Emotions, Exercise, and the Stress Response

A 1981 study demonstrates the effect that our mental-emotional state can have on the outcome of exercise. Previous studies found, for instance, that anger and fear both raise heart rate and blood pressure while at rest, but didn't show what happened during exercise.

The study itself involved college-level acting students, who would be relatively comfortable accessing different emotional states and displaying them in public. They accessed different states through visualization. The mind-body connection's power is clearly seen: in all cases the visualization produced physical changes. Before beginning their exercise, the subjects all had elevated heart rate and blood pressure levels while experiencing anger, fear, and happiness. Their heart rate and blood pressure were lower in both relaxed and sad states. All of the test subjects then did the same exercise sequence (stair-climbing) in each of the emotional states.

There are a few interesting observations corresponding with different emotions, and they are relevant to our ability to access sympathetic and parasympathetic states. (Quick review: sympathetic is the fight or flight response to stress that mobilizes our body for immediate action, and parasympathetic is the relaxation response in which our body recovers, repairs, and regenerates). Performing the exercise sequence in a relaxed state, the subjects saw an increase in heart rate and blood pressure that seemed relatively appropriate for exercise. We do need an increase in both of these markers, after all, to get blood to our working muscles. In fearful, angry, and happy states, heart rate and blood pressure rose much higher, indicating an exaggerated sympathetic state. In a sad state the subjects actually had too little increase in heart rate and blood pressure, indicating an overly parasympathetic state in which they could not mobilize their energy stores at all.

The takeaway here is that there is an optimal level of emotional-intellectual stimulation during exercise. If we want the long-term health benefits of exercise, then we should use our training as an opportunity to learn to handle more and more stimulation without having to dip into our sympathetic reserves. Under real stress, our bodies release adrenaline and other stress hormones to help us deal with the situation at hand. And when we have genuinely stressful situations, that is a good thing. The problem is that most people in our society are dipping into their adrenaline stores too often, which is the cause of chronic stress-related diseases. Proper training can actually help them learn to stay more relaxed and only go to their sympathetic reserves when absolutely necessary, which will have a dramatic effect on long-term health.

ARPwave Step 2: Find the Origin of Injury and Repair It

Now that the nervous system is working properly after step one, we finally get to use the ARP. The ARP is an amazing machine, but the machine alone will not achieve results. To maximize the benefit of the machine, we must use it with the ARPwave protocols. These protocols involve movements and exercises designed to rid the body of compensation patterns and restore proper function.

First, we begin by using the ARP to pinpoint the origin of the injury. We'll start by placing a pad on the area where our client feels the most pain, and move the ARP around to find the "hot spot," which is the spot that causes the most intense sensation and is the real source of the problem. More often than not, we find the real problem to be elsewhere. The symptom that you feel is where the problem ended up, not where it began.

Next, we begin treatment with the ARP on the hot spots. Remember that the reason the injury happened in the first place was the inability of muscles to absorb force. We have now found those muscles that could not absorb the force that entered our client's body, and will have our injured client move while the ARP is properly activating those muscles. Most importantly, this combination rapidly reprograms compensation patterns. During this phase the ARP is also helping us achieve joint mobility and build strength, which allows us to compress into one phase what traditional physical therapy will break into several, much longer steps.

As we continue through the ARP treatments, the muscles that could not absorb force rapidly learn to do so. They are able to keep more and more force out of the injured area, sparing it from the further aggravation that can slow the healing process. At the same time our treatments are drawing massive amounts of blood to the area and flushing inflammation out, which allows the body's innate healing mechanisms to work at their highest potential.

Most cases that we see will call for a ten treatment protocol. During this time we usually see a dramatic decrease in pain and a sharp increase in physical function. The end result is that the true origin of the problem is repaired, and we are ready to progress to step three.

In step three, we will see how to prevent injury from happening again in the future.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at garrett@arpwaveaustin.com, or check out our web site at arpwaveaustin.com