to “maintain alignment.” After 3 nights of becoming incredibly familiar with the design imperfections in my ceiling, I decided this was not the best posture for me. Whatever health gains I was getting from the posture were likely far outweighed by the detriments to my recovery from not being able to sleep more than 4 hours. Rule 2: Find a sleeping posture that helps you sleep.

Am I saying your sleeping posture has zero impact on your health? Not in the slightest. If you’re horizontal for 8 hours a day – which is a high bar already – that’s still ⅓ of your life. That’s a substantial amount of time as well! However, I don’t want what happened to me to happen to you: become so obsessed with your sleeping posture and trying to “optimize it” at the expense of your overall health. Start by taking an inventory of what postures you find yourself in most throughout the day, and then ask, “How might these postures be impacting how my body feels?”

When Pain Shows Up...What Does it Mean?

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 15:00:04 GMT

P ay A ttention I nside N ow

You remember how much fun it was to listen to lectures all day in school? A teacher/professor would show a few slides, say a few words, and hand out assignments. With their slides, they’d likely have a main point that they’d either bold or underline (or maybe one of those odd ones who italicize everything ) in order for you to get the gist. But sometimes, they’d say these one-off things that wouldn’t be written in any of their slides, and for whatever reason, it just stuck with you. We had a rather colorful elderly man who taught our first-year philosophy class in grad school. You know the type: Says whatever he wants, carries a briefcase around, and repeats himself so frequently that you wonder if he really knows where he is. One time – we’ll call him Roy – Roy was going off about all the wrong things with our healthcare system, not following any of his slides or outlines. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, he delivers the most significant thing I learned in all of grad school: “Pain is an acronym. It means Pay Attention Inside Now.”

Not only did I write it down and underline and italicize it that day, but I also think about it every day in our office. Frankly put, pain is just your body’s way of telling you three things: 1) What – pay attention . 2) Where – inside. 3) When - now. The how is entirely too lengthy for this newsletter (and honestly kind of boring), but the why is fascinating. Why is your body communicating this signal to you? Why now? Does it mean something is going “wrong” in your body? Does it mean something is “broken” and needs to “be fixed”?

It’s okay to experience the feeling of pain; in fact, the reality that you can experience feelings is a gift from God. The same reason you can feel pain is the same reason you feel cozy when sipping on your favorite coffee, or joy when you’re running around with the kiddos at the park, or excitement for your spouse’s promotion at work. There’s a condition where people don’t feel pain at all. It’s called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP). “Sounds like a dream life!” Not exactly. In fact, do you know what the average life expectancy is for someone with CIP? For the most severe forms, the mid-20’s. Yikes. Why does that happen? They have an inability to notice when they cut their hand open from a knife, when they’re getting too hot or cold, or when they have a 100+ fever. They can’t pay attention to what’s going on inside their body. So while feeling pain can be both incredibly frustrating and debilitating, it’s also lifesaving.

“But when one of my kids is in pain, something surely has to be wrong, right?” Kiddos dealing with pain saddens me deeply. They have their whole lives ahead of them, and as a parent, if one of my kids were to deal with chronic pain, I’d move heaven and earth to try to support them. Desmond was one of those kids. From an early age, he began to notice “random” leg aches and pains. As he got older, these “random” pains became more constant, an everyday part of his life. Despite this, he got really into calisthenics and strength training, learning to master one-arm pull-ups and L-sit holds. Pretty fit kid. We assessed him and found that he had both tremendous mobility and stability. From a movement perspective, everything in his body was functioning at tip-top shape.

But even though he could move really well through most of our assessment, he still had pain as he did them. Here lies the most important question: If he has great mobility and stability, but still has pain, is something wrong? Let me ask you, if you have a day where you don’t “feel” like going to work, does that mean something is wrong? Or if you’re flying across the country to visit family, and the day of the flight, you’re not “in the mood” to get on the plane, is something wrong with that? Certainly not! As a fallen human, you experience moods and feelings that shift constantly throughout the day. If I only did things based on my feelings, I’d drink coffee, on the hour, every hour, from the time I wake up until I go to bed, but I recognize that my sleep might be “a tad” perturbed from that, so I stick to one cup in the morning. So while feelings are important to recognize, feelings aren’t facts . And what did we say pain was? It’s a feeling; a feeling that your body wants you to pay attention to.

There is a healthy tension between paying attention to your body and simultaneously not letting your body’s feelings run your life. That’s why I think habits and routines are so valuable: they serve as excellent fallback tools on days when we don’t feel our best. There are days I train in the gym when I don’t feel like it because I feel so beat up and sore, and days when I seem to have found a massive bag of motivation. But in either case, I try not to pay too much attention and just get in the gym. In the same way, I’m the person who never feels like getting on a flight, so I bribe myself with cold brew coffee at the airport. That stuff helps me pay attention to everything!

Before You Buy a Standing Desk, Read This

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:22:19 GMT

What's your best posture?

“Sitting is the new smoking.” This was the headline of an article I read a while back that described the deleterious effects of sitting on your body. “Your hip flexors get super glued down, your core turns off, and you’re essentially the lowest scum of the earth if you decide to sit” (Okay, the article didn’t explicitly state that last part, but I felt like that’s what they really wanted to say). After reading it, I made every effort to avoid sitting entirely except for two situations – driving and my sacred toilet time. I was the quirky guy, always standing on airplanes or trying to sit in the lotus position at restaurants… I got some looks.

