Archive for Injuries
Myth? of Icing
Posted by: | Comments
Seen this or done that before?
This is something we do – in this country – if we feel pain, are sore from an injury or we over do it.
If you watch tv sports, been at a local kids soccer game, seen runners, softball players or know people who’ve had injury or experience pain.
Icing seems to be part of the game (of life) in the U.S and has been a big part of sports medicine.
How did this become our way?
Rice stands for:
• Rest
• Ice
• Compression
• Elevation
This has been a mantra on playing fields since Dr. Gabe Mirkin came up with this formula back in 1978.
Since then he has changed his tune for this earlier “misinformation”.
Rest is out.
Now there is evidence ice can even delaying healing.
This might come as a surprise. It’s more than likely better to avoid icing.
Using ice does not fix the problem other than numbing an issue in our tissues. It may even do more harm than good.
Since many people use ice to block pain.
It’s likely they don’t know how to effectively relieve or control pain on account of ice being the prevalent cheaper alternative.
The Rest of the World
Interesting to note that most of the rest of the world does not use ice to manage injuries.
When I mention using ice to many of my foreign soccer playing friends, they simply shrug their shoulders and give me that “really” look.
Recovery & Performance
Since ice is still the accepted method and highly popular among recreational athletes to help recover, relying on this method is at best a band-aid approach.
There is usually little benefit derived from post exercise icing as well.
During an event, you may actually numb yourself and then push through pain rather than using this signal to begin to turn things around. This can increase the risk of injury.
Even performance can be altered since it is likely that icing interferes with the information highway of the nervous system.
The info can get slowed down and can change how our muscles respond. Not a good thing when you are either trying to do some work around the house or participating in one of your favorite activities.
Inflammation
People might think inflammation is a bad thing, yet is part of the normal restoration process.
While we can have a pain in the knee for instance, have you ever seen someone’s knee swell up or experienced this yourself?
Swelling is a normal part of the body attempting to get back to square one or homeostasis in this case.
We might think the swelling is too much or keeps snowballing, so of course, a lot of people will think ice is the solution.
What’s going on?
The lymphatic system helps reduce swelling.
So when we see or feel what we consider an excess of swelling, the drainage of the lymphatic system is kind of clogged and is in slow-mo mode.
Going backwards
To use ice to speed it up is counter productive.
Thawing out of this mindset may not be easy.
So you can check out the illusion of the ice age.
What Speeds Up Healing?
Since the lymphatic system helps to reduce swelling, it’s when we begin to contract, tense or mobilize the surrounding movement system.
M.I.C.E stands for:
M = Mobility
I = Ice
C = Compression
E = Elevation
M.I.C.E. has replaced R.I.C.E.
Now given what we’re discovering with ice, we can drop our freezing ways.
A conscious use of the muscles helps to push the fluid back into the cardiovascular system.
Movement System
The movement system is not just the muscles, it includes the nervous system or highway of information which can be altered.
It’s also the fascia which surrounds the muscles and is connected in a variety of patterns throughout the body.
The muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments and bones have sense receptors where we can change the output through mobility and where we can change the offending output to our muscles and movement system.
When we apply mobility in a more conscious manner, then the myth of ice can fade like the ice age.
Is is time to give up the myth of icing?
Give up the Myth of Icing
Find out what to do to help injuries, pain and stiffness leave.
Click here to access Conscious Mobility
… and chuck the ice to feel warmer too!
World Cup and Recreational Soccer Injuries
Posted by: | CommentsMy beloved beautiful game is center at the world’s stage and yet I continue to see how many athletes didn’t make the competition on account of injuries or are cramping on the field. These injuries happen in the course of a game and in training. 
In the recreational side of soccer, did you know that nearly 570,000 athletes were injured playing soccer in 2009?
While many athletes continue to “stretch” as a means of prevention and recovery many of their attempts are ill-fated and actually compound their problems. New research is out which you can use to benefit yourself.
As a self-proclaimed, Divorce Counselor for Stretching, there exists a more natural way to lengthen your muscles and have them functioning for your peak performance.
Your brain, if you will, is the big muscle which sends messages to your muscles to keep them contracted or relaxed at specific rates of contraction.
By pushing your muscles to lengthen, they actually re-contract.
It’s poignant to watch a calf muscle or hamstring get “pulled” in the course of a game and watch the trainers run onto the field and spray the muscles with the “secret” spray or forcefully try to lengthen the muscle in the opposite direction to gain length.
The obvious signal is the muscle is being shortened. This is what’s happening when you are experiencing a cramp or muscle spasm.
By pushing the muscle, when say your calf is cramping, you’re violating the stretch reflex. No worries… you won’t get a ticket for it. This reflex is what keeps the muscles contracting and set at certain levels. By forcing or pushing muscles into length, it actually recontracts and gets shorter afterwards. This is what they found out about back in 1936.
This protective mechanism is a good thing so your muscles don’t tear. This reflex can be readjusted by the brain instead of using force. If you push it, your muscles will be forced into length but the rate of contraction will continue and can be elevated so that your stiffness remains for longer periods of time.
Instead of trying to lengthen the muscle, the brain can be used to do what is clearly happening in the moment. The cramp is a muscle shortening to protect itself. So shortening it, is what is you can do in order for the muscle to allow itself to lengthen back and reset it’s level of contraction.
Now this may seem counterintuitive. Once you get the hang of a simple 3 step process, you’ll be able to use this natural approach which is systematized by Somatics Exercises. These types of exercises have been prescribed to successfully get people out of pain, stiffness and cramps or muscle spasms.
Your brain is showing what needs to be done but of course we normally “react” by pulling away from any pain.
Learning how to go with it, is what sets you free even though it’s counter to what we’ve been led to do.
Once you get the hang of Somatics, in which the goal, like stretching, is to lengthen the muscles, it’s simply achieved by the brain rather than than forcing a muscle.
Preventing injuries can be helped if the muscles are more relaxed in the first place. So it’s obvious, why make things tighter with brawn when you can use your brain to change how much activity and rate of contraction your muscles have to live with… it’s always easier to move if you’re less stiff, compensated, and not holding on for dear life in those exquisite moments of the mystery and misery of a cramp or muscle spasm.
