Managing Sore Muscles

Some muscle soreness after activities is normal as long as it is not an intense ache and does not last longer than a few days. Here are a couple of easy ways to help reduce muscle aches and pains:

• Ice is the best choice for injured muscles. Use ice packs with at least one towel layer between the pack and your body. Without lying on top of the ice, gently rest it on the affected area for no more than fifteen minutes. This treatment can be repeated every two hours as needed. Be careful if you are diabetic, have any serious injuries or sensory loss in the area. Something as simple as applying an ice pack can be dangerous in these situations. It is always best to consult your doctor if you are uncertain.

• Menthol based pain relieving patches and gels can produce similar results as ice by reducing inflammation and swelling. Be sure to follow the labeled instructions.

• Applying creams with arnica or boswellia can aid in muscle recovery and reduce bruising. These compounds are natural anti-inflammatories and are great for healing. Again, be sure to follow the application instructions.

• Just work it out. A muscle should be soft and springy. If your muscles feel hard try working on them with the back of a spoon, tennis ball, rolling pin or golf ball. Think of trying to iron out wrinkles in a sheet. Be careful to not over work a muscle; if it feels puffy put some ice on it and calm it down again.

• Another option for working out a sore muscle is to do some gentle stretching. Talk with your doctor about which stretches should be done to relieve the discomfort in the areas bothering you. Be careful though, if you stretch the muscle too aggressively, you may make a sore muscle an injured one. Never bounce with stretching and it should not be painful. Mild discomfort is okay—as long as it does not linger for too long once the stretch is complete.

If any of the activities listed above cause you pain – stop what you are doing and seek professional advice before trying them again.

Warming Up And Cooling Down During Your Exercise Routine

This is the time of year that most people start some sort of exercise routine. Whether it is at home or in the gym remember to always add in a warm up and cool down session.

It can seem convenient to omit these steps because they add to your overall time. However, including them will save you time and money in the long run by reducing injury risks and decreasing recovery time if you do get hurt.

To start out with, you should get your heart rate up and get your arms and legs moving. The best activity for this is jumping jacks. You can make this a low impact activity by removing the jump and just going from a narrow to wide stance with your arms at your side and above your head, respectively. Try to do this for 1 to 2 minutes or to tolerance.

Each exercise routine should be paired with specific stretches to prevent injuries to the muscles that will be doing the work. These stretches are the most overlooked aspect of a fitness program. They should be done after the warm up routine and as a cool down at the end of the workout to maintain and increase flexibility.

Here are a couple of stretches that are good for most exercise activities:

Psoas Stretch:

Kneeling on one knee, lunge forward on the other knee. Make sure that you are not twisting and that you don't feel any tension in your spine. Tighten your abs (stomach muscles) and glutes (butt muscles) to feel an increase in the stretch. Hold this position for 10 seconds and return to a seated position. Repeat this 3-5 times on each leg.

Towel/Broom Stretch:

Using a towel or broom reach above your head and dangle it behind your back. With the other hand reach down and behind your back to grab the towel or broom. With your top hand gently pull up to help stretch your lower arm further up your back. Then with the bottom hand pull down to bring the top arm further down the back. Make sure that the palm of your top hand faces forward and the palm of your lower hand faces backward. This can be a great stretch to loosen the rotator cuff muscles and the shoulder capsule.

Feeling mild discomfort during these activities is okay, but you should never feel pain or have the discomfort linger. Please check with your doctor before starting any new routines—especially if you have been inactive for awhile. Also consider working with a personal trainer to help you reach your goals.

Exercise Routine Tips To Help With Depression

Depression affects everyone differently. It is easy to recommend exercise but not always easy to follow through while having a bad day. The steps listed below are useful once you have already reached out for advice from a healthcare professional. Remember, it is possible to have bad days even after following all recommendations, so have a routine in place for when that happens.

Exercise works best if you follow a daily, consistent routine. It is not going to change anything if you introduce it in the middle of an already bad day. Set up a time where you follow a workout schedule every day. Motivation can be a huge problem if you aren’t feeling very well, so it is a good idea to connect a new habit to an already existing one. For example: keep an article of your workout clothing near your toothbrush. This way, when you brush your teeth in the morning, you know your next step is to get dressed to exercise.

If you are too depressed, then it is better to find ways to help yourself out of the feeling first. Reach out to a therapist to talk about what is going on. Is there a friend or family member who knows what happens and how to help in such situations? Are there activities, mental or physical, that support your recovery? If a change in focus will not comfort you, what treatment options do you have in place to support yourself?

Break up a routine into smaller steps and see how many you can complete. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just get up and move around. Don’t want to change your clothes to exercise - can you do it in what you already have on? Are you motivated when you participate in group classes at a gym? If you cannot imagine doing a full routine, can you get through just a few jumping jacks at home? Once you have managed those, can you add on some more or a different exercise? If you absolutely do not want to exercise, can you get up and walk around the house? Maybe put the dishes away, heat food or collect your mail. This achieves two things – the movement usually helps the regular routine kick in and it also breaks the cycle of depression where you feel worse for not doing something simple to help yourself.

Supplements: Yea or Nay?

According to recent surveys, more than half the American population supplements their diet with a multivitamin, an herbal or some nutritional support. Over the past decade, the market has expanded exponentially grossing over $150 billion annually.

This begs the question; do we all really need supplements? The answer is not simple since many different aspects have to be taken into consideration.

First and foremost, if you have a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains, there is usually no need for supplementation. The key is to get variety in your meals so you are not eating the same foods all the time. A colorful plate for every meal implies that you get your multivitamins from food rather than a pill. This is always the best option because food, in its whole form, has a multitude of phytonutrients that help us absorb and utilize other nutrients efficiently. It is vital to be aware of how your food is grown and better to buy organic options for the produce you consume the most, especially thin skinned fruits or vegetables and leafy greens.

Supplements are not regulated by the FDA. Thus, the onus of researching their quality and efficacy falls squarely on the consumers. This can get complicated given marketing blasts that promise everything from speedy weight loss to a surge in energy. Understand that not all supplements are created equal and most of the claims are not backed by strong proof or any at all.

When buying supplements watch out for additives including, but not limited to, titanium dioxide, colors/dyes, carnauba wax and silica. Most of these are used to help bind pills together and change their color, but can interfere with how they are processed in our body.

Furthermore, certain forms of nutrients are also better utilized in our bodies. Oxide and carbonate forms of minerals, for example, are poorly absorbed. In some cases toxicity levels need be considered such as the case with palmitate and retinol forms of Vitamin A.

Given how confusing it can be, this is where talking to a healthcare professional becomes important. They should be able to guide you regarding how to choose good supplements and help determine if you actually need them.

A healthy digestive system plays a big role in your ability to get the benefits from what you ingest, so it is important to ensure that it is functioning optimally. We believe that supplements work best when used for a short term to address specific deficiencies when whole foods might be inadequate. Something is not better than nothing, in this case. So, avoid cheap and gimmicky vitamins and marketing campaigns. Keeping the number of pills to a minimum also reduces the chances of any interactions that can occur between supplements themselves or with medications.

And remember, it is supplementation and not substitution – nothing can improve your well being more than a healthy lifestyle.