Muscle Pain - What is it and what to do about it

Do you get muscle pain after exercising? Its normal, but what is it and what should we do about it?

Muscle soreness is caused by a build-up of lactic acid in the muscles. Sometimes the pain is delayed, but usually the soreness tends to show up between 24-48 hours and is commonly called "DOMS" (delayed onset muscle soreness) after exercise.

Everyone gets it too. It's not unique to beginners or bodybuilders. Anyone who strains/rips their muscles is going to experience soreness either soon after or a delayed response. Sometimes the delay is caused by adrenaline and other pain-killing hormones in your system so you simply don't notice the pain until later. This is common for boxers for example who experience pain while fighting in the ring, but the real pain doesn't happen until after the match is over and they can barely stand due to all the pain.

Every time that you exercise and especially when you try new things such as exercises you've never done before, or trying heavier weights or by adding time to the routine, your muscles are simply not used to the demand. What happens is the tiny muscle fibers tear and break, and then they heal and fill in the muscle void with new muscle tissue so that you can handle that same load of work the next time with less effort and less pain. A little muscle soreness is a good thing. Hence the saying NO PAIN, NO GAIN. Muscle pain means that you have challenged your body and that it is now healing and building new muscle tissue.

Example

Lets say you don't normally do situps and your core muscles aren't the greatest. So one day you do 300 situps and that night and the day after your abs hurt. But two days later if you try to do 300 situps again, it will be easier the 2nd time around and you will experience less pain. This is because you've healed and built up more muscle in that region during the healing process. If you kept doing 300 situps every 2 days for a month by the end of the month you would be experiencing almost no pain and your ab muscles would be significantly stronger.

So regardless of whether you are doing weightlifting or ab workouts or even cardio, you are going to experience muscle pain. Even archery causes muscle pain in your arms and back if you aren't used to the poundage of the bow.

So what can you do about it?

#1. Only exercise those same muscles every 2 days so you can rest and heal in-between and build up your strength/endurance.

#2. Don't overdo it on the weights. Make gradual improvements on how much weight you are lifting. I know its fun to try and lift your maximum amount, but I only recommend doing that once per month and then keeping a record of what your maximum was.

#3. Stretching / Yoga. Stretching and yoga can help prevent / decrease muscle soreness.

#4. Take a cold bath or shower when you experience muscle soreness. Its really cold, but it helps numb the pain.

#5. Eat lots of beans, nuts, etc after a workout. Or a protein shake or protein bar. The extra protein will help build/repair muscle tissue faster. I don't recommend meat because the protein content in meat isn't as high as people like to think it is. eg. Pork chops are only 18% protein.

#6. Do NOT exercise muscles that are already sore. They're trying to heal. Focus your workout on different muscles on days when your muscles are so. eg. Some people like to alternate weightlifting on one day with cardio on the next. Or alternatively upper body on one day and lower body on the next.

#7. As a last resort, pain killers. Pay attention and learn what is actually in them however. A common painkiller you can find in a pharmacy for bodybuilders is actually just Tylenol 650 mg - which is the same thing people take for arthritis pain. So if you do go that way, look at the prices because seniors pay less for arthritis pills than bodybuilders do for muscle relaxers, even though its the same ingredient.

Always remember that pain is temporary. The feeling of achieving your goals lasts forever.

Lowering your Toxins and Why it is Important

You've probably heard on several occasions that people who quit smoking often gain weight. This is actually a MYTH.

What is more accurate is that people who quit smoking often experience weight fluctuations as they readjust to taste buds that can appreciate food again and a body that is shedding some of its toxins that it has stored up in their body fat as protection. Over the longer term most people who quit smoking actually lose weight as the result of this release of toxins and fat.

According to one study I found which tracked long term the weight changes over a 48 month period people who quit smoking do the following:

19% gained weight
24% weight stable
42% moderate weight loss
15% substantial weight loss

So 57% of people lose weight over the long term. It is only the rare few (19%) who replace their nicotine addiction with a sugar addiction who end up gaining weight, and that really comes down to poor willpower. So yeah, myth busted!

But back to my main point of this example. Your body stores toxins inside fat cells in an effort to protect the body. Basically its like a tiny prison cell for toxins and if you are consuming, eating, smoking, snorting lots of toxins then your body's natural reaction will be to store those toxins somewhere safe - which means you will be adding extra fat to your frame.

