Archive for the ‘Pain or Injuries’ Category
Possible Cause of Chronic Muscle Soreness During Strength Training
Are you in into strength training and wonder why you constantly suffer from chronic muscle soreness and dull pain?
When you go and visit the physician or physiotherapist on suspicion of an injury or muscle tear, they could not find anything wrong with you. Nothing shows up in scans and tests. And yet, you find that you tend to fight constant muscle soreness, pain and even overall feeling of tiredness. What could be the cause?
The possible cause- toxins that got trapped as you built your muscles. These trapped toxins causes chronic discomfort and pain. Let me elaborate further and let’s see if my explanations make sense to you:
The cause of toxin accumulations in muscles and organs could be attributed to one or more of the following factors:
1. You do not have the habit of drinking enough of water or hydrating yourself. Keeping yourself sufficiently hydrated is crucial to ensure toxins are removed efficiently from your body.
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How to Relieve Pain in Joints and Body
Do you suffer from pain in the joints and body that you can’t seemed to explain? Perhaps you have already been diagnosed with having osteoarthritis, or rhemautoid arthritis and wanting to find other ways to relieve the condition. Or you don’t have these conditions but wondering why you seemed to have chronic aches in the body.
If you suffer from any medical condition, please seek appropiate treatment from the doctors. However, I would like to recommend some holistic methods that may help you to relieve your discomfort:
Theory of Inflammation
Due to unsuited diet and inactive lifestyle, the body- fascias, joints and muscles may be inflamed. You could have eaten something that results an allergic reaction to your body- and that could escalate or cause the onset of autoimmunity diseases such as RA.
There are 4 lifestyle changes you can make to reduce pain and inflammation on your body:
1. Drink lots and lots of water
2. Reduce sugar intake as much as you can
3. Reduce intake of deep fried (even BBQ) food (especially meat)
4. Take fish oil tablets/supplements
5. Adequate exercise
6. Reduce caffeine like coffee/ tea.
Body Pain may be due to Chronic Sinus
Reuters published an article “Body Pain may be due to Sinus Trouble” with the title above dated 22 September 08 linking the connection between ongoing sinus inflammation in relation to body pains. It is said that especially on older adults, conditions may be diagnosed as arthritis, depression, fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome- is relieved once the patients undergo the sinus surgery.
Endoscopic sinus surgery is being recommended. Refer to ehealthMD for a better description about endoscopic sinus surgery whereby the possible advantages & complications are explained in brief.
Even though the study gives a ray of hope to those who are suffering from sinus AND body pains, I would not think it is a good idea to jump straight into the surgery because:
1. Effectiveness of sinus surgery in permanently curing sinus
2. Sinus happens when there is an allergic reaction- is our body’s way of warning us
Strength training- danger of overtraining one muscle group and ignoring the rest
Many gym goers focus on only certain particular part of their bodies during strength training. This is very dangerous because it will result in muscle imbalance- and on the long run, increases the risk of injury on other underdeveloped muscles. Example:
1. Focusing on the biceps and ignoring other parts such as shoulders (deltoids), chest (pectorals) and back (trapezius). The aim is for a muscular looking arms.
2. Focusing on the stomach by doing a zillion push ups either on the floor, using the weight machine or a stability ball but ignoring the back muscles and lower back (erector spinae)- dangers of lower back injuries because push ups will strain the lower back (the bending and impact) and a weak lower backs make it very susceptible to injuries
3. Focusing on the pectorals (chest) but ignoring the shoulders and back muscles- ever notice guys that seemed to have defined chest muscles but is hunched in a very funny way? And their shoulders form a reversed “V” shape? This is because the focus is too much on the pects and ignoring the back/shoulder muscles. But ignoring those muscles, the person will be more prone to getting his rotator cuff (back joints) and shoulder muscles injured when he keep lifting those heavy weights.
For purpose of illustration, let me focus more on how dangerous it is to focus on bicep muscles and igoring other part. I will use a real life example- my own brother.
Treat ‘Wind in the Stomach’ with Simple Acupressure
Having pains in your stomach you are unable to relieve after a few days? The sharp pain felt as though wind is trapped in your stomach? Aside from ensuring that you be well behaved and just discipline yourself to eat apples or oranges first thing in the morning & keep away from iced drinks, you can also try another quick pain relief. This is especially if you are outside and about and unable to do anything.
Treating ‘wind in the stomach’ with simple acupressure:
Objective: You need to press the acupressure point located 2 thumbwidth from your wrist.
The acupressure point is to relief congestion in the chest and stomach area. It also helps with travelling sickness.
First, lay out your right palm facing upwards. With your left thumb, place it width wise on your wrist as shown in the diagram below:
How Effective is Massage Chairs in Relieving Pain?
Massage chairs are heavily promoted in the health industry. In Malaysia, a massage chair from a reputable brand costs from RM7000 to over RM10000. Celebrity endorsement of the brand and huge advertisement banners are costly- so logically, the chair will have to be very expensive in order to meet the cost.
The advertising media has been trying to convince people that massage chair are quick fixes for all types of chronic problems and pain. In order to bring the message home- advertisements pull at heartstrings when the message send across during Mother & Father’s Day promotion: ‘your parents have worked hard for you all their lives and now they’re old. They’re in pain. Why not you get them a massage chair?’. And pictures of happy elderly parents enjoying the massage chair convinces you to fork out almost 10k (payable back in installments) just to get a massage chair for them.
How effective is massage chairs?
Massage chair is supposed to mimic the movements of a masseur- and supposedly enable a person to save on the long term of treatments. The lower end one basically just move lightly at your back where the higher end ones have more function such as adjustable speed, massage at the lower back, knees, head and feet. Those little extra features can set you back easily for about an additional 5k to 6k. Still, no matter how convincing the advertisement is, what I fail to understand is why do I see these massage chairs lying around houses like white elephants- and they really do occupy a lot of space. Why do people stop using them after a while if they are really that good and effective?
Portable Muscle Ache Reliever- Guadsa Board
Muscle soreness is normal for a seasoned traveller. When you walk or sit too much, sit in a bus/plane/ car/ boat/ train too long or sleep in the wrong position, you will wake up with your muscle feeling sore.
As such, I have learnt to bring my mini portable guasa board during my travels as it is so small and light that I can easily slip into carry-on bag.
What is Guasa/ Quadsa, also known as Meridian Scraping Therapy
According to Elken’s website, the explanation is “Guasa, a well-known traditional Chinese therapy, works in principle with acupressure and finger massage by employing the power of touch with a Guasa Board, which works on skin, blood, nervous and lymphatic systems to boost circulation and strengthen the body” (so far, Elken is the only company that I know is selling it- I was not able to find it via other sources).
