The Shoulder Shrug You Didn’t Know You Were Doing

You are sitting in traffic, running late for something, and without even noticing it your shoulders have inched up toward your ears. Your jaw is tight. Your hands are gripping the wheel a little harder than they need to. A few minutes later you catch yourself and consciously lower your shoulders, only to find them creeping back up ten minutes later.

If this sounds familiar, you are not imagining it, and you are far from alone. This pattern has a name: stress bracing. It is one of the most common physical habits people develop without realizing it, and over time it can leave your neck, shoulders, and upper back feeling tight, sore, or even painful.

Why the Body Braces This Way

When your nervous system perceives stress, it activates a set of muscles across your neck and shoulders as part of an old protective reflex.

This response was originally designed to help the body prepare for physical action. In modern life, the stress rarely resolves through movement, so those muscles simply stay contracted, sometimes for hours at a time.

How It Shows Up Physically

Chronic shoulder bracing often shows up as tightness at the base of the skull, a dull ache between the shoulder blades, or tension headaches that build gradually over the course of a day. Because the tightening happens slowly and without conscious effort, many people don’t notice the pattern until the discomfort is already significant.

Why Awareness Alone Rarely Fixes It

Simply telling yourself to relax your shoulders offers temporary relief at best. The muscles involved are responding to input from your nervous system, not a conscious decision, so the tension tends to return as soon as your attention shifts elsewhere.

Lasting change usually requires addressing both the habit and the alignment issues that develop underneath it.

A Few Simple Ways to Decrease Shoulder Tension

Regular movement breaks, especially ones that stretch the chest and roll the shoulders through their full range, can interrupt the bracing cycle before it sets in for the day.

Paying attention to how you carry tension in specific moments, such as while reading emails or driving, can also help you catch the pattern earlier.

Over time, improving the alignment of your neck and upper back can make it easier for your shoulders to rest in a more relaxed position rather than remaining elevated.

Noticing Is the First Step

Stress bracing is not something to feel discouraged by. It’s simply your body doing what it was built to do, just a little too often for modern life. Noticing the pattern won’t solve everything but it is the first step toward loosening its grip.

If your shoulders and neck feel like they’re in a near-constant state of tension, we suggest having them evaluated. Parascak Family Chiropractic can take a closer look at how stress and alignment are interacting in your body and help you find a way back to feeling looser and more at ease.

When an athlete comes in with pain or a sports injury, looking only at the area that hurts doesn’t always tell the full story. At Parascak Family Chiropractic, INSiGHT nerve scanning is used alongside a hands-on chiropractic examination to gather additional information about how the nervous system is functioning.

By combining thermography, surface electromyography (sEMG), and heart rate variability (HRV) with a clinical assessment, our Lethbridge chiropractor develops a broader understanding of how an athlete’s body is adapting to physical demands. The scans are one piece of the overall assessment and help guide individualized care recommendations.

What the Research Says

This kind of nervous-system-focused assessment is gaining traction in sports science more broadly. Heart rate variability is increasingly recognized as a non-invasive biomarker that reflects autonomic nervous system activity, offering insight into how an athlete’s body is adapting to physiological stress, training load, and recovery. Researchers also note that routine, near-daily HRV tracking tends to provide more meaningful insight into an athlete’s recovery status than a single isolated reading, which is part of why ongoing monitoring, rather than a one-time scan, tends to be more useful for tracking change over time. MDPInih

What the Scans Can Show

Each scan provides different information about how the body is functioning. Thermography evaluates patterns related to autonomic nervous system activity along the spine. Surface electromyography (sEMG) measures muscle activity and may identify areas of increased tension or imbalance. Heart rate variability (HRV) assesses how the body is adapting to physical and emotional stress.

When considered together with a thorough examination and health history, these findings may highlight patterns that warrant further clinical evaluation and help explain why an athlete may be experiencing recurring concerns or changes in movement.

Looking Beyond Where It Hurts

Sometimes the area that hurts isn’t the only part involved. Nerve scanning provides additional information that may assist with clinical decision-making by identifying patterns that can then be considered alongside examination findings.

