Do you need to warm muscles up before giving them a massage?
Probably, but when you think about it, 98.6F sounds sufficient!
When it comes to loosening stiff muscles rolling isn't the complete answer. You usually have to keep rolling.
You roll the knots out of a muscle and by the next morning the knots have come back again. It's a never ending saga; you loosen the muscle, it tightens itself back up again, you loosen, it tightens ... Is it true that the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result?
If a particular muscle is stiff and sore it's highly likely that it's bearing too much of - or an unequal share of - the burden of locomotion because a muscle (muscles) elsewhere have pulled the skeleton out of alignment.
For instance if you're a runner and you have a tight and persistently painful right calf the cause may be tight left buttock or hamstring or hip flexor or quadratus lumborum ... that has slightly twisted your pelvis.
The level of uneven burden may be so slight you can hardly notice it - but your right calf does. You rub and roll the calf, but to no avail. It's always painfully stiff. you need the human body equivalent of a wheel alignment.
In my own case I notice it when I'm working out on the stepper. My right foot is always an inch and a half behind my left foot. I've assessed the cause of the problem as being a tight left buttock, which I work on persistently, but I'm of an age where a lifetime of rotating to the left to kick and throw (I'm right handed) might have led to permanent rotation of the pelvis.
On the other hand, my diagnosis may not be correct. I could be just plain ignorant of what's causing the pelvis to rotate and what needs to be done and would appreciate some help from readers more knowledgeable about this 'complaint' than I am. I'm more than willing to defer to a 'higher power'.
The principle then is that the cause of the pain is unlikely to be the point where it's painful.
We're fascinated by and attracted to the spot where the pain is - not where the cause of the pain is. It's why when it comes to lower back pain, radiologists want to X-ray the lower back and therapists want to rub, crunch, heat and vibrate it.
The second principle sort of follows on from the first and derives from the dualistic way we look at things. The medical industry is dogged by the fascination with the part, not the whole. Hence if you have a headache it must be because something inside your head is 'not right' rather than the whole body is not right.
So, when you have stiffness in one part, stand back and look at the whole musculo-skeletal ecosystem - chances are it's a system problem, in which case you'd take up yoga or some other form of general movement 'therapy'.
A final word; the particular muscles (and indeed whole musculature) may not be strong enough to do the job expected of it.
Rarely do we strengthen calves (or feet) in such a way that we build their capacity to manage the loads we expect of them.
My recent experience suggests that slow, very slow calf raises are an essential part of the runners/sportsperson's armoury: 5 seconds up, 5 seconds hold, 5 seconds down, 10 seconds hold. It will take 10 minutes not 1 minute.
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
Friday, September 6, 2013
Monday, September 2, 2013
Medical Research Reaches New Lows
Too much medical science has been perverted by Big Pharma, where research focuses on the effectiveness of one drug against another without comparing the effectiveness of the new drug to the effectiveness of running round the block, eating one less block of chocolate, one less bag of chips and drinking one less bottle of soda pop a day.
Whilst there are, of course exceptions, what medical science has done is complicate the simple, make the cheap expensive and the transparent opaque. (What the medical industry at large has done, with the support of the State, is built up the perfect closed shop, complete with its priests, bishops and cardinals. It's even engineered its own set of blasphemy laws to protect its pseudo-ecclesiastical power.)
Medical science has become a sacred cow.
(A physiotherapist reviewing my Musculo-skeletal Health program bagged it because I didn't have the scope of practice to diagnose the likely causes of lower back pain. Apparently only doctors have a license to diagnose the cause of a particular body system dysfunction. I can tell you one thing, when it comes to diagnosing the cause of low back pain most doctors definitely don't have a clue.)
In short, a lot of medical science is just plain baloney; busy work for the inmates of the sheltered workshops for the academically gifted.
