I hated studying for certification tests. Right after college, I took one of the more reputable certifications for strength and conditioning. While preparing, it wasn’t very reassuring to memorize concepts the test-makers thought was more important than I did.

I was arrogant for sure, just like any twenty-something-year-old meathead, but to mount a straw defense, I already had some real experience in formal strength and conditioning. I knew that many of the answers to the test questions depended on the situation.

Theory and lab results don’t always pan out in a practical situation.

One of these theoretical ideas that never sat right with me was standard rest times. Most of the textbooks would have strict guidelines for how long you should rest between strength training exercises or conditioning rounds and bouts.

I dug into why they were recommended and found it to be arbitrary.

Textbooks would assert that:

• When weight-training for strength, you need to rest for 2-5 minutes between sets.
• When doing circuits for endurance, 30-second rests between the exercises were best.

Heavier weight means you need longer rest time to recover and repeat—that sort of makes sense.

I think the textbook’s authors did not clarify the rest times regarding recovery or what to push?

Instead, it would help if you had answers to:

1. Did the specific durations challenge your body’s capacity to endure stress and recover from it?
2. Were they recommended because anyone, regardless of training history, could recover completely with that specific rest time and be ready to push hard again?

Those are two very different concepts, and I’ll explain.

What’s the Purpose of the Workout?

If you want to feel strong or tireless at the start of each set, round, or circuit, you have to pay careful attention to your rest period.

If you want to challenge how much intensive work you can do and resist fatigue, you adapt to the exercise’s stress and limit your rest.

You need to know how much rest you need first to understand how to shorten it strategically.

• Sometimes you should be fully recovered and feel your best for each set. This recovery is the best practice for training compound-lifts with heavier weights.
• Sometimes, training isn’t to feel the best or lift the heaviest weights possible during the training session.
• Sometimes it’s best to work at a deficit during an individual training session to cause a long-term gain.

Training the endurance and tolerance of fast-twitch muscle fibers to curb fatigue is part of the foundation for your capacity for strength.

These fast-twitch types are the very ones that dominate strength and power movements.

Alactic capacity, the general capability to maintain high-intensity movement, makes up this foundation. To train these abilities, you need to monitor, reduce, and alter how long you rest between exertion periods in a workout as you become stronger and more conditioned.

Does a Real Standard Exist?

The recommended rest times for heavy strength training are usually based on the length of time the Central Nervous System (CNS) and energy substrates, which cause muscle contraction, need to recover.

It makes sense, but I’d strongly disagree that the average rest times given in the textbooks are standard for most people. I assume these studies take place in laboratory conditions.

I can’t emphasize enough how many people I’ve seen not fit this model in a practical setting.

The values, at the least, need to be looked at and tested further. I’m basing my view not just on what people tell me but on my concrete observations of how long it took them to repeat exercises with the same effort and intensity. And, I’ve seen these deviations in both inexperienced and experienced clients.

Textbooks for the associations that certify coaches usually mention that rest times can be changed and provide a range for this.

Still, I’ve never seen any solid recommendations on how, when, or how much to change it.

The Breath Can Tell Us Something a Device Can’t

Technology has created some great tools since these textbooks were written that monitor fundamental physiological shifts and monitor recovery. Heart rate monitors and devices that track heart rate variability are some of them.

While having data to track is invaluable, I think we have a built-in regulator that we can put to use in deciding how long to rest—the breath.

Observing the breath can tell us something that a device can’t.

It gives clues to how psychologically ready we are to take another heavy set or go through another intense exercise period. Controlled breathing can calm the body and mind, and by simply observing it, you can tell if you’re still panicking.

The word panic may seem dramatic, but it’s describing a stress-induced state from a mental attitude, voicing, “I’m not OK, or I can’t do this.”

However, even when heart rate lowers and other metrics show the body to be recovering, your breathing may still be speedy or labored.

And if the breath hasn’t calmed, your mind hasn’t calmed.

The mind can immediately speed up heart rate and blunt neural signals to the body to act coordinated, strong, and powerful. So even if the heart rate slowed and the nervous system and energy substrates had enough time to reset, you’re unsettled mind will kill your effort on the next set or round.

This calm is primarily an overlooked point of performance and recovery, but we teach it in great detail in our JDI Barbell course.

The Signals to Observe

If you’re trying to monitor your recovery between sets by tracking heart rate, you also need to pay attention to the quality of your breath.

• When you finish a set of weights or round of conditioning, your breath speeds up alongside your heart rate.
• You may also feel that your shoulders and chest elevate with every breath, even if you usually have a healthier breathing pattern where you expand and narrow your inhale and exhale through your lower torso.
• Your body is trying to take in more oxygen to make up for what you spend during the exercise.
• The breathing muscles in the chest, neck, and shoulders cause you to get taller with our inhale and shorter when you exhale. But they’re the back-up muscles for breathing, kind of like afterburners.
• The lower torso muscles that expand and narrow the belly, sides, and lower back on inhaling and exhaling should be the dominant breathing muscles, especially when resting.
• So even though those secondary breathing muscles can and should kick on to help you take in more air while you’re pushing through intense exercise, the primary forces should be responsible for your breath before your next set or round. If this doesn’t happen, then you haven’t fully recovered.

This up and down breathing pattern signifies that your breathing is labored, and you’re still in a stressed state.

Observe the Breath’s Patterns

To use the breath to decide our rest times, we have to make sure we naturally breathe horizontally where the torso widens on inhaling and narrows on exhale. If you want to dig into this, you can check out the work I’m doing with Dr. Belisa.

• If we have this excellent pattern, we can start to track how long it takes after a set to switch from using those afterburner muscles to a relaxed horizontal breath.
• There’s no need to force it; watch it and record it to use as a baseline. You can also track your heart rate to see the relationship between the two.
• Keep a log on how long it takes you to make this switch after each set until you find the average time across all sets over two weeks of workouts.

Also, make a note as to how you felt during each set or round:

• Did you feel like you were pushing just as hard each time?
• Were there sets where you waited just a little longer because you were more in touch with your breath?
• Were those sets better when you rested longer?
• Were you able to keep pushing hard for each set as fatigue crept in as it always will the longer a workout lasts?
• According to the standards I mentioned above, did you start your next set as soon as your breathing became more relaxed?
• What happens when you take a few more calm breaths even after you start breathing only horizontally before beginning the next set?

Start Somewhere

Sometimes it makes sense to shorten your rest time to train your ability to recover and push the needle on both local muscular and total endurance. Without a baseline, though, how do you challenge this?

You need to know how long it takes you to recover entirely from each type of activity. You also need to know the feeling of rebounding to a fully rested state.

Becoming more conscious of your breath’s changes and quality will improve the connection and awareness you have of your body.

Often you’ll see those who throw themselves too far into the deep end, trying to work at an intensity that’s not sustainable with too high a stress level for them to recover or adapt.

They’ll plan short rest times based on nothing other than what they’ve been told makes the workout challenging. If you have no idea how long it takes for you to recover completely, you’re just guessing, and you may shorten your rest too much to sustain your effort throughout your workout.

There’s nothing wrong with testing your ceiling, and there’s a time for that, but every set isn’t your last, and you can’t treat it like it is.

If you know your baseline, though, you can set challenging rest times in that sweet spot that pushes you, challenges your ability to recover, and also keeps you moving forward.

Consider the entire picture when planning strength or conditioning training. If you plan to do eight rounds or sets of something but only get through four of them because you pushed yourself to a breaking point during the first few sets, what was the point?

You couldn’t sustain the effort because you went too hard in the beginning.

In the end, you did less work, despite the frantic effort of your first couple of sets fueled by listening to loops of Rocky-themed death metal music remixes.

Sometimes training’s primary focus should be on maintaining as close to the same effort as possible for every bout. This primary focus includes all of your training sessions in a given week.

And to give every set a similar effort, you’ll need to monitor how much rest time you need after each set, circuit, or round to keep this up, and tracking your breathing can give you the details.

Track Your Breath for a Useful Metric

Let’s go over specifics. For the breath to be a helpful metric in deciding rest, we need to make sure we have an excellent horizontal breathing pattern and that our breathing muscles are strong. After this, we can start tracking the breath changes to get a clearer picture of our fitness.

Observe:

Make your set, your sprint, your circuit, or your round hitting a punching bag, as usual. When it’s time to rest, don’t intentionally slow or control your breathing. Watch a few breaths.

Ask yourself how the exercise bout influenced you:

Question 1. Is Your Breathing Labored?

