Below, you�ll find the five most popular methods and the basics of how they work. Keep in mind, intermittent fasting isn�t for everyone. Those with health conditions of any kind should check with their doctor before changing up their usual routine. Note that personal goals and lifestyle are key factors to consider when choosing a fasting method.
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Leangains
Best for: Dedicated gym-goers who want to lose body fat and build muscle.
The Way It Works: Fast�for 14 (girls) and 16 (men) hours every day, and then “feed” for the remaining eight to ten hours. During the period, no calories are consumed by you. But, calorie-free sweeteners black coffee, diet pop and sugar-free gum are allowed. (A dab of milk into your coffee won’t hurt, either.) Practitioners will find it most easy to fast throughout the night and to the morning. After waking up they usually break the fast roughly six hours after waking up. Maintaining a consistent window time is vital, although this schedule is flexible to any individual’s lifestyle. Hormones in the body get thrown out of whack and make sticking into the program harder, otherwise, Berkhan states.
What and when you eat during the feeding window additionally depends on when you workout. On days you exercise, carbohydrates are more significant than fat. On rest days, fat consumption ought to be higher. Protein intake should be fairly high daily, though it will vary based on targets, sex, age, body fat and activity levels. Irrespective of your program, whole foods should constitute the vast majority of your calorie intake. But whenever there is not time for a meal, then a protein shake or meal replacement bar is adequate (in moderation).
Advantages: For many, the highlight of this program is that on many days, meal frequency is irrelevant. You can really eat whenever you need to inside the eight-hour “feeding” period. Nevertheless, the majority of men and women wind breaking it up to three meals simpler to adhere to (because we are usually already programmed to eat this way).
Disadvantages: Although there is flexibility in when you eat, Leangains has pretty specific instructions for what to eat, especially in connection with when you are exercising. The rigorous nutrition plan and scheduling foods can make the program a little harder to adhere to.
Eat Stop Eat
Best for: Healthy eaters searching for an extra boost.
The Way It Works:�Fast for 24 hours a couple of times each week. Throughout the 24 hour fast, which founder Brad Pilon prefers to call a “24 break out of eating,” no food is consumed, but you can drink carbonated drinks. You then return to eating after the fast is over. “Act like you didn’t fast,” Pilon says. “Some people today need to complete the fast at a usual mealtime with a big meal, while others are OK ending the fast with a day snack. Time it however works best for you, and fix your time as your program changes,” he states.
The main rationale? Without restricting what you are able to eat according to Eat Stop Eat, Eating this way may reduce calorie consumption. It’s essential to note that regular workouts and resistance training, are important for succeeding with this strategy if weight loss or improved body composition are the goals.
Advantages: While 24 hours might seem like a long time to go without meals, the great news is that this program is elastic. You do not need to go all-or-nothing at the start. The first day, go without food and gradually increase fasting period over time to assist your body’s adjustment. Pilon suggests beginning the fast when you are busy, and about a day in which you don’t have any eating duties (such as a work lunch or happy hour).
Another perk? There aren’t any “forbidden foods,” and no counting calories, weighing food or restricting your diet, which makes it a bit easier to follow. That said, this isn’t a free-for-all. “You still have to eat just like a grown-up,” Pilon says. It’s all about moderation: You can eat anything you want, but maybe not as much of it. (A piece of birthday cake is OK, he says, however, the entire cake is not.)
Disadvantages: Going 24 hours without any calories could be too difficult for some, particularly initially. A lot of people struggle with moving extended amounts of time with no food, citing annoying symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, or feeling cranky or anxious (though these side effects can dimish over time). The fasting period may also make it more tempting to binge after a fast. This is easily fixed… but it requires a lot of self-control, and that many people today lack.
Warrior Diet
Best for: People who enjoy following rules. The devoted.
The Way It Works: Warriors-in-training can anticipate to fast for approximately 20 hours every day and eat one big meal every evening. When you eat that meal and everything else you eat is also key for this method. The doctrine here is based on feeding the body the nutrition it requires in sync with circadian rhythms and that our species are “nocturnal eaters, essentially programmed for nighttime eating.”
The fasting period of the Warrior Diet is really more about “undereating.” If desired throughout the 20-hour fast, you can eat several servings of raw fruit or veggies, fresh juice, and a couple of portions of protein. This is supposed to maximize the Sympathetic Nervous System’s “fight or flight” response, which is intended to boost endurance, boost energy, and stimulate fat burning.
The four-hour eating window, which Hofmekler describes as the “overeating” phase, is at nighttime in order to maximize the Parasympathetic Nervous System’s ability to help the body recuperate, promoting calm, relaxation and nourishment, while also permits the body to utilize the nutrients absorbed for repair and growth. Eating at night might also help hormones be produced by the body and burn fat based on Hofmekler. The order in which you eat food groups things is important as well. Hofmelker claims to begin with veggies, fat and protein. Only if you’re still hungry, you can tack on a few carbs, after completing those groups.
Advantages: Many have gravitated toward this diet because the “fasting” period still allows you to consume a few tiny snacks, which may make it easier to get through. As the methodology explains (and also the “success stories” section of this Warrior Diet website supports), many professionals also report increased energy levels and fat reduction.
Disadvantages: Although it’s great to eat a few snacks rather than go without any food for 20-plus hours, the guidelines to what you need to consume (and when) can be tough to follow long-term. Meal program and the schedule may interfere with social gatherings. Furthermore, eating one meal during the night, while following instructions of what to eat, and in what order, can be rough. It’s particularly hard for people who prefer not to eat big meals late in the day.
Fat Loss Forever
Best for: Gym goers that love cheat days.
The Way It Works: Not completely happy with the IF diets listed previously? This technique takes the best areas of the Warrior Diet, Eat Stop Eat and Leangains, and combines it all into a single strategy. In addition you get one cheat day every week, followed by a 36-hour fast (that might not be so easy for some). After that, the remainder of the seven-day cycle is divided up between the various protocols that were previously discussed.
Romaniello and Go suggest saving the maximum fasts for your busiest days, letting you focus on becoming productive. The plan also includes training programs (with weightlifting and free weights) to assist participants achieve maximum fat loss in the easiest way possible.
Advantages: According to the founders, whilst everybody is technically fasting every day, during the hours when we are not eating, most of us do so haphazardly, making it harder to reap the benefits. Fat Loss Forever provides a seven-day program for fasting where the body can get used to this timetable and reap the maximum benefit in the fasting intervals so that . (Plus, you get a complete cheat day. And who does not love that?)
Disadvantages: On the flip side, in case you have difficulty handling cheat times the healthy way, this method might not be for you. Additionally, also the schedule varies from day to day and since the program is specific, this technique can be somewhat confusing to follow. (However, the program will not come with a calendar, imagining the way to fast and exercise every day, which may make it simpler.)
Alternate-Day Diet or Alternate-Day Fasting
Best for: Disciplined dieters with a specific weight goal.
