CrossFit? The bad and the good about it.

CrossFit is basically like doing cross training. You're doing a series of exercises, from one exercise to the next, in a fast pace. It's like circuit training, although it has a higher demand. It's a big exercise program consisting of functional training. You may do a number of jump squats, then switch to another ply-metric exercise or you'll switch to a deadlift, before switching to the next exercise..

What people don't realize is that you're doing all this stuff super fast, but nobody pays attention to how correctly they're doing the exercises. First of all: Sit-ups are bad! Sit-ups pull on your back more, than crunches do. Plus doing them too fast and hard, puts a huge demand on your spine! It'll cause more back injuries or maybe a hernia. Doing sit-ups or crunches and pulling on your head, is never good. You will strain your neck. You must keep your neck and head straight and lined up with your spine.

Also during squats, people may have they're feet turned out or turned in, when they should be straight! There's research about orthopedic cautions on exercise, BUT with me being a Corrective Exercise Specialist, I'm also telling you this. I want to inform people that it's not good because I care!

Doing a deadlift too fast can also put your back out. As well as doing any exercise too fast, can cause injuries! Doing improper squats, especially too fast and hurt your knees and other problems also...

I personally don't believe in the whole crossfit era, and don't think it should be around. All you got to do is do those exercises slower and focus on doing everything correctly. Whether you're doing functional training like a set of lunges or squats, with holding weights, or doing single leg exercises, or back extensions, you'll function better in your life style!

Injury Prevention, muscle imbalances and bad posture

THE PAIN IN THE BUTT THAT YOU HAVE, AND HOW YOU'RE WASTING MONEY ON CHIROPRACTORS!    Information by Adam.

Besides the thousands of people who are overweight or obese, including children; there's something else to think about: The pain and the bad posture that people have! Everyday, people are suffering and complaining of their back's hurting and getting stiff, or they're complaining about their knees, hips, or neck pain, or any joint that's aching on their bodies. Why? What's causing all of this? I'll tell you in a moment! Also flexibility is important! If your muscles are tight, you lose mobility. Joints are stiff because nothing's lubricated, you'll have more injuries at any age. Bad balance is also a factor. 

Millions of people are always going to their local chiropractor or a chiropractor who maybe a little more distant to them, and they're getting their backs cracked or adjusted, or treated. People think they're getting a good treatment done, but in some cases they're not! Plus not to mention, people have a popped disc or a herniated disc/s in their backs! And chiropractors won't tell you to stretch and correct your posture, which is causing pain in the first place! Whyyyyy the pain?

The answer is, that people are walking around with bad posture due to sitting for long periods of time, repetitive movements, postural stress, injury/trauma, improper exercise techniques or from working and doing tasks improperly. Tight muscles in certain areas, and the weak muscles in the other areas are causing bad posture! And then you'll have improper movement, then muscular and joint pain. Your body will go into the cumulative injury cycle. From trauma to inflammation, to muscle spasms to muscle knots, to altered neuromuscular control and then muscle imbalances again!  So then what do people do? They run to a chiropractor because they're having back pain or hip pain, etc, or they pulled their back. Going to the chiropractor isn't the fix, BUT it's YOU who can fix this problem! You pop or herniate your disks because of your pelvis being lopsided, which provokes scoliosis, an S or a C in your back, either permanently or temporary. People also have muscle knots that need to be worked out. I show a picture on here to show normal tissue & tissue with knots. Knots block blood flow and nutrients. I believe pain can develop from that also. Muscles are starved from oxygen & nutrients carried in the blood. Then muscles can't function, and nor do you have energy. Our brain also feeds off glucose from carbs. to function. 

Change the way you sit, change the way you lift things at work or at home, change the way you walk around. Correct your posture: Keep your head up, keep your back straight most of the time when you sit and walk, keep your feet straight when you walk and start stretching your muscles more often each day!  You got to increase flexibility (range of motion + extensibility) and extensibility (your muscles being able to stretch).

Order one of these chairs from Isokineticsinc.com, and sit on it at your office or ay home, and it'll help your posture and your spine from injuring ever again!
               
