Worthing Sports Massage

Move Better Without Pain

Everything You Need To Know (& More!) About Muscle Knots!

One of the most common questions I get asked in the clinic is; “what is a muscle knot?” Before I explain what a muscular knot is, I’ll first explain some basics of how our muscles are made up and how they function.

Muscle fibers run in all different directions throughout the body and are layered on top of each other. This ‘multi directional’ approach allows us to bend and twist with ease. The problem however usually comes when we are sitting, driving and generally moving in a ‘dysfunctional’ manner, not to mention mental and emotional stresses, coupled with the fact that the majority of us are significantly dehydrated. Combine, these factors lead to a loss of flexibility, mobility and ‘sticky’ fibers. This creates adhesions, ‘knots’ and ultimately pain.

Most people have heard of Lactic Acid and are aware that it is something that our body produces as waste but not many people know that Lactic Acid is actually a really sticky substance similar to honey. Like Honey, Lactic Acid crystallises as it comes in to contact with Oxygen. Now If you imagine that sticky substance forming in and around the muscles fibers you are starting to get a good idea of what a muscular knot is like.

Muscular knots are very common but that doesn’t mean that they are harmless, and they shouldn’t be ignored. They create chronic stress on the muscles which can result in micro-tears (this is usually the first time that you will be aware that the knot exists) leading to scar tissue. This scar tissue is less flexible than healthy muscle tissue creating an increase in postural stresses and changes which are hard to reverse.

Even a healthy muscle, when it contracts, has a significant effect on the body; the fibers become shorter, fatter and more bunched up creating a physical squeeze on not only the circulation but also the nerve signals. So, if you imagine a short knotted muscle trying to contract you can see how this would start to magnify and cause not only pain and discomfort in the muscles but also begin to affect our posture and movement efficiency.

If you leave a knot long enough, it can become stiff and hardened (forming fibrosis) due to a restricted flow of oxygen and nutrients. There is a reduction in the removal of noxious waste from the area resulting in muscles which are exhausted, irritated, inflamed and tender and so a Vicious Pain Cycle Begins.

So how can we prevent this from happening and prevent you from getting into a pain cycle?
Well there are several methods which help; diet and hydration are big factors in muscle health; avoiding processed foods, diuretics and refined sugars will help along with taking regular breaks at work and generally keeping mobile and active. But the most effective way of staying on top of knots and identifying potential sites when you may be prone to future (latent) knots is manual therapy such as a Sports Massage.

My role as a Professional Sports Therapist is to identify these knots (active and latent), to break up adhesions and flush out that sticky Lactic Acid. Sports Massage is effective to maintain great muscle health, pliability and the oxygenation of muscle and surrounding soft tissues to keep you at your best.

For more information please contact Claire Jellows BSc (Hons) based at Beach House Chiropractic (01903) 66 00 94.

Are You Strength Training Yet?

Everyone regardless of your age, gender or lifestyle will benefit from strength training. Especially as you get older.

Strength training will help your body fight the loss of muscle and bone mass that comes with age and inactivity.

In my experience as a Sports Massage Therapist and Personal Trainer, strength training is an area we neglect. Because of this our muscles, bones and joints become weak and inefficient at performing everyday tasks, playing a sport or general exercise.  Even basic movements become laboured and more difficult.  Changing a light bulb, moving furniture and carrying suitcases for example.

A lack of strength training can leave us open to injury, muscle soreness and joint pain. So if you’re looking to run a marathon, lose some weight or just simply improve the quality of your life, strength training is an absolute must!

In short, we underestimate the need to be strong!

What is strength training?

Strength training is a type of physical exercise that incorporates resistance, whether that’s your body weight or an external weight such as a dumbbell or barbell to help improve your overall physical performance.

The basic principle is to take a muscle through its full range of motion against a force (such as a dumbbell) to overload the muscle so it needs to adapt and progress to get stronger. This progression promotes a stronger muscle that in turn provides your joints with more strength and stability.

Strength training can be done at the gym, outside or in the comfortable surroundings of your own home and is achievable with very little equipment. Seriously, you don’t need heaps of equipment to improve your strength!

Resistance bands, balls, dumbbells, kettle bells and your own body weight are enough to design any strength programme for any goal.

Depending on your goal, whether you’re training for a particular sport or activity, a regular gym goer or just looking to improve the quality of your everyday life, there is a strength programme to condition you to perform better for every discipline.

The Benefits of strength training for optimal health:

1. Increased muscle strength – Increasing muscle strength will make your joints stronger and more efficient at completing everyday tasks such as lifting, carrying and walking up stairs and help you to perform better in the gym or to run that marathon.

2. Decrease the risk of injury – Having stronger muscles, tendons and ligaments will mean you will be less susceptible to injury from everyday stresses through to running a marathon or training regularly in the gym.

3. Improve posture, balance & stability – The strength of your muscles will dictate how you stand, sit and move. Strength training improves the body structurally and provides a better overall position decreasing the risk of falls and accidents.  You’ll begin to move with ease and find pain starts to disappear.

4. Increases daily calorie burn – The higher your lean mass the more calories you’ll burn throughout the day. So strength training is a must for any weight loss goal as well as increasing your overall strength.

5. Reduces the risk of osteoporosis – Strength training will increase bone density. Inactivity and aging can lead to brittle and weak bones, leaving us open to osteoporosis.

Strength training for Runners:

Running is a great from of exercise and has a huge variety of health benefits. However, around the start of each year especially, many of us take to pounding the streets for miles and miles, with either no or little running or exercise history. For some its to lose the excess Christmas pounds, for others it may be the to complete a first marathon.

