Pain Free Training for Worn Out Boomers

[Guest guest]

Pain Free Training for Worn Out Boomers

By: William Wong N.D., Ph.D.,

Member World Sports Medicine Hall of Fame

_http://life-enthusiast.com/index/Education/Exercise/Pain_Free_Training_

(http://life-enthusiast.com/index/Education/Exercise/Pain_Free_Training)

 

So, you've been training for years; you think you know your body better than

anyone else and you have a considerable list of accomplishments in sports.

All sources of pride. But lately the aches have been creeping in. They've been

coming on sooner and lasting longer than you remember. Lately on your runs

there have been some occasional sharp pains from deep within the knees. The

bursa sac under the kneecap is swollen just enough that you cant see your

patella tendon on one side. And your shoulders! Sometimes you want to dog

paddle

when you should be crawling, never mind about it getting caught when doing a

lay up shot or (forbid) it clunking in and out of joint when you're getting

the groceries out of the trunk! Sound like you yet? If not it soon will be.

It's not a matter of if; it's a matter of when.

 

 

No, not me - never me, you exclaim! (There's the pride again). Yep, you.

There are only so many times you can red line a car down a gravel road and

you're getting close to what we in the health profession call " the limitations

of

matter " . As a generation we Boomers have been more active than any generation

previous. Our folks may have survived the Great Depression and fought in the

Second World War but after they got home, work is the only thing they did.

They wore themselves out being cogs in the industrial machine. And what do

they have to show for it? Flabby weak bodies, strokes, heart attacks,

Alzheimer's and social security... We've perceived the problem and have been

running

away from those images ever since. So what do we have to look forward to? Well

a good many of us will never have to worry about the ravages of old age!

We're not going to live that long!

 

It's just an observation; it may just be the patient population I've been

dealing with the last few years, and I've got no hard stats to back up these

observations but I think we're dying faster than our folks did. I've seen

diseases I had not expected to see in our generation until we were well into

our

60's come up and hit boomers hard in their early 40's! Since the 1960's we've

been burning the candle at both ends and the middle. From sincere activism

and serious partying we dove head long into work. To obviate the effects of

flying desks or assembly lines we played hard. On top of that we attempted to

be

super parents. We have faced more stress in one year than our ancestors

faced in a lifetime. It's taken its' toll and it shows; in our joints (and

elsewhere). Some of us look as bad as our parents did at our age. I'm grateful

to

say though that most of us don't, but we sure feel like we should! So how do

we deal with the effects of overusing our bodies for so long? How can we make

our natural equipment last longer? And most important of all, how do we

strengthen and support our faded over zapped immune systems? If we've been at

sports and exercise for a while, then we've trashed out our immune systems as a

consequence. (1).

 

Lets start with the obvious: muscles when over used will rebuild given rest

and the proper therapeutic exercise. Rest, that's the key word here no more

training every day of the week! For every day of hard training there are 2 to

3 days of immune suppression following! On another matter, muscles need

definite nutrition to heal them from the repeated micro injuries incurred while

training, and no I don't mean they need just protein, they need different stuff

than that.

 

Joints are another matter. The manic over exercise craze will be the

greatest single source of future knee replacement and shoulder reconstruction

patients for orthopedic surgeons. The days when you could shake it off and keep

on

going are gone, or soon will be.

 

Low to mid level wear at joints can be dealt with nutritionally. With joint

wear the body wants to shield the injured area from further insult so it

splints the joint with swelling and pain thus attempting to restrict the range

of

motion (ROM) of the joint. Along with that the system attempts to feed

nutrients to the injured area and speed healing by greatly increasing the blood

flow to the joint thus causing the redness and sometimes the throbbing that

ofttimes accompanies the swelling.

 

We need to think of a joint as having two sides - an outside and an inside.

Inside of the joint we have the gliding surfaces of the articulation, which

are made up of hyaline cartilage. This smooth shiny cartilage is hydrophilic,

it loves water. Not only is the hyaline smooth and slick but also it absorbs

the mucous like synovial fluid into its surface creating a virtually

frictionless bearing. When compression forces squeeze the joint ends closer

this

fluid gets forced out from in-between the surfaces and cartilage touches

directly

on cartilage. Over time and with repeated use the sections of the cartilage

that do touch will wear. Flat spotting, grating and even fracturing occur.