• Specifically, are you breathing horizontally through your torso while also through your neck, shoulders, and chest?
• Are you not broadening and narrowing at all through your belly, sides, and low back and instead only using the shoulders and chest’s secondary breathing muscles?
• Record yourself or look in a mirror. Are you just getting taller and shorter as you inhale and exhale, or is your mid-section moving with it too?

A. 1. The first question’s answers will tell you if your primary breathing muscles need more work and how hard the effort was.

• If you find you’re just using the secondary muscles (breathing up and down with no broadening and narrowing of your mid-section), you need more conscious practice in using the right muscles and patterns.
• And if you do practice and strengthen these muscles, your recovery ability and performance will immediately improve.

Question 2. How Do You Inhale and Exhale?

• Are you inhaling and exhaling through your nose and mouth?
• Are you inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth?
• Are you inhaling and exhaling through your nose and mouth synchronously?

A. 2. If your answer to the second question is yes, it probably means you’re using both primary and secondary muscles.

• You may still be breathing well horizontally, but if you notice your chest and shoulders actively engaging when you breathe, you have more information about how hard that set was.
• If you’re breathing through both your mouth and nose, you’re pushing yourself physiologically and will need more time to recover sufficiently.

Keep it Going

Instead of slowing down the breath, controlling it, or quickly changing it to nasal only, let yourself breathe rapidly in whatever way comes naturally. Just watch it closely for at least 10-50 seconds without interruption.

At the moment, it starts relaxing even a little, deepen and extend your inhale and exhale without changing the pace of your breath too drastically or trying to inhale only through your nose if you haven’t naturally started doing it.

Take several breaths like this until you switch to an easy more nasal-only breath without forcing it.

Track and Repeat

Have a stopwatch or clock with you, and note how long it took for the change in breath to happen. Remember to write it down. Then make a judgment about whether you feel psychologically ready to start the next set, round, run, or drill and repeat the same effort as the last.

The longer you train, the more fatigue you’re going to build regardless of what you do in between sets, but the idea is to give as consistent an effort as possible throughout the whole training session.

Create Your Baseline

Keep tracking rest times based on the changes in your breath and the effort that follows. Follow this over a couple of weeks with every training method you put yourself through, whether it’s weight training or conditioning bouts.

Now you have your average rest needed for a baseline to use across the board based on your biology and condition.

Create Your Training Plan

Remember that sometimes you can challenge your conditioning (both strength and endurance) by limiting rest. With a baseline that gives you concrete evidence of how long you need to make a full recovery, you can reduce your rest strategically to challenge and improve over time.

It’s also easier to make adjustments. Say you reduce your rest time by 20%, but you’re fighting to finish your training each week. You can adjust and make it only 10% until you adapt to this first.

Re-evaluate and Adjust

Keep following your baseline or adjustments every time you train for the length of a training cycle (3-6 weeks), but stay in touch with the feelings of your breath.

Then, test your ability to recover again. Now you can set and play with rest based on this new baseline.

Just remember, this isn’t always a linear advance. When you change complexity or style of exercise and movement or become stronger and can challenge yourself with heavier loads and implements, recovery requirements can change.

But always, you can check in with the breath.

The post Too Much Rest Or Not Enough? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

As a coach, this is what I witness on a daily basis—people going through the motions without intention or focus, as if they’re gagging down mushy, overcooked vegetables.

When done correctly—in a deliberate and calculated way—accessory work won’t feel like the easy part at the end of the workout. In fact, it’s where many of your gains will be made. Kind of like a perfectly-cooked and well seasoned vegetable dish!

Accessory Work, Defined

Before I go any further, let’s talk about what accessory work is:

It is the work you do that essentially supplements the other strength and skill work in your training. Accessory work is there to help enhance the gains you’re already getting from the major lifts you do, such as squats, deadlifts, and presses. Accessory work can also include rehab exercises to help you fix any weak points in your movement patterns or iron out muscle imbalances.

Things you might recognize as accessory work are movements like glute bridges, back extensions, lat pulldowns, or even mobility training. Often these movements seem easy, but if you’re building a lot of tension in your body when you’re doing a glute bridge or a dead bug, for example, I don’t care how fit or strong you are, it will be hard.

If you can relate to any of the following points, chances are you’re missing the mark during your accessory work.

Evaluate Your Accessory Work Practice

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. “This tempo is crazy slow. I don’t have time for that. I’ll just do these a bit quicker to get through them.”
   If you have had a thought like that, chances are you’re not going to reap the benefits.
2. “This isn’t even hard. Why am I doing this? What muscles am I supposed to be feeling?”
   If you have felt this way during accessory work, focus on building as much tension in your body as possible as you’re working your way through the exercises. In other words, try harder.
3. You do your accessory work while scrolling Instagram.
   If you’re able to casually work through your accessory work while posting on social media, chances are you aren’t trying hard enough and are definitely lacking the deliberate intention we’re looking for. Similarly, if this is the time you socialize and catch up with friends at the end of the workout, something is surely amiss.
4. “What’s taking people so long?”
   If you’re always the first one finished, reconsider how your approach the easy stuff at the end of the workout.
5. You have been doing a ton of accessory work for your glutes and hamstrings, but it has not translated to increased strength on your squat or deadlift.
   If accessory work isn’t translating to gains elsewhere, it might be time to mix up your accessory work, or get some coaching and figure out where you’re missing the mark.
6. You skip it altogether and decide to do 100 burpees for time instead.
   If you think you need more volume all the time and won’t leave the gym until you feel like you were hit by a bus, yet you’re not improving as fast as you think you should , something is off and you probably need less burpees and more accessory work.
7. You wonder what accessory work even is… Hmmm…

Take accessory work seriously. Just like vegetables, it will provide you gains if you do.

The post 7 Clues You Are Doing Your Accessory Work Wrong appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Below are my top five tips to help you get fit over the age of 50.

We all have that moment when we realize that we need to take better care of ourselves. For many of my clients, this moment comes sometime in their 50s. When this moment occurs later in your life, it is important to make sure that you are approaching your health and fitness appropriately to ensure that you are mitigating risk of injury and that you are setting yourself up for success.

Below are my top five tips to help you get fit over the age of 50.

1. Focus on the Process

While you can still see amazing results in your 50s, it is far more significant to build out a healthy living pattern. You are not going to see results as quickly as you did when you were younger. As we age, it is more difficult to burn fat and build muscle.

If you make yourself process driven rather than focusing on the results that you are looking for, you will develop habits that will perpetually help you be healthier and in better shape. If you shift your objectives to the behaviors that will get you results, not only will you see the body changes that you are looking for, you will also stop the yo-yoing that you have experienced throughout your adulthood.

It is also shifting your goal to something that you have complete control of and allows for you to pivot your behaviors to fit your goal as it changes. Your goals will shift over time. While today it may be just to keep up with your kids and be able to play basketball again or to simply lose 20 pounds to not have to buy new clothes, after you accomplish one goal, your goals will shift to another.

If you focus on the process, you will have the right pattern. Then, you can adjust the diet and exercise variables to fit your goals as they evolve.

2. Focus On How the Workout Feels

Realize that regardless of age, what we are capable of can change on a daily basis. It is certainly appealing to look at your workouts and look for a linear progression from workout to workout. However, regardless of age, progression does not work exactly like that.

It is more like the way the stock market progresses; it has peaks, valleys, and plateaus. With each workout, you should take your time and view your workouts more as easy, medium, and hard days. Don’t worry if the weights you use from one workout to another drop, focus on the specific level of intensity you are training with.

Depending on how your body feels that day, what you can do may change. In your 50s, it becomes far more difficult to add muscle. No matter if you are a man or woman, your body’s natural testosterone levels have dropped.

The amount of calories you can burn in a single workout has dropped, which is due to the decrease in your maximal heart rate being directly linked to the amount of energy you use in a workout. When people told you that it would be harder to lose weight or get in shape in your 50s, they were right. However, realize that harder is not impossible.

3. Lift Lighter, Focus on Volume, and Muscular Contraction

When you first thought of weightlifting, especially if you are a man, you look at the amount of weight you are lifting as the key indicator to your progress. STOP THAT! You are 50-plus now. I hate to break it to you but the concept of consistently increasing the weight you are using on a regular basis will lead you on the road to injury.

Instead of using that variable to determine how good or bad a workout session is, use how the muscles feel or how many reps/sets you did with the weight. Attempt to get the deepest muscle contraction that you can possibly get while using the lightest weight and perfect form.