Fat and water storage are just two ways your body uses as a means of protecting you from poisonous toxins by diluting them and storing them in water and fat. This is often the reason why people have difficulty losing weight because our immune system tries to maintain a certain level of toxicity and it isn't going to allow the breakdown of fat cells if there is too much toxins in your blood. Our highly intelligent immune system simply won't allow the removal of excess fat if the level of toxins that is stored in the fat may put your life in jeopardy by their release into the bloodstream.

Warning Signs of Too Much Toxicity

Difficulty shedding weight
Dry, itchy, scaling or flaking skin
Soft, cracked, or brittle nails
Hard earwax
Tiny bumps on the backs of your arms or torso
Achy, stiff joints

 What you really want in your body is "healthy fat" with no toxicity in them. Healthy fat stores energy for your cardiovascular system to deliver to your cells that need them. Why does the type of fat matter? It is because building your body from the inside out is just like building a house. You can frame the house with the cheapest stuff you can scrounge. Or you can invest in quality materials that are going to be energy-efficient and last a long time. If your fat is toxic then you will end up storing lots of it and never using it, and you will feel slow and sluggish because you don't have enough healthy fats to provide energy for your daily activities.

So how do you get rid of toxins?

#1. Healthy diet. Cut out anything that is toxic or carcinogenic. That means don't eat the burnt crusts on your toast (anything burnt is carcinogenic), same goes with burnt meat and burnt marshmallows. If you are one of those people who burns their marshmallows and eats them anyway, stop that!

#2. Start reading food labels. Beware of any foods that has strange chemicals in them. Preprocessed foods are high in them.

#3. Avoid eating anything with bacteria in them. Bacteria creates toxins. So avoid eating meat that isn't well done. Indeed try to cut back on your meat consumption entirely so its at a more reasonable level.

#4. Go on a Detox Diet (eg. the Lemonade and Cayenne pepper one). This is for the more extreme detox people out there, but it really does work.

Are Food Dyes Toxic and How Dangerous are they?

There are a lot of websites out there which claim that food dyes are toxic. This is only partially true.

Part of the problem is that the websites and people spreading this misinformation are automatically assuming the worst and keep quoting nutjob websites which are far from reputable. In my effort to clear up this matter I found the following PDF:

http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/food-dyes-rainbow-of-risks.pdf

The PDF goes down a long list of studies into the dangers of food dyes and what it determined was the following:

#1. Some people have allergic reactions to food dyes. That doesn't make them toxic. Some people are also allergic to peanuts, but peanuts aren't toxic either.

#2. The dosages of most food dyes are so ridiculously low that they don't cause tumours.

#3. There are some toxic tumour causing food dyes (Orange B and Red 3), but they're either illegal and banned by the FDA or no longer used any more.

#4. There is one remaining food dye which is known to cause tumours (Citrus Red 2), but its only used on some brands of oranges. So the advice there is Don't Buy Oranges with Food Dye.

Otherwise food dyes are harmless because they're either not toxic or the dosage is so ridiculously low (and those that are tumour causing are banned by the FDA). And they're certainly way less harmful than bacteria in your meat, burnt crust on your toast and smoking cigarettes.




But if you're really worried about it then just read labels when you buy your food.

To me the really dangerous chemicals are not the food dyes. Its the man-made chemical additives found in processed foods which are designed to make foods more addictive... and throw in lots of corn syrup (aka glucose) is added to almost all processed foods. That much glucose is definitely not good for you.

If you want to cut down on your toxic intake eat only foods that have no weird additives in them.

Vitamins - Expensive Urine or Worthwhile Investment?

You may have heard from various sources that vitamins just make "expensive urine". The argument is that the human body doesn't absorb all the vitamins we consume and that much of it is disposed of via urination.

However before you throw all your vitamins away and refuse to ever buy another vitamin, lets stop and pause whether that kind of knee-jerk reaction is necessary.

First. What is the purpose of vitamin pills?

It is to make certain that you are getting enough healthy vitamins in your diet, especially if you aren't always eating healthy. Extra vitamins means healthier well-being, stronger immune system, less toxins in your system, less need to store fat and your body tissue heals faster when you have lots of vitamins in your system. Ultimately it means that if you forget to eat enough veggies in a particular day at least you are still getting some.