Improper tibial rotation angles, knock-knees, bow legs and excessive Q angles

all contribute to knee problems and accelerate wear. (The Q angle is the line

drawn from the origin of the Rectus muscle at the front of the thigh, down

through the patella tendon to mid kneecap and the turn the tendon takes at mid

kneecap to get to it's attachment on the Tibial Tuberosity. An angle of 20

degrees or greater is too much. These patients will tend to have greater knee

wear as well as a tendency to patella dislocation).

 

As for the shoulder, can you think of any joints more used than your poor

shoulders. For years you've been doing what the muscle heads in the exercise

magazines have told you is the " all fired greatest stuff " for building bigger

delts, wider lats and slab like pecs. The problem is those muscle heads didn't

have a clue as to the science of biomechanics and the years of behind the

neck pulldowns, and wide grip pull-ups have micro trauma'ed your rotator cuffs

into macro trauma. Those behind the neck shoulder presses that were supposed

to give you that wide look have instead has torn your supraspinatus muscle.

Don't believe me? Try this test...Stick your arm out in front of you to

shoulder level. Now point your thumb down towards the floor as if you are

pouring a

soda. Have someone place their hand atop your wrist and apply some downward

pressure, not a lot but enough to keep your arm from going any higher. You

them push up against their resistance. Do this test out to the front then out

to the side. Didn't know you had that pain in the back of the shoulder did

you?

 

As for benches, flys and dips; what about that chronic pain at the front of

the shoulder just under the anterior delt and leaning towards the chest.

Strum the middle of the anterior delt deeply with your thumb. Start at the

margin

of the pec and pull towards the outside. Hurts doesn't it?

 

Now those are just the signs of overuse and injury to the outside of the

joint, on the soft tissue. What about the stuff inside? What have the years of

pounding your knees, grinding your shoulders and pushing all of the other

joints of your body done to that smooth sponge like gliding surface?

 

The hyaline was formed early in life from something called

mucopolysaccharides. Your body stopped making the stuff somewhere during or

after puberty.

Now, the inside of the joint has no blood supply. The articulating surfaces are

fed directly by the mucous synovial fluid which gets it's supply of nutrients

through the joint capsule membrane from the blood supply on it's outside. If

we still made these mucopolysaccharides our joints hardly ever wear. But we

don't so they do. Nutritional science has the answer - and you've likely

heard of it by now; Chondroitin and Glucosamine. These mucopolysaccharides are

well absorbed and travel through the blood to where they get taken in by the

areas that need it. (With the Glucosamine HCL being better absorbed than the

Glucosamine sulfate). A rehab patient of mine underwent two shoulder surgeries.

In the first there was considerable wear present at the ball joint

(glenoid). A year later after having been on the glucosamine for some months he

needed

a second surgery to correct things improperly done in the first. Pictures

attest to the difference in the hyaline of the glenoid. Where there was once

spotted wear there was now a clean smooth hyaline layer! Neat stuff. Now to

something you haven't heard about - Systemic Enzymes.

 

Dr.Max Wolf M.D. and Ph.D. times 7 of Columbia University is widely

acknowledged as the father of systemic oral enzyme therapy. (1). Wolf found

that as

we age or are under stress our bodies own production of enzymes is depleted.

Age related changes he said are directly attributable to depletion of enzymes.

Systemic enzymes differ from digestive enzymes in that the tablets are taken

in between meals so that the constituents can be absorbed into the blood

stream and do their work there instead of expending their action on digesting

food. With 40 years of use and over 160 peer reviewed verifying studies behind

it, systemic enzymes are the second best selling over the counter preparation

in Germany. When a joint or any soft tissue is injured or infirm the body

creates irritants called Circulating Immune Complexes. It's these complexes

that

cause the inflammation of joint capsules, bursae, tendons, muscles, blood

vessels, internal organs etc. These complexes also are responsible for

autoimmune diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus. In those conditions

a

large build up of the complexes attack the joints or muscles, respectively

thinking these to be foreign invaders. Enzymes eat Circulating Immune

Complexes.

(2).

 

In eating away at the substances that cause inflammation, its pain, swelling

and redness are reduced. As a consequence pain is relieved. Nifty! But for

athletes the other actions of systemic enzymes are just as important. These

enzymes are antifibrotic. " Over expression " of Fibrin and Fibrinogen create the

matrix in the blood vessels for arteriosclerotic plaque. Systemic enzymes

control this over expression and eat away slowly at established plaque.