     

            

BACK PAIN CAUSES

• The buttocks or gluteus maximus is weak, or your butt is tight & pushing up on your iliac crest. And your latissimis dorsi muscles get mostly tight, so there's a tug-of-war going on. The glutes need massaged & stretched, and possibly the latissus dorsi. Every time you sit down or walk around, everything you do, your butt will weaken from office work. So then other muscles compensate like your hips, your quadratus lumborum or love handle areas, your thighs and even your upper back (lats). 
• Your latissimus dorsi muscles and your butt muscles work together (synergistic-ally), to support your low back, they create strength. But when they're imbalanced, you get back pain. 
• Hip flexors are tight pulling you forward in a bent position. Therefore, hamstrings and butt could be weak. The lats are also a factor in the anterior pelvic tilt with your arms falling forward.
• Long periods of sitting also makes your hamstrings and your hip flexor muscles (in front of your body above the quad muscles) tighter. So when those are tighter, it creates pain. It pulls on your back, and spine.  
• If you have an anterior pelvic tilt, that means your butt pops out, or sticks out in the back, and your back (spine) is curved. This causes back pain and stress because all the muscles in your vertebrae are being flexed. Your hip flexors will get tight and pull you forward into that tilt. Your butt could remain normal though unless it's weak to pull you up, or like in a excess forward lean (bent over), and hamstrings will be weak also because you can't erect yourself up. The gluteus maximus is the most muscle that erects you up or extends your hips as you walk up stairs. That's how you herniate or pop a disc. Chiropractors don't tell you that. When the hip flexors are right it's hard for a person to stand up erect, those front hip flexors need stretched to improve posture! 

• Or you have a posterior pelvic tilt where your butt sinks in, and your hips tilt forward. And your abs are tight in the front. Again, this causes spinal pain and popped discs. The chiropractor won't tell you! 

                                  Normal        Kyphosis     Military stance        Lordosis      Lordosis

HIP AND KNEE PAIN 

• A weak walking gait, like with your feet can cause hip and knee pain. Especially when you run! If your feet turn in, which may cause grinding on the inside of your knees, and a MCL tear. Or your feet turn out, and will cause grinding on the lateral part of the knees and/or tear the LCL. Your knees won't be lined up with the rest of your body. Your body is like a kinetic chain with the muscle-tendon unit, bone-ligament unit, and the stress goes up the legs and through the spine from your feet.  All that causes an increased Q-angle. Nothing's lined up. 
• When your inner thighs are tight, and outter glutes are weak, your knees will buckle inward (knock-kneed). So again, when nothing's lined up, your back will hurt, or your hips/knees. The fact that your knees buckle in, is why you have knee pain! 
• If your knees supinate out, or move outward when you walk, when you run and when you sit down or whatever, that will cause the hip or knee pain.  
• Think of a leverage system, when your gluteus maximus is tight, it makes it harder on the hip flexors in the front of the thighs or other muscles to work, those tight muscles need stretched in order to complete a movement like hip flexion.. Think of trying to flex your elbow when your triceps are tight.. 

Treatments for back pain and hip/knee pain (lower cross syndrome)

Keep in mind for everything you do, there's 33.5 lb of pressure per sq inch, put on your body and neck. So if you lean forward or back, etc. 4 in, then take 33.5 lb x 4 in = 134 lb of pressure on your body. No wonder people have pain!

Stretch your calves and strengthen the shin muscles to help your feet be straighter. Stretch your inner thighs, or in your case, you may have to strengthen your inner-thighs if your knees are supinating outward. Strengthen your buttocks too, to prevent back pain and do lat pulldowns or use toning bands to strengthen the lat muscles of the back. Do bridges, sing your pelvis into the floor or ground. You can do 2-3 sets of 12-20 reps or do isometric holds of 30 sec to 1 min, per set. 

Upper body and neck pain

If your rhomboids and trapezium muscles are weak, and your upper trapezius muscles are tight along with the SCM & other neck flexor muscles, your shoulders will elevate when you lift things. SO your neck muscles and your upper traps will get tight and hurt. So you need to strengthen the back muscles and stretch the neck as it says down below.  Your head could be shifted to the left or right, or rotated. So one group of muscles are tight while the other are lengthened/weakened. One example is the semispinalis muscle originates from the transverse process to spinous process, in the head, it just inserts to the occiput. Therefore, it causes a contra lateral rotation.. So if you can't turn your head to the left, the right semispinalis is tight. If you can't slant your head down to the left, the splenius capitus muscle is one of the muscles that are tight. Depends what side of the neck, so think of the muscles. 