Second. How much of it really is disposed via urination?

This answer varies depending on the source and also on the person. Urine consists of water and the waste from the foods that we eat and the fluids we drink. It also can include dead blood cells and other materials the body wants to get rid of, which can change the colour of your urine. eg. Eat too many carrots and your urine will turn orange.

Urine production is controlled by the kidneys. Your kidneys only remove things from your bloodstream when there is too much of it, meaning an excess amount of it that you don't need. So in the above example of eating too many carrots, you end up with too much Vitamin C in your blood and your kidney's remove some of it.

So what really matters is the quantity of vitamins you are ingesting as to whether any of it is being disposed of via urination.


This confusion about disposal relates to reporters misquoting British researcher Professor Brian Ratcliffe of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen who says that in his studies the human body disposes of as much as 75% of our vitamin intake, which sounds like a lot... But what reporters often forget to mention is that his research involved test subjects taking a 1.5 gram Vitamin C supplement (the equivalent of more than 20 oranges worth of Vitamin C). So the lesson people need to learn from this is that reporters love sound bytes and skipping over the part where test subjects were taking 20 oranges worth Vitamin C.

So based on that measurement, you can eat 5 oranges and your urine won't change colour and no vitamins will be wasted, but if you eat 6 your urine might change colour a bit.

Third. If quantity is such a concern, how much should we take?

It varies depending on your body's size and your level of physical activity. If you are robust and exercise a lot you are going to need more vitamins. If you're thin and almost never exercise your body evidently doesn't need much, but if you're trying to maintain your health it wouldn't hurt to be taking a small amount of vitamins.

There a lot of different vitamin pill companies out there. There are even rating systems for which multivitamins pack the most punch. So if you're just taking a Life brand multivitamin, then yes, you are not wasting any of it because the dosage is comparatively low. But if you're taking a very expensive "five star" multivitamin with a high dosage, then yes, you are more likely to be taking an excess of vitamins and some of it will be disposed of via urine.

But does it hurt you to be taking extra? No, it won't. It might hurt your wallet a little more if you're worried about that sort of thing.

The rule of thumb when it comes to dosage is that regular people who just want to maintain their health should take a regular joe multivitamin and then not worry about it. But if you're an athlete, a bodybuilder or you've recently suffered an injury and want it to heal faster... then getting the more expensive vitamins makes good logical sense.

Want some interesting facts about vitamins?

Too much caffeine or alcohol can turn your urine clear as your kidneys work hard to dispose of the chemicals.

Dark yellow means you are dehydrated and need to drink more water.

Bright yellow is from Vitamin B2, also known as riboflavon.

If you currently take a multivitamin and your urine is not changing color, it actually means that you are not receiving a sufficient amount. (Therefore don't worry, you aren't wasting any money!)

Less than 25% of Americans take enough Vitamin C on a daily basis.

You would need to regiment your food intake to make certain you are getting enough vitamins on a daily basis. Most people don't have time for that so the short cut is to take a multivitamin pill.

The therapeutic use of vitamin supplements can both treat and prevent serious disease by having vitamins in your system able to help fight off infection and cancer.

When in doubt about whether you should be taking extra vitamins then consult a nutritionist.

Six Pack Abs - The Final 5 Lbs

Lets say for a moment that you used to be obese. You've lost 100 lbs since then, and its been a long process of exercise, maintaining your diet, and you may have even fallen off the horse a couple times on your quest to have Six Pack Abs, but now you're almost there.

You can FEEL your ab muscles underneath a tiny layer of fat and skin. You are so close you can literally feel the muscles, but try as you might you cannot seem to shed that last 5 lbs and attain the Six Pack Abs you've been dreaming of.

After succeeding at a long term weight loss program many people like Jim find that they can't firm up the final few few pounds around their midsection. It is a common problem, but there is a solution.

Here are four techniques to try (possibly in combination):

1. Stress Management

On the wellness side of things, stress makes it difficult to shed fat. Especially if you are too stressed to eat properly or keep to your exercise routine. Stress makes you do two things: #1. It makes you want to relax, pig out and let yourself go. #2. Stress releases hormones that will make your body try to store fat - starting with your midsection.

Thus when you are feeling stressed here is what you need to do: Take a nap, do yoga and/or meditation. Sleep and time to think will do wonders for your stress levels and you won't feel the need to relax and binge on food.