This broader perspective helps Dr. Brad develop care recommendations that focus on the individual as a whole rather than a single symptom. For athletes dealing with recurring injuries or ongoing movement concerns, understanding these patterns can be an important part of the assessment process.

What to Expect During Your Appointment

A nerve scan appointment begins with three quick, non-invasive scans that evaluate nerve function, muscle activity, and the body’s response to stress. Dr. Brad reviews the results with you, explains what each scan measures in straightforward language, and combines the findings with your examination and health history to develop individualized care recommendations. The INSiGHT system also generates a COREscore that summarizes the scan findings and provides a baseline that can be referenced over time.

A Personal Connection to This Technology

Dr. Brad’s interest in nerve scanning extends beyond clinical practice. As a hockey player, he experienced multiple shoulder dislocations and spent years focusing only on his shoulder. It wasn’t until he visited a chiropractor that he learned spinal dysfunction may also have been contributing to his ongoing shoulder concerns.

That experience sparked his interest in chiropractic and eventually led him into the profession. More than 25 years later, he continues using INSiGHT nerve scanning as part of the assessment process for athletes of all ages, helping them better understand the factors that may be influencing movement, recovery, and recurring musculoskeletal concerns.

Curious What Your Nervous System Is Telling You?

Whether you’re dealing with a recurring sports injury, recovering from physical demands, or simply want a clearer understanding of how your body is functioning, INSiGHT nerve scanning can provide valuable information as part of a comprehensive chiropractic assessment. Dr. Brad will review your results with you, answer your questions, and explain whether chiropractic care may be appropriate based on your individual presentation. Ready to learn more? Contact Parascak Family Chiropractic today to book your nerve scan evaluation.

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What Your Walk Says About Your Spine

Watch someone walk down a street and you can often guess a lot about them before they say a single word: tired, rushed, relaxed, in a hurry. What most people don’t realize is that the way we walk also reveals a great deal about what is happening in the spine, often well before any pain shows up.

Your gait, the pattern of movement you use when you walk, is shaped by how your spine, hips, and legs work together. When something in that chain is out of balance, your walk adjusts to compensate, usually without you noticing at all.

Your Spine Sets the Foundation

The spine is not just along for the ride during walking. It rotates gently with each step, helping to transfer force between your upper and lower body and keep your stride efficient. When one area of the spine is restricted or misaligned, nearby joints and muscles often pick up the extra work, changing your natural rhythm in small but measurable ways.

Common Signs in the Way You Move

A slight favoring of one leg, a shortened stride on one side, or arms that swing unevenly can all point back to spinal imbalance.

Some people notice they consistently wear down the outer edge of one shoe faster than the other, which is often a clue that weight is not being distributed evenly through the body.

The Body Compensates Quietly

These adjustments tend to happen gradually, which is exactly why they can be easy to miss. The body is remarkably good at finding ways to keep moving even when something isn’t working ideally, so a compensation pattern can exist for months or years before it becomes noticeable or uncomfortable.

Left unaddressed, these small compensations can place ongoing strain on the hips, knees, and lower back as they work harder to make up for the imbalance above them. Catching the pattern early often means a simpler path back to comfortable, even movement.

What You Can Do

Paying attention to how your shoes wear, whether one side of your body feels tighter after walking, or if you tend to lean to one side while standing can offer useful early clues.

A trained eye can often spot gait patterns that are difficult to notice yourself, because most of us rarely watch ourselves walk.

If you are curious about what your walk might be telling you about your spine, Parascak Family Chiropractic can take a closer look and help you understand what is happening beneath the surface.

Headache, dizziness, confusion, sensitivity to light or noise, balance trouble, and noticeable behaviour changes are common early signs of a concussion. They often appear immediately or within the first 24 to 48 hours. Recognizing these changes early and responding appropriately can play an important role in what happens next. “Most people recover within one to three weeks, but timelines vary based on severity, history of concussions, and how well the athlete follows proper rest and graded return-to-play protocols,” says Lethbridge chiropractor Dr. Brad Parascak.