The Way It Works: This one’s simple: Eat very little one day, and eat like normal the next. On the low carb days, that means one fifth of your usual calorie intake. Using 2,000 or 2,500 calories (for both women and men, respectively) as a direct, “fasting” (or “down”) day ought to be 400 to 500 calories. Followers can use this tool to figure out how many calories to eat on “low-calorie” days.
To make “down” days simpler to stick to, Johnson recommends opting for meal replacement shakes. They’re fortified with nourishment and you can sip them rather than divide into meals. But, meal replacement shakes should just be utilized during the initial two weeks of the diet, then, you ought to begin eating actual food on “down” days. The next day, eat just like normal. Rinse and repeat! (Note: If working out is a part of your routine, you may find it harder to hit the gym on the reduced calorie days. It may be smart to keep any workouts on these times on the tamer side, or conserve sweat sessions to your typical calorie days.)
Advantages: This method is all about weight reduction, so if that’s your main goal, this can be you to have a better look at. Individuals who cut calories see a reduction of approximately two and a half pounds per week.
Disadvantages: While the method is rather simple to follow, it can be simple to binge on the “normal” day. The very best way to stay on course is planning your meals. Then you’re not caught in the drive-through or all-you-can-eat buffet with a stomach.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Wellness
Overall health and wellness are essential towards maintaining the proper mental and physical balance in the body. From eating a balanced nutrition as well as exercising and participating in physical activities, to sleeping a healthy amount of time on a regular basis, following the best health and wellness tips can ultimately help maintain overall well-being. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can go a long way towards helping people become healthy.
Intermittent fasting is one of the most ancient secrets of health and wellness. Because it’s been practiced throughout all history. Intermittent fasting is considered a secret because this habit had been long forgotten.
But now, many people are re-discovering this dietary intervention. It may carry advantages if it is done correctly, including: reversal of type two diabetes, weight reduction, greater energy and many other things. In this beginner’s guide you can learn the function of intermittent fasting on the body.
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How Does Intermittent Fasting Work?
At its very core, fasting simply allows the body to burn off extra body fat. It is necessary to realize that this is ordinary for humans and people have evolved to avoid negative health consequences from it. Body fat is merely food energy that’s been stored away. If you do not consume food, your body will simply “eat” its own fat for energy.
Life is all about balance. The good and the bad. The yin and the yang. The same is applicable to fasting and ingestion. Fasting, after all, is simply the flip side of eating. If you aren’t eating, you’re fasting. Here is how it works:
Once we eat, more food energy is consumed than can immediately be used. Some of the energy must be stored away for later usage. Insulin is the hormone involved with the storage of food energy.
Insulin rises when we consume food, helping to keep the excess energy in two separate ways. Sugars can be connected into chains, called glycogen and stored in the liver. There is limited storage space; and the liver starts to turn the glucose into fat, after that is achieved. This procedure is called De-Novo Lipogenesis.
A number of the newly created fat is stored in the liver, but most of it is exported into additional fat deposits within the body. Even though this is a complex procedure, there is no limitation to the total amount of fat which can be created. Therefore, two complementary food energy storage systems exist within our own bodies. One is readily accessible but with limited storage area (glycogen), and the other is more challenging to access but has infinite storage area (body fat).
The method goes in reverse when we don’t eat (fasting). Insulin levels fall, signaling the body to start burning stored energy as no more is coming through food. Blood glucose falls, so the body has to pull sugar to burn for energy.
Glycogen is the most readily accessible energy resource. It’s broken down to give energy to the cells. This provides enough energy to power the body for 24-36 hours. After that, your system will begin breaking down fat for energy.
So, the body just really exists in two states, the fed (insulin high) condition and the fasted (insulin reduced) state. Either we are storing food energy, or it is burning food energy. It is one or another. Then there is not any weight gain if fasting and eating become more balanced.
If we start eating the moment we roll out of bed, and do not stop until we go to sleep, we spend almost all our time at the fed state. As time passes, we will gain weight. We have not allowed our body some time.
To restore balance or to lose weight, we simply need to boost the quantity of time we burn food energy (fasting). Essentially, fasting enables the body to use its energy that is stored. After all, that is what it is there for. The important thing to realize is that there isn’t anything wrong with that. That’s how our bodies are designed. That’s what cat, dogs, lions and bears do. That’s what humans do.
If you are constantly eating, as is frequently advocated, then your body will simply utilize the incoming food energy rather than burn the body fat. It’ll be only stored by you. It will be saved by your own body for a while when there’s nothing to consume. You lack equilibrium. You lack fasting.
Fasting is Not Starvation
Fasting differs from starvation in a crucial way. Control. Starvation is the involuntary lack of food. It’s neither deliberate nor controlled. Fasting, on the other hand, is the voluntary withholding of food for health spiritual, or other factors.
Food is readily accessible, but you opt not to eat it. This could be for any time period, from a couple of hours up to days or even weeks. You will begin a fast and it may be ended by you at will. You may start or stop a fast for any reason or no reason at all.
Fasting has no typical length, as it’s merely the lack of ingestion. Anytime that you aren’t eating, you are fasting. As an instance, you may fast a period of approximately 12-14 hours, between breakfast and dinner the next day. In that sense, fasting ought to be thought of as a part of life.
Fasting is but a part of regular, normal life. It is possibly the oldest and most powerful dietary intervention imaginable. Yet somehow we have forgotten its power and discounted its potential.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Wellness
Overall health and wellness are essential towards maintaining the proper mental and physical balance in the body. From eating a balanced nutrition as well as exercising and participating in physical activities, to sleeping a healthy amount of time on a regular basis, following the best health and wellness tips can ultimately help maintain overall well-being. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can go a long way towards helping people become healthy.
Return to play describes the stage in recovery from a sports injury when an athlete is able to go back to playing sports or participate in their specific physical activity at a pre-injury level.
Nobody likes to be sidelined with an undesired injury. Among the goals of sports medicine professionals and specialists is to try to restore an athlete back to action. Returning too soon, however before restoration or healing has taken place, can put an athlete at an increased risk for re-injury and down time.
With the ideal treatment and care plan for sport accidents and injury, from early identification and proper treatment to full functional rehabilitation, you can often safely accelerate your return to perform.
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Lessons from Professional Athletes
Why does it seem that professional athletes come back to play so much quicker than the normal person or athlete? Professional athletes are often, at the time of injury, in tremendously good physical conditioning. This fitness level helps them in various ways. Various studies have demonstrated that conditioning the body properly can not only prevent injuries, it may also lessen the severity of an injury and speed up recovery.
Professional athletes also get prompt treatment once an injury happens, and this lessens the acute phase of the injury. Treatment and care is required as soon as an injury followed by symptoms such as, stiffness, swelling, and loss of muscle tone manifest. In addition, professional athletes work hard with a physical therapist or certified athletic trainer.
Many professional athletes contribute their healing to exactly what they bring to their game,a positive attitude. You are able to harness the power of a positive mindset to your own benefit, even though you may not have access to the tools that professional athletes possess.
