LOVE YOURSELF- REASON #3 WHY YOURE NOT ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS? You are not getting enough RESTORATION

LOVE YOURSELF: Reason #3 for you not achieving your goals is adequate RESTORATION.

Are you restoring yourself enough for you to adapt to your training? 

So you have set your goals, you have drawn up a detailed plan of action, and you are definitely actioning accordingly. You are really getting your head down and working hard when you need to,  but after 6 weeks you are still not making any progression towards achieving your goals? is this leaving you flabbergasted as to why this is happening? Are you also getting sick and tired frequently for no apparent reason?

The reason why you may not be achieving the results that you set out to (and you should be given the amount of effort you are making with your training) could be that you are not focussing enough on your RESTORATION sessions within your training plan. You have planned all of your training sessions out effectively and sequentially  but you have forgotten to plan adequate rest and nutrition around your training (part of restoration).  This means that your body is in constantly in fight mode (sympathetically overloaded)  rather than being allowed to recover and adapt to your training (parasympathetically activated) accordingly

RESTORATION is an essential part of your training program, especially if you want to achieve the best results. In fact the more intense your training and life in general, the more you should be focussing on the way that you recover from your training. This is especially true of life dis-stress, when you consider the many other environment and social stressors nowadays which many of us face, (which are more prevalent than ever),  such as  lack of jobs, poor job security, increased workloads and then lack of time, high priced housing,  school fees and GFC etc. All these undue stressors can create huge mental pressure and often we dismiss it,  as we can'tsee it, but unfortunately your body recognises every part any dis-stress within your life. Yes that's right! Because your body is a super dooper survival warrior, it will reflect your thoughts (distresses such as worry anxiety),  back upon it's ability to function and restore optimally.

Kinesiologists recognise that emotional stress is directly linked to pain in different areas of the body. So it's important we manage everything from a 360 degree view to stay injury free and enable a good level of progression from our training and nutrition plan.

Why does this happen? 

Believe it or not,  even worrying about life and worrying often, can force your sympathetic nervous system chronically into over drive,  hindering your ability to recover effectively from your training and thus effecting your overall health and quality of your results. This is because your sympathetic nervous system is not designed to be bashed continuously with dis-stress (continuous thoughts going on in your brain such as … hate my job, I'm running out of time to finish my work as i am trying to complete two peoples, I'm worried about paying my bills etc) . Rather;  your sympathetic nervous system is actually designed to be used in emergencies insert scenario….in the jungle running from the tiger, 'short and sharp thrust of adrenaline required please Mr nervous system' which causes your body to go into fight or flight mode.

As I mentioned above, the problem nowadays is we are subjected to deal much more chronic forms of life stress than any other day and age, making our sympathetic nervous system kick and you can sure bet that kicking it does! But chronically? That spells disaster!

WHY? Quite simply, our body is not designed to deal with this stress for these lengths

of time,  therefore continuing through high levels of dis-tress for lengthy periods means that at one time or another something has to give. Right? 

Yes! Right! Especially so because you are on mission to achieve results from your training,  you are now focussed on recovering from your training allowing you to make significant progressions. So you are going to have to find a way of taming that sympathetic bad boy, otherwise there is no chance on earth your parasympathetic nervous system (which is your body's the recovery/relaxation system) is going to comply with your health and fitness goals.  You guessed it!  Your restorative ability can only occur in parasympathetic mode, which when (and only when) we have got the sympathetic nervous system (part of the nervous system that deals with stress) under control. Also did you know … Your parasympathetic system is where you should be most of the time? So crucial that we now try and reaquaint our poor mind and body with this awesomely chilled dude friend of ours, the parasympathetic system.

How can we therefore nurture our para-sympathetic friend?

THE SOLUTION = FIND A MODALITY WHICH YOU WILL COMPLY WITH THAT HELPS TO IMPROVE YOUR RESTORATION: 

We can restore our body via a number of modalities so its important to find the one that works best for you so that you stick to it which then in turn allows for your lasting results…..

