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!
What is a Targeted Exercise and Why You Need To Be Doing Them?
While performing three different exercises for each area of the chest may sound “targeted” and it may work great for targeting the chest itself… this is NOT what we mean by targeted…
What we are talking about is choosing exercises with more than just size increases in mind… remember, there is far more to muscle than just how it looks… You can be really big, but also weak, slow and inflexible.
To drive this point home some more, remember the “Turtle Back Syndrome” we covered in article #1? So many body builders are plagued with this gruesome condition and they don’t even know it! Are you?
The Turtle Back condition is a direct result of too much focus on building up the pecs and lats and not enough focus on the upper back. Also, the lack of focus on flexibility in the chest and shoulders makes it even worse…
Not only does this look stupid, but it sets you up for back, neck and shoulder problems like rotator cuff tears and the like… and I know you don’t want any of those!
So by targeted, we mean exercises that will not just develop muscle strength and size, but more importantly work towards correcting muscle imbalances which will mean less pain and missed workouts, better performance and function, and most of all better and balanced total body development!
Get ready, this is gonna hurt! The exercises most bodybuilders focus on the most, are the ones that cause the most problems… hopefully, you’re different..
But before we share with you what those exercise are, let’s talk real quickly about what bodybuilding is…
The goal of bodybuilding isn’t to get as big as you can, or at least to us it isn’t and shouldn’t be, but to build a balanced body that is as strong as possible in every way. For example, while being freakishly big may get people’s attention, it serves you no purpose at all…
while on the other hand, what if you were not only big, but also extremely strong and powerful, lightning fast, flexible, and agile enough to kick ass if needed?
So many bodybuilders build massive amounts of muscle yet are so unbelievably weak and inflexible… for example, we know a guy who can bench press over 350 lbs but can’t do a measly 50 push-ups!
The point is, the exercises you choose and how you perform them not only determine how big, strong, and flexible you are, but also affect how your body functions and whether or not you suffer from aches, pains, and injuries like back pain and sciatic pain.
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.