Advice from the Pros to Boost Your Recovery
Maintain balanced physical conditioning
Make Sure injuries are recognized early and treated promptly
Participate in a complete functional rehabilitation program
Stay healthy while injured
Keep a positive, upbeat mental attitude
Proper Athletic Treatment Recovery Plan
Phases of Care
Recovery from an injury involves a set of logical steps from the time of the injury until you are able to return on the field or court. Every step should be summarized and monitored by your physician and therapist.
During the acute phase of injury, the focus should be on minimizing swelling. This entails the RICE formula (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation), Together with a limitation of actions. Based on the type and severity of your injury, treatment may involve casting, or bracing and surgery in more serious cases.
During the acute period, it’s extremely important to keep overall conditioning while the injury heals. Creative techniques may be used to safely work around the injury. As an example, a runner with a leg injury may often run in plain water or use a bicycle to keep conditioning. By doing exercises if one leg is in a cast, the remainder of the human body can be exercised. Don’t wait till your injury is treated to get back into shape.
In another phase of recovery, you should focus on regaining full motion and strength of the injured limb or joint. Your doctor, physical therapist or certified athletic trainer will help outline an exact treatment plan. For injuries, gentle protective exercises can be started almost immediately. Muscle tone may be preserved by means of strengthening exercises or electric stimulation.
When strength returns to normal, functional drills could be started. For lower extremity injuries, this may include brisk walking, jumping rope, hopping, or light jogging. For upper extremity injuries, effortless ground strokes or light throwing could be carried out. The coordination that might have been lost in the injury can be brought back by specific exercises for agility and balance.
Once you have progressed with mobility, endurance, strength, and agility, and are tolerating functional exercises, you can try higher levels of sport-specific movement routines. Your physical therapist or certified athletic trainer monitors this. You could find that tape, braces, or supports help in this transition time.
Only when you are practicing hard without significant problem, and the healing has progressed to the point at which the probability of injury or harm is reduced, are you ready to return to play. During these phases of recovery, you ought to be carefully monitored. Special attention ought to be given to sufficient warm up following the activity prior to the activity and icing after engaging in the specific sport or physical activity.
Note Of Caution
The rational progression of recovery not only reduces the chance of re-injury but also assures that you will be able to perform at your best when you return to play. Frequently, athletes believe they are all set to return as soon as the limp or even the swelling subsides. They might feel good, but they are probably just 70 to 75% recovered. This invites re-injury.
Sports medicine experts are working on approaches to assist athletes to achieve near 100% healing as fast as the proper cautionary measures allows. The athlete’s health and safety has to be put over all other concerns, although there is enormous pressure to get the athlete back whenever possible.
A systematic recovery program has been successfully utilized every day, at all levels of play, from the recreational athlete to the elite professional or Olympic athlete, by a variety of specialized healthcare professionals. As with any type of sports injury, seek immediate medical attention from a qualified specialist to begin the rehabilitation process.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Sports Care
Athletes engage in a series of stretches and exercises on a daily basis in order to prevent damage or injury from their specific sports or physical activities as well as to promote and maintain strength, mobility and flexibility. However, when injuries or conditions occur as a result of an accident or due to repetitive degeneration, getting the proper care and treatment can change an athlete’s ability to return to play as soon as possible and restore their original health.
With the presence of blood flow restriction training in discussions surrounding intensity coaches and physiotherapists, people are beginning to seek out programs for the best training procedure which might help them reach new levels of athletic performance.
In arenas that were competitive; an athlete’s practice volume is often restricted by their capacity, not their desire to keep training. With elite athletes there are a handful of variables that influence recovery; sleep, nourishment, training volume, the modality of training, body work…etc.. Athletes are looking for everything they can to be able to recuperate faster so they can train harder. Blood flow restriction training is an alternative and should be included in the dialogue of methods which help you recover.
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What is Blood Flow Restriction Training (BFR)?
In brief, it is when you use a tourniquet device to restrict blood flow to your extremities while exercising. Faster recovery, and amount of superior training, equals gains.
BFR and Recovery
First let us begin with the thought that BFR does not cause muscle damage. This is an extremely important aspect of BFR training. If we’re currently performing a modality to boost recovery, then we do not want to break down muscle fibers in the procedure.
Think of muscle recovery as an equation of protein balance. Net protein equilibrium muscle protein breakdown. We would like our web protein balance to be over 0 (in the favorable). A positive protein balance suggests we are building muscle, not breaking it down.
There are different markers used in study to quantify muscle breakdown such as CK degrees and myoglobin levels. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) has also been measured in areas after BFR. The subject revealed no increase in DOMS after blood flow restriction. There seems to be no indirect or direct measures of muscular damage related to BFR when looking at the study. So we can conclude that using BFR will not increase muscle dysfunction following an athlete’s training session.
Process of Recovery with BFR
The very first thing we will look at is the greater release of growth hormone. Studies have shown there to be up to some 290% boost in growth hormone following BFR. Growth hormone is an integral component in collagen synthesis. Collagen synthesis enables the body to restore ligaments and tendons, which are reliant on hydration for strength and their structure.
Tendons, exactly like muscles, are subject to damage following training. When we’ve got higher tendon (collagen) breakdown when compared to tendon (hydration) synthesis we can ultimately wind up with bothersome limb injuries (tendonopathy, tendonitis, tendonosis). Various studies have shown there to be increased cross sectional area and tendon stiffness that was enhanced when comparing raised GH to a control group that was normal without GH.
What exactly does this mean to the athlete? The Growth hormone reaction with blood flow restriction training can lead to tendon strength and durability, thus allowing them to train longer without harm.
Growth hormone can also be correlated with greater healing in bone (thanks to the higher collagen synthesis). A frequent type of sport injury includes stress fractures. A stress fracture is when there’s more collagen breakdown when compared to collagen synthesis. BFR may play a role in helping to stop or limit stress fractures in athletes.
Next let us look at IGF-1. Insulin like growth factor -1 (IGF-1) is ultimately a protein that is connected to muscle growth. When we examine what is needed for muscle development, we could refer back to this equation cited before protein equilibrium muscle protein breakdown. If you have a favorable protein balance we could conclude that muscle development will be achieved by utilizing BFR therapy. More muscle being assembled compared to muscle being destroyed equals more muscle development. If we’re currently attaining a positive protein balance, we could conclude that our muscle fibers are recovering like they ought to be. When comparing to controls, when using BFR training various studies have shown there to be an increased number of IGF-1.
BFR Into Practice
The BFR would take place as the last thing you did before leaving the gym. You can do upper or lower body, however if your goal is strictly muscle recovery, I�d recommend doing the lower extremity. The lower extremity has muscle mass which will create a higher reaction. Since HGH and IGF-1 are carried throughout the blood flow, the result is systemic (whole body). You would be fine doing either the lower or upper extremities. BFR is safe to use on a daily basis, therefore its recommended to switc pper body on your primarily upper body dominant days and the lower body on primarily your lower body dominant days.