Lifting heavy with low volume places more stress on the joints. Working with lower percentages of your single rep maximum effort will help protect your joints. You can get an amazing workout and progress your strength and gain muscle while training with a lower intensity and a higher volume. Instead of focusing on the amount of weight that you are lifting, focus on the muscular contraction that you are getting from the lift.

Train with higher volumes where you are still able to work through progressive overload training. Progress occurs when we introduce stimuli that our body is not using to ask the muscles to do more than they are used to doing. Working at higher volumes allow us to progress the number far away from the most weight you can lift.

4. Don’t Get Hurt

I don’t care who you are or what your specific goals are, nothing slows progress more than getting hurt. You are 50-plus now. There is no need for you to ego lift and be a hero in the gym. You need to take care of your body.

Progress slowly, always listening to your body and if something doesn’t feel right, figure out why. An injury can limit you both in your training and in your everyday life. Always listen to your body.

Over the years, your body has developed different imbalances and movement patterns. Understand that these imbalances can impact the way that you perform exercises and at times the exercises that you can perform. It is important that you listen to your body and pay attention to the objective of the exercise.

All too often, people come to me performing exercises to develop one part of the body and only feeling it in another, such as women performing squats to develop their butt, and only feeling it in their quads, or men performing bench presses to build up their chest, but only feeling it in triceps. These muscle imbalances need to be paid attention to, and while both examples are common, improper muscle activation can lead to injury, at the very least.

As I tell my clients, “if you don’t feel it in that area, odds are the exercise isn’t working it.” Understand that there is no single cookie cutter “right” way to perform most lifts. The lengths of your muscles and your bone structure is something that is unique to you.

If you go into every exercise with a specific objective (muscles you are looking to activate with a defined purpose), you are able to listen to your body to discover the appropriate from to get the results that you are looking for.

5. Make Recovery a Focused Part of Your Program

You are now at a point in your life where you have enough going on that if you don’t plan it, it doesn’t happen. You need to look at recovery not simply as a passage of time, but rather as an active part of your program that is necessary for you.

Recovery can take on many forms from working with professionals like a massage therapist, physical therapist, or chiropractor, and can also be an activity you perform like stretching every morning, meditation, yoga, and foam rolling. A complete program will incorporate both of these.

Your training is only a small part of your overall fitness and health program. Also, take the time to work on your recovery. Yoga and other stretching techniques will elongate the muscles and help them recover. If you are feeling acute pain in any area of your body, you should consider seeing a physical therapist or chiropractor to develop an understanding of what is going on with your body.

Even if you are not feeling any issues currently, you should consider working with professionals to aid in your recovery. Working with professionals on the prevention of injuries can and will improve your training, and help you be healthier and feel less pain.

Regardless of what your goals are, you can see amazing results beyond your 50th birthday. However when you are getting started, you should shift your focus to help ensure your longevity and health.

The post 5 Tips to Get Fit Over 50 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

1. “It will help with recovery.”
2. “It will make me less sore tomorrow.”
3. “It will prevent DOMS.”

At gyms all over the world, athletes can be found grunting and making pain faces as they aggressively grind out various sore body parts on foam rollers. Their thinking behind this self-administered, sometimes painful, myofascial release (SMR) technique is:

1. “It will help with recovery.”
2. “It will make me less sore tomorrow.”
3. “It will prevent DOMS.”

Sorry to disappoint: Foam rolling your quads after doing 100 loaded squats will probably do diddly squat when it comes to the muscle soreness you’ll most likely feel in the next 48 hours.

That being said, this doesn’t mean foam rollers don’t have their place in our lives.“They just don’t work the way you think they work,” explained veteran strength coach Garth Cooke, the owner of Forge Valley Fitness in Vernon, British Columbia, and a former Canadian national team rugby player.

“Foam rolling is like a massage. It’s good for flushing out the lymphatic system and can relax your muscles a little bit, but in terms of the muscle damage you do (from working out), it won’t do anything for that,” he explained.

Don’t Roll Your IT Bands

What about my IT bands? Isn’t foam rolling good for them?

Many people, especially those who spend a lot of time running, have notoriously tight IT bands. This often results in knee pain. Because the IT band—the tendon that runs down the length of the outer thigh from the top of the pelvis to the shin bone—is difficult to stretch the way we stretch the muscles in our bodies, foam rolling has often been seen as a good alternative.

But there’s plenty of evidence now that foam rolling your IT only exacerbates the problem, especially if the pain you’re feeling actually stems from your glutes not firing properly. Do your research when it comes to using your roller.

When Should You Roll?

So what then is foam rolling good for?

Foam rolling is a little bit like eating chicken noodle soup when you’re sick: It’s not what’s going to heal your flu or cold, but it will give you some temporary relief and comfort as your body is fighting off the illness.

Two times foam rolling is useful, for short term comfort, that is:

1. To help you get into better positions

Let’s say you’re working on your strict press and your shoulders and pecs are feeling tight. Foam rolling your lats, for example, before you lift, or between sets, can help relax your shoulder blades so you can get into a better, anatomically safer overhead position during your press, Cooke explained.

“But foam rolling before a heavy squat session isn’t always the best choice,” he said. This is because foam rolling will relax your muscles and you don’t want that before heavy lifting. Instead, you want to make sure you can build as much tension in your body as possible, he said.

That being said, a 2018 study on foam rolling published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning did find that foam rolling your hamstrings may be beneficial in creating more range of motion without affecting muscle activation. But more research needs to be done.

2. To alleviate pain

If you have ever slipped a rib in your back, you’re probably familiar with that sharp pain that even hurts when you breathe, and the ensuing muscle tightness that goes along with it. You want relief right now, right?

Foam rolling—or a more acute acupressure type of rolling with an acupressure ball or a lacrosse ball—can help alleviate the pain (temporarily). It won’t, however, fix the injury long-term. Or let’s say your knee is a bit sore and feels restricted. Foam rolling your quads, hamstrings, and hip flexors might help decrease your perception of pain or discomfort and ultimately tell your body to calm down a bit so you can have a less painful workout.

Cooke recommends foam rolling before bed if you have chronic pain or tightness, or an acute injury, to help alleviate the pain before you try to get a good night’s rest.

The take-home: Foam rolling is useful for helping you in today’s workout in some cases, but it’s not going to fix injuries or reduce DOMs, nor will it keep your body moving well and pain-free long-term.

The post The Declining Role of the Foam Roller appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The following phases are normal after an injury has occurred:

While most athletes are in denial when it comes to acquiring an injury or developing chronic pain, the truth is that sports disciplines are notorious for increasing your risk of experiencing injuries. A better understanding of the natural progression of injuries can help you approach the management of the associated functional loss and pain that may occur.

The following phases are normal after an injury has occurred:

1. The Inflammatory Phase – This phase ensues following trauma, lasting for about five days in the event of muscle, tendon, or ligament damage, and lasts up to three weeks if bone is affected. During this phase, damaged tissues are removed and vascular remodeling is undertaken to facilitate blood flow to and from the damaged area.
2. The Proliferative Phase – This phase begins following the inflammatory phase and usually sets into motion the rebuilding of damaged tissues. However, the structures built during the proliferative phase are not sturdy and act more as a framework for the next phase. Think of jelly that has not chilled sufficiently; all you have is the raw material that will help mold the structure of the next phase.
3. The Remodeling Phase – This is the longest phase in recovery following an injury, often taking well in excess of a year to be fully completed. This is important as it takes time to ensure structural tissues are able to fulfill their mandated functions. Rushing this phase (by attempting to stress the site of injury prematurely) often leads to a subsequent injury or one that never completely recovers.

There are many ways to enhance recovery and manage pain. Let’s discuss some of the options.

IGF-1

IGF-1 is a highly anabolic hormone, synthesized in the liver. It plays an important role in the regeneration of numerous cell types, including those that may often become injured such as muscles, ligaments, and even bones.

Chronic inflammation is strongly associated with low IGF-1 levels, which may indicate that this hormone is quickly depleted during chronic pain due to its mandated anti-inflammatory function. Just think of that for a moment; IGF-1 promotes healing and recovery and helps to manage inflammation.

You can boost IGF-1 levels via the following means:

• Consumption of more dietary protein, especially from whey protein supplements
• Red meat
• Zinc
• Capsaicin and soy isoflavones, which have been shown to boost production of IGF-1 (be careful with soy if you are male)

Cissus Quadrangularis

Used for centuries to assist with recovery of bone fractures, cissus quadrangularis increases the expression of osteopontin, a protein which facilitates bone recovery and remodeling. It has also been shown to reduce inflammation and pain.

