by admin | Jun 11, 2022 | Health
How To Manage Injuries | Part 2 – Injury management & prevention
Alright, in part 1 of this series, we went over the two main types of injuries – Acute & Chronic injuries. In case you did not read that article, let us briefly explain this further.
Acute injuries have an immediate onset, and happen when the working tissues’ capabilities have been exceeded, or a sudden clash/fall has occurred. These are best managed by letting the area rest and applying ice in the first 48-72 hours, as well as training around the injury in a way that won’t aggravate it.
On the other hand, chronic injuries happen gradually over time and are mainly caused by poor exercise form, overexertion, and suboptimal recovery protocols. Now, keep in mind, though these are two different types of injuries, poor management of an acute injury (even a small one), can snowball into a chronic injury over time.
If there are even small pains that persist, it is recommended that you do not neglect them and advise with a professional. Without further ado, let’s have a look at the best injury-prevention practices.
How To Prevent Chronic Injuries
Alright, as you already know, chronic injuries are primarily the end result of poor training decisions and poor recovery. And though that sounds bad, it actually means that chronic injuries are preventable! Here are our best tips to help you prevent injuries and enjoy a functional body for decades to come:
#1 Prime The Body For Exercise (Warm-up)
It is oftentimes that people neglect the warm-up in the beginning of their training sessions and go too hard too fast. Well, the fact of the matter is that preparing the body before you jump into hard sets, is the best way to prevent any type of injuries. Think about it – If you cold-start your car and put the pedal to the floor right away, what would happen? Something will break eventually.
Now here’s what a good warm up will do:
- Increase your heart rate
- Raise your temperature slightly
- Activate your muscle fibers (especially important before strength training)
The first two can be done with low-intensity aerobic activities, such as jogging, rope jumping or simply walking at a higher pace. Activating your muscle fibers is best done by gradually increasing the working weight, for the first 2-3 sets of your first exercise. All of this will prepare the body for heavier work afterward and will massively reduce the risk of injury.
#2 Use Proper Exercise Form
Whether you are a beginner trainee or someone who has a couple of years of experience, your main priority should always be your exercise form. If you sacrifice good exercise form for a couple of extra kilograms on the bar, you are setting yourself up for an injury, thus robbing yourself of progress.
Remember that each and every joint has a certain biomechanical position, at which it can safely exert the most force possible for its working muscle groups. Anything less than that and you are speeding up the wear and tear of your joints and ligaments.
#3 Eat well & Drink Water
When a person experiences an injury, more often than not the instinctive reaction is to look for creams & gels you can apply on the injured area, to speed up healing. For that exact reason, food & water intake are often underestimated when it comes to healing, recovery, and injury prevention. But if you think logically, you’d know that they are REALLY important and can be a powerful ally for maintaining a healthy skeleton & musculature.
This is simply because food contains essential nutrients, which the body can’t produce on its own, but needs for optimal health and recovery. Furthermore, specifically in the case of injuries, certain foods can actually increase inflammation, while others can mitigate it.
Here are our 5 best nutrition tips to prevent & treat injuries:
- Consume protein-rich foods that have a complete amino acid profile (All animal products for omnivores, a mix of grains for vegans/vegetarians)
- Drink enough water daily (2-4 liters depending on atmospheric temperature & activity levels. Avoid excessive thirst)
- Avoid deep-fried foods (Fried foods can increase inflammation)
- Include plenty of vegetables & fruits (Vitamins and minerals are just as important as protein, fats and carbs!)
- Include Omega-3 fatty acids (These can help mitigate inflammation and can be derived from fish and other sea food)
#4 Get Frequent Massages
One thing you should really acknowledge is the fact that your muscular system is REALLY complex and has many functional components. As you use it, your muscles & their fascia get fatigued, and even after solid recovery, they may feel stiff at one point.
The fascia is a thin layer of connective tissue that holds every organ, bone, muscle, and nerve fiber in place. As these active components go through stress, their fascia tightens up. This is exactly where deep tissue massages can come in handy, to release the fascia and rejuvenate the working tissues & their nerves.
Besides releasing the tension from the tissues, deep massages will also improve blood flow to the area. This in turn will allow the blood to deliver more oxygen & nutrients to the area, thus improving recovery and lowering the chance of injury. If you do training activity regularly, it is recommended that you get a massage at least twice a month.
#5 Stretch!