The exercise of choice for the lower extremity are some kind of deadlift or squat done at 20 to 30% of your 1RM. The exercise of choice for the upper body would be some kind of push up, row, or press. Once again you are currently aiming for 20-30 percent 1RM. You desire the exercises to be easy. It is not a wonderful notion when performing muscle ups or handstand pushups to perform BFR. That’s a recipe for failure.
The method would be to use 4 sets of 30/15/15/15 reps with a 30 second break between sets and a 2-second concentric and two- second eccentric contraction to get a metabolic reaction. The protocol would be complete in approximately 4-5 minutes.
The placement of the cuffs will be at the peak of your arm, the most proximal segment just before the shoulder, or the top of your leg, the most proximal segment below your hip. We want the limb occlusion pressure to be 80 percent for the lower extremities and 50% to the upper extremities. If you experience numbing and tingling sensations, you’ve constricted too much. It will be uncomfortable, and will be the greatest “pump” and “burn” you’ve ever encounter. There ought to be zero numbness or tingling when performing BFR.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Sports Care
Athletes engage in a series of stretches and exercises on a daily basis in order to prevent damage or injury from their specific sports or physical activities as well as to promote and maintain strength, mobility and flexibility. However, when injuries or conditions occur as a result of an accident or due to repetitive degeneration, getting the proper care and treatment can change an athlete’s ability to return to play as soon as possible and restore their original health.
BFR or blood flow restriction therapy has been around for a long time, but recently, the evidence for its use in the world that is rehabilitation has begun to emerge. The principle is very simple: that the circulation of blood flow is confined to the area of the human body that’s being trained or undergoing rehabilitation in a certain manner to boost the impacts of the training via lower load (less stress).
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Is Blood Flow Restriction Effective?
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, to achieve an increase in muscle size and strength, you want to do 8 to 10 repetitions of an exercise. A moderate to high intensity is deemed to be 65 to 80 percent of their patient’s one rep maximum (the maximum amount of weight a person can lift 1 time). However, the majority of patients that are injured can’t deal with this kind of load, consequently restricting their capacity.
So again we’re faced with the question: Just how can we achieve hypertrophy and gain muscle strength without using heavy loads? The solution involves using a tourniquet to restrict blood flow into a muscle. This technique is known as blood flow restriction training (BFR).
According to the most recent research in the event the appropriate blood flow restriction therapy protocols are utilized, the benefits of the training are equal to those found when using 70 percent of an individual’s maximal load, while using as little as 20 to 30 percent of somebody’s maximum load. The secret is that restricted blood flow training allows healthcare professionals, such as physical therapists, to make a localized region of exercise that is anaerobic.
BFR is a tool that uses a doppler and tourniquet system placed on either thigh or the upper arm to limit blood circulation. After this, it begins to create lactate and hydrogen ions and denies the muscle oxygen. This is what causes the “burning” feeling when we lift heavy weights. The burn is simply the response to being in an active environment of the body. During heavy lifting (65-85%), we create small microtraumas in the muscle that the body then repairs by building more muscle. Together with BFR, we are not generating microtraumas at the muscle, so our body does not have to devote the energy to repair the muscle; rather our bodies just focus on creating the muscle.
Second, soreness is not experienced by us as we would when we were lifting weights. This means we can now lift at low loads (15-30%) and basically gain more muscle strength and size, at a quicker manner, as if we were lifting a more heavier load.
As soon as we create lactate, we activate growth hormone release. The release of IGF-1 subsequently stimulates once growth hormone is released. Such enables your muscles ability to activate; this in turn increases muscle protein synthesis, or our stem cells to the muscle. As previously mentioned, if we were to have muscle breakdown, these stem cells could have to concentrate on repairing muscles building. With blood flow restriction therapy or training, we skip the muscle repair and focus on muscle building. This result is not concentrated throughout the exercise, but impacts the tissues and muscles to create the greater benefit of BFR. BFR has shown to have the ability to help in endurance training and coaching, tendon healing and bone recovery.
All of our muscles are produced from other kinds of fibers, including type 1 which are slow to twitch and rely on oxygen and type 2, which are those we’re currently attempting to build with BFR training and fast-twitch fibers. By limiting the blood flow, we create an environment at the muscle group that compels the increase of more fibers that are type 2. Higher strength gains are the outcome because these type 2 fibers normally can produce more force. Another effect of blood flow restriction is that is allows for a synthesis of proteins needed to build and repair muscles and tissues.
In a treatment setting, this helps us achieve the outcomes for patients faster, and in sports it enables the gains to be attained with less strength and less damage to the muscle. That is why pro and college teams are currently turning to BFR as a training principle. In sports, athletes are attempting to come back to the field quicker after suffering trauma or injury from an accident. Some athletes re-injure themselves by lifting. That is really where BFR can come by lifting loads that are lower and receiving the same, or even much better profits. Healthcare specialists will tend to eliminate strength immediately following a sports injury, but they can not exercise at elevated levels. In this manner, they can not only keep the power but build strength in the process although together with blood flow restriction training.
Is Blood Flow Restriction Safe?
You might be thinking that its effects sounds fantastic, but is it safe? The brief answer is yes, but as with any rehab technique, there are precautions which should be taken and it’s recommended to first seek medical attention from a healthcare professional to discuss the option of BFR therapy for you. We certainly don’t recommend that individuals do this by themselves and tie bands around their limbs. In the practice, specialists can track it as you train and use special devices to know exactly how much you need to train to experience its benefits.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Sports Care
Athletes engage in a series of stretches and exercises on a daily basis in order to prevent damage or injury from their specific sports or physical activities as well as to promote and maintain strength, mobility and flexibility. However, when injuries or conditions occur as a result of an accident or due to repetitive degeneration, getting the proper care and treatment can change an athlete’s ability to return to play as soon as possible and restore their original health.
For many athletes following any major endurance event they will return to their houses, to recover, celebrate, reflect and rebuild to their next career step. Some, like the athlete in this case study will need to now focus attention on delayed decisions concerning whether to go under the knife to sort out a chronic injury.�El Paso, TX’s Injury scientist, Dr. Alexander Jimenez takes a look at the study.
My client has been competing in triathlon for 10 or more years, although his career has included a range of serious injuries which have kept him from races for months on end. In the previous two to three decades, however, he’s enjoyed a sustained period of injury-free training and racing, and has climbed to the peak of the world rankings. But the emergence of hip pain has seen him once more return to the physio’s table.
The triathlete’s accident history highlights a common pattern among sportspeople: 2 tibial stress fractures, a femoral neck stress fracture and a serious ankle sprain — every one of these on his right side. The significant contributing element to the bone stress injuries is a 1.5cm leg-length gap (his right leg is shorter).
He’d first experienced comparable hip pain in 2004; it kept him from running for three months. At that time, nothing was detected on a bone scan or MRI, or so the pain went paralyzed. An intra-articular cortisone injection (CSI) elicited no improvement. The athlete remembers that he chose to train on his painful hip, never allowing the symptoms to settle. The nearest he ever came into an investigation was a hypothesis that he could have a little, undetected, labral lesion.
