You As A Machine

High Performance
Local Fruit and Vegetables

What grade of fuel runs your living machine?

Though I appreciate their aesthetic, sound and performance, I couldn’t write about how high end sports cars or motorcycles run without doing some serious research.  I do understand, however, that these high performance engines require high octane fuel.

As a human machine we perform, function and recover best when we have been fueled with fresh (unprocessed) whole foods. But what if the fresh whole foods we choose are not compatible with our living machine?

I love serendipity. I just happened to flip open Outside Magazine (July 2011) to the article below.  This article could have been written for me. The article is about how gluten sensitivity is becoming more prevalent.  It is a quick read that will provide you with some great information.

I started experimenting with “Eat Right For Your Type” in December 2010, which categorizes certain foods as Beneficial, Neutral or Avoid according to one’s blood type.  I was experiencing on-going joint pain and inflammation for a number of years.  It was not getting better so I decided to experiment with food as medicine.  To my good fortune it is working.  Every once in a while when I let my guard down and reintroduce a “forbidden” grain, I get hit with that familiar joint pain. Read my post on Motivation for the full story. http://youasamachine.com/inspiration/motivation/

“Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.”

-Hippocrates

I don’t believe that there is one single approach for everyone.  I think we need to experiment and borrow ideas and create our own salad, so to speak.  Since reading the Outside Magazine article I will experiment more with eliminating all gluten.  According to the blood type diet, rye and spelt are neutral and I have been eating small amounts of those grains.  However, what I want to share with you, though it may seem very confusing or complicated and one too many steps ahead for you at this point especially if you are just learning about how food could be a factor in our health.  For the blood type diet there is what’s called a secretor or non-secretor:

“A secretor is defined as a person who secretes their blood type antigens into body fluids and secretions like the saliva in your mouth, the mucus in your digestive tract and respiratory cavities, etc.  A non-secretor puts little to none of their blood type into these same fluids.” From the Official website of Dr. Peter D’Adamo

In his updated Complete Blood Type Encyclopedia, Dr. Peter D’Adamo lists which foods are compatible for secretors and non-secretors.  So once I became familiar with the secretor list, which is what is in his original book, I still felt that I needed to refine things. When I discovered the non-secretor list, I speculated that perhaps I was a non-secretor.  I ordered the saliva test (which I have yet to do and send to the lab).  So here I am bouncing between these two lists.  When I eat Spelt, which is acceptable on the secretor list as neutral and listed as an avoid on the non-secretor list, I experience joint pain in my hands.I’ll keep you posted on my secretor status!  But in the meantime, I’m going to stay away from spelt and rye just to see what might happen.Many will panic at the thought of eliminating grains.  What can I eat?  There’s so much to choose from that we don’t even give ourselves the opportunity to explore because we get stuck in a pattern of convenience. What I love about the blood type diet is that I am filling my refrigerator with more foods from the Beneficial list.  Instead of making salads with Romaine (which is neutral for me) I hunt down Escarole.  I eat more vegetables than ever before.  I consider myself a vegetarian who eats meat.  I am an O type and completely need meat and fish protein. There is so much more to say on this topic but will leave it for another day. Our bodies are constantly changing.  It would be wise for us to adapt and work with these changes as opposed to resisting.
I’m quite happy to leave these gluten guys out of my life if it means less joint pain, better recovery and a body that can play hard.
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 2011 Outside Magazine, July 2011

ARE YOU TOO SENSITIVE?

The gluten-free movement isn’t just a fad. It could be the performance boost you’ve been missing.

By: GORDY MEGROZ

IT WASN’T A FREAK STORM or pulmonary edema that nearly derailed Dave Hahn’s attempt to top out on Mount Everest for the second time, in 1999. It was a piece of bread. For two years, the mountaineering legend had battled a host of maladies—upset stomach, diarrhea, and a lingering weakness—but he never suspected the foods he was eating to fuel himself (pasta, cereal, bread) were the root of his problem. Hahn, it turned out, had developed celiac disease, an autoimmune response to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. “It was hell,” says Hahn, recalling the trip. “I was supposed to be the old hand, but because of me we got back down late, after it was already dark.”