It's a game that starts with pushing out the begging bowl, (masquerading as a grant application) snagging a stipend from either mug tax payers or Big Pharma, followed by a frenetic round of paper writing, seminar presenting, back slapping, head patting, brown nosing and champagne quaffing at international conferences.
If medical science was any good, the health, fitness and wellbeing of the community would be getting better, not worse; the percentage of GDP being spent on junk medicine would be coming down, not increasing. People would be walking around with a spring in their step, proud and upright - as lean as greyhounds, fit as trout and toey as Roman sandals.
This is a bloated industry, bathing in the reflected glory of Edward Jenner and Howard Florey, full of sound and fury.
If everyone did, every day, what The Great Ardell does, every day, doctors, physiotherapists, chiropractors and pharmacists would be sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and don't go to doctors for things doctors can't fix and or for things you're quite capable of fixing yourself.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Back Pain Research
A lot of back pain research is selective-evidence-based because of its focus on and around the spot where it hurts, rather than taking a global, system-wide approach to its causes and treatment.
.
Most people with low back pain have a pelvis that's out of alignment due to tight muscles attached to it, front, back and sides - but usually tight hamstring and buttock muscles - and maybe hip flexors.
There are a genre of people who are exceptionally aerobically fit and strong who succumb to back pain. Usually they're very inflexible. Bones in the back will usually already be out of alignment. You can test how far out of alignment but using this diagnostic procedure.
When the pelvis is out of alignment the bones above it move out of alignment. When the vertebrae move out of alignment ligaments, tendons and muscles attached to those bones are stretched beyond their pain threshold. The nucleus of one of more discs starts to get squeezed out. Then along comes an incident - often trivial - that 'tips the person over the edge' and the disc herniates.
The 'straw that breaks the camels back' usually gets the blame, whether it's bending down to pick up a leaf, swivelling round to pick up a phone book, cleaning your desk or lifting a bag of groceries into the car. It can happen to the best of us.
The bag of groceries is not the underlying cause of the problem, just one of the many straws that lob on the lower back. The groceries (the leaf, the phone book, the desk) get the blame.
This is an example of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. (If A occurs before B then A must have caused B.)
Academic bio mechanics and physiotherapists want to scare us with selective-evidence-based science. For instance, Canadian bio mechanic, Stuart McGill warns against doing situps because they place HUGE forces at the spot where discs herniate.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/19/the-man-who-wants-to-kill-crunches/
However, a healthy musclo-skeletal system is designed to cope with the HUGE forces he rails against.
Blaming a sit up for herniating a disc is indeed a selective piece of evidence. How far the bones of the spinal column are already out of alignment, how inflexible some of the muscles attached to it are and how weak the muscles attached to the pelvis and spine are more important factors.
The body needs persistent flexibility exercises done in sufficient dosage to keep the pelvis and spinal column in good alignment. It needs persistent strength exercises to support the bones in good alignment. (The point I suspect McGill misses is the fact that a good strength training program will also support bones in misalignment.)
But just focusing on the strength of muscles attached to the spine 'somewhere' in the vicinity of the pain misses the point. The cause of the pain is rarely at the site of the pain
The fact that the medical and therapeutic industries are fixated on the site of the pain, has perverted the course of lower back pain research. It's a system problem, that manifests itself in the lower back, not a lower back problem per se.
This means a lot of the evidence as to the cause of lower back pain is selective and if the evidence is selective then we need to be careful not to rely on it too heavily.
As for yoga, if the Chinese have been doing it for 2,000 years, I'd bet on it. I wouldn't change it. It's a musculo-skeletal health program that focuses on the musculo-skeletal system as a whole and not just on one small segment of it. I wouldn't be scared off from doing some of the poses on the say-so of latter day bio mechanics and physiotherapists.
We're dealing with a system that goes from the bottom of the feet right up to the top of the head and just about all the muscles in this chain work together to keep the bones in correct alignment - including the bones in the lower spine.
Focus on the system, not just spot where it hurts. Keep the system strong and flexible and the chances of coming down with a crook back are quite remote.