The present episode of hip pain began initially at night after a hard three-hour bicycle ride. Earlier this, however, he hadn’t cycled for five times. He described his initial symptom as a profound hip tightness (lateral and lateral), together with slight pain in his groin. He was able to continue to train however, was feeling that the hip tightness and pain following both cycling and running (swimming was symptom-free).
A week later his symptoms dramatically worsened when he flew from Australia to Singapore, on his way to a French high- altitude camp. As he got off the airplane, he felt deep hip pain as well as the tightness. As elite athletes tend to do, he coached anyway, running a tricky track session, which made the hip much worse: he was unable to ride or run without pain. He instantly started a course of anti- inflammatories.
I met him in Singapore and evaluated him in the airport, initially ruling out any prospect of a disease or systemic matter. He explained he had been feeling an ache during the night, lying in bed; on waking, the hip would be OK, but got worse the longer he walked.
On assessment, he had the following physical signs:
� walking with obvious limp
� pain on hopping (6/10)
�painful right hip quadrant/impingement test (full hip flexion/adduction)
� reduced right hip flexion (-10 degrees compared to left)
� reduced right hip internal rotation (-10 degrees compared to left)
� increased tone on palpation of TFL, adductors, hip flexors, gluteal, piriformis and deep rotators
� lumbar spine and SIJ were OK
� femoral shaft bone stress test was OK � leg length discrepancy (right side 1.5cm shorter)
� right innominate (pelvis) anteriorly rotated
� weakness in right hip abductors/extensors
� reduced calf endurance on right side (-5 reps)
� ankle dorsiflexion range of movement was OK
� reduced proprioception on right (single leg stance, eyes closed).
I thought the differential diagnoses were:
� femoral neck stress fracture
� labral tear, possibly with hip synovitis
� FAI (femoro-acetabular impingement), possibly with hip synovitis.
I initially treated the triathlete with soft- tissue techniques to reduce the tone around the hip joint. Trigger-point releases were performed on his TFL, adductors, gluteals, piriformis, deep rotators and iliopsoas.�This reduced his jump pain into 3/10. Manual long-leg grip further decreased the strain on hopping (2/10). He still had pain and stiffness on walking but it sensed “simpler. As he prepared to embark on his long run flight to Europe, I counseled him to not sit for too long and maintain his stylish as straight as possible to decrease any potential impingement from hip flexion.
Luckily, the hip didn’t get worse throughout the flight. On arrival at the French high-altitude training centre, we initiated a strategy of two swims and two intensive treatments a day, aiming at reducing muscle tone, restoring his range of hip movement and normal muscle control and stamina. We had been expecting that the problem was not a stress fracture, but just minor hip synovitis that could settle quickly. Following a week of conservative treatment, though, we were just able to keep his hop pain in 2/10, and that he still could not run 20 meters without any pain and limping.
In collaboration with medics, we flew to London to see a sports doctor and get MRI scans. The scans revealed no bone stress reaction, fracture or labral ripping — which was a big relief; however, it did show signs consistent with FAI (femoro-acetabular impingement). He had hip synovitis with a rectal lesion on his femur.
Hip injuries aren’t much reported among triathletes — in fact they are notably absent from reports on Olympic and Ironman triathlons, which mention knee, back, H/ Achilles, lower leg, ankle and shoulder as the most common accidents (1-3).
In this state, when the hip is in maximum flexion and internal rotation, the labrum and cartilage abut and impinge; damage to the articular cartilage and acetabular labrum results from this pathologic bony contact. The contact generally results in a structural abnormality of the femur (“camera impingement”) along with the acetabulum (“pincer impingement”) or a combination of both (“mixed impingement”). Over time, via repetitive micro-trauma, the aggravating motion hurts the hip cartilage or labrum (or both) during normal joint motion. This happens along the anterior femoral neck and the anterior–superior acetabular rim. FAI is a possible trigger of early hip joint degeneration (4).
Arthroscopic surgery is the direction of choice for FAI if symptoms do not settle; however as his next Competition was only three and a half a year off, surgery was not an option. Instead, over a five-day interval, the athlete had two cortisone (CSI) and local anesthetic injections into the hip joint (under ultrasound guidance) to settle the indicators.
Our aim was to grow the hip range of motion and extend the capsule to reduce any additional impingement, slowly returning to regular training. Following the competition, the athlete would then should see a hip arthroscopic surgeon to acquire a surgical opinion to the best option for long-term direction.
Injection Relief
After both shots my customer felt sore for five days. The initial CSI settled his pain on hopping to 1/10 and after seven days he managed to operate without symptoms. But minor hip stiffness and aching at the end of the day prevented him from progressing to optimal training, so that he then underwent a second steroid injection. This settled the hop pain into 0/10 and decreased the aching; so after five times he returned to mild cycling and after seven days he started running again, also.
The athlete admitted that, following the first shot, he had done more and gone tougher in training than directed, as he had felt “good. This mistake of “too much too soon — all too common in elite athletes — had led to excessive inflammation and aching in the hip nightly after training. After the next injection he returned to normal intensity slower and more gradually.
My client built his training up to regular levels by four months following the final injection (swimming five times per week, cycling four days and running six to seven days). He began with very easy cycling on a wind trainer for 30 minutes, building slowly to 90 minutes before cycling on the street. He cycled two days on and one day away and avoided hills to the first two weeks. He started jogging on the apartment for 15 minutes and slowly built up to 90 minutes after three weeks. He did not run hills or about the track; and as he ran only on every single day, he would diligently concentrate on technique.
From week six to week 11, my client remained on anti inflammatory medication and underwent two treatments a day.
The hands-on treatment continued to:
� increase hip range of movement
� stretch the hip capsule
� normalise pelvic symmetry and hip muscle tone
� improve muscle control and strength � improve proprioception
� ensure optimal biomechanics via video assessment (cycling and running).
Eleven weeks after he first felt his hip pain, the triathlete returned to racing; however he failed to finish the first race, partially because of minor hip stiffness but mainly due to “fitness. Fortunately there were not any prolonged symptoms after the race and a week after he successfully returned to competition, coming second in a really strong field. His very minor ongoing symptoms were handled with anti-inflammatory drugs and hands-on treatments.
If this athlete wants to pursue a long- term triathlon career up to the London Olympics, then he will now require surgery. The arthroscopic surgical technique initially assesses the cartilage and labral surfaces, debrides any abnormalities of the hip joint cartilage and hip labrum, removes the non-spherical segments of the femoral head�and any prominent sections of the anterior femoral neck and bony growths on the acetabular rim that may continue to contribute to hip joint impingement.�The alternative is early joint degeneration and onset of osteoarthritis.
References:
1. Wilk B et al: �The incidence of musculoskeletal injuries in an amateur triathlete racing club�. J Orthop Sports Phys
Ther 1995 Sep;22(3):108-12.