Now 49, gluten-free, and trying for his 13th Everest summit, Hahn has never felt better. “I could not have continued climbing had I not been diagnosed,” he says.

Since Hahn’s near disaster at 29,000 feet, celiac disease has reached almost epidemic proportions, afflicting 1 in 133 Americans and creating a $2.6 billion market in gluten-free foods. Now, growing evidence suggests that it’s not just athletes with celiac who may benefit from giving up their pre-race pasta feed. A study published in March by the University of Maryland’s Center for Celiac Research suggests that approximately 20 million people who don’t test positive for celiac or its less potent cousin, wheat allergy (which affects roughly 500,000 people), suffer from gluten sensitivity. Symptoms can range from fatigue to depression to joint and abdominal pain.

Like celiac, gluten sensitivity prompts the immune system to inflame cells throughout
the body. And though the symptoms usually aren’t as severe as with celiac, which causes toxic particles to leak into the body, gluten sensitivity can have a corrosive
impact on athletes trying to stay at the top of their game.

Just ask professional mountain biker Brian Lopes. Though he has never been tested for celiac, Lopes gave up gluten eight months ago and is riding 5 to 10 percent faster. “I stopped eating gluten because my friend said it would make me fart less,” says Lopes, who’s won four world championships. “Now I don’t fart and I’m faster.”

According to Alessio Fasano, M.D., lead author of the Maryland study, Lopes’s bowel distress is a common side effect of gluten intolerance. “And if you do have a sensitivity to gluten,” says Fasano, “exercise may make the problem even worse.”

That’s old news to Robby Ketchell, the director of sports science for the Garmin-Cervélo pro cycling team. Since 2008, riders have experienced improved post-ride recoveries, which Ketchell attributes to the team’s gluten-free diet. “When our guys ride, they’re tearing muscle fibers, and that creates inflammation in their bodies,” says Ketchell. “We need to get rid of that inflammation so they can ride strong the next day. The last thing we want is something that causes more inflammation.”

Scientists aren’t exactly sure why there’s been an increase in gluten intolerance in recent years, but they believe it may have something to do with the proliferation of bread, pasta, and other gluten-laden foods in the American diet. “Gluten is increasingly found in the things we eat,” says Fasano. “It may be that our bodies just aren’t equipped to handle that much of it.”

Currently, there is no test for gluten sensitivity. But Shelley Case, a Canadian dietitian and author of The Gluten-Free Diet, offers this advice to help you determine whether you’re better off without it: Run a mile and time yourself, then go on a gluten-free diet for four weeks. Keep notes on how you’re feeling. Then do another one-mile test. “If you’re feeling better during your training and you perform better, you may very well have gluten sensitivity,” says Case.

The next step is finding enough carbohydrates to substitute in your new diet. A moderately active person requires about four grams of carbohydrates for every 2.2 pounds of body weight per day. For a 150-pound guy, that’s about seven large potatoes. Nancy Clark, a Boston-based sports dietitian and author of nine books on sports nutrition, recommends eating things like bananas, lentils, corn, and quinoa instead of muffins, bread, and pasta. “You can’t just stop for pizza after a race,” she says. “You need to be careful about what you eat.” Really careful. Gluten is found in everything from deli meats—it’s often used as filler—to sauces and salad dressings.

Fasano doesn’t recommend everyone go gluten free—after all, wheat is an effective fuel for athletes who can tolerate it. But since the Garmin-Cervélo team gave it up, Ketchell says that no rider has told him the diet isn’t worthwhile. “Part of that,” he says, “is that eating gluten-free foods forces you to avoid processed foods, and that just makes you healthier.”

Outside Magazine, July 2011

Sleep Deficit Anyone?
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There are many topics we need to cover regarding our health, aside from the essential physical activity our body requires to function.

