Acupuncture - permanent cure for health problems

The March Ezine Edition of The Health Gazette will be published on time, March 1st, 2008. The featured article this month is a little different from usual. It is titled: Mind-Body Connection: The Medical Blind Spot. It is one of those classic cases of a huge gap between medical rhetoric and the realities of practice. The article briefly traces this problem to the historical roots of Cartesian thinking and the erroneous beliefs about modern science.

Another issue addressed in the edition is the use of natural antibiotics. We answer a reader's question about natural antibiotic use for dental infections.

On day #10 we discussed muscle soreness and why it happens. On day #11 we discussed the sort of recovery cocktail we should be drinking after every workout. Today, we'll discuss five ways to minimize the inevitable muscle soreness that comes with improvement and growth.

Five Ways to Minimize Muscle Soreness

1. Warm Up: If you are doing the Body-for-Life 20-Minute Aerobic Solution properly, your warm up is included in the workout. The best way to warm up before a weight training workout is to find a treadmill, track or sidewalk and walk briskly for about five minutes. This will get your blood circulating and your muscles warmed up for the coming workout. 2. Know When to Say When: Too many people are ruled by their egos in the gym. The first step here is to get over yourself. Knowing when to say when includes lifting heavier weights than you can positively control with good form, using the right amount of weight but doing so many repetitions that you are using bad form or just spending so much time in the gym that your workout deteriorates into a sloppy session of throwing weights around carelessly. Know when you're lifting too much weight for good form. Know when your muscles are truly exhausted. Know when to say when. 3. Increase Workload Gradually: Don't jump under a 250-pound bench press just because you weigh 250 pounds! You might as well jump in front of a bus for the damage you'll do to yourself. Start with lighter weights. You can always choose heavier weights if you aren't feeling challenged by your initial pick. If you start too high, you could cause yourself some harm and put yourself out of commission for a while - and that won't help your cause at all!

4. Cool Down: Flopping into a Lay-Z-Boy chair immediately after a hard workout isn't the best idea. It may be the most appealing, but give your body 5-10 minutes of brisk walking to cool down. A brisk walk will keep your blood circulating quickly and help your body flush the lactic acid from the muscles you just worked out. 5. Do Negatives: This means paying just as much attention to the negative portion of each repetition as to the positive. When you bench press, you need to focus on the pushing up of the weight, but doing negatives means you pay just as much attention to the portion of the exercise where you bring the weight back down to your chest. Don't just let the weight fall quickly to your chest with an abrupt stop. Control the weight and use a count of three to bring it down just as you would to push it up.

If you use all five of these techniques, you should notice great gains from your workouts as well as less extreme muscle soreness.

Related Blogs:

Body-for-Life Foods

Body-for-Life Workouts

Body-for-Life and Weight Loss

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On Day #10 I discussed how muscles recover and grow. Now it is time to discuss the fuel that they need to do all of that. One thing that many of us forget about food is that it is first and foremost fuel. In fact, if we all remembered every minute of the day that food is only fuel then we wouldn't have weight issues. But alas, we forget. I wish I could say I'm not guilty of this forgetfulness, but I am.

Fueling our bodies specifically for recovery should happen within one hour of completing our workouts. Whether it is an aerobic or a weight training workout really doesn't matter. What matters is that we take advantage of that one-hour window to fuel our bodies well for the work we want them to do.

The fuel our bodies need is pretty specific. First, we need electrolytes, those very important minerals that our muscles need for their own version of internal combustion: sodium, potassium, magnesium and chloride. Then we need to replenish the muscles' supply of carbohydrates that have been depleted for the energy to work out. Lastly, we need protein so that our muscles can repair themselves and (hopefully) grow.

The general recipe for recovery includes 16 to 24 ounces of fluid with 3 grams of carbohydrates for every 5 pounds of your body weight and one gram of protein for every five pounds of body weight. Liquid is the best form for recovery because it delivers the nutrients to the body much more quickly than solids. In a pinch, you could have a bottle of Gatorade and a whey protein drink but I would recommend something more along the lines of a Myoplex or MetRx shake. Both of these come in powder or ready-to-drink formulas. Ultimately, powder is less expensive per serving but ready-to-drink formulas provide a great deal of convenience and flexibility for those who are on the go.