Application of Heat

The use of localized heat for a short period of time can help speed up healing and recovery in a manner that is superior to ice. Even though ice remains effective for acute management of pain and inflammation, over the long haul it does not support true recovery.

The ability of heat to promote recovery lies in the actions of heat shock proteins (HSPs), which mediate anatomically correct structural regeneration. If you’ve ever heard of a fracture incorrectly recovering, this is likely a result of insufficient heat shock protein recruitment.

Heat shock proteins also support muscle protein synthesis, especially following periods of inactivity. This makes it great for supporting recovery on two fronts:

1. Helps you quickly regain muscle mass that you lost following an injury that contributed to mobility issues.
2. Supports proper recovery (setting) of bone or connective tissues to ensure maximal functionality.

Topical Analgesics

These are excellent for supporting the management of pain localized to one area. Penetration of these preparations through the skin is only moderate at best, which means that even if they contain NSAIDs pharmaceuticals, the likelihood of experiencing adverse effects related to them are extremely rare.

Topical analgesics may only provide moderate pain relief, but can oftentimes save you from reliance on addictive medication for pain relief. We usually recommend natural topicals rather than NSAIDs as they tend to not be disruptive to the body’s natural healing processes.

Natural topical analgesics usually include the following ingredients:

• Menthol – Activates kappa opioid receptors found in the skin, initiating analgesia.
• Camphor – Provides pain relief through a mechanism identical to menthol, but also possesses mild anesthetic properties.
• Capsaicin – This well-known extract of chili peppers works by depleting a compound known as substance P, which is involved in the transmission of pain signals to the brain. Depletion leads to inefficient signaling and diminished pain perception.

The Controversial Remedy: Kratom

Kratom can be considered one of the most promising, yet controversial natural remedies for the treatment of pain on the planet. Kratom contains specific alkaloids, which have been found to exert potent action on the opioid system found in the body, leading to significant pain relief.

Kratom is actually a member of the same family of plants as coffee belongs to, but with its effects best summarized as more of a mood booster and painkiller, it is not necessarily a stimulant. The attributes of kratom depend on the type of strain you use. Kratom grows abundantly throughout parts of Southeast Asia, but not all kratom plants share the exact same composition of active constituents.

For instance, the Indo, Borneo, and Bali strains (found mainly growing in Indonesia) are very good for relieving pain but possess somewhat of a sedating action. In contrast, maeng da also referred to as the “king” of kratom strains, is extremely good for pain but more stimulating.

Some compare it to the feeling of drinking coffee, which is not that surprising considering that they are related. Malaysian strains strike the best balance between modest pain relief and an effect that won’t shift your energy balance in any particular direction (so no drowsiness or stimulation) and are best suited for long-term use owing to a greater degree of balanced effects.

In reality, kratom is an extremely safe plant, many times more so than commonly prescribed opioid drugs, even though the media often tries to paint a different picture.

What makes kratom the superior alternative? It has excellent analgesic potency but without the risk of respiratory depression (hypoventilation) and death. Opioids, such as morphine, are strong analgesics, but also cause noticeable sedation and respiratory depression. It is not uncommon for people that overdose on such drugs to simply die in their sleep, as breathing may cease altogether.

Statistics from 2016 indicate that on average 46 people die every single day from opioid overdoses. The numbers attributed to kratom as a stand-alone supplement is less than 50 deaths in all of recorded human history (and often falsely accused, more on that soon).

This is less than cannabis, by the way, which is now considered a medicinal and even recreational legal substance in some US states. Regardless of this huge advantage that kratom possesses over opioid drugs, the FDA has tried to make it a banned substance.

Native islanders of the South East Pacific have been using kratom daily for centuries with no associated deaths (millions of people using it every year). Its alleged association with deaths in the United States have not been conclusive.

In the vast majority of cases were death had resulted, kratom was not the only substance found in the person’s blood, but rather a cocktail of substances the likes of cocaine, heroin, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and more. These substances are well-known to possess significant risks and are likely to have been the main contributors to the death of those individuals.

Clearly, interest surrounding kratom has increased drastically in the last decades as the plant has been helping more and more people safely treat their chronic health issues and free themselves from a lifelong addiction to painkillers. There is also a documentary about kratom on Netflix called “A Leaf of Faith”—which I highly recommend.

Even though kratom is hundreds of times safer than opioid pain medications, it is still good to exercise caution when starting to use it. The consumption of kratom causes stimulation of the opioid receptors, which can lead to mild tolerance—the effect is comparable to the tolerance you develop from chronic coffee/caffeine consumption.

This tolerance is what some “experts” are worried about, and what they based their past arguments on supporting a ban, though it needs to be clear that association does not equal causation. Think of it this way; 100% of persons that breathe in oxygen will die. Does it mean that oxygen is the “true” killer? Not exactly. This is a clear case of guilt by association and one that poor kratom is the victim of.

The reality is that when you compare opioids and kratom, it is more likely that the reason some powerful parties have pushed for a ban on kratom is that they face a complete loss of revenue from pharmaceutical drugs such as Oxycontin and Vicodin. You cannot patent a natural substance, hence kratom will always belong to the people.

Much of the analgesic potency of kratom is attributed to the presence of two compounds: mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine. Kratom’s ability to diminish pain perception (otherwise known as nociception), is useful in managing chronic pain of an intractable nature— the compression of a spinal nerve or vertebrae, for example. Kratom acts by interacting with the mu opioid receptors (MOR), which stimulates the release of endorphins, boosts mood, and mitigates the sensation of pain.

The Power of The Mind

Though nutrition and supplements can help speed up your recovery, there are also free ways to do the same. Sometimes the brain perceives an injury or pain to be much worse than it really is. In turn, this feeds your perception of pain—inevitably prolonging your recovery.

Mindful meditation can help shorten the recovery curve because it emphasizes realistic determination of the present state of things. As it turns out, your expectations about your recovery can alter the natural progression of recuperation, so think positive and say goodbye to your suffering!

The post Natural Ways to Promote Recovery and Ease Discomfort appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

At least in the short-term.

Tight muscles are normal, especially if you are training hard and pushing your body to excel both on the field and in the gym. But tight muscles can also affect how you feel, how you move, and how you perform. Many of us turn to foam rolling to help out those tight muscles, and foam rolling is a great way to feel less restricted, improve your range of motion during movement, and pave the way for higher performance.

At least in the short-term.

Beware, foam rolling is not the key to changing your tissues to improve your range of motion and movement quality in the long-term.

Self-myofascial release (SMR) techniques (like foam rolling) can be used in the moment and are an effective short-term solution. They’re a good alternative to an ibuprofen, but ultimately using foam rollers does not change your tissues as compared to other modalities.

Let’s dig into the main components of foam rolling:

1. What is foam rolling?
2. Does foam rolling change your range of motion (ROM)?
3. When does foam rolling work?

What Is Foam Rolling?

Foam rolling is a type of self-myofascial release. So, if you’re wondering what myofascial is, let me explain. The term myofascial refers to the fascia surrounding your muscles. Fascia is the connective tissue that surrounds the muscle, blood vessels, and nerves. Your fascia can be thought of as the glue that holds all other body tissues together.

• Fascia may be responsible for reducing your ROM if it becomes restricted.¹
• Repetitive movements or high volume loading patterns (like during an athlete’s season) creates a dysfunction within the fascial system which leads to an inflammatory response.
• When your muscles spasm, they result in knots or trigger points (micro spasms) that create weak adhesions in your soft tissues. These adhesions produce pain and possibly contribute to the reduction in your ROM and performance.²
• Self-myofascial release is a common way to alleviate the pain and decrease the ROM associated with the overactive muscle and fascial restrictions.

Think of using a foam roller as a type of personal massage. When you have a tight, painful muscle rubbing on that muscle seems to help it feel better, right? Foam rollers are meant to work the same way. Using a foam roller is a way to help tell your muscles to relax when in spasm. By providing mechanical stress to your muscles, it signals to your body to decrease muscle tension.

In the moment, it brings relief and can help stop the feeling of pain or discomfort. But what about the fascia adhesions?

Consider this, when you wear a backpack all day, do your shoulder muscles get permanently pushed down because “adhesions are broken” and your fascia is getting released? The answer is no—so using a foam roller isn’t doing that either.

Some fitness gurus will say that foam rolling can create long-term changes in your tissue. But the truth is that there is not enough evidence to support this view. Using a foam roller for a massage is not going to “break adhesions” resulting from muscle spasms.

Although research shows us foam rolling does not really change these “adhesions” what we do know is that it changes our perception of pain, and when an athlete perceives discomfort, her range of motion is going to be affected.