My husband showed this article to me about a month ago, a little nudge to the fact that within our household we are not getting enough sleep. It’s written by Ian Brown from The Globe and Mail. Click on this link to read the article. I encourage you to; it may save your life. http://bit.ly/kZjCJr

In our house we’re up at 6am weekday mornings with the option to sleep in ‘till 8am on weekends.  Well, I have that option. My husband can’t sleep in past 6am, that’s just how his circadian cycle works. And anyone with kids (not teens) can attest to the fact that as difficult as it is for them to get up early on school days, for the life of them, kids cannot sleep-in on weekends.

For us to get close to eight hours sleep a night we need to be in bed before 10pm.

It’s usually my fault that we get to bed so late. Once the kids go to sleep and I’ve got my chores done I like to work on my blog or research or do something or other, just to have some creative time to myself.  But before I know it it’s half passed ten or eleven – so much for our eight hours sleep.

Actually, you do need eight hours of sleep a night.  This is not about being unique or getting away with less, because in truth you’re not getting away with anything – in the end it may well be that it is your health that is getting away from you.  It has been scientifically proven that by not getting this required sleep we put others and ourselves at risk.  Our reaction time and performance suffers, not to mention our health.

Maybe you have heard this before, I know I have.  But what you will find in this article are new studies that should wake us up to the importance and urgency of getting enough sleep now.  Sleep is not something that we can bank and use up later or catch up on.

Within this article are links to others, for example if you click on “Eight Ways to Get Better Sleep” by Leslie Beck who explains the benefits from moderate caffeine intake to the problems associated with excessive amounts, you will notice a few more links embedded in the article.  Such as a study, which explains why “Sleep-deprived People Eat More Calories” and if you “Want Your Children to Lose Weight? Send Them To Bed”.

Each link will take you to more solid research. It is a very impressive section.  I hope you will take some time to look it over.

 

“Younger Next Year”

Because I was feverish about sharing my experience with Short-Duration High-Intensity Interval Training, my friend Leanne gave me a copy of Younger Next Year for Women.  She had recently read it and thought I would appreciate it too.  Boy did I!  And in the case you haven’t heard about it, I want to share it with you.

Dr. Henry Lodge and Chris Crowley’s first book: “Younger Next Year” written for men was so successful that they came out with a version for women, because wives were swiping their husbands’ copies and let’s face it men and women age differently.

Dr. Henry Lodge, explains the science of ageing.  In his seventies, Chris Crowley, originally a patient or Dr. Lodge’s, explains (often with humour) the ageing process from the front lines.

You can view this three minute YouTube excerpt from the PBS television special that airs this Friday, June 3, 2011! (That’s tomorrow!)

Give Me the Tough Stuff
Bechstein Firmenschriftzug

“Oh yeah, I can do a Push Up, that’s easy. Why should I bother with these progressions?”

A little digression here but I promise to come full circle.

I started taking piano lessons about two years ago, shortly after our kids started.  I began for two reasons.  First, because I have always admired the instrument and wanted to develop some kind of proficiency.  But it was for the second reason, which was a bit more like a prodding.  I was watching our kids take these lessons and in the way youth tend to operate, they didn’t really appreciate the opportunity of lessons.  I heard myself telling them how lucky they were to have these lessons and that if only I had a chance to take lessons…

So I set aside a weekly lesson for myself.  It was great to start something from scratch.  As someone who naturally enjoys teaching others, I have always found it helpful to be a student.  A teacher who masters their craft can often forget what it feels like to be a novice; over the years I have purposefully taken the role of student (learning soccer, piano, swimming and now writing).  It’s a good exercise in humility for the ego and wonderful to experience the physical sensation of neurons and synapses firing, which literally give us an electrical charge.

What I discovered about myself along the way was profound; a kind of therapy on the piano bench – ok, a bit of an exaggeration, but it sure was thought provoking.  I have this quirk whereby I like to create a parallel between things.  I think it comes from years of trying to teach clients how to understand the complexity of physical movement in simpler terms.