Treatment for neck pain and upper back pain (upper cross syndrome)

Stretch the chest and front of the shoulders. And do rows with dumbbells or toning bands or a cable machine. You can use a fitness ball and lie on it and/or sit on the ball and do your rows and lat pulldowns, etc. You got to train your posterior shoulders and back muscles (rhomboids and middle and lower traps). Stretch your neck muscles by turning your head to one side and the other, and aim it downward and at an angle to stretch the muscles on the left side or the right, which ever ones are tighter.

There are certain muscles to be stretched, while other muscles are worked. If I was training you, I would evaluate you and design a specific regimen for you. I can't tell you everything in here as it's too difficult... 

Wild cold Alaskan Salmon oil capsules help with any joint pain or inflammation in the body. Also look for Arnica pills at the Vitamin Shoppe, GNC or any of your local market stores, Organic stores. There are different kinds to look for. These are strong & will take away the symptoms muscle pain, stiffness & joint pain. Arnica is of the plant, in the Sunflower family.

Prevent or slow down cancer, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and any general disease!

   We're all born precancerous, it's just a matter of time until we get stressed enough, depressed enough, or eat the wrong foods, get overweight, obese, and develop a metabolic disease or Coronary Artery disease/heart disease, and things like that, it'll turn those cells bad. Too many people are getting to that point and having a heart attack or a stroke, they may recover but may not be the same. And chances are, they may have something go wrong again! Yeah they got chemotherapy and radiation therapies out there BUT, during the process it will still weaken your body in other areas and cause side effects. IT IS STILL KILLING YOU, so go all natural! You may be fighting your cancer or disease but you're weakening another area in your body!

    In this post I want to give you some tips on what to eat or take to prevent or slow down your cancers/diseases like fibromyalgia, CAD, stress or depression related or any general disease. It's no doubt that exercise and calming your stress down can decrease your high blood pressure too! So keep that up, but if you have to, take an herb for anxiety and stress. You can read about that in my post about stress and anxiety. The CAD happens when you have too much bad cholesterol floating through your arteries. You have your low density lipoproteins and your high density lipoproteins. The lows float in the lower portion of your arteries, but these can build up and cause clogging, & the HDLs flow above inside your arteries.  You can easily google what I'm talking about if you wish.

     As far as eating healthy, stay away from saturated fats, hydrogenated oils in most of the food, and stay away from high fructose corn syrup that's found in sugary foods and syrups. All these cause fat gain, diabetes and other diseases too. You need the extra sugar in anything you eat or drink!

Gluten   

You have got to avoid gluten products like wheat and grains. Try to find gluten free foods to eat to avoid arthritic pain or firbomyalgia pain. Try searching on GlutenFree.com for foods.

Fish Oils

     

     If you haven't heard of or even tried getting enough fish oils, you must begin taking in supplement forms of fish oils. You may not be able to get enough from fish that you're eating. There are two forms of fish oils: Omega 3 and Omega 6. You should be taking Omega 3s only, because Omega 6 can still increase your inflammation. Omega 6 is just a different kind of fish oil for some reason. 

      So anyways, you can find Omega 3 fish oil in Walmart, Giant Eagle possibly, but you will have the most success in a health food store. Besides Omega 3 fish oils, they now have Salmon fish oil, capsules, which is basically made from the Wild Alaskian fish. They seem to be stronger and better.  I can speak for my mother who suffers with fibromyalgia pain, and for other people I know, plus myself included with having depression and sleep problems, the Salmon Oil capsules with DHA help me sleep and feel more energized during the day. A lady who owns an herb shop and who also gives massages, takes lots of fish oils for her fibromyalgia.  Termeric is also great for cancer prevention & pain. Slippery Elm could help with digestive issues & cramps just like acidophilus/probiotics supplements or found in natural love culture yogurt. 

We're all precancerous, we got the cells inside us but most of us have enough T-cells in our lymphatic system to fight those off, to keep our cells healthy instead of changing to bad. Out lymphatic system is our main immune system with the B & T cells.. Cancer can also thrive in acid, so you need to have your pH balanced with both acid & alkaline. The info belief talks about antioxidants & phytonutrients that help prevent or fight cancer & illness. Phytonutrients are in greeny foods while antioxidants of course found in blue, red and purple fruits. 

   

Phytonutrients & Antioxidants

      Phytonutrients are found in a lot of greens, meaning lettuce, parsley, spinach, and all them leafy things, and also vegetables perhaps. And antioxidants should be a no brainer but in case you don't know, antioxidants are mostly found in all fruits like red, blue & purple fruits. 

Mental

It's all mental just like anything else. Yeah you got pain going on or you may have cancer, but it really does help if you stay positive enough and don't hear or be around negativity. Don't listen to doctors who try to play God and say that you have 6 months or whichever amount of time to live. They only go by what it looks like with your results. Some times they could be right when they know that the cancer is in a bad spot where it can't be treated. Parkinsons disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is hard to treat, it's un-treateable practically, nobody ever heals from any of these diseases, they can only cope with it and take pain medications, which sucks! If there was a way I would search for it myself!

A MASSAGE MIGHT HELP TOO. LIGHT TOUCH OR WHICHEVER IS COMFORTABLE FOR YOU!

Stress, Anxiety and Sleep Relief

For any of you out there who've been suffering with stress, anxiety and insomnia, well you're not alone. I deal with it and so does millions of others. Stress can bog you down and cause the sleep insomnia; depression is another factor in it. Anxiety is just excess worrying, it can either be general or severe worrying over things like money, job loss, the job itself or your environment/negative people.

We all know that exercise helps with stress, BUT do you have time to exercise?? We also know that good sleep helps with stress and irritablness....but if you have insomnia like me, you can't sleep!!........Well I have a solution for you! Luckily I went to my health food store, looked around and found GABA, Natural Calming Effect herb supplements.... These are anxiety and stress herb supplements. In the GABA bottle, it includes 500mg in each capsule. That's right, it's a capsule, not a pill! It's full of the GABA herb and vitamin B which all aid in the anxiety and the nervous system to slowing it down. It relaxes you. It's been effective with me. They also have True Calm capsules out there on the market.....I've also tried Nutri-calm herbs as well. Some GABA supps will include Niacin in it, which couples with the GABA hormone in us.

 Pictures of these products are right below:  The company "Now" is only one manufacture but there are other companies you can buy from such as Meadosweet herbs or others. Also try taking Salmon oil capsules. Make sure they're dark with lots of oil. Fish oil has a mix of fish, which you don't know what you're getting. Avoid excessive Omega-6 fatty acids. That's why you supplement with Omega-3s to make up for it. 

    

Energy Drinks and your health

Energy Drink Consumption 

When it comes to energy drinks everybody always want something to give them quick energy, to give them a kick, whether they're at work, school, at some kind of activity or at home. There are a lot of energy drink companies/makes out there: Redbull, Monster, AMP, Rockstar and others that are full of caffeine, high sugar and extra ingredients you just don't need. It all gives you that extra pump but is harmful to your heart and such things. Then these drinks make you crash and go for another drink. It's as bad as soda/pop. So.... here's a tip!

Go for the natural energy drinks such as FRS drinks found in grocery stores, also V8 splash drinks or XS energy drinks that are sold by Amway for one thing. Drinks like these contain B vitamins and vitamin C and some calories not to mention flavors. That's all our bodies need to function and survive! If you feed your body right, then you'll feel as good as what you eat, make sense. 

                     

Prevention of disease, deficiency and headaches relating to water intake

   Have all of you heard of water? If you haven't well then I don't know where you've been all your life. Water is essential to all of us! Water flows in our rives, water comes from the rain, from the heavens! Water flows out of our faucets, we cook with water and we bathe with water, and most importantly, we drink it! Without water it would be hard to survive. It doesn't matter who you are. Water carries minerals in it and vitamins if the water is enhanced with vitamins of course. Minerals are natural though.

   With out water we can become all the way to severely dehydrated, we develop more headaches than usual, our blood will thicken up and our body will contain less oxygen in it period. I know there are people who dislike water and refuse to drink much of it and then there are people who swear by water, even the dieters out there.

  Yeah we all get stressed and depressed/anxious which can bring on a headache but it's mostly from not drinking enough water. There's been a long time saying that 8 glasses of water a day is good but it's sort of a myth. Why? Well because not everyone needs 8 glasses. Some may need more or less, it depends if you're an athlete or any kind of athletic person who exercises, a hard laborer or a person who doesn't do much and works in an office. It all depends and you have to read your body-go by what your body tells you.

   Some deficiency symptoms include: severe dry mouth, or it could be because of breathing with your mouth frequently, your throat is big time dry, that's not a good, your eyes are sunk in, skin is dry, you get sever headaches daily, or you're muscles and different body parts are going numb or all of your body parts. When you're severely dehydrated, you'll know it! You experience flu like symptoms, headaches, weakness, numbness, it's all bad! I've been there before I know how it feels!

Here are 10 real good common reasons why we should drink water more that I found: First of all, More than two-thirds of your body weight is water. Without adequate water your body's biochemical and electrical processes begin to break down. The list of reasons your body needs water is as plentiful as the functions in your body, so due to space limitations. 

1. Your blood is over 80 percent water and needs water to make healthy new blood cells.

2. Your bones are over 50 percent water and, you guessed it, need water to make healthy new bone cells.

3. Drinking more water actually helps lessen pain in your body by getting your lymphatic system moving. The lymphatic system is a network of nodes, tubes, vessels, and fluid that move waste out of your tissues. It requires water to function properly.

4. Water helps to eliminate wastes and toxins from your body through the lymphatic system, kidneys, and intestines.

5. Water lubricates your joints and helps reduce joint pain and protect against wear and tear.

6. Water regulates your metabolism so if you're overweight chances are you may need more water.

7. Water balances body temperature.

8. Water helps to ensure adequate electrical functioning so your brain and nervous system function properly. Your brain and nervous system send out electrical signals to function properly. Researchers estimate that your brain gives off about the same amount of electricity as a 60 watt light bulb. So, there's some truth to the image of a light bulb going on when someone has a good idea.

9. Water alleviates dehydration (and I've already mentioned that most people are chronically dehydrated).

10. Every cell and organ in your body requires adequate water to function properly.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/surprising-reasons-drinkmore-water.html, Wed April 28, 2010

Experiencing an injury in whichever joint: Elbow, ankle, knee, etc, What to do if you can't afford a doctor

   How many of you have experienced some kind of injury in any part of your body? Well I have, and it has been my ankle mostly with a severe ankle sprain. I have had Itband tendinitis in each of my legs too from running but they healed around the same time as a sprain would typically heal, that is if you kept up with it. A muscle strain or tear is way different than a sprain in your joints. Itband tendinitis is one kind of muscle strain and it happens to be in your legs, on the side. It's a long band that extends from your hip down to your knee and hooks. A strain or a joint sprain is either acute, moderate or sever....1st degree, 2nd degree or 3rd degree.

   Now in terms of a broken joint, such as an ankle or elbow, you'll know if it's broken or not if you'll just realize what your abilities are, how much pain you are in and how much inflammation you may have in that area. An acute break can involve just some pain and instability, a moderate break can involve more pain, instability and some inflammation and a sever break involves lots and lots of pain, no instability what so ever and a ton of inflammation in the area. Lots of pain everyday. The key is to ice, ice and ice to get the blood to slow down so you can see what's going on with the joint so you can make a judgment. You don't need to get an X-ray right away, just don't move the hurt joint at all!! And get the inflammation down first to determine things.Once you have gotten the blood flow to slow down and the area to shrink, then you can feel around the area with your fingers for like holes or pointy spots where a bone could be broken or pierced through your skin. If there's a hole, that means maybe it's an avulsion fracture where the muscle tendon pulls real hard and pulls a chunk of bone with it. Closed bone fractures are when the bone breaks inside the skin and open bone fractures are wen the bone breaks through the skin. A compression fracture happens when two bones collide or compress each other. If you're unsure and it's very painful, I would try to get an X-ray as cheap as you can!
Now a sprain can almost feel the same way. You get the acute, moderate or sever symptoms. Whether you can function a little bit not at all and how much inflammation you have. You do the same thing - just ice, ice and ice, and elevate your foot if it's your foot, if not then still... just let your affected area turn to normal almost again and massage it/exercise it. As long as you keep working it and stretching it, letting it recover in a healthy way it will get strong again, and nothing should happen for a while or ever again, if you pay attention!

I have sprained my right ankle in soccer when I was in middle school. It happened during indoor soccer. Year s later in 2006 during a cross country meet I rolled the same ankle on a root and sprained it. Just after 2 weeks and some treatment I was back to running and I ended up going to Ohio's state tournament for my high school. Then 5 years later again I was running in a park through a hilly trail, I was running and hit a root once again. I messed up my ankle bad. I sprained 2 ligaments severely. Without any X-rays or huge treatments, I healed it myself and rehabbed just because I'm a specialist and I've studied these things. By the second week I was walking and partially running on it. By the 3rd week it was flexible again.