If you don’t like the idea of getting frequent massages, there are alternative ways to release the tension in the muscles & fascia on your own. Stretching is in fact the best way to do so and it can further be combined with foam-roller exercises that will allow you to release the tension in-depth.
It is recommended that you do your stretching exercises AFTER the training bout rather than at the start, where the goal would be to activate your muscle. Think of it this way – As you go into the workout, your goal is to recruit and activate more and more muscle fibers, by contracting the muscles (opposite of stretching).
Throughout the workout the muscles get fatigued and at the end of the training bout it is time to relax that tension, by implementing stretching exercises
#6 Use Joint Recovery Supplements
Besides managing training intensity, exercise form, and taking care of muscle maintenance, joint recovery supplements are also a viable injury-prevention option.
Here are our best picks for such supplements:
- Chondroitin – Helps recover the joints’ cartilage by stimulating its repair mechanisms
- Glucosamine – Helps with the recovery and formation of ligaments, tendons, joint fluid and cartilage (usually paired with chondroitin)
- Collagen – This is the most important protein of all connective tissues and as a supplement, it can help recover cartilages, tendons, and ligaments
Ultimately, these supplements won’t compensate for the lack of proper exercise form, nutrition & a methodical approach to training, so consider them a bonus!
Important takeaways
- Getting injured doesn’t necessarily mean you should stop training – Train around the injury by doing movements that won’t aggravate it
- The best strategy with an acute injury is to let it rest and working on gaining back the full range of motion once swelling and pain have subsided
- Chronic injuries are best prevented by practicing good exercise form and avoiding overexertion, as well as managing recovery windows
- Take care of your recovery by getting frequent massages, sufficient nutrition, as well as joint-support supplements
by admin | Jun 11, 2022 | Fitness, General
Reliable Fitness Websites
Looking for fitness information online can be very daunting. There are many fitness websites and blogs, with some of them sharing false information thus you are likely to get misinformed. Therefore, you have to be careful in your selection of the sites where you want to seek insight and information on maintaining a fit and healthy body. Despite that, you can still get some reliable fitness websites such as;
Muscle & Fitness
Do you want to gain muscles and stay fit? Here is a website where you can get all information on how to add muscles and achieve your desired body shape. This site will also enlighten you on meal plans you have to adopt in order to achieve your fitness goals. Feel free to visit this site to learn how to build muscles and have a healthy body. The site is endorsed with a lot of comprehensive articles on fitness to help you in this quest you are on.
Menno Henselmans
This site is not only informational but also very distinct in its own right. It provides online coaching, online classes, and articles, but shares content that is cymene oriented. This will give you a unique approach to your fitness journey through applying proven science-based interventions.
Run To The Finnish
Run To The Finnish is a site that is basically all about training to run. This site shares a lot of content on injury recovery insight, running tips, and how to select efficient running shoes and nutrition help. If you are an athlete, this website will sort you out big time. The information being shared has been well researched therefore you stand to benefit from it.
My Fitness Pal
My Fitness pal gives uses an opportunity to access fitness and nutrition advice. Users can also track their log activities and calories. Last but not least, this website comes with apps to help you while working out. Therefore, this makes My Fitness Pal a great companion or partner for any person who wants to manage their weight and stay fit.
Planet Fitness
Planet Fitness offers a lot of information on how to work out in the gym and stay in great shape. This site is very focused on ensuring people can work out at their own convenience by enlightening you on how you can train at home. Besides, the website has guides for beginners who are looking forward to their first workout session.
Conclusion
When seeking advice and information on fitness, you have to rely on credible sources. The websites you choose should be very reliable. Unfortunately, finding such sites is not a walk in the park. There are a ton of websites out there, and you are likely to fall prey to misinformation. Some of those sites are created by selfish individuals with an intention to extort money from people. They have put in place insane membership plans which are very expensive with a promise of giving clients the best fitness advice or programs. Therefore, be vigilant and do not just take in any fitness advice you read online.
by admin | Jun 11, 2022 | Mind
Neuroplasticity Part One – What Exactly Is It?
Neuroplasticity And Your Magic Mind
Our brains are а mysterious and magnificent operating system and possess a high number of amazing qualities. The amazingness of our brains is most prominent and obvious during childhood. We go from a cute blob of meat to being able to walk, run, talk, and think abstractly.
This is thanks to neuroplasticity. The brain before 25 is a plasticity machine. It strengthens all the needed connections and mostly discards the ones you don’t need resulting in you being a functional human in society. The brain is a map of our own individual experience, but why is it built like this?