Foam Rolling and Your Range of Motion

When your muscles are in spasm, that tightness is going to cause discomfort when you move. Think about it this way, if you have tight hip flexors, performing a squat or sprinting at max speed is going to hurt. So what do you do?

Rolling on a foam roller or a lax ball on your hip flexors can definitely help decrease this discomfort. A number of studies have shown significant acute improvements in ROM as a result of SMR.^{2, 3} This makes sense when we remember how the mechanical pressure of the ball or roller is going to tell your muscles to chill out. Muscles that are less tense move in a way that allow you to improve your ROM discomfort free. However, it is important to note that these ROM improvements are acute and often fleeting. Numerous studies have shown a return to previous ROM after 10-min post foam rolling.³

Simply put, foam rolling is not a way to change your tissues for the long run just like sitting on your butt all day isn’t going to make your butt permanently flat. Your tissues do not change in the long-run based on pressure alone.

So, how do you get your tissues to change? How can you actually improve your mobility and flexibility? By using resistance training.

“By definition, full range resistance training is a form of dynamic stretching that challenges flexibility. Every strength session an athlete does is a flexibility-strength workout, and as such will lead to increases in not only ROM over time, but more importantly concurrent increases in strength over that full range.”¹

Strength will provide the necessary stability and motor control required to safely realize any new ROM (improved mobility and flexibility) in a sport-specific movement pattern. Improving your ROM and strength within that ROM not only increases your performance but decreases your risk of injury.³

Quickly it becomes pretty obvious that foam rolling alone is not going to adequately deliver the range of motion and strength in that range of motion needed for female athletes.

The question then becomes: when can foam rolling be useful to the female athlete?

When Does Foam Rolling Fit In?

So, we know that foam rolling is not a way to improve your flexibility or mobility in the long-term. But we do know that foam rolling helps relieve a feeling of discomfort and tightness.

For an athlete who is feeling discomfort or tightness, foam rolling is a way to alleviate discomfort before implementing other training methods that will help her in the long run. Let’s consider an athlete about to perform a back squat in her strength training session but her knee is feeling super tight and restricted. She should spend some time preparing her tissues for the session through movement.

For example, having an athlete perform slow split squats will help introduce a type of eccentric stretch to help her hip flexors relax and alleviate some pulling on her knee.⁴ This type of movement is going to help prepare her tissues to perform a similar movement pattern later but with a heavier demand or load.

More videos can be found on Relentless Athletics’ YouTube channel

Remember, foam rolling is going to help alleviate the perception of pain or discomfort. If this pain is inhibiting you from moving (your goal), foam rolling your hip flexors for a couple of minutes can help your body’s perception of pain to chill out.

Now that the pain is decreased, its time to move. After foam rolling, re-introduce those split squats to help eccentrically stretch your hips through slow and controlled movements. Then it’s time to load the tissue and back squat.

Through the back squat, we are not only getting the body to move through a full range of motion at her knees and hips, but we are strengthening that range of motion. Remember, strength is what provides the necessary stability and motor control necessary to achieve a long-lasting range of motion in a sport-specific movement pattern.

The Moral of the Story

Please stop foam rolling first. Foam rolling is going to help you decrease your perception of tightness and discomfort, but it is not going to help you prepare your tissues for movement the way you want.

With only 24 hours in a day and only an hour or two in the gym, laying on a foam roller is not the best use of your time to prepare your body to move. Remember, the goal of any athletic performance (whether it be a back squat in the gym or a high vertical in your basketball game) is movement.⁵

• If you feel tight, focus first on the goal of movement (and not a stretch) to relieve the sensation.
• Try performing a couple of slow and controlled body weight or goblet hold split squats or half kneeling presses to alleviate tightness. If that doesn’t work, then we can talk about how foam rolling fits into the equation.
• Think of foam rolling as a way to relieve some of that discomfort so you can move later without popping an ibuprofen.

But do we want to implement fo first? No, as it is not essential to our goal of movement.

But if we try to move and we still feel pain, rolling out some of the discomforts can help.

Studies do show there is a possible decrease in DOMS (delayed muscle soreness) when athletes introduce a 10-minute bout of foam rolling post exercise session.¹ This is great if we need to perform at our highest the next day, but don’t forget that DOMS is your body’s way of expressing the inflammatory response that occurs after training. This inflammatory response is necessary when telling your body it needs to improve later.

By implementing methods to decrease this response—foam rolling, ice baths, and other recovery methods—DOMS or general soreness can decrease but at the possible expense of your training adaptation.

Have a big game tomorrow and you cannot be sore? Adding 10 min of foam rolling after your training session can help. But, if you’re training hard to improve your strength for next season, just accept the soreness as part of the adaptation process.

Things to Remember When You’re Foam Rolling

Tight muscles are normal if you are training hard and pushing your body to excel on the field and in the gym. Tight muscles can affect how you feel, how you move, and how you perform. Despite what mobility gurus may say, there is not enough evidence to support the claim that foam rolling changes your tissues in the long-term to help you move better. Rather, there is extensive evidence that shows movement, and progressively loading those movements, helps change your tissues in a way that will improve your performance in your sport.

If you are looking to improve your range of motion and strength in the long run, ditch the foam roller and start moving. If your tight muscles are giving you pain, consider foam rolling instead of popping an ibuprofen.

References:

1. Sargent, D., Clarke, R. (2018). Strength and Conditioning for Female Athletes. Mobility for Performance in Female Athletes. Marlborough: Crowood. pp 111-139.

2. Sullivan, K.M., Silvey, D.B.J., Button, D.C., and Behm, D.G. (2013). Roller massager application to the hamstrings increases sit and reach range of motion within 5 to 10 seconds without performance impairments. The International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, 8(3), pp 228-236.

3. Stone, M., Ramsey, M.W., Kinser, A.M., O’Bryant, H.S., Ayers, C., and Sands, W.A., (2006). Stretching: acute and chronic? The potential consequences. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 28(6), pp. 66-74.

4. Aarimaa, V., Rantanen, J., Best, T., Schultz, E., Corr, D., & Kalimo, H. (2004). Mild eccentric stretch injury in skeletal muscle causes transient effects on tensile load and cell proliferation. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 14, 367–372.

5. Webb, A. (2016) Review of the literature: Functional movement development of athletic performance. Journal of Australian Strength and Conditioning, 24 (3), pp. 23-40.

The post The Truth About Foam Rolling appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Do a quick Google search and you’ll find no shortage of articles that describe protocols that warm up your core temperature and specific patterns of movement. There are more resources than ever before that describe how to warm up to ensure efficient movement during training.

You may even find a collection of peer reviews articles I compiled a couple of years back that showed everything I could find pertaining to the research of warming up. The truth is that there’s much more information available concerning warming up for workouts over cooling down afterward.

After many years focusing on the value of warming up, I’ve since changed my focus to finding the practical use of a cooldown for my clients and athletes. It is valuable to realize that what you do after training helps to ensure you can come back healthier, more mobile, and more prepared to train the next time.

Cooling down properly has a great impact on improving longevity and reducing the risk of injury. I’ve been fortunate enough to learn directly under a handful of world-class Russian Olympic weightlifters and coaches who have a motto that I’ve adopted: leave the gym stiff, come back stiff.

Focus on the Big Picture

If you were to leave the gym right after a day of heavy squats, you’d walk around the rest of the day in a more extended spinal position. Most people are already extended and when they leave the gym the lack of cooldown exacerbates bad posture. Any length of time in this more exaggerated position causes problems. The pattern often continues day after day and week after week until something eventually gives, usually the person’s lower back.

The main points to address when I’m getting clients to cool down and relax from the tension of their training session is to release the extension in their spine and bring their breathing and heart rate down.

The importance of releasing the extension in the spine is easy to understand when you look at the demands of heavy lifting, particularly squatting. When we brace under a heavy load, it’s important to keep a global extension of the spine to keep rigidity under the bar.

This not only protects our backs but also allows for efficient transfer of force throughout the body. This extension has more to do with the upper back, or thoracic spine, being extended to match the normal curvature of the lower back, or lumbar spine, instead of an exaggerated lower-back super-arched position.

Release Your Spinal Tension

Taking 5-10 minutes after training to release the tension in the muscles that lock you into extension can go a very long way. The areas of focus would be hip flexors, glutes, and quads—all of which can be released by going through some very basic stretches.

It is important to practice deep relaxing breathing while you perform these stretches. This does three things: it slows the heart rate, it returns the breath to an easy, natural rhythm, and it allows you to relax into these stretches which actually makes them useful.