1. Meditation and diaphragmatic breathing

Meditation is a practice of concentrated focus upon a sound, object, visualization, the breath, movement, or attention itself in order to increase awareness of the present moment, reduce stress, promote relaxation, and enhance personal and spiritual growth.  Lazar et al studiedmeditation and the areas of the brain that were stimulated.

They proved that the practice of meditation indeed does activate neural structures (dorsolateral prefrontal parietal  hippocampus, temporal lobe) involved within attention and control of the ANS. Meditation has been shown to improve sports performance.  Solberg et al (1993) studied 25 elite shooters, whereby competition scores were measured with and without meditation practice. The competition results were better with the meditation intervention. The authors found that when the athletes practiced meditation it lowered their tension resulting in the better performance outcomes. Solberg et al (2000) found that meditative practice in runners improved their recovery times in comparison to a control group. The runners blood lactate concentration was significantly decreased in the runners who practiced meditation. According to Martarelli et al (2009) it may not be as in depth as meditation paractice to create a positive impaction the parasympathetic pathways. The authors found found that athletes who simply practiced breathing through the diaphragm significantly reduced oxidative stress related to exercise and as a result reduced cortisol and increase in melatonin. This lower oxidative stress initiated by breathing through the diaphragm,  could protect athletes from the long term effects of free radicals. 

Try to practice diaphragmatic breathing everyday; once before you get out of bed in the morning and once you get into bed at night. Slow the rhythm of your breathing down so that your in breath matches your out breath (which should ideally be for 4 seconds in Vs four seconds out)  Try to take really big belly breaths where you use your nose to breathe in and mouth to breathe out. Place your hands around your waist, and feel your diaphragm become active, whilst avoiding using your back to breathe.

2. Stretching and rolling 

Yoga:Yoga is a Hindu theistic philosophy a sequence of exercises, teaching the suppression of all activity of body, mind, and for the purposes of dinstiguishing the differences between the body and mind in order to attain liberation, mental control and wellbeing.    Sharma (2015) believes that  Yoga is important for sports performance as it can play a key role in cultivating mind control and concentration which helps a

sportsperson to perform at their peak.  Aside from the improvement of musculoskeletal flexibility and joint range of motion, Yoga is thought to create a stable autonomic nervous system equilibrium with a tendency toward the parasympathetic nervous system dominance rather than the usual stress induced sympathetic nervous

 system dominance. In 2005.  Donohue et al found that a yoga intervention proved beneficial to one mile run performance when matched for a control group with no intervention. Boyle et al (2004) studied the effects of a yoga intervention on muscle soreness after a DOMS inducing step protocol. They found that women within the yoga intervention group improved their recovery times compared to the group with no intervention. In order to move better within our training we require flexibility so that we can move within our entire range. Yoga has been proven to aid ROM . There was an increase in range of motion for these movements, muscular strengths for each side of the leg and chest muscles. In their study of the effect of yoga on bilateral strength and hip range of motion, Pauline and Rintaugu (2011) found that  a12 week yoga training practice created improvements in shoulder flexion, hip flexion, hip extension and abduction range of motion. I recommend starting with a beginners form of yoga which focusses more on breathing before you move to more dynamic versions.

Of course there's my new 30 min myofacial stretch sessions which enable better movement, better performance and better results. Ask me to find out more:

3. Massage 

The mechanical pressure applied to the musculo-skeletal system during a sport massage  may increase blood flow, and can increase or decrease neuro excitability (depending on the specific techniques used by the therapist). For your recovery from

your training sessions, it is interesting to note that there are changes to the paraypathetic activity and hormones during massage and resulting in a relaxation response. (Warping et al 2005). Arroyo-Morales et al (2005) found that Massage may favour recovery in the immune system, after high intensity training sessions, Lee et al (2011) studied the effect  of applied heat and massage on stress markers in the body on 139 subjects. The subjects within this study were measured for heart rate variability, sympathetic skin response, and serum cortisol and norepinephrine levels. All these markers were shown to decrease in subjects after a two week period. the authors concluded that heat and massage applications provide relaxation to the autonomic nervous system without serious adverse effects. in their review on sports massage and sport performance Best et al (2008). found that there were moderate benefits for massage upon sports performance in several randomised controlled trials. My main advise for massage is to find a therapist in your area who has come recommended or you know is good and stick with them as much as possible, due to the fact that there is quite  a lot of variability between therapists.