How And Why Neuroplasticity Works
As mentioned before the age of 25, our brains are a mesh of connections that is very adept at making changes to themselves. There are many fascinating aspects of neuroplasticity, but what may be the most amazing one is that we can change our brains physically based on experience and learning.
At birth, it’s estimated that every neuron in our brain has an approximate amount of 2,500 synapses. Just a few years later, at three years old, this number grew to about 15,000. What’s interesting, however, is that when we’re adults, we only have about half of that.
This is because as our brains gain mileage and experience, strengthening certain connections and weakening others. The ones strengthened are the ones we need and use most. The ones weakened or lost are the ones we don’t use that often.
Hence, the overused saying:
‘’Use it, or lose it.’’
Your brain does this to optimize its processing power and your cognitive abilities. Why keep something around when you don’t use it? This makes our brains unique stamps of our own experiences and memories. Experiencing intense emotions during your younger years can change your brain physically.
This unique ability of our brain to change and learn is what’s responsible for us learning to thrive and adapt in our circumstances. It’s important to note, however, that not every part of our brain can change. Some parts responsible for things like breathing, heartbeat, or digestion remain as they are. This is likely because it would be highly inefficient for us to constantly think about how our heart needs to beat or how to breathe.
These are bodily functions that, unless an injury is experienced remain pretty much the same our whole lives.
Practical Neuroplasticity
In some cases, when an individual experiences some kind of brain trauma such as a stroke, our brain moves functions from the damaged area to another undamaged area. This speaks volumes of how we humans are built to endure hardship and to change. Awareness of our brain’s ability to change and learn is what can prime us towards bettering ourselves.
The first step to changing yourself is recognizing that a change needs to happen. Our brain is very acute at navigating life and improving in response to experience. Consciously recognizing and being mindful of your own shortcomings is truly the initial stepping-stone to changing yourself for the better.
Acknowledgement of a skill you want to learn or an area in your life you want to improve will induce a selective shift in attention, priming your brain to get ready to change itself.
Final Thoughts
Your brain changes in response to experience. In that case, we must be aware of what we’re experiencing and steer ourselves towards experiences that make us grow and change for the better. Our brain will adapt to almost anything, so it’s important that we build our environment and our experiences to prime our brain for positive change.
Think about how you’re spending your day to day life. If you’re spending 4 hours a day scrolling on social media, be conscious of which connections you might be strengthening. In turn, when faced with hindrances and hardship, think about which connections you might be strengthening when overcoming said difficulties.
Are you choosing the path of least resistance and adapting your brain to crumble when met with hardship, or are you stretching and exerting yourself physically and mentally in order to become better? You have the ability to change yourself. The question is, which connections do you choose to strengthen and which are you going to discard?
by admin | Jun 11, 2022 | Mind
Neuroplasticity Part Two – Practical Implications
Why Change Your Brain?
As explored in part one, our brains are magic. They have the amazing ability to change themselves based on their environment and experiences. Most of the changes in our brain are done during our childhood, from birth to about 25.
The bad news is that our brains stop adding new neurons after puberty. The good news is that we can still change our brains and our nervous system even after puberty and after the age of 25.
So, how do we do it?
Recognize That A Change Must Be Made
The first step to changing our brains is recognizing a change needs to be made. We need to reflect on what it is that we’re doing poorly or that we want to change, and that will be our first step. That desire or the acknowledgment, that you want to change or learn something new is the first step to neuroplasticity.
When you become aware of a change you want to make, certain chemicals are released in your brain that allow those changes to happen. That selective shift in attention signals to your brain that it’s time to change. In case you’re struggling to identify what changes you want to make or how you want to better yourself, here are a few proven ways to improve your brain’s neuroplasticity:
Learning A New Language
Acquiring a new language has been proven to strengthen certain connections in your brain that result in overall better cognitive abilities. Researchers show that the more languages someone has mastered, the faster the brain reacts to new words and information, further boosting your ability to learn even more languages.
This means that starting, maybe indeed, the hardest part. Once you become fluent in another language, your brain gets better at recognizing the specific encodings and patterns embedded within languages, and the more languages you add, the better you will get.
Music And Learning An Instrument
Learning to play an instrument is a very resource-intensive task for your brain. It involves several different areas of your brain being recruited at the same time in order for you to play music. This is largely because there is no specific ‘’music’’ center in your brain.
Music involves a lot of different elements such as pitch, tempo, melody, and so on. They are all perceived differently by our brains. This makes learning to play an instrument a great way to boost your cognitive abilities and strengthen your brain.