Due to this, within the first few months of every year I see the same knee, ankle and lower back problems. And almost all of them are due to a lack of strength and conditioning to support the demand that running puts on our joints.

Incorporating a simple 30-minute strength and conditioning session 1-3 times a week will help to increase the strength and efficiency of your muscles, ligaments and tendons. This will keep your joints stronger and decrease the risk of injuries, helping you to perform better.  We all want to look our best, so my final word is that strength training will help you look great too.

 

Matt Cumming – Sports Massage Therapist & Personal Trainer

Coffee and Fat Burning

Caffeine and fat are potent metabolism stimulators!

By Dr Phil Maffetone. Properly roasted well-brewed organic coffee is high on my list of life’s pleasures. The smell of aromatic beans as I carefully remove them from jar to grinder each morning brings a smile of excitement. It continues with the intense taste of the first sip, through the last drop, and beyond. The therapeutic effects on my brain and body still continue to amaze me. My recent article on the Dr. Phil’s Fat-Burning Coffee Menu generated some further questions and comments about this wonder food which I hope to address here.

Drinking Coffee

Coffee is among the most studied food in science. One of its well-known actions is its ability to promote fat-burning. As the food highest in caffeine, it has been shown to reduce stored body fat, especially belly fat, and lower the risk of diabetes, liver and colon cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic inflammation.

Coffee polyphenols — naturally occurring phytonutrients in the bean — also can help regulate body-wide fat metabolism, improving regulation of insulin and glucose, and helping to reduce the tendency toward fat storage and cardiovascular disease as well.

But this does not mean adding coffee to a diet of junk food makes it healthy. Refined carbohydrates will easily negate the potential health benefits from good food and exercise, not to mention ruin a great cup of coffee.

Of course, too much caffeine can be a problem, and some people are much more sensitive than others. It can overstimulate the brain and adrenal glands, revving up the sympathetic nervous system too much, creating an autonomic imbalance. These problems can quickly lead to reduced health. Consuming coffee wisely — drinking the amount that has positive health effects and no more — is part of a healthy diet.

Eating Fat

Can consuming fat help burn body fat? Yes. This happens because eating healthy fats stimulates brown fat stores, which are metabolically active. While they make up only 1 percent of total body fat, they help burn fat in the major white fat storage areas of the belly, hips, and everywhere else.

Without brown fat’s metabolic action, we can gain body fat, have low energy, and even become sluggish in the winter due to the human hibernation effect. In addition to eating natural fats to burn body fat, there are a number of ways brown fat can be activated:

Caffeine can increase brown-fat activity. But too much caffeine can trigger stress, and like other stress, can reduce fat-burning and actually promote fat storage.

Food frequency can affect brown fat to either increase or decrease fat-burning. Eating several healthy meals or snacks a day — instead of one, two, or three larger ones —can trigger thermogenesis, an important post-meal metabolic boost that can increase fat-burning. Those who become well-adapted to fat-burning eventually require less calories and can reduce food and meal intake, but don’t try this until your metabolism is successfully burning more body fat or you’ll get hungry — a symptom of reduced fat-burning. In addition, if caloric intake is too low for your body’s need, brown fat can slow the burning of white fat; this often happens on a low-calorie diet, and when meals are skipped.

Refined carbohydrates, including sugar and other high glycemic items, can reduce fat-burning almost immediately. So if you have a raging sweet-tooth and add a teaspoon or more of sugar to your fat-burning coffee, the benefits may not be realized — you’ll just be adding more calories to a poor fat-burning body and build fat stores. Likewise, if you have a bowl of cereal, a bagel or other junk food as high-glycemic items impair fat-burning. (Artificial sweeteners may do the same, and maintain your sweet tooth and sugar addiction.)

Tea Time

Similar fat-burning and health benefits have been shown for the various types of caffeinated teas, including black and green. If you’re not a coffee drinker but tolerate and enjoy tea, you can still create a morning fat-burning fare. It’s simple: along with your tea, have some fat. Depending on availability and food likes, this can include the ingredients for Phil’s Fat-Burning Coffee without the coffee. Whether you find a way to add these or other fats to tea, or eat them separately, experiment. Other fats work well too. Consider an avocado, for example. Just add salt and eat it with a spoon. When traveling and unable to obtain ingredients for my coffee, I drink it black with a Phil’s Bar “Keto”.

If you’re looking for published studies for this topic, you’ll have no trouble finding them through a Pubmed search. Here is one I happen to have open at the moment:

Soga S, et al. Stimulation of Postprandial Fat Utilization in Healthy Humans by Daily Consumption of Chlorogenic Acids. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 77(8);1633-1636, 2013.

Clearly coffee can be an amazing fat-burning elixir when used responsibly and combined with healthy fats. Could there be any more pleasurable and tasty component to a healthy diet?

For more details visit https://philmaffetone.com/fat-burning-coffee-menu/

Consciousness – The Way Out Of Pain

(An excerpt from The Power Of Now P27)

Nobody’s life is entirely free of pain and sorrow. Isn’t it a question of learning to live with them rather than trying to avoid them?

‘The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the un-observed mind runs your life. The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgement. On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind.

The mind always seeks to avoid the Now and to escape from it. In other words, the more you are identified with your mind, the more you suffer. Or you may put it like this: the more you are able to honor and accept the Now, the more you are free of pain, of suffering – and free of the egoic mind’.

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