Archive for the ‘Posture’ Category
Healing an injury- recent muscle pull experience
My recent muscle pull experience
Last Saturday while doing some exercises using the Step board in a fitness test, I sprained the muscle on my left calf. For a long time, I’ve always been vary of step exercises because I’ve experienced muscle pulls on my calf and ankle areas.
The pain did not come immediately, in fact I was able to workout in the gym for 2hours on Saturday, followed by about 1 hour of cardio on Sunday- there was just a bit of discomfort on Sunday but not enough to stop me from exercising. Then on Monday morning, I almost could not get up from bed due to the sharp pain experienced from the muscle pull. By Tuesday morning, the pain got worse and I tried to put a heat plaster on my leg to relieve the pain and stiff feelings on my left calf. The pain felt like it will never go off. And to add on, when my friend told me that it normally takes one week for full recovery, I got a bit upset.
The Danger of Compromising Your Posture
If the muscles in your body are under conditioned, it will result in muscle weakness. The muscle weakness will make the person more prone to injury, muscle sprain or pain. Your body does it best to work together as a unit. Whenever there is a discomfort, your body will automatically compensate for the weak muscle by changing to an unnatural position. The unnatural position places excessive pressure on the compensating part.
What happens if you do not do anything about it:
- –constant pain, sometimes acute, sometimes chronic. Lower back pain, stiff shoulders, pain the neck are all indicative of back posture and weak muscles (especially the core muscles)
- Personal Experience
I have mentioned in a previous post that I have pain on my right knee. for a long time (before gym days). My body tries to reduce that pain but shifting more weight towards the left leg. Now, the pain in my knee is very much reduced after I began putting more focus on core exercises. But my right hip, who have been bearing the brunt for too long, begins to show signs of pain. I am planning to do more core conditioning exercises to strengthen my hip muscles.Previously, when I started yoga based exercises, doing abdominal and back exercises wrongly (when you do not suck in your belly button towards the spine) will cause tremendous pressure on the lower back. But after one of the instructor advised me to tuck in, I was able to slowly develop a stronger lower back. Now, I do not get lower back pain because I am doing those exercises correctly.
How to handle posture problems.
You need to do more stretching and core exercises to strengthen your muscles. And weight bearing exercises to strengthen the weak muscle. If you have an injury, you should not do high intensity exercises. But you need to consider focusing on working on to correct your posture before it gets worst.Whenever you start yoga, Pilates or core exercises, let the instructor know that you have an injury. Your instructor will be able to offer you options if a certain post were to bring you lots of pain. Don’t ever force the exercise (especially if you have an injury or chronic pain)- a sharp piercing pain during workout indicates that either you are not ready for the exercise or it’s done wrongly. The safest bet is to go into recommendated exercises slowly and gradually.
Most important, take the first step to heal any postural issues. Do not be a victim of constant back pain, muscle stiffness anymore. No more spending tonnes of money on frequent massage and spas- once you start to workout your core and do the exercises correctly, your body will feel well.
Tips:
You can check out YouTube.com and type in the keywords like ‘exercise injury’ or ‘exercise posture’ to find videos that shows what type of exercises help for certain types of injuries or to improve your posture. I have also compiled some exercise videos on Injuries & Pain Management and Core Muscles (for posture) - —the part that is well will suffer injury such as fracture or slip disk because the muscles are no longer protecting the bones effectively due to weakness.
- —may led to autodegenerative diseases such as osteoperosis, athritis or osteoarthritis because of weak muscles and more pressure on bones and joints. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t Ignore the Core in Your Workouts
Now I am a firm believe in core strength and stability. Previously, aside from abdominal crunches, I have performed some stretches using the Swiss ball and it helps a great deal. Recently, I have attended a class organised by my gym on core strengthening exercises using the Swiss ball.
Could it be just a pure coincidence that my knee pain just went off and my movements are so much easier after I have tried out the class? I find the exercises on the Swiss ball challenging but not too tough because I have been doing crunches exercises on the ball for some weeks. I had stopped doing crunches using the abdominals machine as I felt the Swiss Ball actually engaged much more muscles.
Like tai chi and qi gong exercises, you will not see drastic changes in your body as muscle gain, sweating buckets or rapid weight loss. These core muscles are so deep inside your body- and they play such a vita role in your health. Everything from injury prevention and healing, easier movements, better balance and boost to immune system.
It’s likely I will be actively incorporating Swiss ball exercises in my workout routine. I have very good faith in these exercises and will be exploring on how to use these exercises in areas of pain management, improved posture and possibly, delaying the effects of osteoporosis in older folks. Of course, diet plays a vital role as well especially in degenerative illness.
The Importance Core Conditioning
In the world where everyone’s obsessed about looking like body builders or super models, the focus has always been on cardiovascular and strength training. There’s even growing trend that’s talking about how certain protein, steroids and supplements can form muscle bulks. Sorry, but in my blog, I do not cover any other methods towards fitness and health except figuring out sensible eating plans and exercise. No shortcuts here.
I have just gone through a book: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Core Conditioning (Illustrated) by Patrick S. Hagerman.
The author talks about the importance of core conditioning, which according to him differs from yoga and Pilates. Core conditioning or known as function training are working on muscles that we cannot see. The core muscles- ie muscles in our trunk (not only at the abs but includes chest, back and hips) are what put us together and enable daily functions such as carrying things, balancing and posture.