What the Research Says

Concussions are more common among young athletes than many parents realize. A national survey of high school students found that 15.1% reported having at least one sports- or activity-related concussion, and 6% reported two or more — with risk increasing for athletes who play on multiple teams. Recovery timelines also vary more than people expect: one study found that 85.4% of high school and college athletes reported full symptom recovery within a week, while another found only about a third of high school football players returned to play within 7 to 13 days. This range in recovery experience is exactly why individualized, professionally guided return-to-play protocols matter so much, rather than a one-size-fits-all timeline.

Where Chiropractic May Fit Into Care

Once a concussion has been medically assessed, chiropractic care may form part of an individual’s broader care plan when appropriate. At Parascak Family Chiropractic, assessments focus on nervous system function, balance, coordination, movement, and musculoskeletal findings to determine whether chiropractic care is appropriate based on the individual’s presentation and goals. Our care is provided alongside recommendations from other healthcare professionals when needed.

The Risk of Returning Too Soon

Returning to play before the body is ready increases the likelihood of lingering symptoms, repeat concussion, and potentially more serious complications such as second impact syndrome. Although it can be frustrating to miss practices or games, giving the brain and body adequate time to recover is one of the most important parts of concussion care.

Local Resources for Athletes in Lethbridge

Baseline concussion testing and guided return-to-play protocols are available locally. When appropriate, chiropractic care may also be provided alongside other healthcare professionals involved in an athlete’s recovery, helping ensure care is coordinated and based on the individual’s needs.

Growing a baby places new demands on the body. Changes in posture, weight distribution, joint mobility, and fluid retention can all contribute to discomfort during pregnancy. Dr. Brad Parascak has been caring for expecting mothers in Lethbridge for 25 years and has completed postgraduate training in pregnancy and pediatric care.

Is Chiropractic Care Safe During Pregnancy?

For many women with uncomplicated pregnancies, chiropractic care is generally considered safe throughout all stages of pregnancy. Decades of research across both the chiropractic and osteopathic professions support the safety of manual therapy during pregnancy, with no significant evidence of contraindications in healthy pregnancies. A 2022 consensus process published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics also produced best-practice recommendations specifically for chiropractic care in pregnant and postpartum patients, reflecting the growing body of professional guidance in this area.

“Most expecting moms want reassurance that care can be adapted to their changing bodies. With specialized tables, pregnancy pillows, and gentle techniques, we work to make visits as comfortable as possible,” emphasizes Dr. Brad.

What the Research Shows

Research published in the British Journal of Midwifery found strong evidence that chiropractic care can be effective for managing lower back pain and pelvic pain during low-risk pregnancies, with women receiving weekly treatments reporting positive outcomes after approximately six weeks. A 2014 study found that 89% of pregnant women receiving chiropractic care reported reduced pain levels, often within just one to four visits. These findings are encouraging, and while larger-scale clinical trials are still ongoing, the existing evidence consistently supports both the safety and benefit of chiropractic care for common pregnancy-related discomforts.

Common Pregnancy Discomforts

Many expecting mothers seek chiropractic care for concerns such as low back and pelvic discomfort, sciatica, mid-back and neck tension, and carpal tunnel symptoms related to increased tissue swelling. As pregnancy progresses, changes in posture and joint mobility can place additional stress on the body.

Pelvic Alignment During Pregnancy

One focus of chiropractic care during pregnancy is maintaining pelvic mobility and function. As the body changes, chiropractors monitor movement patterns and pelvic mechanics throughout each trimester.

When Extra Caution Is Needed

Women experiencing conditions such as pre-eclampsia, placenta previa, or vaginal bleeding should consult their primary healthcare provider before seeking chiropractic care.

How Often Should You Visit?

Care recommendations vary based on current symptoms, overall health history, and previous spinal function. Many expecting mothers choose weekly visits, while others may attend more frequently depending on their needs.