Related Blogs:

Body-for-Life Foods

Body-for-Life Workouts

Body-for-Life and Weight Loss

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You're in the second week of the Body for Life Challenge and you've done a bit of weight training already. Chances are, you've also felt a bit of soreness. Before you get concerned, that is a good thing.

Generally the day after you do weight bearing exercises (weight training, lifting), you'll feel some soreness in the muscles that you used the previous day. This soreness is an indication that you have challenged your muscles to grow and they are meeting the challenge. Now, if you wake up completely unable to move then you used entirely too much weight and deserve what your body is giving you in the way of pain messages to the brain. If it is the kind of soreness that makes you remember that you have those specific muscles, that is great.

Rather than bore you with all the scientific terms, I'd like to explain this muscle building process in layman's terms. It is fairly simple:

Weight training causes muscle damage (good damage). Little tears occur in the muscle fibers as you work out (good thing).

Once you stop working out, your body very effectively and efficiently goes to work to prepare your body for repairing those tears and building more muscle fibers to prevent such damage from happening again. Whatever you eat after a workout (hopefully it is healthy, but more on that in a future blog) gets sent to your muscles as fuel for the repair and rebuilding process.

This repair and rebuilding occurs while you sleep. Your body uses the fuel you've given it to repair any torn fibers (not to be confused with muscle or ligament tears) and to build even more muscle fibers in preparation for another workout. When you wake up, your muscles may feel a bit sore. Just think of it as the first day for those new muscle fibers that were built the night before. You may also notice that your muscles look a little bigger. That is because they are. Take comfort in that because bigger muscles require more fuel and that means your metabolism is growing higher and you're burning more calories than you were before.

This process continues as long as you continue to challenge your muscles with weight bearing exercise. Eventually, women will stop building muscle when they reach a certain level of muscularity. It is impossible for a woman to "bulk up" without the assistance of additional human growth hormone. We just haven't got it in us to get big and manly. Men, on the other hand, have about 900% more testosterone than women do and can grow to rather grand proportions quite naturally. (More on that in a later blog.)

For now, keep challenging your muscles to grow. When you stop feeling that little bit of soreness, it is time to add more weight to your training routine.

Related Blogs:

Body-for-Life Foods

Body-for-Life Workouts

Body-for-Life and Weight Loss

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By now you should be used to the Body-for-Life 20-minute aerobic solution. For three days every week you get to put in a great aerobic workout in less than half an hour. This takes up very little of your day and you can have your workout completed, along with a shower and change, in no time at all.

Last week we tried walking, running in place, and stair climbing. These are all workouts we can do indoors and at home. The best part about taking the Body-for-Life Challenge is the fact that you can do every workout in the comfort of your own home, whether you have a home gym or not, and eat healthy meals made from regular everyday foods. No expensive gym memberships or food delivery programs are necessary to complete the Body-for-Life Challenge and find the fit healthy person inside you.

Today, I'm challenging you to mix it up a little. You still need to do your twenty minutes of aerobic training but get creative.

- If you have a game system and Dance Dance Revolution at home, do twenty minutes of DDR game playing for your workout.

- If you have a Wii, use that and an active game for your workout.

- If you have a stereo, pop in some of your favorite music and do twenty minutes of freestyle dancing.

- If you have a treadmill, bike or other aerobic exercise equipment in your home, dust it off and use it for today's workout.

- Another option, if you have cable, is to tune in to FitTV or find an On Demand (for Comcast subscribers) fitness program and do that workout.

The point is to keep things fresh and not let your program get stale. If you ever get tired of walking up and down stairs, walking around the house or running in place, just come back to this list and get creative.

Exercise doesn't have to be a drag. It is only twenty minutes out of your day - enjoy it!

Related Blogs:

Body-for-Life Foods

Body-for-Life Workouts

Body-for-Life and Weight Loss

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