If you’re tense during stretching, you’re not sending a signal to tell the muscles to relax and you’re not really doing anything but wasting time. Deep breathing helps the entire system relax and helps you sink further into the stretch.

It is also important to put your spine in a rounded position and use the same principles of deep breathing and relaxation to once again allow the muscles that hold you in extension to release and allow for a more natural and neutral position afterward.

This can change depending on what’s helpful for the individual person. It doesn’t need to be super complicated or wrapped in a dogma of belief as to what mobility or restorative protocol is best. It can just be a regular deep breath into the areas of tightness.

Meet Jay: The Perfect Example

Jay is in his thirties and is a small business owner. Jay has been a practitioner of jiu-jitsu, judo, and mixed martial arts for decades. He spends a lot of his time compressed and twisted in these combat sports. What’s worse is that Jay has a job that requires him to spend an ungodly amount of time driving in his car in New York City traffic.

Jay uses weight training to balance out his posture from being constantly rounded and compressed. The extension needed for lifting weights helps him achieve this better balance. Jay still needs dedicated time at the end of training to relax his musculature and neural signals.

To facilitate this, we have practiced a simple breath drill variation that I have found to be effective for him—a sort of yoga child’s pose position that helps release his spine. The result is he’s been able to continue all of his training and improve even with all the demands of his life—exactly what should happen for every trainee.

You might also like The Comprehensive Rowing Warm Up And Cool Down.

Jesse competes in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, and he was also formerly a competitive powerlifter. He was featured in main strength and fitness publications. You can read more of his work on his website.

The post Leave the Gym Stiff, Come Back Stiff appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

You probably come to Breaking Muscle for information, guidance, and motivation. This article would seem a complete deviation from our typical fare. However, you will come away disappointed if you clicked on this piece expecting to find this coach giving you license to quit. No, this isn’t permission to throw in the towel when things get a little tough.

Giving up is counter-productive. Let’s examine when quitting is actually the most productive option, and how to determine the difference between productive quitting and simply hanging it up.

I walk a thin line to even suggest that “quitting” might actually be a viable, dare I say, positive option. Lack of motivation, commitment, and follow-through is the primary reason that most people fail to achieve their fitness goals. But the reciprocal problems of bullheaded commitment, tunnel-vision, and overreaching bring up a very close second place.

These latter issues manifest in myriad ways. Hyperfocus on strength or performance goals can easily overshadow the holistic needs for rest and recovery and obscure the otherwise clearly visible signs of a pending injury. Imitating the routines of your favorite Instagram fitness guru is often an exercise in frustration. Continuing a program or style of training that is ineffective or contrary to your goals simply from a perceived sense of commitment is the fastest way to come to resent your training.

Photo by Bev Childress

To be fair, high-end athletic goals often require tunnel-visioned focus for success. New styles of training might not feel like a great fit until you’ve had a change to acclimate to the new demands. Many programs require drudging through the middle phases to arrive at the conclusion before you finally see a pay-off.

Far too many suffer diminished motivation, lack of progress, and struggle with happiness simply from being stuck in a rut. Worse, it’s a rut of their own creation, dug unintentionally because they do not understand when or why to “quit.”

When Quitting Is Good Option

A telling personal example of sticking to an ill-conceived sense of commitment came during a sunset walk. I used to live near a nature preserve on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It was the perfect setting to take a stroll, slow down, and shake off the effects of a stressful day. One evening, while taking advantage of just such a use, I began to feel too tired to walk my usual course. The sun had already set, I already felt better, yet I was compelled to reach the end of the path before turning around to walk home.

My entire reason for taking a walk was to break the cycle of hard-charging, purposed-driven, focus that we all bring to our work and fitness. Even while actively trying to switch modes and actively trying to relax, I found myself attempting to override my desire for relaxation. The way to de-stress was to walk with no objective, yet I was unconsciously transforming my stress-relief activity into an exercise that was precisely the contrary.

I imposed the arbitrary purpose of reaching the end. While this might seem reasonable through the lens of productivity and a goal-driven mentality, it actually continued a stressful trend rather break it.

Ask yourself, what parts of your fitness routine are arbitrary, self-imposed demands that do not actually serve your stated goals. Worse, which aspects actually detract from your aim?

The key to sustainable fitness and happiness along the way is to understand the difference between the commitments that are requisite for success on your path and those that are entirely self-contrived. If you are in the middle of a barbell strength cycle and do not feel motivated to continue, take a deep look into why. If your knees are beginning to hurt from squatting too often or the percentages are increasing quicker than you can handle, stop, re-assess, then either modify things to fit your body and your goals or stop altogether. Do not simply continue for sake of reaching the end. However, if you are sore and fatigued from the volume of heavy loading, welcome to getting stronger. Suck it up, eat larger meals, and go to bed earlier.

Knowing When to Quit

Every athlete in the history of training, regardless of the goals or their level, has faced this dance between necessary and self-imposed, arbitrary commitments. Knowing the difference is a critical key to success. There is no definitive answer except to continually check-in with yourself with enough humility to get an honest sense of your emotions and enough courage to alter course when necessary.

One factor that I find to be extremely telling is how often, if ever, your goals fill your attention. If you regularly think about losing x-amount of pounds, hitting that 5k PR, achieving a full split or doing a bodyweight strict press, you are on the right track. Simply put, if you cannot stop thinking about your goals you are pursuing the right things for the right reasons. If you continue down a road or toward some objective because you think you should, it’s time for a serious, introspective chat with yourself.

The post When to Quit appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Indeed, training and nutrition are two of the primary factors we need to look at whether we’re trying to build muscle, lose fat, or gain strength. While these two factors get most of the attention, there is one additional critical factor to consider if we want to shed fat and perform at our best. It is perhaps the most overlooked factor contributing to a leaner, more muscular physique, and it is also one that, if neglected, could ultimately jeopardize your body recomposition efforts.

And that factor is sleep.

How Lack of Sleep Effects Your Body

In 2013 I moved to Portugal where I studied for 10 months as part of a university exchange program. There were a lot of exchange students like me that year, and one of them, a Brazilian fellow, became a good friend of mine. He wasn’t really the sporty type—I wasn’t able to make him come to the gym with me even once for all those months. In fact, I’d often go to his house and I’d find him lying in bed, eating pizza and watching TV. So, you can imagine he wasn’t exactly into health and fitness.

When I met him in the beginning of the first semester, even though he had an admittedly unhealthy lifestyle like most 21-year-olds, his metabolism alone was quick enough to hold off the damage that he was doing to his body. Gradually that started to change. Soon, he started gaining a few pounds a month and, as you might guess, those pounds added up over time until one day a few months later when winter passed, he literally couldn’t get into his summer shorts.

The weird thing was, he said he wasn’t eating more than he used to back at home in Brazil. Exercise wasn’t in the equation either way. The only thing that had changed was now that he didn’t live with his parents and he was at last his own man, he started sacrificing sleep and staying up late to work on university projects or to watch TV.

Could this have been the cause for his slow, but steady, progression to a dad bod? You bet.

Sleep Deprivation Influences Your Caloric Intake

Even though my friend was eating more or less the same meals as back home, one thing that led to his unexpected weight gain was the fact that he failed to account for the late night snacks that pushed his body into caloric surplus. He always had snacks like chips, crisps, or sweets lying around. You know how this scenario this goes down: you’re watching your favorite TV series after a long day at school or work and you decide to have a little bit of crisps or just one piece of chocolate, and soon enough you’re reaching out for more until you’ve unwittingly had 200-300 extra calories just before bed.

Think this is exaggerated? Think again.

In a systematic review and meta-analysis of human intervention studies assessing the effects of partial sleep deprivation, scientists found that the sleep deprived (less than seven hours of sleep per night) tend to consume 385 kcal more compared to the control condition.¹ For most people, increasing intake by 385 kcal daily is significant enough to cause serious weight gain. So, if my friend was consuming 300+ extra calories each night then it’s no wonder why he suddenly started gaining weight.

But his increased caloric intake is just the tip of the iceberg. In order to reveal the full consequences of sleep deprivation we need to go deeper.

Sleep Deprivation Influences Your Hormones

We now know that my friend, like many other sleep deprived folks, was consuming a considerable surplus of calories and ultimately that is what led to his weight (and fat) gain. But we still don’t know what it is about sleep deprivation exactly that causes us to increase our caloric intake.