The Role Your Core Muscles Play in Protecting Your Spine

We often think of core workouts as something you do to look better at the beach. Crunches, planks, maybe some leg raises, all in pursuit of a flatter stomach. But your core muscles exist for a much more important reason than aesthetics. They are your spine’s first line of defense, and when they aren’t doing their job well, your back almost always picks up the slack.

Your Core is More Than Your Abs

When most people hear “core,” they picture the rectus abdominis — the muscle responsible for the visible six-pack. In reality, your core is a group of deep muscles that wrap around your entire midsection like a cylinder. This includes muscles along your sides, deep muscles close to your spine, your pelvic floor, and even your diaphragm.

Together, they create what researchers often call the “inner unit” — a system designed to stabilize your spine before your arms or legs even begin to move.

How Core Muscles Protect the Spine

Every time you reach for something, stand up from a chair, or even take a quick step to catch your balance, your core muscles activate slightly before the movement begins. This pre-activation braces your spine and prevents it from being loaded unevenly.
When these muscles are weak, slow to activate, or poorly coordinated, the load shifts to the vertebrae, discs, and joints of your spine instead. Over time, that kind of unmanaged stress contributes to the familiar patterns of low back pain, stiffness, and injury.

Weakness Can Be Hard to Detect

One of the reasons core weakness goes unnoticed for so long is that the body compensates quietly. People often tighten their hip flexors, over-engage their superficial back muscles, or subtly change the way they move to keep functioning without discomfort (at least temporarily).

By the time pain appears, the underlying pattern has often been building for months or even years. This is why addressing core function early, rather than waiting for a problem to emerge, tends to produce better long-term outcomes.

The Core Exercises That Really Matter

Some of the most popular core exercises — like traditional crunches or sit-ups — primarily train the surface muscles rather than the deep stabilizing ones. For spinal health, the more useful goal is endurance and coordination rather than brute strength.

Exercises that train your ability to hold a neutral spine position under load, or maintain stabilization while your limbs are moving, tend to be more beneficial. A chiropractor can assess which patterns are weak or missing for you specifically, and recommend exercises that address the root cause rather than just strengthening what is already dominant.

A Strong Foundation Supports Everything Else

Whether you are recovering from a back injury, trying to prevent one, or simply want to move through daily life with less effort and discomfort, core function is a great place to start. The goal isn’t to have a perfectly toned midsection; it’s to give your spine the support it needs to do its job well, day after day.

If you’ve been dealing with recurring back pain or stiffness that doesn’t seem to resolve on its own, the team at Parascak Family Chiropractic can help you understand what is contributing to it and build a plan to address it. Contact us to schedule a visit.

While general chiropractic tends to focus on pain relief and basic alignment, sports chiropractic goes further. At Parascak Family Chiropractic, our chiropractor uses advanced tools like nerve scanning and motion analysis to look at how an athlete actually moves, not just where it hurts.

We identify movement dysfunctions and nervous system stress early through scanning and functional assessments,” says Dr. Brad Parascak. The goal isn’t simply to address where discomfort is occurring. It’s to better understand the factors contributing to movement patterns so care can be tailored to the individual athlete. Looking at how the body moves as a whole, rather than focusing on a single area, can provide valuable information that helps guide our care recommendations.

Common Injuries We See in Local Athletes

Hockey, football, and youth sports make up a large share of the athletes who come through our doors. Lethbridge has no shortage of dedicated weekend warriors either. Concussions, neck and back strain, shoulder injuries, and lower-body imbalances show up again and again. Many of these concerns start small and gradually build over time before they begin affecting training or competition, making a thorough assessment worthwhile even when symptoms seem minor.

Better Movement for Training and Competition

Improved joint mobility and a well-regulated nervous system may help athletes move with greater ease. Depending on the individual, this could contribute to improved range of motion, reduced muscle tension, and more efficient movement by addressing compensation patterns that can develop over time. Every athlete responds differently of course. Some people notice changes in mobility or muscle tension relatively early in care, while others require more time depending on their presentation, goals, and the physical demands of their sport.