But there was always a method to my madness. Just as your body adapts to strength training by building muscle, it adapts to the postures you put it in. In fact, right now, as you (hopefully) are reading this newsletter, your body is adapting. If you’re sitting, it’s one adaptation; if you’re lying flat on your belly, a different adaptation; and if you’re listening to an AI-generated summary of this newsletter while your kids are “helping” you fold the laundry, still adapting.

Let’s say you’re reclining on your couch at the end of a long day, and your butt is sinking deeper into the cushions. After about half an hour, you’re in your groove. The kids are asleep, and you and your spouse are watching reruns of your favorite early-2000s sitcom. But then you need to get off your throne and attend to the unforeseen situation on the baby monitor (if it’s anything like our house, it's your toddler frantically trying to escape his bed). You try to “spring up” from that position, only to realize your “spring” doesn’t feel like it was loaded properly. Not only does this remind you that you need a new couch, but it also reminds you of a very important process your body is undergoing. A process called creep .

Creep is the gradual lengthening and deformation of tissue over time. Huh? Layman’s terms, please, Nick! Your body adapts to the positions you put it in . I say gradual, because it’s barely noticeable at first – after a few minutes on the couch, you don’t notice any change in your hips. But hang out there long enough – say 30 minutes – the muscles, ligaments, and tendons around your hips have adapted to their new position. As you’ve become more glued to your show, so have your hip flexors and anterior joint capsule. And how do things feel when glued together? Remember how it felt to “spring up” from the couch?

“Okay, so then if I were sitting for 30 minutes, can I just stand for 30 minutes and unglue my hips?” I love the way you’re thinking. Answer: kind of. My friend Daniel had a similar thought. He was having some “tight hips” from sitting a lot, so he decided to get a standing desk for his home office. He saw a problem and took the initiative to try to change something; much respect. Instead of sitting for 8 hours, he split it so he stood for half the day and sat the other half. 4 hours sitting, 4 hours standing, tit for tat. What did he notice? “My hips feel better, but now my knee doesn’t feel great.” I asked him how he split his sitting and standing: “I’ll sit for 2 hours, stand for 2, sit for 2, etc.” 2 hours in any one position is a lot for the body, regardless of how “great” the posture is.

We pondered and developed a strategy in which he’d switch positions more frequently: 20 minutes sitting, 20 minutes standing, and 20 minutes lying on the floor. Two weeks later, Daniel comes in all smiley and excited, “You won’t believe it, my knee pain went away.” Then I explained to him the process of creep, how your body adapts to the positions you’re in, and how frequently changing positions forces your body to adapt differently, keeping things unglued. In his case, changing postures that frequently keep any Elmer's products away from his knees and hips.

So if you’re looking for the best posture, I believe it’s achieved by switching positions frequently. The best posture is your next posture . If you sit all the time, try standing up every half hour for several minutes. If you always stand for work, try sitting or lying on the floor occasionally. If you frequently find yourself in the strangest positions, such as trying to change your son’s diaper at swim school, maybe sitting for a few minutes here and there won’t be the worst thing. That’s right, you just heard a Chiropractor say sitting might not be the worst thing for you. It all depends on your unique situation. And if you’re going to stand on airplanes, make sure it’s not when the flight attendants are giving out drink orders that include hot coffee, just saying.

Is Chiropractic Care Beneficial Before or After Your Child’s Oral Release Procedure?

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 21:19:41 GMT

Empowering Choices for Your Family's Peace of Mind

Is it better to start something sooner or later? Say it’s December 23rd, and you’ve been wanting to start exercising more consistently. You could start now and get ahead of the New Year's rush, or, ya know, you’ll be traveling over Christmas and New Year's, so does it just make sense to wait until after you return from your travels to start your new exercise plan?

In the above scenario, it depends on your goal. If your goal is to be more consistent with exercise in general, starting sooner can be a very fruitful strategy. Even if you’re traveling, and you only managed to get 1 exercise session in, is 1 > 0? Something is greater than nothing.

When To Come In?

The point of this article is not to dwell on what causes tongue-ties or weigh the pros and cons of the release. Instead, know that starting Chiropractic Care early can help ease your worries about the procedure and support your goals. If you’re unsure about timing, just remember: something is greater than nothing.

“But won’t all the progress we make with Chiropractic be undone if we get the release procedure?” I hear ya! You’re trying to be as efficient and effective as possible for your baby’s sake; let’s first celebrate that. Let’s return to our person deciding whether or not to start exercising the day before Christmas Eve. If their program has them exercising 3 days/week, and they exercise just once during their week of travel, would all their progress be negated when they start the following week? Maybe. Again, what’s the goal? If it’s being more consistent, then progress looks like getting any exercise in.

From our experience, babies who receive Chiropractic Care before their release procedure often find the process easier and recover faster . If you can schedule before the release, that's great. If it's after, that’s okay too. Remember, something is greater than nothing, and your decision can help you feel more in control of your baby's care.