Systemic Enzymes are also used in Europe to fight thrombosis, blood clots deep

in

the veins. (3). Isn't cardiovascular health why most of us started exercising

in the first place! Now science has found that a little critter called a C-

reactive protein is the cause of inflammation in blood vessels and can possibly

lead to heart disease. Two things destroy C-reactive proteins: aspirin and

systemic enzymes. Aspirin use has side effects the natural enzymes do not.

(4). According to the Wall Street Journal, April 20 1999, 20,000 Americans die

from aspirin, ibuprofen and that whole class of Non Steroidal Anti

Inflammatory Drugs. That means that more Americans die every year from aspirin

and its

related drugs than die from Aid's!

 

The enzymes are also is a great blood cleaner. In eating away at Circulating

Immune Complexes, necrotic derbies and fibrin in the blood these actions

reduce the viscosity of blood by removing the gunk. This is a different

mechanism for reducing blood viscosity than aspirin. (5) To anyone who exercises

or

plays a sport, thinner blood means improved circulation to working muscles and

increased micro circulation. Most folks walk around with blood that's as

thick as catsup! (6). Folks who exercise make that worse by the dehydration they

suffer. Many endurance athletes make things worse still by taking the drug

EPO which in order to have greater numbers of red blood cells to move oxygen

around with. EPO was invented for cancer therapy patients suffering from

extreme anemia. It was never meant to augment the hemoglobin count of athletes.

Mainly triathloners, tennis players and cyclists use this drug. They have also

been dying of blood clots caused from using this stuff!

 

Systemic Enzymes, the best of which is the product VitalZym, help the body

to recover faster from exercise, preventing micro trauma from becoming macro

trauma. In cases of injury, VitalZym is used by pro athletes to reduce the

effects of injury and speed healing. European sport physicians have found that

recovery times are cut dramatically. (8).

 

Now we come to something that over exercises and endurance athletes are

seriously lacking in - an immune system. It is common knowledge in exercise

physiology that for each day of heavy training there are two to three days of

immune suppression to follow. If you tag too many workout days together, as we

manic compulsive boomers tend to do, then in time the immune system becomes

completely trashed. There are numerous cases of marathoners coming down with

chronic reoccurring infections because they don't have anything in their bodies

to fight bugs for them. VitalZym to the rescue! The front line soldier of the

immune system is the white blood cell. These guys have little hands around

them called FC receptors. These hands tear apart nasties and then pick up the

derbies for deposition. As long as it takes them to get rid of the junk they

are holding is as long as it's going to take them out of the fight. Systemic

enzymes eat away at the derbies the FC receptors are holding enabling the

white blood cells to return to combat earlier and in greater numbers.

 

Another principle to remember is that immunity begins in the bowel! The

balance of pH, good bacteria and it's colonizing medium hold the reins to

increasing the bodies' ability to fight off infection. Another European product

enters the scene here, inulin from Jerusalem artichoke. This sweet fiber

firstly

creates a situation where the bowel has the right amount of moisture. Too

much moisture leads to mold, too little to constipation. Then the inulin helps

good bacteria to re -colonize the gut by providing a colonizing medium for

them. Good bacteria feed off of the inulin and proliferate. In a conversation

with Dr. Monika Kreiger, Professor at Leipzig University and the worlds leading

expert on the function of inulin, the fiber inhibits the growth of bad

bacteria by " cutting off the arm they use to attach themselves to the bowel

wall " .

Further in controlling yeast she asserts that the inulin " surrounds the

candida buds and carries them out of the bowel " . By lowering the bacterial and

yeast load of the intestines the entire body breathes a sigh of relief in not

having to deal with those nasties behind absorbed and carried throughout the

body. By the inulin creating a haven for the good bacteria the positive actions

of these on life are enhanced. Inuflora is the best brand of Artichoke

Inulin.

 

When we think of supplementing and sport we usually think of performance

enhancement products. The supplements covered here don't so much fit that bill

as they fall into the category of maintenance supplements. Take care of your

equipment and it will take care of you; that thought goes for your internal

gear as well as your external ones! These supplements can extend an athlete's

career, and minimize the damaging effects of training. Along with our daily

doses of vitamins, minerals and the like, the mucopolysaccharides and systemic

enzymes and inulin should be part of our daily maintenance and health

programs. Now lets cover the stuff to stay away from to maintain out bodies

instead

of breaking them.