What Care Looks Like Throughout the Season

Care recommendations vary depending on the athlete, their goals, the demands of their sport, and clinical findings. During the season, visits may be scheduled more frequently to help athletes manage the physical demands of competition. During the off-season, care may place greater emphasis on improving movement patterns and addressing areas identified during the assessment. Recommendations are always individualized based on the athlete’s needs and response to care.

What Your Posture Looks Like After a Year of Working From Home

If you’ve been working from home for a while, there’s a good chance your body has quietly been keeping score. The kitchen table that became a desk. The couch that turned into a second office.

The hours spent hunched over a laptop with no monitor, no proper chair, and no reason to get up and walk to a meeting. It felt like a temporary situation, but for many people it became the new normal. And posture pays the price.

The Slow Creep of Poor Alignment

One of the tricky things about posture changes is that they happen gradually. Your body doesn’t send an alarm when your head starts drifting forward or your shoulders begin rounding inward. Instead, it adapts.

Muscles that should be working start switching off. Muscles that should be resting get chronically tight. Over months and years, what started as a slightly awkward workspace setup can become a deeply ingrained postural pattern that feels completely normal (even when it isn’t).

Forward Head Posture: The Work-From-Home Signature

One of the most common posture changes seen in remote workers is forward head posture, where the head sits ahead of the shoulders rather than stacked above them.

For every inch your head moves forward, the effective weight it places on your neck and upper spine increases significantly. This puts sustained pressure on the muscles, joints, and discs of the cervical spine (the neck region), which can contribute to neck stiffness, upper back tension, and headaches that seem to come out of nowhere.

What Rounded Shoulders Are Doing Behind the Scenes

Sitting at a low surface with a small screen naturally pulls the shoulders forward and inward. Over time, the muscles across the chest can shorten and tighten while the muscles between the shoulder blades become overstretched and weak.

This imbalance affects both how you look and how your whole upper body moves. Breathing can become slightly shallower. Shoulder mobility can decrease. And the strain can travel further down the spine than most people expect.

Your Lower Back Has Been Trying to Tell You Something

Prolonged sitting — especially in unsupported positions — reduces the natural curve of the lower back (the lumbar curve). When this curve flattens, the load on the spinal discs shifts in ways they weren’t designed to handle for hours at a stretch.
Many people notice this as a dull ache that builds through the afternoon, or stiffness that makes standing up feel like a project.

It’s Not Too Late to Improve Things

The good news is that the body responds well to consistent, targeted attention. Small changes can reduce the daily strain. Try these for a simple start:

• Raise your screen
• Support your lower back
• Take regular standing breaks

But if postural habits have been building for months or years, those deeper compensations often need more than an ergonomic fix. A chiropractic assessment can identify where your alignment has shifted and help restore the function your body has quietly been working around.

If your work-from-home setup has taken a toll, Parascak Family Chiropractic is here to help. Book an appointment and find out what’s actually going on, and what you can do about it.

What Growing Pains in Kids Might Actually Be Telling You

If your child has ever woken up in the middle of the night crying about aching legs, you’ve probably been told it is just growing pains. And in many cases, that reassurance turns out to be true. The discomfort passes, your child goes back to sleep, and life moves on. But “growing pains” is a term that gets used quite broadly, and understanding what it actually means can help you know when there’s something more worth looking into.

What Are Growing Pains, Exactly?

True growing pains typically appear in children between the ages of 3 and 12. They tend to occur in the late afternoon or evening, often after an active day, and most commonly affect the thighs, calves, and behind the knees. Crucially, they do not usually involve the joints themselves, and they do not cause swelling, redness, or limping.

The exact cause is still debated. Despite the name, there is no strong evidence that the pain is directly caused by bones growing. More likely contributors include muscle fatigue, reduced pain thresholds, and in some cases, biomechanical patterns that place extra demand on certain muscles and soft tissues.