2. Focus on Diet

Nutritionists always tell people that if they are exercising to their full potential, and not seeing the results that they want to achieve, then they need to be looking at their diet. The last few pounds around the waistline is notoriously toned with a cleaner diet. This should include eating plenty of vegetables, raising protein and lowering carbs. It also helps to drink plenty of water and avoid sugar.

A more extreme version might be to try a lemonade detox diet for 10 days. Or at very least cutting out carbs for 1 month (no bread, no pasta, no potatoes, etc) until you've lost those last 5 lbs.

3. Core Training

Sometimes putting on extra muscle helps to firm up the skin that is covering the abdominal. In addition to isolated abs training, focusing strength sessions on compound exercises (using more than one muscle at a time) and exercise that combines balance, plyometrics and stretching. Yes, stretching helps to develop muscle!

4. Marathon Training

Or at least a 5 km run. If you aren't doing it already, try training for a long run like a marathon or half marathon. Start jogging/running every day for 1 hour.

A 125-lb. person burns 283 calories running 4 mph for one hour. Increasing to a 5-mph pace burns an additional 227 calories per hour.

A 150-lb. person burns 340 calories running 4 mph for one hour. Increasing to a 5 mph pace burns an additional 272 calories per hour.

A 175-lb. person burns 397 calories running 4 mph for one hour. Increasing to a 5-mph pace burns an additional 317 calories per hour.

Over a period of a month such a regimen will burn approx. 4 to 10 lbs depending on your size and speed. You may discover it will work faster than that thanks to the After Burn Effect - calories being burned after doing high intensity exercise due to your cell's energy being replenished and muscle tissue being repaired  / new tissue created.

Long distance running also produces "Runner's High" - a cocktail of addictive hormones in your system - which will lower your stress, but beware of the dangers of addiction because some runners become so addicted they lose friends and family because they're outside running 100 km+ per week.

Combined these four tips will help to achieve a lean and hard midsection and get you those Six Pack Abs you've been dreaming of.

Heart Rate Targeting for Aerobic Efficiency

Trying to attain a specific heart rate during aerobic activities is one way to increase your overall fitness and endurance (and the strength of your heart).

Monitoring your heart rate by taking your pulse is the best way to see if you are working at the correct intensity to be getting a full workout. If your heart rate is above or below the acceptable levels, you should either increase or decrease your effort.

40-70% MHR = Active Living Zone - Best for "fat burning" and general health. Work at the level that meets your needs.

60-90% MHR = Aerobic Zone - Best for improving efficiency of cardiovascular system.

60-70% MHR = Optimal Active/Aerobic Zone - This is the best zone to get all the benefits of fat burning, general health and improving your cardiovascular system at the same time.

MHR = Maximum Heart Rate

HOW TO TAKE YOUR PULSE

When measuring your pulse use index and middle fingers. Never use your thumb since it has it's own pulse.

When you feel your pulse, count the beats for 10 seconds and then multiply your 10-second pulse rate by 6 to determine your pulse in Beats Per Minute (BPM). Alternatively you can also count for 15 seconds and then multiple by 4. It really depends on personal preference.

YOUR TARGET HEART RATE

Depending on your age and your physical condition your target heart rate will be very different. For athletes with strong hearts their heart rate will be 10% to 20% lower than a normal person because their heart is stronger and doesn't need as much effort to reach the same level of intensity.

You can also determine your target heart rate using the following mathematical formulas.

220-Age = Maximum Heart Rate (MHR)

MHR × 40% = Low level of Active Living Zone

MHR × 60% = Low level of Aerobic Zone

MHR × 70% = High level of Active Living Zone

MHR × 90% = High level of Aerobic Zone

MHR × 65% = Is the halfway point between 40% and 90% and inbetween 60% and 70%, making it within your Optimal Fat Burn / Aerobic Zone.

Thus 220 - Your Age x 65% - Your Optimal Active/Aerobic Zone

Example: If you are 40 years old your MHR = 180. Times that by 0.65 to get 117, which is your optimal heart rate.

THE TALK TEST

A great and easy way to determine what level of activity you are doing is to do the "Talk Test." Can you manage to carry on a conversation while being active? Then chances are you are working within your Active Living Zone. If conversation is impossible because you are too busy trying to breathe then you are within the aerobic zone.