One explanation could be linked to the fact that when we’re sleep deprived, we’re awake for a longer period of time. Our bodies generally burn more calories when we’re awake than when we’re asleep so it’s plausible that our bodies signal our brains to seek out more food to compensate. But as the above-stated study reveals, there was no significant change in total energy expenditure or resting metabolic rate as a result of not getting enough sleep. Meaning the sleep deprived folks had increased their total caloric intake without increasing the amount of calories they burned.

Why do we crave more food when we don’t get enough sleep? A University of Chicago study among 12 healthy males in their early 20s found that sleep deprivation is associated with an increase in ghrelin levels and a concurrent decrease in leptin levels.² Ghrelin, also known as the hunger hormone, is basically the hormone that signals your brain that you are hungry. Leptin, on the other hand, is the hormone that signals that you are full.

This study suggests that, when sleep deprived, we tend to feel hungrier and less full. This explains why the sleep deprived folks averaged a 385 kcal caloric surplus, compared to people who get to bed on time and get enough sleep.

Another issue related to sleep deprivation is the type of foods we crave when we don’t get enough shut-eye. Studies present conflicting results, so we need more research on the subject. But that being said, some studies do suggest that when sleep deprived, we’re more likely to lean toward unhealthy high-carb, low-protein foods.³

This is bad news particularly because most of these unhealthy high-carb foods are loaded with sugar, and according to another University of Chicago study, sleep deprivation also negatively affects how our bodies handle glucose.⁴ More specifically, the study reveals that sleep loss is associated with impairments in glucose metabolism, including insulin sensitivity, and notes that “it is possible that insulin resistance could also promote increased adiposity and weight gain.”

Sadly, the cascading negative effects of sleep deprivation don’t end here.

Sleep Deprivation Affects Your Brain

As if sleep deprivation didn’t cause enough trouble by screwing up our hormones, it turns out that it also messes with our brains. According to yet another study, sleep deprivation decreases activity in the critical decision making regions of the brain, the frontal cortex and insular cortex, and amplifies activity within the amygdala, the reward region of your brain that makes you seek out high-calorie foods.⁵

It’s no wonder being sleep-deprived has been compared to being drunk. In a sleep-deprived state you lack impulse control and you’re more likely to just reach out for those tasty cookies in front of you.

But there’s more.

Sleep Deprivation Affects Your Workouts

As you probably know, having more muscle helps you burn more fat. Apart from helping you burn more calories during workouts, this happens because increasing your muscle mass leads to a higher Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)—the amount of calories you burn in a 24-hour period if you were to do absolutely nothing.

That’s all good and well. Sadly, sleep deprivation can ultimately lead to less muscle, and thus more fat. Scientists found that sleep deprivation can lead to decreased protein synthesis meaning that your body is capable of building less muscle when you’re on low sleep.⁶ Another point stated in the same study is that, in case of sleep deprivation, there’s a marked increase in cortisol, the catabolic hormone. That means that not only will you build less muscle, but you can also experience muscle loss.

Finally, less total sleep means less slow wave sleep and during slow wave sleep is when your body releases the most growth hormone. The increased levels of cortisol don’t help much either, further decreasing the release of growth hormone, and again leading to less muscle—and more fat.

How Much Sleep Should You Be Getting?

By now sleep deprivation probably sounds like a downward spiral to hell and hopefully you understand exactly how it can bring your muscle building and fat loss progress to a quick halt.

But enough depressing studies and statistics. By this point, you’re probably just wondering how much sleep you actually need. In 2015 the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and Sleep Research Society (SRS) developed a consensus recommendation for the amount of sleep you need to be getting every night in order to function optimally: 7 to 9 hours per night.⁷ Of course, the exact amount of sleep needed varies depending on the individual, but it’s safe to say that 7 hours per night seems to be the bare minimum and that those who work out probably need a bit more.

That being said, I’d like to leave you with a few tips for higher quality sleep:

• Don’t look at screens (TV, desktop, or mobile devices) for two hours before bed
• Sleep in complete darkness
• Use earplugs if you live in a noisy environment
• Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day

Get Your Sleep

Sleep deprivation can be a serious problem both for your health and for your body composition. The decrease in average sleep duration in the U.S. has occurred over the same time period as the increase in obesity and diabetes.⁴ Make sure to get your fair share of quality sleep every night to keep your body fat percentage low and your health in check.

References:

1. HK Al Khatib, SV Harding, J Darzi and GK Pot (2016). The effects of partial sleep deprivation on energy balance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2016), 1–11.

2. Spiegel, K. (2004). Brief Communication: Sleep Curtailment in Healthy Young Men Is Associated with Decreased Leptin Levels, Elevated Ghrelin Levels, and Increased Hunger and Appetite. Annals of Internal Medicine, 141(11), p.846.

3. Markwald, R., Melanson, E., Smith, M., Higgins, J., Perreault, L., Eckel, R. and Wright, K. (2013). Impact of insufficient sleep on total daily energy expenditure, food intake, and weight gain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(14), pp.5695-5700.

4. Kristen L. Knutson, PhD, Karine Spiegel, PhD, Plamen Penev, MD, PhD, and Eve Van Cauter, PhD (2007). The Metabolic Consequences of Sleep Deprivation. Sleep Med Rev. 2007 Jun; 11(3): 163–178.

5. Stephanie M. Greer, Andrea N. Goldstein & Matthew P. Walker (2013). The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain. Nature Communications 4, Article number: 2259

6. Dattilo M, Antunes HK, Medeiros A, Mônico Neto M, Souza HS, Tufik S, de Mello MT (2011) Sleep and muscle recovery: Endocrinological and molecular basis for a new and promising hypothesis. Medical Hypotheses 77, 220–222.

7. Consensus Conference Panel, Nathaniel F. Watson, MD, MSc, Moderator, M. Safwan Badr, MD, Gregory Belenky, MD, Donald L. Bliwise, PhD, Orfeu M. Buxton, PhD, Daniel Buysse, MD, David F. Dinges, PhD, James Gangwisch, PhD, Michael A. Grandner, PhD, MSTR, CBSM, Clete Kushida, MD, PhD, Raman K. Malhotra, MD, Jennifer L. Martin, PhD, Sanjay R. Patel, MD, MSc, Stuart F. Quan, MD, and Esra Tasali, MD (2015). Recommended Amount of Sleep for a Healthy Adult: A Joint Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society. Sleep 38. Jun 1; 38(6): 843–844.

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The CFF Physio Ball is a dual massage and mobility ball that can be heated or cooled for best results. The ball itself looks more like a dumbbell, with two round ends and a small piece connecting the two. It is made of a rubber-like material and the ends are covered in nubs to help stimulate your muscles. The ball can be used against the wall or on the floor.

The CFF Physio Ball is designed to stimulate muscle knots and activate pressure points to provide relief from tension and to assist in relaxation and circulation. The ball can be used on the neck, shoulders, arms, feet, all portions of the legs, and the back. I found it particularly useful up and down my spine to release tension in my trouble spots.

Thumbs Up for the Physio Ball

I really like this mobility tool and it might be my favorite mobility tool yet. As compared to other balls I’ve tried, this one fits my spine and back the best and provides the most overall relief over a large area. The texture and comfort of this mobility ball is surprising because it looks like it would be uncomfortable, but it has just the right amount of firmness and give. The outer texture grips skin or clothing to roll well while staying in place, yet it isn’t too hard or uncomfortable if you apply a lot of pressure to dig in deep to certain areas.

CFF Fit’s website suggests taking the Physio Ball in the car to provide lumbar or back support while driving. I actually tried this and it was wonderful. Some car seats tend to sink in, causing rounding in the back and neck, but by placing the Physio Ball in multiple locations up and down my back my ride home from a long trip in the car was much more comfortable, even with my cranky shoulder blades.

Honestly, I would give this mobility tool a try. CFF Fit offers a 30-day 100% refund return policy that ensures customer satisfaction, so there really isn’t a risk to try this ball. The only downside to this mobility ball I could find was that the material does collect hair and dirt, so if you use it on the floor, be prepared to clean it off afterwards. I will be using this ball daily and will travel with it in the future whenever possible.

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Compression socks will not increase your strength or stamina during your workout. You won’t run twice as far or fast thanks to a pair of compression socks or pants.

But compression garments will reduce lactic acid build-up in the muscles, improve circulation, prevent inflammation, reduce the risk of chafing, and speed up post-workout recovery. As I discovered, a good pair of FitShit Compression Socks made all the difference after my workouts.

FitShit Compression Socks

The compression socks by FitShit are lightweight knee-length socks made from 200-thread count micro nylon. The graduated compression improves blood flow and reduces fatigue, while the strong elastic cuff holds the sock in place without impairing circulation. The padding built into the heel and toe is designed to reduce impact and prevent blisters.