 

Avoid:

 

A lot of Running - Remember Dr. Ken Coopers admonition that anything over 3

miles 3 times a week is done for " reasons other than fitness " .

 

Treadmills - These bio-mechanically really don't simulate running and

actually uses the opposite muscles creating a lot of lower back pain. Think of

it;

in real running you are propelling yourself across a surface, in treadmill

running you are keeping yourself from falling on your nose! Difference in

muscular action. While the lungs and heart might not be able to tell the

difference, your hips and back sure can. If they can't run, you can't run. Keep

that

in mind.

 

Cycling - Men in Holland have a greater than 25% rate of impotence and

sterility. The reason; those silly skinny bicycle seats! They press on the

prostate and the spermatic tubes and swell them to all get out! There's a

reason why

prostate cancer runs high among committed male cyclists.

 

Behind the behind the neck pull downs. If you value your rotator cuffs stop

this inefficient exercise. Replace the Behind the Neck Pull downs with Front

Pull downs, (palms facing you hands shoulder width apart, bar pulled to below

the chin). This is a vastly superior exercise with double the range of

motion at the shoulder and since it is bio-mechanically superior it produces

nearly double the strength. Most folks who train have what we call in

biomechanics

an anterior / posterior (front to back) imbalance. Your upper and middle

back is supposed to be stronger than your chest or at least equal to it. Can

you

lat pull down as much as you can bench press? Didn't think so! Not many

folks can and yet the latissimus are three times longer, two times thicker and

have a better bio-mechanical attachment onto the shoulder than the pectorals do!

So why are you stronger in the front than in the back?

 

The answer is easy. For years you've been doing those dumb bodybuilding pull

downs because of what the inexpert experts said. Another horrible exercise

is the Behind the Neck Shoulder Press. The delts stop working at 90 degrees of

abduction. That's about the starting position for this exercise! So what are

you really working here, your upper back some, your triceps a lot your delts

act as fixators, muscles that support the joint and allow movement to happen

but they do not act as prime movers or even agonists (in other words the

delts don't do much here at all). What this exercise will do is to wreck the

rear of your rotator cuff. Most folks over 35 should not do full bench presses.

Anterior shoulder tendinitis is a leading cause of lifters not being able to

keep working out their upper bodies. Half bench presses with the elbows being

brought only to level with the ribs and not below it is all that should be

done.

 

Supplement wise here's the scoop:

 

**VitalZym systemic enzyme - 3 to 5 tablets or capsules 3 times a day

forever.

**Arthitol ES, GlucosamineHCL, Chondrotin, MSM, Vit. C, Calcium, Tumeric and

Boswelia) - 4 tablets a day. InuFlora, from Naturally Vitamins - 2 teaspoons

of the powder a day.

 

Note: William Wong is hired by Vitalzym manufacturer to write about their

product. We sell Zymitol, which is practically identical, just upgraded, and

made stronger. [no fillers]

 

For one of the best written and most scientifically sound exercise manuals

of the last few decades read: " Power to the People " by Russian strength coach

and exercise physiologist Pavel Tsatsouline, published by Dragon Door

 

References:

 

1. Wrba H., Pecher O.: Enzymes A Drug of the Future. Page 13. Pub. By Eco

Med. Germany in English 1998.

 

2. Ibid. Page 37.

 

3. Thrombenbildung und Thrombolyse. Med. Welt 39 (1988), 277.

 

4. Ridker PM., et al: Inflammation, aspirin and the risk of cardiovascular

disease in apparently healthy men. The New England Journal of Medicine, 1997;

336(14): 973-979, 1014-1016.

 

5. Ernst E., Matrai A.: Orale Therapie mit proteolytischen Enzymen

modifiziert die Blutrheologie. Klin. Wschr. 65 (1987), 994.

 

6. Jager H., Popescu M., Samtleben W.,Stauder G.: Hydrolytic enzymes as

biological response modifiers (BRM) in HIV-infection. San Marino Conferences _

Highlights in Medical Virology, Immuneology and Oncology, Volume 1 San Marino,

1988, 44, Pergamon Press, Oxford, New York, Beijing, Frankfurt, Sao Paulo,

Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto.

 

7. Worschhauser S.: Konservative Therapie der Sportverletzungen

Enzympraparate fur Therapie und Prophylaxe. Allgemeinmedizin 19 (1990), 173.

 

 

(http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm)