Tag: mood

Don’t Forget Your Back

Most of us spend a large portion of the day hunched forward.  Think about when you are working on the computer, cooking, driving or even relaxing.  Your typical posture during these activities is head and neck forward, shoulders rounded forward, back curved and hips flexed.    When you remain in this position for an extended period of time, the muscles in the front of the body tend to shorten or contract, while the muscles in the back of the body tend to weaken.    This can be a set up for back, neck and shoulder problems and in addition, tends to make you look shorter, heavier and less confident.

Stretching before and after exercise as well as during the day is often overlooked in the rush to “get your workout in”.   Stretching however, has numerous benefits.   According to a study published in the Annals of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Medicine in September 2016, by I Fekhfekh, et al, dynamic muscle stretching of the knee musculature actually resulted in an increase strength gain in those muscles.  Interestingly, this study also found a decrease in the postural stability of the knee after stretching.    In English, it appears that stretching helps your to build strength, but may decrease the stability of the muscles you stretch at least temporarily.

In general, stretching helps to improve flexibility, joint range of motion, and usually is helpful for injury prevention.    Stretching helps by increasing blood flow to the muscles stretched.  This increased blood flow carries important nutrients to your muscles to allow for muscle growth and repair.  In addition, the increased blood flow helps to wash away muscle “waste” which leads to decreased soreness and inflammation of the muscle.

If allowed to remain in a contracted position for a prolonged period of time, our muscles will shorten.  For example if you spend a large portion of your day sitting in a chair or driving, the muscles in the front of the hips, your hip flexors will shorten.  These muscles have a direct effect on both your posture and your back health.

 

So what should you do?

It is important to stretch the muscles in the front of the body at least daily.

Exercises that focus on the hip flexors:

-Kneeling hip flexor stretch  – in the position of a lunge, allow your back knee to touch the floor and drive the hip of your front leg forward.  This will stretch the hip flexor of the knee on the floor

–Pigeon stretch – extend your right leg straight back and bring the heel of your left leg underneath your right hip.  Then drive your hips forward towards the ground.  Stretch and repeat on the other side.

– Yoga poses such as: low lunge, crescent lunge, upward facing dog, and revolving side angle pose

 

Stretches that focus on the chest muscles and prevent rounded shoulders:

– Door Frame stretch- stand in a doorway or at the corner of a room with your arms up like you were going to stop traffic.  Line your arms up from the elbow to the hand with the doorframe or in the corners of the wall.   Step towards the door and you should feel a stretch in your chest (pectoralis “pec” muscles) and hold for 20-30 seconds.

– Wall slides – stand with your back to the wall and keep your shoulders against the wall.  Walk forward 1-2 steps and slide your arms up and down the wall and squeeze your shoulder blades together.  You should feel a stretch in your upper chest muscles.

–Shoulder squeeze stretch –  clasp your hands together behind your back and slowly try to lift your hands.  Squeeze your shoulder blades together to stretch out the chest wall.

– Yoga poses include : bridge pose, camel pose, cobra pose and cow face pose

 

Stretches for your neck:

– Chin Tucks (Neck Retraction) – keep your shoulders back and your head in a neutral position (eyes facing forwards, chin level) slowly move your head backwards until you feel a slight stretch in the back of your neck.  Hold for 10-20 seconds and repeat.  If needed you can apply a gentle pressure on your chin with your fingertips to press your chin backwards and deepen the stretch.

Incorporating these exercises into your daily routine will help to prevent shortening of the muscles in the front of the body which leads to poor posture and often pain of the neck and back.  As always, if you are having pain which persists you should be evaluated by a certified health care professional to ensure that these exercises are safe for you.

This week we primarily discussed stretching exercises to prevent muscle contraction, and next week we will discuss the importance of strengthening the back muscles to further combat the issues of a hunched posture.

Aerobic Versus Anaerobic Exercise

There are various types of exercises that affect our bodies differently.  Done in combination, this affords you the most “bang for your buck”.    By changing up the type, frequency, intensity and cardiovascular demand in your exercise regimen on a daily basis, you will have a synergist effect and derive numerous benefits from your exercise.

There are to major classes of exercises with regard to oxygen utilization. Aerobic exercise, exercises that utilize oxygen for energy, and anaerobic exercise, exercises that utilize fuel already present in the muscle for energy.

 

Aerobic exercises:

In this type of exercise, our muscles require the oxygen carried in the blood to be used for energy production.  Our muscles use this oxygen to burn both fat and carbohydrates as fuel.  Fuel can be constantly produced in the presence of oxygen, therefore, aerobic exercise can be sustained for a prolonged period of time. The body reacts accordingly by increasing the heart rate and breathing rate to keep up with the muscle oxygen demand.   Over time with training, our muscles become more efficient at extracting oxygen from the blood stream and thus we become “fitter”.  When this happens, you will notice that you will be able to exercise at a higher intensity without feeling winded or noticing a significant increase in your heart rate.   During aerobic exercise, you should feel slightly out of breath, but be able to carry out a conversation.

Some benefits of aerobic exercise includes: 

  • Improved overall level of fitness
  • Improved mood
  • Possible reduction of
    • Cancer risk
    • Cardiovascular disease
    • Osteoporosis
    • Diabetes
  • Higher level of fat burning (as opposed to anaerobic exercises)
  • Improved bone density (less beneficial then anaerobic exercises)
  • Moderate reduction in blood pressure
  • Decreased insulin resistance
  • Increases likelihood of surviving a heart attack

Anaerobic exercise:

In contrast to aerobic exercise, anaerobic exercise is exercise performed without oxygen.  This type of exercise is performed at a higher level of intensity and can only be sustained for a few moments.  Sprinting and heavy weight lifting are two examples of anaerobic exercise.   Anaerobic exercises utilize the energy that is already present in the muscle tissue.  However, because no oxygen is present to produce more energy, these exercises cannot be sustained once the fuel present in the muscle runs out after about 10-15 seconds.

Some benefits of Anaerobic exercise:

  • Strengthen bones and improves bone density
  • Builds and maintains lean muscle mass
  • Burns fat (though less so then an aerobic exercise)
  • Increases performance in sports by increasing strength, speed and power

A specific type of anaerobic exercise is Plyometric exercise.

Plyometric Exercises:

These types of explosive exercises are known as plyometric exercises (jump training).    This type of exercise uses your own weight and the force of gravity to provide resistance during the exercise.    The reason to incorporate these exercises into our exercise regimen is that plyometric exercise helps to develop explosive power and increase agility.

Without getting too technical, plyometric exercises are based on the muscle stretch reflex.

Whenever a muscle is stretched, a signal is sent to the nervous system that indicates that the muscle has been stretched.  The nervous system processes this signal and stimulates the muscle to contract in response to this stretch.    This is a reflex because the response is instantaneous.  Over time and with training, the fibers in the muscle (fast twitch fibers) become more sensitive to the stretch and maximize the speed and number of motor units that respond to the stretch.  By increases the fiber number and sensitivity, the muscle response becomes more explosive and generates more power.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that plyometric training should start slowly and work up gradually in intensity.  Plyometric training can be general such as jumping, jump squats, jump lunges but can also be more sports specific depending on the activities you would like to improve.    Typically plyometric exercises tend to focus on the lower body and utilize muscles around the knee and hip.    However, the use of medicine balls allow for plyometric activities of the shoulders and arms.

It is very important to warm up properly to increase the flexibility of the muscle and connective tissues around the joints to prevent injury.  It imperative that you slowly add in and increase your plyometric exercises when you feel your body can handle the impact.   For example, start off doing stepping jumping jacks and then gradually add in 1 jumping jack for every 5 stepping jacks.  Over a period of days to weeks, continue to add more jumping jacks and decrease the amount of stepping jacks.  Once you are able to comfortably complete a minute of jumping jacks without any pain or significant shortness of breath, you can start adding in superman jacks.   Again add 1 superman jack for every 5-10 jumping jacks and gradually increase the amount of superman jacks.   Since this is an anaerobic, plyometric exercise, if you are doing them correctly, you will only be able to do about 10-15 seconds of this until you become winded and need to take a break.

Vitamin D

Unfortunately, the days of summer are coming to and end. Ever wonder why your mood is so much better in the summer time?   Many of us have significantly less stress because our rigid routines are often more lax over the summertime.   In addition to this decreased stress, the increased length of daylight plays an important role in contributing to our well-being.

When the summer days are long, we are exposed to more UVB light. While an excess of UVB rays can lead to sunburns and may ultimately contribute to certain types of cancers, a small amount of daily sun exposure can improve our health, mood and wellbeing.

This is because when our skin is exposed to UVB rays our skin produces Vitamin D. Vitamin D plays a crucial role in bone metabolism and numerous other bodily functions that will be further described below. Vitamin D can be obtained from foods such as fatty fish, beef liver, egg yolks, and fortified foods such as dairy products, orange juice and cereals. However, it is difficult to consume an adequate amount of Vitamin D just from diet alone.

The Vitamin D that is produced by plants is called Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol). While the Vitamin D that is produced in human skin and is found in meats and animals sources is called Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol).   Vitamin D3 is a more suitable source of Vitamin D supplementation because it is easier for the body to convert into the active hormone form than Vitamin D2.   In addition, too much Vitamin D2 intake can be toxic.   It is much more difficult to become toxic from Vitamin D3 because the body has a mechanism to prevent too much Vitamin D3 from being overproduced in the skin.

The active hormone form of Vitamin D, calcitriol, is very important because it controls the calcium and phosphorus metabolism in your body and helps to build strong bones.   Some other important roles of the activated Vitamin D hormone include:

  • Modulates the immune system
  • Improves muscle function
  • Decreases fall risk in the elderly
  • Improves cardiovascular function
  • Has potential anti-cancer effects
  • Improves mood, wards off depression

According to the Mayo Clinic there is strong scientific evident for the use of Vitamin D to treat:

  • Osteomalacia (softening of the bones in adults)
  • Bone pain
  • Psoriasis
  • Some parathyroid and thyroid issues (requires physician oversight)

In addition, there is good scientific evidence for use of Vitamin D to treat:

  • Dental cavities
  • Muscle pain and weakness
  • Fall prevention

Currently the scientific evidence is inconclusive for the use of Vitamin D to treat:

  • Osteoporosis
  • Asthma
  • Auto-immune diseases
  • Bone Density in children
  • Cancer prevention
  • Cognition
  • Infertility
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Inflammatory bowel Disease
  • Cancer prevention in certain types of cancer

According to the National Institutes of Health, it is important to obtain Vitamin D either from the sun or from supplementation, as it appears that we are unable to take in an adequate amount from diet alone. The amount of Vitamin D produced in our bodies is dependent on several factors. The length of time in the sun, the angle of the suns rays, the amount of your body directly exposed to the sun, your proximity to the equator, and the amount of melanin in your skin.

When the sun is directly overhead (you will have a very small shadow) you are absorbing the highest amount of UVB rays. These rays are needed to produce Vitamin D3 in the skin.   Those individuals with darker skin tone, actually produce less Vitamin D3 because the melanin in your skin blocks production, as does the application of sunscreen. At this time, the recommendation is for about 10-15 minutes of direct sun, with a large amount of skin exposure (i.e. chest or back) for optimal Vitamin D production. This should be about ½ the time it takes for your skin to turn pink in the sun. It should not be enough time for you to sustain a sunburn.

At this time, guidelines for vitamin D3 intake differ.   The best way to determine your nutritional needs is to have your 25-hydroxy Vitamin D level checked by your health care provider. In general levels between 30-100 nmol/L are considered normal. However, levels >60 nmol/L appear to be more optimal for promoting health and wellness.   Depending on your level you can determine your need for supplementation or increased sun exposure. If you notice that you are a person who is cheerful during the bright summer days and more depressed during the darker winter days, this might be one indication that vitamin D supplementation may help!!!