While learning piano I was eager to excel.  I was taught in a methodical way and I practiced regularly; which was a bonus because it made the kids practice more too. However, I found myself memorizing my pieces.  Perhaps the Conservatory is partially to blame…they offer additional points in the exam for memorization.   But the thrill of actually playing music came with memorization and it gave me confidence not having to rely on the sheet music.  The problem with this is that I became dependent on memorization because I didn’t trust myself to read the notes anymore.  I absorbed the rhythm and notes and pocketed them into my memory and played quickly, dare I forget what came next.
How could I have done that?  I already knew that with physical exercise you have to start with a solid foundation- seems as though it didn’t translate to the piano.  It worked wonderfully for a while.  I completed my Grade One exam: Honors with Distinction.  The exam wasn’t pretty, my hands were shaking like a leaf and I kept wondering why I was putting myself through this stress?  (As per FEAR? that was a biggie).

Any classically trained musician will tell you that playing from memory isn’t ideal.  It’s fine for performance but not when you’re starting out.  One has to learn to read the notes.  I have discovered that I am no exception.  Aren’t we all like that a little bit?  Wanting to skip the Wall Press to get to the juicy Push Up to feel all knowing and masterful?
As a result of this faulty approach, after a period without practice, it’s like starting all over. I labor over which note is which, though it does come back faster than learning for the first time.  So I promise myself to play slower and read my music.  I know it will pay off.  I have to ease off the instant gratification of playing with zest and speed, and learn to make real music.

This brings me back to the first line of this post.  When we practice physical exercise it’s just as important to start at the very beginning.  Just because it’s your body and it’s been following us since birth, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we know how to use it.  We need to stop pushing ourselves around and bullying our body to do what we want.  At a cellular level the body is very forgiving.  Let’s show ourselves a little more compassion.  A little bit everyday is the way to go.  Just ask Great Aunt Lea.

One last thing…regarding piano practice.  I try to practice daily (it doesn’t always happen), but even if it is for only one minute, because the cumulative effect from revisiting the notes daily makes more of a difference than not practicing anything until I have an hour to devote.  Can you see the parallel with the 4 Minute Mornings? Anyone? Bueller?

 

Fear? NOT

Fear is generally what holds us back from trying. The fear of embarrassment, fear of losing, fear of getting hurt (physically or emotionally), fear of failing…and so on.

You’re probably well acquainted with the Vancouver based, globally popular brand that ‘creates components for people to live a long, healthy and fun life’?  That same company came up with a manifesto that can be found on most of their reusable/ recyclable shopping bags.  For years I’ve read their manifesto and in particular the line that reads “do one thing a day that scares you”.  But for the last nine years I really haven’t done much beyond thinking about it, except having two home births, does that count?

What do they really mean by “do one thing a day that scares you”, anyway?  It finally dawned on me – what the fear was that I could generate each day. It only became clear to me when I started focusing on myself again.

A few years ago a friend invited me to join a weekly women’s soccer group (mostly for mom’s).  I was nervous to go, since the last time I had played soccer was in sixth grade (I was only put on the team because I was a sprinter) and was never instructed on how to play the game properly.  So I took a deep breath and swallowed my fear and showed up.  For that hour and a half, I forgot I was a mom and wife.  It was just me, running, kicking, missing shots, getting winded and having the best time!  The reward of that experience dimmed the ogre of fear a little that day.  And each time I want to try something new, where the ogre of fear surfaces for air, and the worry of embarrassment and failure lurk, the rewards from trying give me courage.

I used to wonder how I could find something to do each day that scared me – wouldn’t I run out of things?  Apparently I haven’t.  Each day brings with it an entirely new arrangement of possibilities.  Isn’t that great?  From something as inconsequential as overcoming a moment of shyness to attempting to swim the butterfly stroke in front of a deck-full of onlookers, pushing myself through another grueling Tabata of Burpees or starting a blog!

Now I look for challenges.  It’s like I’ve created a ‘sub-category’ of scare challenges.

It’s as though through the simplicity of attempting to meet a challenge comes the training to deal with fear.