The socks are “one size fits most” (they were just great on my size 13.5″ feet), and come in a stylish black with grey heel and toe and the logo “FitShit” emblazoned in white up the calves.

My Testing Process

I’m a big guy: 6′ 6″ tall, weighing in around 280 pounds, with thick calves, wide feet, and weak ankles. I had a bit of trouble getting the socks up and over my calves, but once in place they were surprisingly comfortable. It took a bit of getting used to the compression on my calves and ankles.

I put the socks through their paces, with four weekly workouts that included: HIIT training (15 minutes), sprint training (15 minutes), resistance training (45 minutes), jogging (5K), trail running (5K), cycling, elliptical training (20 minutes), and flexibility training (10-15 minutes). I wore the socks every day for an entire month, only washing them at the end of each week.

Performance Evaluation

Please note that this was the first pair of compression socks I’ve ever worn, so I have no previous experiences to compare these to.

Ease of Use – Getting these socks on was a bit of a wrestling match, but I assume that is standard with most compression socks. The elastic was tough to slip over my big feet, ankles, and calves.

Durability – After a month of wear and four washes (with the poor quality water of my city), the socks showed no signs of fraying, stretching, sagging, or unraveling. They look and feel as good as the day I pulled them out of the box.

Comfort – Aside from a bit of pinching at the toes when I pulled the socks too tight, they were very comfortable. The elastic around my calf wasn’t too tight or restrictive, and I had good range of motion.

Breathability – My feet were always comfortable in these socks, which offers excellent ventilation and breathability.

Smell – The fabric is surprisingly odor-resistant. Even after a week of daily use, the socks had only a minor smell.

Effects During Training – Wearing these socks while running or training didn’t make any noticeable difference in my strength or stamina. I didn’t suffer shin splints while running/sprint training, however, but I did feel they reduced the endurance in my calf muscles (for hill runs).

Effects During Recovery – This is where the real effects were noticed. I was at least 50% less sore the day after leg day and running a 5K in these socks. They helped to speed up recovery and prevent DOMS after hardcore training.

The only noticeable drawback to these socks was the fact that they were hard to slip on and adjust once in place. It was almost impossible for me to grip the sleek material to shift them on my feet.

FitShit Gets a Thumbs Up

If you need a good pair of compression socks, this is definitely a good choice. The socks are durable, comfortable, and reasonably priced. They’re an excellent option to help improve post-workout recovery and prevent soreness.

The post FitShit Compression Socks REview – Speed Up Recovery? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Training for performance is a balancing act between appropriately challenging your body to elicit physical improvement and recovering enough to see the gains from all your hard work.

No pain. No gain. We’ve all heard it before, and maybe you’ve even taken it to heart. But these are only partial truths that should really be accompanied with “no recovery, no gains.”

Training for performance is a balancing act between appropriately challenging your body to elicit physical improvement and recovering enough to see the gains from all your hard work.

Recovery is the yin to the yang of good old-fashioned hard work. Without appropriate amounts of both, you will not progress as an athlete. Understanding the nuances of this balance is key to your long-term success.

Teaching your body how to balance stress is a critical element of any training program.

There Is No Perfect Plan

When designing a training plan, there are two concepts to keep in mind:

• Stress is stress. Your body has a hard time differentiating between the stress of training hard, juggling work responsibilities, or tending to sick kids. All of these stressors have a significant effect on your performance.
• Stress is cumulative. Without proper recovery, stress adds up. This is why it is important to gradually progress through training and allow for periods of recovery. It sets the stage for adapting to greater levels of overall stress and improving fitness.

These two concepts lead to one important conclusion: your “perfectly designed” training plan will likely be wrong for you at some point.

There will be periods in your life when the stresses of life, demanding workouts, a lack of good sleep, and poor recovery leave you in a less-than-optimal state to train. When these times inevitably come, it’s important to know how to adapt and stay on point.

The key to making the right adjustments begins by acknowledging that some workouts are inherently more risky (or rewarding) than others.

This is especially true when you are deeper into a block of progressive training and cumulative stress is high. Understanding the purpose of your workouts, the potential rewards, and the risks that accompany them is empowering.

Risk vs. Reward

The beauty of a well-designed plan is that every workout is created with a specific outcome in mind and is set up to play as nicely as possible with your other workouts.

If you have doubts about a specific workout on your schedule, check back in with the purpose of the program. What is the workout designed to do, and what does it require of you as an athlete to make it happen at 100 percent?

Digging into to the desired outcome(s) of your training helps you understand the potential reward of any given workout.

For example, the purpose of a tough track workout in the final training block before a race is to improve physical running mechanics, help your neurological system adapt to the higher cadences required for running quickly, and help your body’s metabolic components adapt to utilizing fuel more efficiently at higher speeds.

Achieving these “rewards” is linked to your ability to perform the workout well and remain injury-free in the process, which brings us to the risks.

When thinking of risks, you need to consider three primary variables: mode, volume, and intensity.

• Mode: The type of exercise. Some exercises are more biomechanically demanding than others, such as running compared to cycling.
• Volume: The overall training load for each workout – how much, how far, or how long. Think cumulative weight lifted or total miles run.
• Intensity: Intensity is the most complicated variable to measure. In its simplest form, intensity answers the question of “how hard?” All-out sprints are more intense than running at a moderate pace.

The relationship between volume and intensity should always be considered. Think of them as a formula for training stress:

Training Stress = Volume x (Average) Intensity

In this regard, a shorter, high-intensity session could produce the same kind of stress as a moderate-length workout at a medium intensity.

A Real-World Example

Let’s examine how these variables interact in a hypothetical track workout.

Mode: Running. Let’s add a wrinkle and assume you are a triathlete and will also be doing cycling and swimming workouts. Running is the highest impact and the more biomechanically demanding movement you have to manage. You want it to be as high quality as possible and need to have that in the back of your mind when planning your training.

Volume: Track workouts tend to be shorter in overall mileage to counter-balance the intensity. Let’s also assume that you are at the end of a tough three-week block and are running the most miles per week so your overall training volume is high. In short, you’re tired.

Intensity: Your workouts are not all-out sprints, but they are still very strong efforts. The faster you run, the greater the forces are at play on your joints. Risk of injury is higher, especially when you are fatigued from overall training volume. High forces plus fatigue can spell physical breakdown.

When you are pushing your body to its limit, it’s important to revisit the purpose of your training.

The risks are palpable. You’re fit but fatigued. You’re pushing the envelope to get the most out of your body on race day. Is it worth it, or should you make adjustments to the workout or your schedule?

It can be a hard decision, but thankfully there are some tools you can use to help guide your decision.

• Body check upon waking. While it’s not the most objective measurement, how you feel upon waking usually correlates with training fatigue. Do you feel sharp and ready to own the workout or more like thick sludge? If you feel sluggish you may want to consider decreasing the intensity.
• Injury status. Are you injured or do you have any nagging issues? If you answer yes and have explosive, high-impact movements on your schedule that day, you may want to consider other options.
• Tracking resting HR or HRV. This is a good metric to measure consistently, as small changes either way can indicate steps towards over-reaching. Heart rate variability is useful for examining your neurological response to exercise demands to help you adjust effort accordingly.
• Check mechanics. Are you able to perform your movements properly? Can you reach your end positions easily? Will you encourage the development of poor movement patterns by doing a specific workout with poor movement quality? Poor mobility plus high volume workouts can be bad news.
• Are you plateauing or declining? How are you performing lately? A lack of progress can mean you are close to needing more recovery. A decline in performance means you likely need recovery in the very near future.
• Look down the training plan. What is coming down the pipeline? When is recovery scheduled? What workouts are most valuable in the near future? It may be worth shifting things around so you get the most out of your key workouts.
• Do the warm up. When in doubt, go through the warm up and then evaluate. Sometimes the battle is mental and you just need to start moving before you feel good. If you still feel like crud after the warm up, especially on high-intensity days, you may want to shorten the workout or reschedule.

Smart Training Requires Balance

You have your training plan, and then you have real life. Use the concepts and tools outlined above to help you navigate the situations when the two collide.

If you have questions about training with heart rate variability, measuring intensity, and the often debated idea of “overtraining,” drop me a line in the comments.

Train smart and perform well my friends.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• You’re Not Overtraining, You’re Under-Recovering
• How You Recover Relates Directly to Your Performance
• The Most Underrated Principle of Strength Training Is… Balance

Photo 1 courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography.

Photo 2 courtesy of Pixabay.

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