Many of the injuries that bodybuilders suffer from could be easily prevented just by allowing the body enough time to rest…
While most bodybuilders dread hearing the word “rest”, many fail to realize that there is far more to rest than just avoiding overtraining. When you perform a tough workout you not only stress that muscle or muscle group, you also place stress on the cardiovascular, neuromuscular and components of the immune system…
For example, many bodybuilders will train their chest 2-3 times a week and spend an hour or more performing dozens of exercises just for the pecs…
While this may sound ok to some, when you add in the stress of other workouts it can quickly add up to too much stress in one or more ways. I hear bodybuilders all the time say “I let my body rest by splitting up my workouts” and “I worked chest yesterday so today I’ll train my back”… that’s NOT rest!
Anyone looking to achieve optimal health has to consider nutrition as the single most important ingredient for success. In a perfect world, all of our nutrition should come from the food we eat. Supplementation should not even be an issue.
In the real world, however, most of the foods we eat are riddled with fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and hormones - not to mention that they are often hydrated with polluted water. In addition, an ever-growing percentage of our food comes from other countries, which don’t always have the best inspection track record.
And if all that weren’t bad enough, the natural nutrient value of the soil that produces these foods has also been diminishing over the years, a trend that will only continue. This is why it’s necessary for us to take a hard look at our diets and make a decision about whether we may need supplements.
As you can see, proper nutrition nowadays is not that easy; it does take some time to educate yourself. By proper nutrition, I mean eating clean and safe foods that have the nutrients your body requires to get and stay healthy.
Recipe for relief
Your two main purposes for eating a healthy diet and taking supplements are to give your body what it needs to heal itself and to minimize the level of inflammation that is in your body. The inflammation is what is causing your pain.
Why do we call mind-body techniques such as massage, meditation, hypnosis, or acupuncture “alternative” treatments when they’ve been around since the dawn of Man? If these techniques have been around and used for that long, surely there must be something to them.
Truth is, you’re already a bit of an expert in some of these techniques. Let me explain. Say you stub your toe. You know full well you’re going to grab that toe and rub it (massage). Next, your breathing is going to change, you’re going to belt out a few choice words, then you’re going to find a place to sit down and relax for a minute (meditation). And don’t forget your need to show everyone where it hurts by pointing to it and pressing on the most painful spot (acupressure).
I know what you’re thinking right now: How would any of these techniques help heal my herniated disc or Spinal Stenosis or Sciatica? First of all, none of these techniques can change the physical aspect of your condition. But when you examine the goals of each of them, they all make sense. And, if used together, they can deliver better and faster results.
Here’s a quick look at the benefits of a more extensive list of alternative treatments to help you understand how you might incorporate one or all of these techniques into your life. Study this list and then find practitioners to teach you or work with you one-on-one.
Massage: There are literally hundreds of styles of massage. Which one is best for you will depend on your comfort level. I would recommend finding some one skilled in Deep Tissue combined with Trigger Point as well as Myofascial Release the combination offers calming of the muscles and manual removal of inflammation by getting rid of the source of the irritant and pain.
Ah… a good nights sleep. We all want to get in the recommended 7-8 hours, yet according to the National Sleep Foundation, almost one-third of Americans sleep 6.5 hours or less each night. So, not only are we walking around in a bad mood, eyes half open, giant cup of Joe in hand, but now research shows that we are actually putting our heart at risk!
Research by Dr. Alexandros Vgontzas, professor of psychiatry at The Pennsylvania State University in Hershey reveals that even modest sleep deprivation may be associated with low-grade inflammation, which can lead to a number of cardiovascular problems.
Vgontzas and his team of researchers deprived 25 men and women just two hours of sleep per night over a six-week period. They measured blood levels for immune-system molecules called cytokines, which are normally secreted during inflammation and infection. Both men and women in the study had increased concentrations of cytokines, which confirms lack of sleep may stimulate an increase in chronic inflammation.