2. Collins K et al: �Overuse injuries in triathletes. A study of the 1986 Seafair Triathlon�. Am J Sports Med 1989 SepOct;17(5):675-80.
3. Korkia PK et al: �An epidemiological investigation of training and injury patterns in British triathletes�. Br J Sports Med 1994 Sep;28(3):191-6.
4. Ganz R. et al (2003): �Femoroacetabular impingement: a cause for osteoarthritis of the hip�. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 417:112�120. For more information see: www.hipfai.com
Imagine you trained well for a significant race, got yourself into form and cruised through the first half of the course without any issues, and were on pace for a nice PR. All of a sudden, you started to notice tightness in one of your hamstrings. In the beginning, it was a hindrance that could be ignored, but the tightness got steadily worse until your hamstring was a stiff, painful mass of tissue which cried out to cease.
You slowed down, you ceased to stretch, massaged it, but nothing helped. Realizing that this was the conclusion of your race, you limped to the end, disappointed and frustrated that after six months of attentive, time-consuming preparations, some strips of muscular tissue in the back of your thigh had prevented you from attaining your goal. Does this situation sound familiar to someone or has this happened to someone you know?
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Hamstring Injury Issues
Hamstring difficulties are common among runners, with strains, pulls, tendinitis and tears being the most commonly reported damage or injury to the hamstring muscles. Are hamstring issues common? Most distance runners have developed a scenario called “quad dominance,” a scenario that takes place when the quad muscles overpower the action of the hamstrings at the movement of the leg through a running stride.
Logging a great deal of miles on the streets can put repetitive functional overload on the quadriceps, which makes them powerful, strong and dominant. When the quadriceps contract as you land, the hamstrings, the opposite muscles, act as brakes for your knee to stop against hyperextending in the conclusion motion of a stride.
The quad functions when the knee is locked out in expansion with motion happening in the hip (the forward swing of a stride). The quadriceps work along with the hip flexors to flex the hip as you run. In addition, once the hip is fixated with movement taking place in the knee (when the leg is planted on the floor), the quads function as extensors of the knee.
If your hamstrings are significantly weaker than your quads, due to a continuous loading of the anterior (frontal) chain from jogging or running, particularly seen in athletes, then one of two things will happen: first, your hamstrings will tear as a consequence of not being able to take the load created by the contracting quadriceps and momentum out of hip extension; and two, you will run slower as a consequence of diminished power from the hip flexors and knee extensors since the hamstrings have to contract earlier to have the ability to break the ensuing movement.
Regrettably, once you get yourself into this quad-dominating problem, it’s difficult to undo. Hamstring injuries are rather slow to cure, and athletes regularly spend plenty of time resting before they are able to train without much pain towards carrying out activities. However, like muscle injuries, distress tends to return again and again, particularly because most athletes fail to deal with the root cause of their problems.
When the quadriceps are concentrically contracting (as you land), the hamstrings need to be eccentrically contracting to check the movement. It has been proven for producing activities, that contractions will have limited gains in strength. For this reason, focusing upon loading is critical.
By executing a suitable strengthening program for those hamstrings using a series of specific, isolated, and abnormal exercises, such as those in which muscle fibers lengthen because they contract, you can remove the quad dominance, and keep yourself healthy, powerful and quick. It is possible to begin with the following three simple hamstring exercises below to help treat an athlete’s hamstring injuries, improving strength, flexibility and mobility.
Hamstring Exercises
The exercises here will strengthen the hamstrings while the muscles actively lengthen by mimicking the “grab” of a leg’s swing period whilst jogging. Each of these exercises 8 to 12 times for 3 to 4 sets. On moving from the center, focus, and remember that the emphasis is on the portion of the motion.
Good Morning
A) Start with your thighs locked, arms holding a weight bar on your shoulders with conflicting grasp, back in neutral position and center tight.
B) Slowly bend over at the waist, gently feeling the stretch on down the road. Keep your chest do not hesitate to droop your shoulders toward the floor in an attempt to seem like you are going . Constantly keep the core to support your back.
C) On down the road, maintain the barbell as close to your leg as possible to decrease the pressure on the lower spine. Maintain the back at the neutral position.
D) When you’ve gone as low as possible with your knees locked, start to return up slowly. (Avoid the tendency to jerk upwards or arch your spine. Should you feel inclined to either, use less weight on the bar.)
E) For a sophisticated version, try this exercise one leg at a time by putting the non-exercising leg up on a seat on your side.
Single-Leg Romanian Dead Lift
A) Stand holding a barbell in front of you on your right hand, putting your weight in your right foot. Lean forward 15 degrees or so.
B) Keeping a small bend in your right knee, your back flat and your chest out, lift your left leg straight out behind you as you reduce your body over your right leg. Slide the dumbbell to about mid-shin down your quad and lift your own body back up into an erect posture, keeping your weight onto your right leg. Repeat for 2 to 12 repetitions, then switch hands and legs.
C) To progress this exercise, stand on a barbell or Bosu with the exact same weight, or stay on the floor and increase your weight.
Eccentric Hamstring Curl (with a partner)
A) Kneel on a folded towel or a pile of exercise mats with your toes pulled toward your shins. Keep your hands in front of your chest. Your partner sits behind you, facing your spine, pressing down on your legs with his palms.
B) Keep your core tightup your torso and hips forward so your body forms a straight line from the ears to your knees. As you lower your chest whilst resisting gravity keep this posture. Control the range of motion as far as you can, grab yourself with your hands, then push off the floor in yanking you back up to assist your hamstrings and glutes. (In case you do not have a spouse, you can perform a similar workout on a hamstring washing machine)
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Sports Care
Athletes engage in a series of stretches and exercises on a daily basis in order to prevent damage or injury from their specific sports or physical activities as well as to promote and maintain strength, mobility and flexibility. However, when injuries or conditions occur as a result of an accident or due to repetitive degeneration, getting the proper care and treatment can change an athlete’s ability to return to play as soon as possible and restore their original health.
Blood Flow Restriction training (BFR) is a style of resistance training that utilizes the custom of wrapping a kind of tourniquet around a limb and training with a relatively light load. It is a practice that has gained quite a bit of popularity in the resistance coaching realm over the last few decades and is something which can benefit training protocols.
If used properly, practical blood flow restriction training (BFR) could help you through hypertrophy plateaus, pack on additional mass and even aid in growth or maintenance of muscle mass during times in which lifting heavy weight is either laborious or impossible. Let’s understand what’s actually going on in the body when it is used by you.
As mentioned prior, BFR demands using some form of tourniquet around a limb so as to inhibit blood flow. However, not all of blood flow is restricted. The purpose of the tourniquet is to prevent what’s known as ‘venous return’ . When you contract a muscle, more blood than ordinary is shuttled to provide the muscle with a myriad of different nutrients, such as oxygen. Typically, if un-wrapped, the blood then returns to the heart through veins so as to rid the muscle of metabolic bi-products like carbon dioxide, lactate, and hydrogen ions (the acidity that makes your muscle “burn off”).
