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Prism Blog, Self Care for Trans Health, Surgical Recovery & Scars

Six Steps to More Comfortable Binding: Part Two

Guest blog from Sandy Baird DC of Riverstone Chiropractic

According to a Health Impact Study published in the Culture, Health, and Sexuality Journal, 97% of people who wear a binder experience uncomfortable side effects such as neck pain, shoulder pain, back pain, and trouble breathing.

Other than limiting the time you spend in a binder, changing/washing your binder often, and avoiding unsafe compression methods such as duct tape and ACE bandages, there are several steps you an take to decrease the discomforts associated with binding.

This collection of tips comes both from my personal experience wearing binders as well as my clinical experience in treating the musculoskeletal complaints that my clients experience from binding.

2. Balance push and pull movements

  • Many trans-masculine folks hit the weight room to build up their pectoral muscles (chest muscles) in order to sculpt a more masculine physique.
  • But often during this quest to build a more muscular chest with pushing-type movements like the bench press or pushups, we neglect to strength-train our upper and mid-back muscles with pulling-type movements like:
    • rows
    • pull-ups
    • lat-pulldowns
  • This can lead to postural imbalances between the front and back of the body, which can add layers of pain and tension to a torso already taxed from the compression of a binder.
  • Not only is it important to balance upper-body pushing and pulling in the weight room, but also adding specific strengthening exercises such as:
    • The I-Y-T exercise
    • Rotator cuff external rotations with a band or a cable machine
  • These can greatly improve shoulder and back health and decrease postural strain.

Look out for next week’s post for tip #3!

The stretches, self-muscle work, and strengthening exercises are from my full core and glutes strengthening program available for purchase at www.engineeringyourbody.com. And if you are interested in exploring muscle-work or joint adjusting to alleviate your muscle and joint pain, you can find out more about my practice at www.riverstonechiropractic.com.

In happiness and health,

Dr. Sandy Baird, DC

Oakland Chiropractor Sandy Baird

 

Bio:
I’m Dr. Sandy Baird, DC. I’ve been providing bodywork in the Bay Area for over ten years now. First as a massage therapist, and now as a doctor who combines soft tissue work with joint adjusting. I feel that it’s important for queers to have a safe space to have their bodies worked on. Many of us already shoulder a lot of extra stress and tension from being constantly judged, worrying about what bathrooms we should use, and having to actively resist and fight back for our rights as our new state of “normal”.

References:
Health impact of chest binding among transgender adults: a community-engaged, cross-sectional study: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2016.1191675

 

All information in this blog is for educational uses only. Always consult your doctor before taking any herbs or supplements, or changing or discontinuing your medications.

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