Speaking Engagements with Dr Angela Macdonald

Dr. Angela is not your typical speaker when it comes to the health and wellness space. Having her at your event is guaranteed to take things up a notch with audience engagement and participation, as well as practical take away knowledge to benefit your audience for a lifetime!

It has taken a 20 year career to  gather the understanding and knowledge outlined in the topics below.  Your attendees will be well on their way to improved health in life and in the workplace and have thoroughly enjoyed the process. Contact the office to find out more information about booking a speaking engagement with Dr Angela!

Rock Your Heels And Your Posture!

This fun and interactive presentation will help the audience understand the musculoskeletal injuries associated with wearing high heels, and offer solutions.

Women have 4x as many foot issues as men and we know from the American Podiatric Medical Association that 71% of high heel wearers say that their shoes hurt their feet. Prolonged elevation of our heels causes conditions such as calluses, hammer toes, bunions, plantar fasciitis and neuromas.

The stress does not end there. The result of a consistently elevated heel is a shortened Achilles tendon and tight calves. Say good bye to flip flop wearing and bare feet in the sand at your vacation! And, lastly, our whole body alignment is thrown off by the change in our center of gravity being altered and this creates back and neck pain.

Not pretty at all, but not the end of the story. Luckily, we don’t have to exchange all of our heels for ballerina flats, nor should we. The presentation will cover ideas on how to change up between foot wear and why that helps. I will give practical, easy, postural ideas to counter the consequences of high heel wearing and show ways to undo previously done damage. The audience will leave with tools, hope and even their high heels ; )

Spinal Hygiene 101 – Move Well. Live Well. Foundation Training

Foundation Training began in California and is quickly spreading throughout Chiropractic, Physical Therapy and Personal Training circles throughout the world. The training works on the premise that our spines become compressed with our life in gravity. This compression is significantly increased with injury, prolonged sitting and/or the impact of exercise. Poor mechanics and muscle imbalances are our bodies’ way of compensating for the compression – and this is the perfect storm to create back pain. This hands on and interactive workshop teaches you to use muscles to decompress the spine. Through a series of exercises you become aware of ways to sit, stand, bend and train that stabilizes and constantly decompresses. The goal is for you to leave with tools to use not only in your exercise sessions but every day, all day. Beneficial for anyone from a training Iron Man with low back pain to someone barely able to move due to an acute low back injury. Foundation Training is the best, most powerful and patient empowering tool I have learned over my 20 years as a chiropractor.

Posture Perfection for the Spa Professional:Text neck ain’t sexy – neither is pedicure neck

People in the spa industry have a wonderful career, filled with days of making people like me feel more relaxed, more beautiful and ready to take on the world.

There is, however, this occupational hazard associated with your undivided attention to my toes, fingers, eyebrows or bikini line: it is sore shoulders, a sore neck and often an associated head ache. Over time, the forward posturing even leads to an upper back “hump”, we start to feel shorter and less confident.

I would love to teach you how to take care of the grateful people, like me, without making us feel guilty for making you sore.

In this presentation, you will understand what happens to the muscles, ligaments and joints when we spend too much time with our heads down. Then, correlate the anatomy with the pain symptoms.

It is not all bad news though as there are simple postural changes that I will teach to help support your head more efficiently. I will also send you away with some, not so hard core, neck core exercises so that you have the endurance to get through the 90 minute, Super Deluxe Pedicure, and walk away tall and pain free.

As The Twig Is Bent So Grows The Tree – Children and Technology

We all know that technology is not going anywhere and it is being incorporated into the lives of our children earlier and earlier. This certainly opens many doors to learning and has many wonderful applications however it is placing new stresses on young spines that will haunt them their whole lives.

Coming away from the interactive and energizing presentation you will have a better understanding of the common, injurious mechanics generally seen with laptop and cellphone use. More importantly, you will be offered solutions to use in your classroom or home to prevent injuries seen and felt after months and years of not being aware.

If we can instill healthy “tech” body mechanics to the very young as they begin their journey with electronics, we may save them years of headaches, arm numbness, back pain and poor everyday posture. (You may even learn something that helps you ; )

Dear Fitness Instructor

I have had a desire to understand the makings of fitness induced injuries for years and from many points of view.  I have a unique perspective for this presentation as I have been the fitness participant, the fitness instructor, the injured athlete and the Doctor of Chiropractic taking care of the injured athlete.

Bring your mats, weights and curiosity to this presentation as we will actively go through many of the potentially, injurious exercises that hold people back from returning to your classes or sessions, or exercise at all.  You will leave the interactive and hands on presentation understanding the anatomy and physics involved in common exercise induced injuries and learn how to instruct your clients to get strength and balance from your workouts, not tension and imbalance and injury.

Your wonderful clients are giving you their time and money and trust.  Let’s respect all of it and help make exercise rewarding and exciting for their whole lives.