The role of using some form of tourniquet is to inhibit the ‘venous return’ of blood to the heart while still allowing arterial blood circulation to the muscle. By doing this, the blood continues to be shuttled to the muscle and pools without having the ability to escape. It’s believed that the accumulation of blood and bi-products contributes to activation of fast-twitch muscle fibers, which is typically thought to only happen after these are fatigues or due to using fairly heavy loads. By doing this, you increase the potential for the muscle t.
In fact, a recent analysis by suggested that when participants used the same load (40% of 1 RM) and either used a tourniquet or didn’t, the team using BFR observed the same gains in strength and muscle volume as the group that did not. The catch: the BFR team had finished significantly less repeats, and thus less quantity, in addition to less time under pressure. This implies the exact same advantage was observed by them, but achieved in time.
The research appears to indicate that you could complete less work in order to achieve the very same results. Utilizing blood flow restriction training is ideal for times that you are fatigued or simply too sore to execute resistance training that is significant or are just at a time crunch. Additionally, using BFR is a candidate for instances when usage of significant weight is apparently impossible or ill advised, for example post-injury or operation, or being elderly.
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Gear
Considering the nature of this kind of training, BFR requires using some form of tourniquet. The easiest and most convenient way to achieve this would be to use some form of strap like an ace bandage or weightlifting knee wraps. If you are able to discover a strap using a comparable elasticity diameter that is smaller, this would be more optimal. When wrapping your limbs, you want to prevent wrap ‘over’ the limb. Otherwise you can risk limiting the muscle’s capacity to contract and your range of movement.
Placement
You will want to put the wrap around the proximal portion of the muscle you’re working. This implies over the muscle and close to the torso. If you are thinking about training forearms and your biceps, you should set the wrap beneath the deltoid. Using this technique for the body requires some careful instructions. Some experts say that when practicing BFR for the body, your leg ought to be wrapped close to the groin area, over the quadriceps. If you’re training calves this would be included. When training BFR for calves, its wise to wrap over the calf and beneath the knee. This is because the common wraps are not really large enough to effectively wrap over the quadriceps.
Wrapping Pressure
When wrapping your muscle, remember to keep in mind that you aren’t attempting to completely restrict blood flow. You still require blood circulation to the muscle. As such, when you wrap, you should try to shoot for wrapping the arm at about a 7 out of 10, with ten being very painful and a complete loss of blood flow. If your arm is totally asleep before you even begin training, the wrap is too tight.�If you complete a set of exercises and your arm is not pumped or fatigued, then you’ve probably not wrapped the bands tight enough.
First and foremost, a majority of experts concur that this kind of training is in fact a safe practice provided that it’s executed properly. To be able to maintain proper safety, ensure that you have not completely restricted blood circulation. Further, as soon as you’ve finished your sets, be certain that you remove the wrap in order to give the muscle blood supply and permit the used blood to be recycled. Should you have them too tight or keep the wraps on too long, you run the danger of inducing tissue and cell death. This isn’t advised. Further, if you have higher blood pressure or heart problems BFR, or blood flow restriction, training is not suggested.
There’s also some evidence to indicate that musculature which isn’t directly occluded, for example chest and shoulders, can experience some benefit from BFR. That is interesting because there was a long belief that advantage would be seen by muscle below the tourniquet. A current meta-analysis indicated that despite evidence, the indirect muscle (chest and shoulders) may see increased benefit in comparison to the same training without a tourniquet. If you are feeling tired, yet still want to get a chest and shoulder pump, then it may help you to wrap your arms.
Finally, BFR shouldn’t be used only in place of different sorts of training. Outcomes like power, power output, hypertrophy and force production rely on coaching specificity and varying immunity (i.e to be able to maximize strength, you need to train with heavier loads to get lower repetitions). The study suggests that blood flow restriction training could be as good as other types of instruction, not exceptional. Therefore, blood flow restriction, or BFR, training may be a useful tool within a resistance-training schedule that is well-rounded.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Sports Care
Athletes engage in a series of stretches and exercises on a daily basis in order to prevent damage or injury from their specific sports or physical activities as well as to promote and maintain strength, mobility and flexibility. However, when injuries or conditions occur as a result of an accident or due to repetitive degeneration, getting the proper care and treatment can change an athlete’s ability to return to play as soon as possible and restore their original health.
In order to comprehend how BFR, or blood flow restriction, functions, it is important to perform a quick debriefing on how your circulatory system, also called vascular or cardiovascular system, works. Your arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygenated blood away from your heart to your body. Your veins are blood vessels that carry blood from the body back to the heart.
The objective of blood flow restriction training would be to restrict venous return while still allowing arterial flow by strategically wrapping the lightest portion of your own limbs. Blood can keep pooling to a muscle by restricting the veins rather than the arteries and it remains trapped there. It is like filling a water balloon to max capacity (with no popping up, of course).
By gathering all of the blood to the working muscles without letting it leave, a couple key things happen:�One, you receive a crazy pump and your muscles become supersized. The concept is that this contributes to cellular swelling that shocks the muscles into growth. Second, it’s gonna burn tremendously. Your muscles become deprived of oxygen and can not eliminate accumulating waste materials and this creates a great deal of acidosis or strain. Metabolic stress is just one of the three major mechanisms of muscle development and shouldn’t be dismissed.
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The Science of BFR
Dr. Brad Schoenfeld is a regular contributor on hypertrophy (the scientific term for muscle growth). In his book Science and maturation of Muscle Hypertrophy, ” he states: “The prevailing body of literature shows that BFR training stimulates anabolic signaling and muscle protein synthesis and markedly increases muscle development despite using loads frequently considered too low to encourage substantial hypertrophy.” Brad goes on further, saying that “it has been speculated that metabolic stress would be the driving force behind BFR-induced muscle hypertrophy.”
Another interesting matter that occurs with blood flow restriction training is since your oxygen-dependent slow-twitch fibers fatigue way quicker than normal, you have to quickly begin tapping into the fast-twitch muscle fibers, which have the biggest potential for growth.
Interestingly enough, your fast-twitch fibers typically don’t get hit unless you’re using heavy loads or pretty hefty loads performed explosively. But BFR lets you really go fast-twitch with loads less than 50 percent of your own one-rep max. Actually, one study from the Journal of Applied Physiology revealed increased muscle cross-sectional area with BFR training using loads as light as 20 percent of one-rep maximum.
What this means for you is that with BFR training you can utilize lighter loads to construct muscle while sparing your muscles from heavy loading and without fatiguing your central nervous system. Additionally, it is important to note that research has proven the gains are not just for legs and the arms but also for muscle groups over the wraps.
How to Wrap For BFR Training
There are some high-end pressure cuffs which may be used to wrap your limbs for BFR, however any wraps will get the job done. Some people utilize knee/elbow or ace bandages wraps. Others use hospital tourniquets that are run-of-the-mill.