If you're searching for back pain bogy men, you've got to look further than leaves, desks, bags of groceries and situps.
In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and diminish your risk of joint and muscle pain by keeping yourself strong and flexible.
John Miller
http://www.globalbackcare.com
.
Most people with low back pain have a pelvis that's out of alignment due to tight muscles attached to it, front, back and sides - but usually tight hamstring and buttock muscles - and maybe hip flexors.
There are a genre of people who are exceptionally aerobically fit and strong who succumb to back pain. Usually they're very inflexible. Bones in the back will usually already be out of alignment. You can test how far out of alignment but using this diagnostic procedure.
When the pelvis is out of alignment the bones above it move out of alignment. When the vertebrae move out of alignment ligaments, tendons and muscles attached to those bones are stretched beyond their pain threshold. The nucleus of one of more discs starts to get squeezed out. Then along comes an incident - often trivial - that 'tips the person over the edge' and the disc herniates.
The 'straw that breaks the camels back' usually gets the blame, whether it's bending down to pick up a leaf, swivelling round to pick up a phone book, cleaning your desk or lifting a bag of groceries into the car. It can happen to the best of us.
The bag of groceries is not the underlying cause of the problem, just one of the many straws that lob on the lower back. The groceries (the leaf, the phone book, the desk) get the blame.
This is an example of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. (If A occurs before B then A must have caused B.)
Academic bio mechanics and physiotherapists want to scare us with selective-evidence-based science. For instance, Canadian bio mechanic, Stuart McGill warns against doing situps because they place HUGE forces at the spot where discs herniate.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/19/the-man-who-wants-to-kill-crunches/
However, a healthy musclo-skeletal system is designed to cope with the HUGE forces he rails against.
Blaming a sit up for herniating a disc is indeed a selective piece of evidence. How far the bones of the spinal column are already out of alignment, how inflexible some of the muscles attached to it are and how weak the muscles attached to the pelvis and spine are more important factors.
The body needs persistent flexibility exercises done in sufficient dosage to keep the pelvis and spinal column in good alignment. It needs persistent strength exercises to support the bones in good alignment. (The point I suspect McGill misses is the fact that a good strength training program will also support bones in misalignment.)
But just focusing on the strength of muscles attached to the spine 'somewhere' in the vicinity of the pain misses the point. The cause of the pain is rarely at the site of the pain
The fact that the medical and therapeutic industries are fixated on the site of the pain, has perverted the course of lower back pain research. It's a system problem, that manifests itself in the lower back, not a lower back problem per se.
This means a lot of the evidence as to the cause of lower back pain is selective and if the evidence is selective then we need to be careful not to rely on it too heavily.
As for yoga, if the Chinese have been doing it for 2,000 years, I'd bet on it. I wouldn't change it. It's a musculo-skeletal health program that focuses on the musculo-skeletal system as a whole and not just on one small segment of it. I wouldn't be scared off from doing some of the poses on the say-so of latter day bio mechanics and physiotherapists.
We're dealing with a system that goes from the bottom of the feet right up to the top of the head and just about all the muscles in this chain work together to keep the bones in correct alignment - including the bones in the lower spine.
Focus on the system, not just spot where it hurts. Keep the system strong and flexible and the chances of coming down with a crook back are quite remote.
If you're searching for back pain bogy men, you've got to look further than leaves, desks, bags of groceries and situps.
In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and diminish your risk of joint and muscle pain by keeping yourself strong and flexible.
John Miller
http://www.globalbackcare.com
Friday, August 30, 2013
Core Strength Exercises
There's a lot of debate about which muscles are 'core' muscles and which exercises you need to do to improve core strength.
Most people think that core muscles are those 'somewhere behind your belly button'. Physiotherapists get people to lie on their back and suck their guts in to strengthen those muscles.
Not many people became stronger by sucking their guts in.
My definition of core muscles is any muscle attached to the pelvis or the spine.