Fear: I can take you on.

 

Great Aunt Lea

This video is from my long-weekend in Hawaii from 2009.  My mother-in-law, Sandy and I visited my Great Aunt Lea, age 93 at the time, on Waikiki Beach.

Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

That’s her walking into the water with the silver bathing cap and turquoise shorts. Later in the video she shows off her one-legged squat.  She is a great example of consistency and self-discipline.  Everyday she goes to the beach for a swim.  In her eighties she would do one thousand strokes in the ocean, daily. When I saw her three years ago she was still doing her routine, though modified due to a rotator cuff injury.

One night after her birthday celebration dinner; her birthday’s in November, we were visiting in February.  She figured that at her age she ought to celebrate it as often as possible…Great Aunt Lea insisted on taking the bus home, as was her custom.  Sandy and I watched her board the bus and as the bus pulled away, there was Great Aunt Lea marching down the aisle to the back of the bus without the help of a pole to support her balance!  Impressive.  I wondered if playing in the surf like she did was the secret.

Below is a 2 minute YouTube video of her surfing at 95.  She rocks!

Motivation
View of Mountains in Zion National Park, Utah,...

What motivates me is very different from what inspires me.

I mentioned in an earlier post how I had been unwell for a few years.  Here’s the breakdown.

After the birth of our kids I was very sleep deprived, going non-stop during the day and what seemed like non-stop in the night; not so uncommon for new mothers.  I seemed to pick up any cold or flu with which the kids came into contact.  It felt like I was sick and tired all the time.  Once the kids were two and four, they woke less frequently throughout the night and I was starting to sleep more and get fewer colds.  I started back to a regular yoga practice and was feeling much better.  Until, one joint at a time started to become inflamed for what seemed like a few months only to get better and move on to another joint.  It was very peculiar, worrisome and exhausting.  I spent a lot of time researching, visiting doctors, physiotherapists and traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners.  Anyone, really, who might be able to figure out what was going on.

Long story short, I visited the Arthritis Society who suggested I had Palindromic Rheumatism, a type of rheumatism, which ‘comes and goes’.  What?!!

I was thirty-six at the time.  I researched again.  I tried eliminating certain foods from my diet, based on the studies done on arthritis and rheumatism.

There were months where I felt completely fine, to periods where my hands were so sore I couldn’t tie my kids’ shoelaces or put a fitted sheet on the mattress without difficulty and pain.  Other times I would walk around with what felt like a fractured foot or hand.  This was shocking to me.  I was too young for this and could only imagine how much worse it would get with time.  As a physically active person my future looked bleak.  I blamed myself, wondering if all the years I had spent doing sport or working out (sometimes in the extreme) had caught up with me and it was pay back time.

Not long after these episodes started, I went for a long-weekend getaway with my mother-in-law to Hawaii.  I took in a lot of sun, relaxation and fit in some runs.  Sadly, I came home with a cough that lasted nine months.  I had x-rays, pulmonary function tests, you name it, but the doctors couldn’t find anything amiss.  For this entire period not only had I lost any desire to exercise, but I was physically unable to do any except for some light walking.  This was not me.

After about seven months and what felt like a broken rib from all the coughing, I finally took my friends’ advice and went to see her MD who consulted in Homeopathic Medicine.  After two months of homeopathic remedies, my cough was losing momentum and by the four-month mark there was no cough to be heard.  Who knows, maybe the cough had run its course?  Maybe it was the homeopathic remedies?  I don’t know, no one really knows.  But whatever it was that stopped me from coughing, I am grateful.

Now back to the inflamed aching joints.  It seemed like my whole body chemistry was off, which is not uncommon after pregnancy. My ferritin (iron) levels tested low so I started taking a daily Iron Citrate supplement. My thyroid test result at 10.8 was in the low-normal range.  Normal range is from 10 – 20.  But I was feeling far from normal. What if my normal should be closer to 20?  My homeopath recommended a low dose of Iodine.  After two months my free T4 test result had gone up to 12.6 – my eyelashes were growing back and I was running on real energy, not on my adrenals.  About a month before I started the Iodine, I also started to “Eat Right For Your Type”.  I was ready to try anything (natural!) that would help.  I don’t like taking medication and so working with food as medicine appealed to me.