4 . Sleep

Getting enough sleep and good quality sleep is an essential part of your recovery program. Halson (2014) suggests that sleep has numerous important physiological and cognitive functions, that may be particularly important to elite athletes. The deprivation of sleep has significant effects on performance effects on athletic performance, especially sub-maximal  prolonged exercise. Interestingly compromised sleep may also influence learning, memory, cognition, pain perception, immunity and inflammation.changes in glucose metabolism and neuroendocrine function as a result of chronic. Lack of sleep can influence the metabolism of the foods you eat, such as alterations in carbohydrate metabolism, appetite, food intake and protein synthesis. These factors combined can ultimately have a negative influence on an athlete’s nutritional, metabolic and endocrine status and hence potentially reduce athletic performance, so certainly we can see that making an effort to get enough sleep and good quality sleep should serve as a priority if you would lie to achieve top notch results.

5.Nutrition. 

In order to initiate optimal muscle repair and energy levels from training,  recovery nutrition should be of a paramount for any training program to be successful. The AIS suggest that recovery nutrition encompasses a complex range of processes that include; refueling the muscle and liver glycogen (carbohydrate) stores, replacing the fluid and electrolytes lost in sweat,  manufacturing new muscle protein, red blood cells and other cellular components as part of the repair and adaptation process, and allowing the immune system to handle the damage and challenges caused by the exercise bout. This is a vast topic to cover, so In order to find out how you implement nutrients for your training, download my FREE macronutrient guide.

Conclusion: Aside from sleep and nutrition (which are non negotiable for recovery),  you should choose the modalities that promote recovery that work best for you. If you are feeling tired and not achieving the results from your training which you deserve when considering your intensity of your training, it is highly advisable to review how you are nurturing your parasympathetic system, as a lack of emphasis on your recovery will stump your results significantly as well as put you at increased risk of injury. 

REFERENCES

Arroyo-Morales M1, Olea N, Ruíz C, del Castilo Jde D, Martínez M, Lorenzo C, Díaz-Rodríguez L.(2005) Massage after exercise--responses of immunologic and endocrine markers: a randomized single-blind placebo-controlled study. J Strength Cond Res. 2009. Vol 23(2):Pp 638-44. 

Best TM, Hunter R, Wilcox A, Haq F (2008). Effectiveness of sports massage for recovery of skeletal muscle from strenuous exercise.

Clin J Sport Med. Vol ;18(5): Pp 446-60. 

Boyle, CA.; Sayers SP,; Jenson BE, Headly SA, Manos T M.(2004) The effects of yoga training and a single bout of yoga on delayed onset muscle soreness in the lower extremity.  Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research

Halson S. (2014) .Sleep in Elite Athletes and Nutritional Interventions to Enhance Sleep Sports Med. Vol 44(Suppl 1): Pp 13–23

Lazar SW, George B; Gollub RL, Fricchione GL,; Khalsa G, Gurucharan BH; ( 2000). "Functional brain mapping of the relaxation response and meditation". Neuroreport 11 (7): 1581–5

MacDonald GZ, Penney MD, Mullaley ME, Cuconato AL, Drake CD, Behm DG, Button DC.(2013) An acute bout of self-myofascial release increases range of motion without a subsequent decrease in muscle activation or force. J Strength Cond Res. Vol 27(3): Pp 812-21

Martarelli D,  Cocchioni M  Scuri S and Pompei P. (2011) Diaphragmatic Breathing Reduces Exercise-Induced Oxidative Stress.Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 

Miller A,  Beisecker M,   Houser D,  Valdez R ,  S Tiller S,  Taymar T (2005).  Effects of brief yoga exercises and motivational preparatory interventions in distance runners: results of a controlled trial. Br J Sports Med. Vol;40(1):Pp 60-3;

Pearcey GE1, Bradbury-Squires DJ, Kawamoto JE, Drinkwater EJ, Behm DG, Button DC.(2015) Foam rolling for delayed-onset muscle soreness and recovery of dynamic performance measures. J Athl Train.Vol. 50(1): Pp 5-13.

