You and Your Muscles Tending to Your Power Plant

YOU AND YOUR MUSCLES, TENDING TO YOUR POWER PLANT
By Bernard L. Gladieux, Jr.

Nearly all training athletes experience some post workout muscle soreness. Non athletes and newcomers to physical exercise may wonder if it is even worth the agony. To people who are unaccustomed to the transient pain that often follows high intensity effort, and those with low pain thresholds, it may not be. To the committed veteran, elite athlete however, garden variety muscle stiffness, soreness and other soft tissue aches and pains are just an acceptable feature of the sport – like thorns amongst the roses. Moreover, a certain level of pain goes with the territory, and veteran athletes come to accept the post workout mix of fatigue and soreness as a sign that in the recovery, the body is assimilating, repairing and restoring to come back stronger, tomorrow or next week.

Macho stoicism can help you cope with such pain to a certain point, but even the toughest athlete performs better and is happier when the recovery passesrapidly and the sore, stiff feeling doesn’t linger. Here are some simple techniques for handling, managing and minimizing the distracting, if benign muscle pain virtually all athletes come to know in due course.

Distinguish:
Learn first how to tell the difference between pain that will go away promptly after a few ibuprofen and some rest and pain that has decided to take up long term residence in your body. If pain has taken a long time to build, slowly increasing in severity over time even though you’ve tried to ignore it, chances are, it will take just as long or longer to go away – assuming you will give it the proper care and rest.The worst that you can do is to try to banish the pain as an act of will. You will not recover from a chronic injury if you continuously repeat the trauma, whatever it may be and however subtle. You would think the idea is too, too obvious. Unfortunately, many athletes, especially those hooked on endurance training all too often allow the triumph of blind hope over experience and common sense.

Prevention:
Simple muscle soreness that fades after a day or so does indicate that your soft tissues are going through a training cycle in which, all else being equal, they will be stronger when they feel better. Trick is to train just hard or long enough so that the soreness does go away after a reasonable recovery, say, 24 to 48 hours. To enhance your recovery, always be sure you have plenty of water in your gut before, during and after every training session. The hotter the outside temperature and the more intense the training, the more important good hydration is. Especially when it is hot and humid and the effort is going to last more than an hour or so, do consider adding specific electrolytes before, during and after. They can keep you from cramping, bonking and just feeling crummy.

Warm ups:
Failure to ease into hard effort may be the most frequent cause of lingering muscle pain. Muscle fibers flex and stretch against one another in an infinite number of interfaces underneath those ripples. To work efficiently, they need to be thoroughly lubricated. When you warm up, that is what goes on inside your muscles and explains why you can make some muscle soreness go away by easing into a workout with a long warmup. Almost as important is a gradual cool down that keeps your heart rate up at a fairly high, albeit sub-aerobic level for at least a few minutes at the end of the session. That permitsthe blood to carry away the accumulated lactic acid in the muscle tissues, a biochemical cause of muscle soreness.

Stretching:
Although there are still doubters around, the general consensus among trainers and rehab specialists on the efficacy of stretching for athletes is in favor of it. If you stretch deliberately and regularly when the muscles are well warmed, it will enhance your flexibility and will probably reduce a lot of exercise related pain.

Drugs:
Non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen and aspirin are favored by many trainers and athletes for sore muscles and do seem to provide genuine, if temporary, relief. As a general rule, however, prudent athletes try to take these apparently benign, over-the-counter drugs only when they are really needed.

Massage:
Firm, deep manipulation of your muscles before and after exercise will almost always make sore muscles feel better, and some times, under skilled hands the results are dramatic. If you are a serious, training athlete, seek out a good, regular massage therapist on whom you can call both before and after important races and training sessions.

In Good Health,
Bernard L. Gladieux, Jr.
President
The Pressure Positive Company®

*To read more articles visit our massive Self Care library @ www.pressurepositive.com.

Maintaining Optimal Fitness for Cycling Enthusiasts

Maintaining Optimal Fitness for Cycling Enthusiasts
by: Janet Silva, MSPT

Cycling is a year-round activity that is enjoyed by many individuals, from the competitive athlete to the weekend warrior. Cycling allows participants to experience the outdoor environment over miles of terrain while improving their cardiovascular endurance and overall physical fitness. In addition, cycling can provide a healthier alternative to running in that there is reduced stress on the joints and thereby, decreased wear-and-tear and breakdown of tissues over time.

