In clinical practice, I incorporate a lot of muscle work with both the chiropractic and acupuncture work I do. I strongly believe with *real* health care you cannot just look at something (like a spine, for example) as a separate entity, divorced from its surroundings and relationships with other structures (like muscles, ligaments,fascia, etc).
It is like a great outfit. What exactly makes a great outfit, well...great?
Is it the shoes? Well, partly, yes. Is it the accessories? Uh-huh. But its also the clothes, the makeup, and the attitude of the person. All these smaller parts put together make for the greatness of the said great outfit.
Like a fabulous outfit, a healthy spine cannot just be one thing. It is the overall package - the movement of the individual bones in the spine, the muscles on both sides of it, the integrity of supporting ligaments, the disc health, nutrition, fitness levels, psychological stress, etc.
So I want to talk today about how to up the gorgeousness-factor of your muscles.
1. Chill out and relax.
This is soooo important!!! You absolutely have to find time in your life to chill out, retreat from the world, and calm down.
One way I like to approach this is to think about where you find happiness in your daily life:
Write down 5 small things that make you really love yourself, or truly make you happy. Men, I am also talking to you. They have to be things you can do on a weekly or daily basis (so while, technically 'tanning on my yacht' is applicable, find something a wee bit smaller to achieve regularly).
Here are a sample five of mine:
1. A glass of red wine at the end of the week while catching up on my favorite pvr'd cooking shows
2. Listening to my favorite French & Italian podcasts
3. Running
4. Making a really great cappuccino and enjoying it while I read New York Magazine
5. Arranging a weekend brunch or a drink night w friends
You get the idea. Try to do something off your favorite 5 everyday. And BE HAPPY while you are doing it. Actually - why not write down your 5 things (right now) in the comment section below? :)
I was at a conference once where the doctor was talking about the challenges he has to face, as a politically active doctor fighting for the rights of his profession. In his words: "I love what I do, but think of it this way - you get to go in treat patients, and see them get healthy. I have to go to work every day and determine which bowl of sh*t I am going to have to eat. It is always stressful, rarely rewarding, and the next day, I have to all over again!"
So vivid, his choice of words, no? Nonetheless, it totally stuck with me. The take home point is this: we all have stress and difficult challenges we have to face. Whatever it is - keep it under control by managing it with some de-stress time.
This is important for our muscles because when we are stressed, a stress hormone called cortisol is secreted and, among other things, it makes muscle breaks down muscle tissue for energy. Yes, you read that right. It is the equivalent of your body eating your own muscles. Gross.
Cortisol also blocks the formation of new muscle, slows down bone repair and growth, causes you to retain water, weakens your immune system, and encourages weight gain. It is the quintessential bowl of sh*t my colleague was referring too.
2. Breathe.
In my practice, working with patients of different backgrounds and situations, there is one constant theme: no one knows how to breathe properly.
Look in the mirror and take a deep breathe. What moved? Was it your chest or your stomach? If it was your chest, then you are, like so many other stressed out people, shallow breathing.
What we want to learn is deeper, diaphragmatic breathing. You want to be breathing with your stomach, and drawing the air deeper into your body. So, when you breathe, you want your stomach to be expanding as much as your chest.
I usually tell my patients to start with a count in for 4 counts, and out for 4 counts. Repeat 10 times right before bedtime.
Feels different, right? You are getting so much more nutrient-rich oxygen permeating into your muscles this way. You will fall in love with how relaxed this makes you. Trust.
3. Detox!
This will be the subject of an entire post in the near future, but oh my god people- you need to detox.
The toxins we take in from the environment, the crappy diet, the crappy sleep, the stress, the subpar water intake, etc...leaves our body (including our muscles) full of junk.
There are a ton of detox plans out there, in general I would say that doing a liver detox 2-3 times years is a good idea. Because no one has time, energy to spare, I am a big fan of detox plans that are 1-3 weeks in length (max!) and still allow you to eat real food at least once per day.
4. Food & Supplement
Healthy muscles like to have a lot of the following:
Vitamin C: huge for immunity, but also for helping with muscle soreness
Magnesium: helps with muscle relaxation and healthy contraction of muscles
Calcium: healthy muscle contraction absolutely depends on calcium. It also helps to relieve muscle cramping
Branch Chain Amino Acids: the building block for making protein and eventually, muscle itself
Zinc: a powerful antioxidant which helps with growth and repair of muscles after training
Bromelain: to help with inflammation and repair of muscle tissue
Vitamins B6: B6 helps to convert proteins from your diet into amino acids - which are the actually building blocks for muscles
Vitamin B12: helps prevent muscle fatigue and aids in the repair process
5. Massage
Not a hard sell, right? Who doesn't love a massage?
For the purpose of beautiful, healthy muscles, I am a big fan of deep tissue massage - it breaks up scar tissue, prevents and gets rid of knotted muscle fibers, and helps keep the tissue long, lean and in good health from the inside out.
I see a lot of this in my practice - injured muscle tissue (that usually accompanies some sort of spinal issue...but I digress). Sometimes injured muscles, other than being sore, can 'tug' on the vertebrae and restrict the spine's movement. With a traumatic event, they can even pull off small bits of bones from the vertebrae.
I have found that patients who regularly get deep tissue muscle work have the healthiest muscles.
The constant attention to flushing the muscles, preventing scar tissue and knots from forming lend to soft, supple muscles, and of course, a super healthy spine (which translates to a healthy nervous system because your spine protects the spinal cord).
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What do you guys think? What do you love to do to help your muscles relax? Leave your comments in the comment section below!
Five things that make me happy.
1. Ridding my horse
2. Reading a Fiction Novel
3. Listening to music
4. Watching Shows on HGTV
5. Watching Sex and the City reruns.
Posted by: Ariel | August 10, 2009 at 10:49 AM
Ariel -
Love your top 5! I too have a weakness for SATC re-runs. Usually, they inspire me to write more blog posts (or shoe shop). :)
Dr. Steph
Posted by: Dr.Stephanie | August 12, 2009 at 09:06 AM