For your upper body, wrap it only beneath the shoulder at the top of upper arm so that the wrapping is nestling into your armpit.
For the lower body, wrap only below the gluteal fold from the back and just below the hip flexor in the front.
For both the upper and lower body, you want to wrap at about a 7 out of 10 on the tightness scale (10 being as tight as you can).
You shouldn’t feel any numbness or tingling sensations. That usually means you wrapped it tight, if you do. Wrapping it too tight will limit flow and prevent blood from pooling in the gut, so it defeats the purpose. When in doubt, wrap at first, particularly around the back side of the spectrum.
How can you know whether you wrapped it right? In the event you get your life’s muscular pump. Recall, if it feels sketchy just take off the wraps and re-wrap a tiny bit looser. There is a bit of a learning curve and thus don’t place too much stress to nail it on the first try.
How BFR Training Builds Muscle
The secret to effective BFR training is using light loads (40 to 50 percent of your one-rep maxor less), high repetitions (10 to 15 repetitions or longer), and short rest periods (30 minutes or less). In addition, it is important to note that BFR does not replace your regular training–it just enhances it. Here are my three favorite ways to execute BFR training:
BFR Finishers
After performing your main work out, hit a BFR finisher. If you completed an upper-body workout, hit an upper-body BFR finisher. If you finished a lower-body workout, hit on a BFR finisher. Hit on one for the upper and lower body if you do total-body sessions.
Extra Training Volume and Frequency
BFR is a excellent way to increase training volume (how much work you do) and coaching frequency (how often you train) without impairing your recovery. As an example, to bump up your training volume, if you did 3 routine sets of an exercise with heavier loads, try adding in an additional couple sets of BFR training to the same movement pattern or muscle group using a lighter load for higher reps and shorter rest periods between sets.
Active Recovery and Deloading
Since BFR training requires having lighter loads, it is considerably easier to recover from deeper training. This makes it a process to employ but still want to train. It’s also great to use if you integrate regular deloads–or intervals of decreased loading or training volume–into your training schedule.
It is worth mentioning that BFR is being used with remarkable success in rehabilitation settings, especially with wounded athletes. Being able to operate and develop muscles after an injury or operation with loads is a joint-sparing feature unique to BFR training. As always, consult your physician or physical therapist to find out if BFR training is right for you in such circumstances.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Sports Care
Athletes engage in a series of stretches and exercises on a daily basis in order to prevent damage or injury from their specific sports or physical activities as well as to promote and maintain strength, mobility and flexibility. However, when injuries or conditions occur as a result of an accident or due to repetitive degeneration, getting the proper care and treatment can change an athlete’s ability to return to play as soon as possible and restore their original health.
Athletes face extreme pressure to return to play when they are hurt however, the true challenge for physicians is to get them back in the game safely. Athletes should be tough and maintain a positive attitude whilst regularly going through pain. When they’re made to sit out due to an accident, they should be focused and motivated to return to play as quickly as possible. They rehabilitate and rest as they trust that their bodies will ready after a full treatment plan.
This is the idealistic perspective of injury associated with athletes in their specific sport or physical activity. However, the reality is that accidents are an unavoidable by product of being an athlete and the transition from “active athlete” to “injured athlete” and back to “active athlete” does not always happen without complications.
Injured athletes fight with anxiety, frustration, anger and sometimes depression during their time away from play, which might also keep them from following their rehabilitation program effectively. Additionally, the return to the sport itself yields a fresh pair of adversities as athletes should browse through personal fears and a desire to come back to their pre-injury condition with the support of their family and healthcare physician.
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Importance of Support for Injured Athletes
Social support can come from various forms, ranging from emotional support to task challenge assistance. Some wounded athletes want a caring individual simply to listen to their anxieties while others might prefer a challenging drive to work harder during rehab. Studies looking at the supply of social support have found that athletes feel most satisfied with the support provided by professionals in comparison to support supplied by teammates or coaches.
It would appear obvious that athletes would need support to assist with the injury recovery process. Because teams have access to trainers in a school setting, this additional support is possible. However, injuries are not unique to the collegiate population, which makes it important to address that �and provide this service.
Researchers who immediately addressed athletes’ tastes from healthcare professionals found that the desire to learn more concerning the injury resulted in a clearer timeline for return to play along with an open environment where athletes felt comfortable asking questions. In respect to athletes not fully understanding their injuries, they noticed that they would have appreciated the use of models and more sophisticated explanations from their physicians. It’s essential for healthcare professionals to take the time to help these athletes that are injured throughout the rehabilitation and recovery process and return to play with expertise.
Even though a complete return to play could be potential in time, it won’t happen immediately and teammates, parents, the athletes and coaches need to understand this. Trainers who have missed those who have been inactive for any period of time or numerous practices will require a slow progression back to their previous degree. This is bothersome for coaches who may “need” that athlete and also for the athlete who wants to return so as not to let the team down, trainer or themselves. Additionally, while appeasing the team and coach, the athlete may want to listen to doctors to ensure a safe recovery.
Goal-Setting to Facilitate Confidence And Motivation
Throughout the rehabilitation process, athletes should set modest goals, adjust their mindset, surround themselves with supportive people and develop their patience. It is important for others such as doctors, parents and trainers to understand the process, and provide athletes with resources and support to help them construct in these areas. Like setting rehabilitation targets that are daily followed by exercise goals, simple strategies can help athletes experience modest successes and build their own confidence.
Every injured athlete would like to return to 100 percent but it is going to take some time to reach that degree. They’re very likely to eliminate the drive and motivation to continue, if they don’t see improvements over time. The athlete has to set goals based on their current status. The athlete will see little daily improvements leading them in the path of better performances in the future.
Building and/or maintaining confidence is vital, and it cannot be connected to results. Athletes need to realize that confidence keeps them trying even if scenarios aren’t going their way, and helps them push through failures. Confidence is a way of behaving and thinking that should be evident in everything one does regardless of the outcome.
In Conclusion
Given potential effects related to harm and the emotions, it’s clear that more education is essential to guarantee positive consequences for athletes who’ve experienced sports injuries. Injuries are unavoidable but they do not need to be devastating to well-being and one’s life if handled effectively. It’s apparent that athletes encounter adversity due to the injury and due to the change for their own lives and daily routines. The recovery is sometimes more easy than the yield to perform since the bone may heal and the tear could be mended, but the brain doesn’t change as easily.
It is necessary for everyone involved to understand that helping an athlete recovery in order to return to play as soon as possible demands attention to both the body and the brain. This can be accomplished by one with awareness, education and effort of coaches, doctors, athletes and parents alike.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Sports Care
Athletes engage in a series of stretches and exercises on a daily basis in order to prevent damage or injury from their specific sports or physical activities as well as to promote and maintain strength, mobility and flexibility. However, when injuries or conditions occur as a result of an accident or due to repetitive degeneration, getting the proper care and treatment can change an athlete’s ability to return to play as soon as possible and restore their original health.
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