All in all, cycling is an excellent form of exercise with many healthy benefits. However, there are still necessary precautions one must take in order to prevent unwarranted injures. Biking is unlike other forms of exercise because riders may complete 90 or more repetitions each minute. When you multiply those rpm’s out to a one-, two-, or three-hour bike ride, that’s a lot of repetitive motion which lends itself to a potential for injuries.

Due to repetitive stress injuries, it is extremely important that the bike and equipment are correctly fitted to the cyclist to allow the athlete to maintain a healthy body position and long-term well-being. The following is a list of considerations for proper bike fit to the cyclist:

Bike Frame:
The cyclist should clear the top tube by 2-3 inches when standing over the bike.

Seat Positioning:
The seat should be positioned so that the rider’s knees are flexed 22-30 degrees with the pedal in the lowest position. The proper seat height for a rider is largely a function of his/her foot size and leg length

Handlebar Height:
The stem that holds the handlebars should be set slightly lower than the nose of the saddle, based on the riders needs and the event that he or she will be competing in.

In addition to the correct fit of the bike to the rider, it is also essential that the cyclist be in top physical shape in order to ride for long periods of time without being at risk for injury. Areas that are particularly relevant to riding include the following: lower extremity and trunk flexibility, hip flexibility, and range of motion in all planes (flexion, extension, abduction, and external rotation), lumbopelvic orientation and motion, lumbosacral stability and ankle range of motion, especially dorsiflexion (the ability to bend ankle up). The following are a list of exercises that can be performed to work on the above areas mentioned in order to improve overall fitness and be in top shape for riding:

The Workout
Final Notes-

~Remember to dress warmly when temperatures start to drop by wearing cycling pants to keep the legs warm and prevent injury. Many individuals prefer to layer cycling pants over their padded bike shorts so that if they get warm they can strip down to their shorts and ride comfortably no matter what the temperature.

~Remember that with all exercise it is important to start and end with a proper 15-20 minute warm-up and cool-down to allow the body to adjust to changes in physiological needs.

Have fun, stay healthy and pain-free, and enjoy the ride!!!

This article has been re-printed with permission of Sports Physical Therapy Institute. For additional information and articles be sure to visit their website at http://www.sportspti.com/

Original Backnobber® Donated to The Smithsonian Institution

Original Backnobber® Donated to
The Smithsonian Institution
July 29, 2009

On March 9 1985, the Pottstown Mercury of Pottstown Pennsylvania reported that the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC had requested a sample of The Original Backnobber®, a product of The Pressure Positive Company.

The article in the Mercury went on to state:

Bernard L. Gladieux, Jr, President of The Pressure Positive Company announced that the museum asked the company for a sample of its product, The Original Backnobber® for its exhibit on medical science and modern medical techniques used to treat pain.

The Original Backnobber® was developed by Gladieux as a device anyone can use to reduce common, chronic muscular pain in the neck, shoulders and back.

The Backnobber® is shaped like a large letter “S.”  This model of the Backnobber®, an earlier version of the now popular Backnobber® II, is hand made out of bar steel with hardwood balls or knobs cemented on to the ends of the “S.”   The Backnobber® is designed to be looped over the shoulder or under the arm with one of the Knobs pressed into the muscles of the back.

Gladieux reports, “When I spoke to the Smithsonian’s curator of medical science and explained how the Backnobber® works, she showed an immediate interest.  Of course we are delighted the Smithsonian has shown such an interest, but it seems entirely appropriate since The Original Backnobber® is, after all, an authentic American Original, conceived, created and produced right here in the United States.”

“The effect of using the Backnobber®,” Gladieux says “is much like the effect you would get if you could walk around behind yourself and massage your own back.  Certainly it is better if you have someone skilled in deep muscle massage techniques, but few of us have that someone who is ready, willing and able at the time of need.”

Gladieux stated that no one is yet quite sure why the intense pressure on the muscles seems to relax tension and pain.  He makes no claims that the Backnobber® will cure the underlying causes of pain but adds that most back pain is muscular and can be alleviated using simple, deep pressure on trigger points, as well as regular exercising and stretching.

The Backnobber® is highly cost effective, non intrusive, drug free, and it is guaranteed, but, Gladieux cautions, it is no substitute for proper medical care when indicated.

Finally, Gladieux  reports that the Smithsonian request arrived at the Company’s rural headquarters in rural, eastern Pennsylvania, nearly twenty five years ago and that he has no way of knowing how long it or even if it was displayed in the medical science exhibit in the national Smithsonian Institution museum in Washington D.C.  “But,”  Gladieux states, ” I have always been gratified that our simple Backnobber® is part of this national collection of historic artifacts.”