Withjout complicating the sipple you ought to be able to look after your core strength by regularly doing these four exercises:
1. Situps of any type.
2. Pressups definitely. Pressups are plank in motion - the best predictor of risk of lower back pain.
3. Squats - don't forget that core muscles are any muscles attached to the pelvis or spine. Just get a piece of wood an inch or so thick, place it under your heels and start squatting. Make sure your backside goes below your knees.
4. Superman - don't forget the muscles on the 'back side' of the body.
If everyone could do 40 situps, 40 pressups and 40 squats doctors, physios and chiros would be sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned, keep strengthening your core muscles and visit http://www.globalbackcare.com for a complete musculo-skeletal health training program.
John Miller
Most people think that core muscles are those 'somewhere behind your belly button'. Physiotherapists get people to lie on their back and suck their guts in to strengthen those muscles.
Not many people became stronger by sucking their guts in.
My definition of core muscles is any muscle attached to the pelvis or the spine.
Withjout complicating the sipple you ought to be able to look after your core strength by regularly doing these four exercises:
1. Situps of any type.
2. Pressups definitely. Pressups are plank in motion - the best predictor of risk of lower back pain.
3. Squats - don't forget that core muscles are any muscles attached to the pelvis or spine. Just get a piece of wood an inch or so thick, place it under your heels and start squatting. Make sure your backside goes below your knees.
4. Superman - don't forget the muscles on the 'back side' of the body.
If everyone could do 40 situps, 40 pressups and 40 squats doctors, physios and chiros would be sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned, keep strengthening your core muscles and visit http://www.globalbackcare.com for a complete musculo-skeletal health training program.
John Miller
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Accupuncture and Back Pain
I'd bet on anything the Chinese have been doing to 2000 years, BUT, that wouldn't stop me from doing the strength and flexibility exercises that need to be done to get the pelvis and the bones above it back in alignment.
Most people go for a particular therapy and then forget that the most effective therapy is the one that they can do themselves - for free - at home - a targeted strength and flexibility training program.
There is no way you can keep yourself in good musculo-skeletal health without such a program.
The corollary is that if you have low back pain, start doing the exercises needed to get the pelvis and the bones above itback into better alignment, for a sufficient period of time each day for them to take effect. No rubbing, no crunching, no heating, no vibrating, no doping, no surgery.
Norman Marcus, Director, Norman Marcus Pain Institute, Associate Professor, NYU/Langone School of Medicine writes, 'non specific or idiopathic low back pain which refers to sprains and strains of soft tissue accounts for 70 to 80% of patients presenting with pain in the low back (http://bit.ly/15K9ORX).'
The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council puts the idiopathic figure at 95%.
Believing that 70% - 95% of low back pain doesn't have a cause pretty much rules out the medical industry as being the experts in this field.
If you don't know the cause how can you possible direct a treatment at fixing it?
Motor mechanics would go out of business if they adopted these principles.
You could pretty much count on the causes of those 70%-95% being generated by a lack of strength and flexibility - causing bones to move out of alignment.
In the first instance treat low back pain as a personally-generated fitness problem - and understand that the chances of solving a personally-generated fitness problem with a medical/pharmaceutical/surgical solution is very remote.
Just about everything the medical industry writes about low back pain and just about every things it recommends to relieve the pain provides evidence that it is out of its depth.
Complicating the simple and making the cheap expensive definitely doesn't mean you're going to solve the problem.
In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned, loosen the tight muscles and strengthen the weak muscles.
John Miller
http://www.globalbackcare.com
Most people go for a particular therapy and then forget that the most effective therapy is the one that they can do themselves - for free - at home - a targeted strength and flexibility training program.
There is no way you can keep yourself in good musculo-skeletal health without such a program.
The corollary is that if you have low back pain, start doing the exercises needed to get the pelvis and the bones above itback into better alignment, for a sufficient period of time each day for them to take effect. No rubbing, no crunching, no heating, no vibrating, no doping, no surgery.