Exercise
Exercising is one of the things you can’t go wrong with unless you overdo it. It’s no surprise that apart from becoming more attractive for the opposite sex, exercise promotes better cognitive function. A regiment of consistent physical activity has a number of great benefits for your brain. The recommended amount of exercise for keeping your general well-being is about 150 minutes per week of moderate pace cardio activities, like walking, running, or cycling.
This coupled with a minimum of two days of strength training activities such as lifting weights or bodyweight exercises, will bring immense benefit not only to your cognitive functions but to your general well-being.
Getting A Good Night’s Sleep
Good sleep hygiene is essential for your brain. Although it never really shuts down, recent research has suggested that sleep might be the time when your brain is storing and categorizing the experiences of the previous day.
While sorting and labeling, your brain discards what you don’t need and makes sure that what you do need is at hand and ready to go. Consistency in your sleep schedule is a very important factor that contributes to good sleep. Make sure you develop a routine and good sleeping habits to prime your brain for learning and for positive change.
Having an irregular sleeping schedule might induce a number of unwanted effects on your state of mind and on your body as well.
Closing Thoughts
Your brain is a learning machine. Like all machines, it needs to be maintained and taken care of to perform to the best of its ability. If you find something on the list that interests you, try incorporating it into your daily life to notice the positive effects yourself. We must take care of our brains, like anything when neglected, it stops functioning properly.
by admin | Jun 11, 2022 | Mind
The Mind – Conscious & Subconscious | Part 2 – The Subconscious Mind
In part 1 of this article series, you learned that the conscious mind is the tool you use to interact with the world. The conscious mind is capable of new thoughts and actions, which you can use to interact with the world. However, for the most part, our lives are governed by subconscious patterns of behavior, emotions and thoughts. In this second part of the series, we’ll shed some light on the subconscious mind and how to re-program it.
What Is The Subconscious Mind?
The subconscious mind, also called the unconscious mind, is the sum total of all mental processes, where no conscious control is present. Now, the thing to know is that most of the things that got into your subconscious mind, found their way through the CONSCIOUS mind. Think of it this way – Conscious thoughts become beliefs and beliefs become habits.
Then, those same habits rule the vast majority of the daily life of every individual. And that is not just eating habits, or going to certain places. It is also your reactions, thoughts and emotional patterns. The subconscious mind is essentially a cassette tape player, while the conscious mind is the tape recorder, which records the tapes and then gives them to the subconscious so that it can play them on repeat.
Limiting Patterns
Without a doubt, there are good cassette tapes (thoughts, reactions, beliefs, emotions), but there are also bad ones, which limit us and may be quite toxic to our existence. This is the point where you have to stand against those limiting subconscious beliefs and patterns and make a change for the better.
When you make the change, you are quite literally rewiring your brain in a way that will favor your overall quality of life, in all aspects. According to one of the leading scientists in the field, Dr. Bruce Lipton, there are 4 ways to rewire your subconscious mind and install new beliefs.
#1 Hypnosis
This is one of the easiest ways to induce changes to your subconscious and as a matter of fact, all of us have been rinsed through it. Technically, in the first 7 years of our lives, our minds are in a hypnotic state, during which we’ve established the majority of our main subconscious sequences.
Quite literally, those 7 years of our lives are that important, because the mind is OPEN during that time. All the experiences, impressions and other sensory information are taken in directly and literally, being soaked deep into the subconscious.
This therefore forms the primary beliefs of the person, which are used to make a logical picture of the world. For instance, someone who went through their childhood and was abandoned by one or both parents, may feel like their partner will abandon them at one point or another. On the contrary, if someone grew up with loving parents, they will feel like they are worthy of being loved.
#2 Repetition & events with high impact
After the age of 7, repetition and the creation of habits is the main way we acquire new subconscious programs. One of the other possible things is high impact events – For instance, a person diagnosed with a terminal condition caused by old toxic habits, can INSTANTLY rewrite those programs (habits), after the diagnosis.
Conclusion
The subconscious mind is like a cassette tape player, which repeats the things recorded by the conscious mind. Those can be simple things, such as nutrition & social habits, but can also be more impactful things, such as reactions, emotions, thought patterns and even biological regulation.
For the most part, all of us have subconscious programs that are toxic, which is what we should work on, in the context of creating the best future possible for ourselves. Be aware, take conscious actions and rewire your brain!
