Are you walking on thin ice? Part 1
While I was walking my dogs today I hit some black ice and almost fell and broke my ass. Fortunately I didn’t fall but I had that feeling of my heart rate skyrocketing, taking a quick gasp of air, and my entire body tightening up to prevent falling. These three actions provide two good topics to write about. One regarding your nervous system, and one regarding your muscular system.
First, I would like to discuss a few things regarding the nervous system. You have two branches of your peripheral nervous system. The autonomic and somatic systems. The somatic is responsible for voluntary movement. The autonomic system is responsible for the involuntary control of many bodily functions like breathing, digesting, etc. The autonomic has two branches of its own as well. They are the sympathetic branch and parasympathetic branch. They manage your body in two different ways. The sympathetic branch is also known as the fight or flight branch. It’s responsible for helping you to perform actions that may keep you alive, for example if you’re getting chased by a 100lb German shepherd. It is responsible for increasing heart rate, releasing adrenaline, diverting blood away from your organs and to your muscles, releasing glucose from your liver for fuel, etc. You get the picture. It’s the same system that causes that rush when you’re driving over the speed limit and you just noticed the cop car just off the road 50 feet in front of you.
The parasympathetic does just the opposite. It’s known as the rest and digest, or the feed and breed system. When this branch is dominant, it results in more activation of smooth muscle of the GI tract to help with digestion, a reduction in heart rate, dilated blood vessels, and generally brings your body into a more “relaxed” state.
When I slipped on the ice my sympathetic system took over, jacked up my heart rate, caused me to take a deep breath of oxygen, and activated all my muscles because I was essentially “in danger”. In todays world many of us are sort of “stuck” in the “fight or flight” branch which isn’t necessarily a great thing for our health if you think about it. We’re constantly revved up, trying to get more done in less time, taking less time to rest, eat well, basically spending more time to “get shit done”. It’s great for productivity but not great when you consider that it leaves your body less time to recover, digest food properly, and use those nutrients to repair especially while you sleep. It’s kind of like just keeping you car in 3rd or 4th gear when you get on the highway. Your still driving, still moving along but you’re wearing down the engine and wasting gas. At some point the car is going to breakdown and the repairs will be expensive. Fortunately you can always repair or buy a new car. That’s not always the case with your body, and remember you only get one body per lifetime. Basically what I’m saying is that you have to get yourself out of the fight or flight mode and into the rest and digest mode if you don’t want to burnout. Now my explanation above is very simple because I don’t know enough about it to go into great detail but I do know of a couple very simple strategies you can use to help nudge you back into the right mode.
First, stop polluting yourself with caffeine, sugar, and other stimulants. I am a coffee lover to say the least, so I know how hard this may be, but reducing stimulants is a simple way to bring it down a notch and give your adrenal glands and other organs a break.
Second, learn how to breath properly. Breathe in your nose and out your mouth. Your nose has what’s called “turbinates” which are responsible for a few important things. They heat and humidify the air to the right levels for your body, they provide resistance to regulate how much air enters the lungs so you get the proper amount lung expansion to accommodate your current needs. We know how important oxygen is and how important it is that we get proper levels so systems can function correctly. This will help nudge your nervous system in the right direction. While I’m here, stop reading and take a deep breath. Notice what happens. Did you raise your shoulders? If you did, and I’m willing to bet you did, you are not breathing correctly. You are using neck and shoulder muscles to do something they weren’t meant to do. Think about how many breaths you take a day, thousands upon thousands, and you’re doing it wrong. What if you came into the gym and I told you to perform an exercise incorrectly and I wanted 20,000 reps before the day was over! That is essentially what you’re doing with those shoulder and neck muscles. And we wonder why there are so many tense shoulders and sore, stiff necks! Use your diaphragm, use your turbinates! Breathe in through your nose, fill up your belly first, and then let your chest expand outward, exhale through your mouth. Get a nice circular breathing pattern. Look up “belly breathing” if you want to know more. If you take yoga, you’re probably familiar with this already.
An effective third method is static stretching. The best time to perform static stretching is after a workout or before bed. It helps you and your nervous system wind down. By the way, static stretching before a workout or right when you get out of bed in the morning isn’t a good idea. Static stretching before a workout is kind of counter productive for two reasons. First, it will help relax your body and nerves leading you toward a more parasympathetic state. If you are going to exercise you want to have “workout” energy, so you want your body to release glucose for your muscles, you want your muscles to be ready to fire and perform, you want to be in that somewhat elevated, alert mode to be able to perform. Secondly, for related reasons, studies have shown that static stretching does have a negative effect on your strength levels when performed prior to resistance training. How much? I’m not sure, it’s probably not enough to make a huge difference since most of us aren’t olympic athletes or going for a personal best, but nonetheless I want my strength levels to be as high as possible to get a higher return from my workouts.
Fourth is meditation. I won’t even pretend to know anything about this one because I don’t really do it. Regardless, it would be a helpful tool regarding this topic. Remember, meditation and falling asleep are two different things.
Lastly, food. You knew it was coming. Whole, non allergenic foods=Good. Processed, high sugar, chemical ridden foods=Bad. It’s just more work and stress for your body to try and figure out what to do with and how to handle these unnatural “foods”. Do you know where your body dumps toxins? Bodyfat! If it gets a constant supply of this stuff, it will hold onto bodyfat so it has a place to put it. No amount of cardio will overide that mechanism.
So, part 2 is next. Until then, chill out!