Sharma L (2015). Benefits of Yoga in Sports- A Study. International Journal of Physical Education, Sports and Health 2015; 1(3): Pp 30-32 

Solberg EE, Berglund KA, Engen O, Ekeberg O, and Loeb M (1996) The effect of meditation on shooting performance. Research article. Br J Sports Med. Vol. 30:Pp 342-346 

Solberg EE,   Ingjer F,  A Holen A,  Sundgot-Borgen J,  S Nilsson S,   Holme I (2000) Stress reactivity to and recovery from a standardised exercise bout: a study of 31 runners practising relaxation techniques. Br J Sports Med . Vol (34):Pp 268-272

Weerapong P1, Hume PA, Kolt GS(2005)The mechanisms of massage and effects on performance, muscle recovery and injury prevention. Sports Med. Vol 35(3):Pp 235-56.

Young-Hee Lee, Bit Na Ri Park, and Sung Hoon Kim(2011) The Effects of Heat and Massage Application on Autonomic Nervous SystemYonsei Med J. 2011 Nov 1; 52(6): 982–989.

How & WHY to stretch to improve exercise and sports performance

PART ONE: HOW AND WHY YOU SHOULD STRETCH DURING WARM UP

Check out my two part series on the different types of stretching in more detail- right now lets examine using stretching protocols as part of a warm up:

It might seem old skool to some to include stretching as part of their warm up protocol, but whilst some of us remain oblivious to this imperative preparation for effective training and injury risk reduction; may we beg to ask the question; what stretching is best to maximise performance during training?

There are a number of modalities for stretching our muscles namely, static, dynamic ballistic and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation,plus  myofascial. Which stretches should we be using? and when exactly should we be be performing these stretches so that we can maximise our training potential in our busy lives because we simply don’t have the time to be standing around, performing pointless exercises?

An objective of a warm-up prior to an athletic event is to optimise performance whilst reduce chances of injury. Warm-ups are typically composed of a sub maximal aerobic activity, stretching and a sport-specific activity. The stretching portion traditionally incorporated static stretching. However, there are a myriad of studies demonstrating static stretch-induced performance impairments. More recently, there are a substantial number of articles with no detrimental effects associated with prior static stretching.
If we think of the muscles being pliable in nature (similar to blu tack) then its plain to see that the warmer and more pliable we are the better we can move- and initially this is why stretching was introduced into warm ups. Due to the very nature of a warm up (which is to warm up right?) static stretching has been criticised because you simply are stopping post sub maximal warm up and as a result, lowering the heart rate and the tissue temperature, which surely contradicts the reason why you warmed up in the first place?. Back in the 80’s you may have used static or ballistic stretching before you even went into a warm up. Cold blu-tac SNAP springs to mind? 
With this in mind, It is no surprise that Including static stretching as part of a warm up protocol in recent years has been criticised for not providing benefits for performance or injury prevention. For example, Fowles et al (2000) found that a consequence of prolonged duration of stretching was a 28% decrease in PF maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) force immediately post- stretch with a continued 9% impairment after 60 min.

Furthermore, Behm et al. (2001) discovered that with a volume of static stretching to 20 min of stretching on the quadriceps proved decrements of 12, 20 and 12% for MVC force, EMG activity and evoked twitch force respectively.

