An ARPwave colleague in Chicago, Tommy John, recently made some comments that struck me. I'd like to share them:
"Over the past 5 years of ARP'ing injuries in anyone from 8 years old to 91 years old, the top 3 most common forms of training the 'injured' partook in were: 1. Long slow distance running or biking or stepping or eliptical, 2. Yoga 3. Pilates."
His statement may seem a bit harsh, but it's an observation that I've made in our facility too. Of course, these activities can have other benefits in terms of stress relief, balancing out your mind, or just being fun. And that's great, as long as we also realize the necessity to incorporate real strength training. Tommy continues:
"The stronger you are the less chance you have of becoming injured. The stronger you are the better chance you have to fight off illness if God forbid you acquire an illness. The stronger you are the less of a chance your joints or spine have to taking the load of force into the body which will lessen the chance of inflammation building up which will give your immune system a break to fight real disease and not symptoms bc of a lack of strength. Must be strong. Must train to become very very very strong. You cannot be too strong."
He's absolutely right. I'd like to place special emphasis on one of the last things he said. When you're strong, your muscles do the job they're supposed to. Less force will transfer to the joints and spinal column. This is so important, because most of the damage that we do to our bodies is so easily preventable. What is wear and tear? It's made up. Doesn't exist. It's really more like misuse and abuse. When we use our bodies the way they're meant to be used, they are built up rather than torn down.
I challenge you to take the time you already spend working out, in fact you can even take far less than that, and do a few extreme isometrics. Minimal space and equipment, and you'll really accomplish something. Your muscles will work to stabilize your body. The little aches and pains will vanish. You'll have more energy. And guess what? Even your mind will work better.
More on that later.
Oh, and you can check out my friend Tommy John here.
Showing posts with label injury rehab austin tx. Show all posts
Showing posts with label injury rehab austin tx. Show all posts
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Cardio Training, continued...
Having just spoken about many of the effects that long, slow distance (LSD) cardio has on the body, I wanted to take one more post to elaborate upon those points and touch on a few more. We know that whenever we do any activity, force enters the body. If the muscles absorb that force, then it does not get into the joints and we do not have pain. If, however, the muscles do not absorb that force, it then gets into the tendons and ligaments. This force causes damage, and leads to inflammation within the body.
As one fatigues during LSD, the muscles shorten. A shorter muscle absorbs less force, allowing more to get into the tendons and ligaments; this is why we emphasize training eccentrically. But even more fundamental is the question of training velocity. From discussions with one of our mentors, Dr. John Pietila (Dr. J), we have come to believe that muscles absorb force best when working at or near maximal velocity. Therefore, even before fatigue sets in during LSD, the muscles will only absorb a fraction of the force that enters the body. Some of it will then be diverted to the joints with each stride. The result of this process is a continual low-level inflammatory response, which is the physical reason for "overtraining." Inflammation actually causes further damage to these tissues, decreasing their health over the long term.
Turning on sub-maximally during LSD also causes the body to forget how to turn the muscles on maximally, in the right order, and for the right amount of time. The resulting abnormal movement pattern then causes more low grade inflammation, more abnormal change in the nervous system, more inflammation, more change of the nervous system.
In addition, LSD will not create a sufficient amount of correct feedback into the nervous system to stimulate a change toward health. The nervous system is an intricately-connected web, and its function depends on the feedback that it receives from other areas of the body. This lack of feedback is the major reason that paralysis often shortens the lives of those with spinal cord injuries.
As Dr. J is fond of telling us, insufficient input leads to insufficient output. Proper stimulation is required for all of the body's organs to work properly. This is the reason that people doing the Ultrafit program often find they have more frequent bowel movements: the correct stimulation heightens the function of their organs, so that the organs process metabolic waste more efficiently. On the continuum of life, one can only move towards death or towards health. Since these LSD processes are not creating a more healthy individual, they must be accelerating the processes of aging and death.
As one fatigues during LSD, the muscles shorten. A shorter muscle absorbs less force, allowing more to get into the tendons and ligaments; this is why we emphasize training eccentrically. But even more fundamental is the question of training velocity. From discussions with one of our mentors, Dr. John Pietila (Dr. J), we have come to believe that muscles absorb force best when working at or near maximal velocity. Therefore, even before fatigue sets in during LSD, the muscles will only absorb a fraction of the force that enters the body. Some of it will then be diverted to the joints with each stride. The result of this process is a continual low-level inflammatory response, which is the physical reason for "overtraining." Inflammation actually causes further damage to these tissues, decreasing their health over the long term.
Turning on sub-maximally during LSD also causes the body to forget how to turn the muscles on maximally, in the right order, and for the right amount of time. The resulting abnormal movement pattern then causes more low grade inflammation, more abnormal change in the nervous system, more inflammation, more change of the nervous system.
In addition, LSD will not create a sufficient amount of correct feedback into the nervous system to stimulate a change toward health. The nervous system is an intricately-connected web, and its function depends on the feedback that it receives from other areas of the body. This lack of feedback is the major reason that paralysis often shortens the lives of those with spinal cord injuries.
As Dr. J is fond of telling us, insufficient input leads to insufficient output. Proper stimulation is required for all of the body's organs to work properly. This is the reason that people doing the Ultrafit program often find they have more frequent bowel movements: the correct stimulation heightens the function of their organs, so that the organs process metabolic waste more efficiently. On the continuum of life, one can only move towards death or towards health. Since these LSD processes are not creating a more healthy individual, they must be accelerating the processes of aging and death.
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