Norman Marcus, Director, Norman Marcus Pain Institute, Associate Professor, NYU/Langone School of Medicine writes, 'non specific or idiopathic low back pain which refers to sprains and strains of soft tissue accounts for 70 to 80% of patients presenting with pain in the low back (http://bit.ly/15K9ORX).'
The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council puts the idiopathic figure at 95%.
Believing that 70% - 95% of low back pain doesn't have a cause pretty much rules out the medical industry as being the experts in this field.
If you don't know the cause how can you possible direct a treatment at fixing it?
Motor mechanics would go out of business if they adopted these principles.
You could pretty much count on the causes of those 70%-95% being generated by a lack of strength and flexibility - causing bones to move out of alignment.
In the first instance treat low back pain as a personally-generated fitness problem - and understand that the chances of solving a personally-generated fitness problem with a medical/pharmaceutical/surgical solution is very remote.
Just about everything the medical industry writes about low back pain and just about every things it recommends to relieve the pain provides evidence that it is out of its depth.
Complicating the simple and making the cheap expensive definitely doesn't mean you're going to solve the problem.
In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned, loosen the tight muscles and strengthen the weak muscles.
John Miller
http://www.globalbackcare.com
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Stretching Before Exercise
I've read one of the research reports (Herbert et al. Effects of stretching before and after exercising on muscle soreness and risk of injury: systematic review. British Medical Journal. 2002). All Herbert and his mate, Gabriel did was look at the results of other studies - without saying just how bad they were.
'The first study investigated effects of supervised stretching of calf muscles before exercising (two stretches of soleus and gastrocnemius muscles for 20 seconds on each limb, total stretch time 160 seconds).'
If the feet are out of alignment, if the upper and lower leg bones are out of alignment, if the pelvis is out of alignment, 20 seconds of calf stretching to avoid soreness is about as useful as a hip pocket on a singlet.
'The second study investigated effects of supervised stretching of six muscle groups in the lower limbs before exercising (one 20 second stretch to each muscle group on each limb, total stretch time 240 seconds.)'
At least more muscles were being stretched but the time was grossly inadequate to have much of an effect. No wonder this regime didn't work.
'Total stretch time per session varied from 300 seconds to 600 seconds, with the exception of one study in which total stretch time was only 80 seconds.'
'This systematic review finds clear evidence from five studies of nominally moderate quality that stretching before or after exercising has no effect on delayed onset muscle soreness.'
Well at least Herbert and Gabriel had the decency to say the studies were of 'nominally moderate quality.' What he should have said was they were of dreadful quality.
'Conclusions: Stretching before or after exercising does not confer protection from muscle soreness. Stretching before exercising does not seem to confer a practically useful reduction in the risk of injury, but the generality of this finding needs testing. Insufficient research has been done with which to determine the effects of stretching on sporting performance.'
Read it again. The 'generality of this finding needs testing.' The last sentence says it all. 'Insufficient research has been done ...' Add to that 'insufficient quality research has been done.'
Can you believe that the sporting world is now running around using this evidence as gospel?
Herbert and Gabriel have produced a very tawdry report. Basing the findings on the effectiveness of stretching as a method of reducing injury or muscles soreness on a stretching regime that takes 20 seconds if definitely baloney.
Anyone who knows anything about stretching (loosening) knows that 20 seconds is useless. In that time the muscles doesn't even get the message that it's safe to loosen off.
The other flaw in the report is that it takes no consideration of the effect of constant, daily, extended loosening off of ALL the major muscles of the body associated with keeping the skeleton in good alignment and facilitating propulsion and locomotion.
If I were running an elite athlete program I'd make the athletes do at least an hour of yoga a day and probably have them working at the barre for the same amount of time.
This is a research report that never should have been given the light of day, let alone be used to bag the benefits of a regular, systematic and extended muscle loosening program.
20 seconds, bah humbug.