There are a myraid of studies which further prove the invesistagations by Behm et al & Fowles (2001)

For example, Little, et al (2006) examined the effects of different modes of stretching within a pre-exercise warm-up on high-speed motor capacities important to soccer performance. Eighteen professional soccer players were tested for countermovement vertical jump, stationary 10-m sprint, flying 20-m sprint, and agility performance after different warm-ups consisting of static stretching, dynamic stretching, or no stretching. The dynamic-stretch protocol produced significantly faster 10-m sprint times than did the no-stretch protocol: 1.83 +/- 0.08 seconds (no stretch), 1.85 +/- 0.08 seconds (static), and 1.87 +/- 0.09 seconds (dynamic). The dynamic- and static-stretch protocols produced significantly faster flying 20-m sprint times than did the no stretch protocol: 2.41 +/- 0.13 seconds (no stretch), 2.37 +/- 0.12 seconds (static), and 2.37 +/- 0.13 seconds (dynamic). The dynamic-stretch protocol produced significantly faster agility performance than did both the no-stretch protocol and the static stretch protocol: 5.20 +/- 0.16 seconds (no stretch), 5.22 +/- 0.18 seconds (static), and 5.14 +/- 0.17 seconds (dynamic). Static stretching does not appear to be detrimental to high-speed performance when included in a warm-up for professional soccer players. However, dynamic stretching during the warm-up was most effective as preparation for subsequent high-speed performance.
Manoel et al (2008) investigated the acute effects of 3 types of stretching-static, dynamic, and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF)-on peak muscle power output in women. Concentric knee extension power was measured isokinetically at 60°·s-1 and 180°·s-1 in 12 healthy and recreationally active women (mean age ± SD, 24 ± 3.3 years). The findings from this study suggest that dynamic stretching may increase acute muscular power to a greater degree than static and PNF stretching. These findings may have important implications for athletes who participate in events that rely on a high level of muscular power.

Herman & Smith (2008) used a dynamic warm up protocol for 24 male wrestlers over four weeks to determine whether a dynamic-stretching warm-up (DWU) intervention performed daily over 4 weeks positively influenced power, speed, agility, endurance, flexibility, and strength performance measures in collegiate wrestlers when compared to a static-stretching warm-up (SWU) intervention. Wrestlers completing the 4-week DWU intervention had several performance improvements, including increases in quadriceps peak torque (11%), broad jump (4%), underhand medicine ball throw (4%), sit-ups (11%), and push-ups (3%). A decrease in the average time to completion of the 300-yd shuttle (-2%) and the 600-m run (-2.4%) was suggestive of enhanced muscular strength, endurance, agility, and anaerobic capacity in the DWU group. In contrast to the DWU intervention, there was no observed improvement in the SWU group for peak torque of the quadriceps, broad jump, 300-yd shuttle run, medicine ball underhand throw for distance, sit-ups, push-ups, or 600-m run, and decrements in some performance measures occurred.

Behm & Chaouachi (2010) suggest that generally, a warm-up to minimize impairments and enhance performance should be composed of a sub-maximal intensity aerobic activity followed by large amplitude dynamic stretching and then completed with sport-specific dynamic activities

Practical Application

Dynamic stretching is so highly recommended in today's professional exercise training protocols because it prepares the muscles in a sport/activity specific way. As the name suggests dynamic stretching is moving whilst stretching and it helps to prepare you body better for your training or sport as it increases muscle tissue temperature whilst taking your muscles through their range required to perform in the activity required.

Here’s some examples: Squat to Stand, Knee lifts, iron cross, reverse iron cross, leg swings, arm circles, walk outs, hip openers.

References

David G. Behm, Anis Chaouachi (2011) A review of the acute effects of static and dynamic stretching on performance European Journal of Applied Physiology Vol:111: (1)Pp 2633-2651

Harris-Love, Danoff, & Miller (2008). Acute effects of static, dynamic, and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching on muscle power in women. J Strength Cond Res 22(5): Pp1528-1534.

Herman, SL & Smith, DT. Four-week dynamic stretching warm-up intervention elicits longer term performance benefits. J Strength Cond Res 22: 1286-1297, 2008
Little, Thomas; Williams, Alun(2006) Effects of Differential Stretching Protocols During Warm-Ups on High-Speed Motor Capacities in Professional Soccer Players Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research