When To Pay Closer Attention

The classic presentation of growing pains is generally nothing to worry about. However, not every leg or back ache in a child falls into that category. A few types of pain deserve a closer look:

• Pain that is present in the morning (not just at night)
• Pain that is localized to a specific joint
• Pain that persists for more than a few days
• Pain that is getting progressively worse

The same is true if your child starts walking differently, avoids physical activity they used to enjoy, or complains of back pain — which is less typical of standard growing pains and more often related to posture, muscle imbalance, or the way they are carrying a heavy backpack.

How the Musculoskeletal System Develops in Children

Children’s bodies are remarkably adaptable, but that adaptability has limits. As kids grow quickly, bone growth can temporarily outpace the muscles and tendons attached to them, leading to periods of tightness that affect how they move and hold themselves.

Poor posture habits, prolonged sitting, and heavy backpacks can all add to this load during sensitive developmental windows. Catching and addressing these patterns early tends to have a much bigger impact than waiting until they are teenagers.

What a Chiropractor Can Assess

A chiropractor who works with children can evaluate your child’s posture, gait, and spinal function to identify whether anything beyond typical muscle fatigue is contributing to their discomfort.

The purpose of a chiropractic assessment isn’t to over-treat something that will resolve on its own, but to distinguish normal developmental variation from patterns that would benefit from some support.

Many parents are surprised to find that a few targeted adjustments and some simple stretching guidance can make a noticeable difference in how their child moves and sleeps.

Trust Your Parental Instincts

Parents often have good instincts about when something doesn’t seem quite right with their child. If the aches seem more frequent, more intense, or more limiting than what feels normal, reach out to a professional to take a proper look. You know your child best.

The team at Parascak Family Chiropractic is happy to assess your child and give you a clear picture of what is going on. Contact us to book an appointment!

Whether you’re a hockey player, competitive dancer, golfer, or pickleball enthusiast, your body faces physical demands that can add up over time. Dr. Brad Parascak works with athletes of all ages and activity levels in Lethbridge, helping them stay active and performing at their best.

Common Sports Injuries Seen in Chiropractic Practice

Sports place stress on muscles, joints, and connective tissues. Our chiropractor commonly assesses athletes experiencing concussions, spinal discomfort, shoulder concerns, and hip or pelvic issues. Care isn’t limited to the spine either. Extremities such as the elbows, wrists, knees, and feet may also be evaluated as part of a comprehensive assessment.

When joints aren’t moving efficiently, surrounding muscles and tissues may compensate, which can contribute to strain and movement imbalances.

What the Research Says

A systematic review of randomized controlled trials found that in three out of four studies, athletes using chiropractic care showed significant improvements in performance, injury treatment, and rehabilitation. Research has also found that cervical spine manipulation increased grip strength in judo athletes, while studies published in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine and Physiological Therapeutics point to improvements in neuromusculoskeletal function and faster post-injury recovery times. A 2024 study found that adolescent athletes who combined chiropractic care with a training programme showed significantly greater gains in strength, speed, endurance, and agility compared to those who trained alone. National-level athletes across a range of sports have also reported high levels of satisfaction with chiropractic care for both performance and injury prevention.

Enhancing Athletic Performance

Mobility and joint function play an important role in athletic performance. Proper movement patterns may help athletes move more efficiently and reduce unnecessary stress throughout the body. Some athletes report improvements in mobility, recovery, and overall comfort as part of their chiropractic care experience. Dr. Brad uses gentle tonal adjustments designed to encourage the body’s natural function and movement.

“Proper alignment and mobility may help athletes move more efficiently and reduce unnecessary strain throughout the body,” says Dr. Brad.

Athletes of All Ages

Our chiropractor has a strong connection to the local athletic community. His daughter grew up dancing, and his son is now a professional hockey player. The office regularly sees athletes involved in swimming, basketball, volleyball, judo, baseball, lacrosse, hockey, rodeo, golf, curling, and pickleball.

After a Sports Injury

If an injury occurs, it’s a good idea to seek an assessment as soon as you’re able. A thorough evaluation can help determine the nature of the injury and guide recommendations, which may include home exercises, soft tissue therapy, activity modifications, and gentle chiropractic care.