I tried eating for my blood type in 1999, a few years after Dr. Peter D’Adamo’s book was published but since my husband and I rarely cooked at home it was overwhelming to follow the program while going to restaurants.  So we both gave up.  Fast forward to the present.  Five months ago I decided I would give it a real effort.  I had been eating a lot of foods recommended in the media as super-foods but my joints were telling me differently.  I’d reference “Eat for Your Type” and low and behold all those super-foods were on my avoid list.  Yikes!  So I eliminated them and my joint pain went away.

As a stay at home mom I am always grocery shopping and in the kitchen so the timing was perfect.  I focused on eating the foods that are in the Beneficial list, which react to the body like medicine and I avoid the foods from the Avoid list, which are dramatically defined as a poison to one’s system.  The end result?  My joint pain is mostly gone.  I can tell which foods trigger a bout of pain.  It’s all very fascinating.  But this was my experiment.  So far it is working for me.  It may be less convenient to follow a regimented program like this but I’ve got to tell you, it’s way less inconvenient than the debilitating joint pain I was living with.  Being pain free is what motivates me.

“If what you are doing isn’t working, doing more of it won’t work any better.”

-Alan Cohen

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.  But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.  There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.”

-Alan Cohen, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Inspirational

Susan told me about this inspirational film by Jan Tenhaven, titled Autumn Gold.

It’s about European athletes, ages 93 to 100 competing in the World Masters Championships.

The Official Trailer:

And KABC’s segment for “Hollywood Wrap”

Body Alignment
Posture types (vertebral column) classificatio...

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Body Alignment and Exercise

It’s important to have good body alignment, not just when we exercise, but whenever we move our body.  When our muscles contract they pull on the tendons, which move our skeleton.

Good body alignment supports efficient muscle contraction, which in turn supports our balanced skeletal structure.  We cannot have one without the other.

Aside from the proven physiological health benefits associated with exercise, the entire point of exercise is to strengthen and stabilize the skeleton enabling it to function effectively.  Not paying enough attention to this basic principle loads too much pressure or stress onto unsuspecting joints, pulling us out of functional alignment, which can lead to pain or injury, and sometimes an unflattering physique.

The primary reason most people exercise is to look better and improved health takes a close second.  If our goal is to look better then why do we punishingly force ourselves to execute movements without paying attention to how they are performed?  It’s because we are thinking too much on completion as opposed to the precision of movement.

Most people I know are hard workers and are willing to try just about anything for the end result.  But what if all that hard work turns out to be for nothing?  What if mindless or forced repetition with poor body alignment is causing more damage than good?

What is the solution? Like any type of movement, if you do not know what correct body alignment is, how can you monitor yourself?  Enter the domain of the expert: Personal Trainer, Physiotherapist, Registered Massage Therapist etc. These professionals reinforce, remind, and educate the client on proper technique and body alignment, be it for daily function or athletics.

Clearly I am biased, but in general, I believe in learning from an expert.  And it is quite clear how I feel about putting health first.  We all know that without our health we have nothing.  Unfortunately, it is often the case that before we come to this realization and do something about improving our health, we suffer serious illness or injury.

The following is from personal experience as an example.  Having taken the mandatory swimming lessons in public school, I have always been able to swim at a recreational level.  Two years ago I joined a masters swim group, which met once per week for an hour of drills and stroke improvement.  Being a ‘land athlete’ all my life I was nervous about joining this group, but getting over this fear and really learning how to swim was another goal to strike off my to-do list.