'The first study investigated effects of supervised stretching of calf muscles before exercising (two stretches of soleus and gastrocnemius muscles for 20 seconds on each limb, total stretch time 160 seconds).'
If the feet are out of alignment, if the upper and lower leg bones are out of alignment, if the pelvis is out of alignment, 20 seconds of calf stretching to avoid soreness is about as useful as a hip pocket on a singlet.
'The second study investigated effects of supervised stretching of six muscle groups in the lower limbs before exercising (one 20 second stretch to each muscle group on each limb, total stretch time 240 seconds.)'
At least more muscles were being stretched but the time was grossly inadequate to have much of an effect. No wonder this regime didn't work.
'Total stretch time per session varied from 300 seconds to 600 seconds, with the exception of one study in which total stretch time was only 80 seconds.'
'This systematic review finds clear evidence from five studies of nominally moderate quality that stretching before or after exercising has no effect on delayed onset muscle soreness.'
Well at least Herbert and Gabriel had the decency to say the studies were of 'nominally moderate quality.' What he should have said was they were of dreadful quality.
'Conclusions: Stretching before or after exercising does not confer protection from muscle soreness. Stretching before exercising does not seem to confer a practically useful reduction in the risk of injury, but the generality of this finding needs testing. Insufficient research has been done with which to determine the effects of stretching on sporting performance.'
Read it again. The 'generality of this finding needs testing.' The last sentence says it all. 'Insufficient research has been done ...' Add to that 'insufficient quality research has been done.'
Can you believe that the sporting world is now running around using this evidence as gospel?
Herbert and Gabriel have produced a very tawdry report. Basing the findings on the effectiveness of stretching as a method of reducing injury or muscles soreness on a stretching regime that takes 20 seconds if definitely baloney.
Anyone who knows anything about stretching (loosening) knows that 20 seconds is useless. In that time the muscles doesn't even get the message that it's safe to loosen off.
The other flaw in the report is that it takes no consideration of the effect of constant, daily, extended loosening off of ALL the major muscles of the body associated with keeping the skeleton in good alignment and facilitating propulsion and locomotion.
If I were running an elite athlete program I'd make the athletes do at least an hour of yoga a day and probably have them working at the barre for the same amount of time.
This is a research report that never should have been given the light of day, let alone be used to bag the benefits of a regular, systematic and extended muscle loosening program.
20 seconds, bah humbug.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Stretching Research
Reports are coming out saying that the latest stretching research is telling people that stretching is useless.
It's baloney.
In the sit down culture it's imperative that you stretch in order to prevent tight muscles from taking your skeleton out of alignment.
If your stretches are not making your muscles looser, chances are you're not doing them for long enough - or often enough.
The western world is experiencing a musculo-skeletal pain catastrophe/calamity/epidemic, caused mainly by tight muscles taking bones out of alignment. Weak muscles exacerbates the problem.
I don't know where this research comes from - probably Pfizzer, Smerk, Roach or the American College of Surgeons!
If every one did half and hour's yoga every day, doctors, physiotherapists, chiropractors and chemists would be sitting around twiddling their thumbs and playing golf most afternoons.
In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and keep loosening off tight muscles and strengthening weak muscles.
It's baloney.
In the sit down culture it's imperative that you stretch in order to prevent tight muscles from taking your skeleton out of alignment.
If your stretches are not making your muscles looser, chances are you're not doing them for long enough - or often enough.
The western world is experiencing a musculo-skeletal pain catastrophe/calamity/epidemic, caused mainly by tight muscles taking bones out of alignment. Weak muscles exacerbates the problem.
I don't know where this research comes from - probably Pfizzer, Smerk, Roach or the American College of Surgeons!
If every one did half and hour's yoga every day, doctors, physiotherapists, chiropractors and chemists would be sitting around twiddling their thumbs and playing golf most afternoons.
In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and keep loosening off tight muscles and strengthening weak muscles.
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