When refining or learning something for the first time, there are many layers and many A-HA! moments along the way.  So, what does any of this have to do with body alignment?  In a group class there is only a certain amount of individualized attention a coach or trainer can give each student.  As a beginner swimmer, the amount of feedback I got from my coach was more than adequate.  However, as I put these corrections into practice, I developed some elbow and shoulder joint irritation.  I started swimming a second day a week (for half an hour) at a moderate intensity, just to practice these corrections.  I later found out, that I misunderstood some of the corrections and was doing something else entirely wrong.  But this is what I am talking about when I give the ‘layers’ analogy.  We learn more and make progress, only to discover there is an entire other layer of lessons waiting, and more lessons beyond those.  Learning is an endless process, which for me is what makes learning so exciting.  I cannot imagine it would be very fun if we did everything perfectly the first time.

When checking in and complaining about these new pains with my registered Massage Therapist, it was he who identified the problem and was able to give me direction as how to correct my technique.  What is fascinating to understand is that my technique was faulty because of a very small, over-tight, muscle (teres major), which affected the mechanics of my shoulder from rotating properly.

About five months ago I stopped going to the masters swim group and instead started meeting a swim coach once every three weeks for a half hour of technique drills.  The rest of the time I have to be strict about going to the pool to practice on my own.  The point is that without these individual lessons that focus on my particular needs, and the support from a registered Massage Therapist, I would continue to irritate my elbow and shoulder joints because of the high frequency of incorrect repetitive movement.

This brings me to my second point about short-duration training.  None of us can expect to push our bodies for long periods of time without losing form as a result of fatigue.  Generally, a person who is more fit can train longer, but it is still possible to be fit with poor technique.  It all comes back to balance.  Are you stretching enough to counter all the strengthening and tightening?  Are you stretching properly?  Are you forgetting to stretch some parts of your body just because you don’t know how or because you don’t even know they exist?

In a nutshell: focus on precision of movement.  Exercise consistently and for short periods of time.  Stretch your body daily.  Get professional advice and support from certified and registered practitioners.  And most importantly give your body ample time to rest and recover between intense workouts.

Stretch Your Body
Stretching exercises

Stretch Your Body every day.  Do Yoga, Pilates, traditional sports stretches or other.  Whether you spend 4 minutes or an hour or more a day stretching, when done properly, your body will respond positively to the attention.  Too much focus on tightening and strengthening without lengthening the body’s musculature and connective tissue can have a negative effect.  Likewise, it is easy to overstretch areas that are already flexible leaving the problem areas unattended.  I did exactly that in my early twenties, which caused a very painful knee condition called chondromalacia.  I recovered from it with a lot of help from physiotherapy and massage.  I learned a lot in the process.  Doesn’t it always seem that we learn best from painful personal experience.  I spent a lot of time doing rehabilitative stretching and strengthening and walking around with ice packs strapped to my knees.  As a result stretching has played a significant role in my body maintenance routine ever since.

I highly recommend seeing a professional for advice specific to your individual needs.

I believe that therapeutic massage, myofascial manipulation and active-release therapy among other techniques are necessary to support our over-worked, over-stressed and over-exercised bodies.  I think that most people view massage as a luxury, something to do while on holiday or at a spa rather than as a form of body maintenance.  To get the most from any type of physical therapy, one must collaborate with the therapist as a working relationship.  Tell your therapist that you are keen to make improvements, so ask questions.  Work with them to figure out what type of repetitive movements (or lack of) might be contributing to your muscle soreness or joint pain for example.  Do not leave their office without at least one stretch that you will practice daily.  Careful not to overwhelm yourself with more than three stretches at a time, because you probably will not do them.  The next visit the therapist can reassess and give you another stretch to work on.

I know not everyone can afford massage therapy, I guess that is why it still falls in the luxury category.  But, you can access affordable massage by looking up the teaching colleges.  The students need real bodies to practice on and the price can be very affordable so that you might be able to make it a monthly appointment.  My Registered Massage Therapist did her training at WCCMT and can vouch for its credibility.  They have a student clinic that you can check out as an example. www.collegeofmassage.com/newwestminster/

I haven’t been to Utopia Academy in Vancouver, but as another example of what a student clinic is like, you can check it out here. www.utopiaacademy.com