Soreness vs Pain

There is a difference between exercise soreness, which is a common side effect of a good, solid workout, and exercise pain, which usually indicates signs of a problem. University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) recommends listening to your body for warning signs that indicate serious complications. Discontinue exercise when pain levels become intense, as the underlying causes could lead to permanent damage.

Benefits

Many people with chronic pain avoid exercise because they believe it will only exacerbate their condition.The Mayo Clinic notes that while exercise may create new soreness in unused muscles, it can alleviate pain and improve overall health. Strong muscles help to support joints sore with arthritis. Increased activity with little weight-bearing stress can relieve the pain of nerve conditions such as neuropathy. Regular exercise helps to maintain proper weight levels that can ease the pain of many conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease. In many instances, lack of exercise can cause more pain than the soreness experienced following a good workout.

Considerations

Back pain is notorious for ending a fitness enthusiast's workout in short order. Painful back injuries will prevent any kind of exercise and should be avoided. Exercisers should not work through back soreness, as it could lead to permanent damage. Flexibility routines are the best choice to prevent serious back injuries and help to alleviate soreness following workouts. UMMC recommends stretching for at least 10 minutes, three times a week, to maintain a healthy back.

Warning

While a strenuous workout like running or working quickly on exercise machines for extended periods of time will increase the heart rate, normal aerobic conditioning should not cause pain in the chest. If breathing becomes labored or the heart begins to beat irregularly, it could be signs of a heart attack or other vascular distress. Unusual fatigue, lightheadedness or nausea also are uncommon signs that you should not ignore.

Prevention

Pain is a sign of injury and can be avoided with proper warm up and cool down exercises, according to UMMC. The body must make the transition from resting to movement to alleviate pain and subsequent injury. Spend five to 10 minutes on warm up exercises, such as walking or mild calisthenics. Older people should spend at least 15 minutes warming up. A cool down period after an exercise routine should consist of slow walking until the heart returns to 10 to 15 beats above its resting rate. While muscles may be sore from a strenuous workout, stopping suddenly can increase the chance of painful muscle cramps and rapid blood pressure drops.

Equipment

Proper equipment for each exercise is another important aspect to be considered when working to avoid the pain of injury. The right kind of shoes for running will not alleviate the soreness in the calves and thighs, but will help to prevent the pain of skin splints and jarring spinal injuries. Safety devices such as helmets and kneepads may not prevent the soreness from repeated falls off of a bike or skateboard, but they will serve to prevent pain from a cracked skull or chipped elbow.

LS 10/27/2009

Eliptical v. Jogging

Overview

The elliptical machine and jogging are both great for cardio workouts, but they work in different ways. Depending on your goals and physical condition, you may find one or the other more beneficial. For many people, doing a little bit of both is a good way to keep cardio workouts interesting and keep your body challenged.

Impact

The elliptical machine eliminates most of the vertical impact on your legs and back caused by jogging. This makes the elliptical a good choice for those recovering from injuries or those sensitive to continuous impact activities.

Resistance

On most ellipticals, the user adjusts resistance by increasing the force needed to push the foot pedals. A person can adjust resistance while jogging by changing speed, running uphill or adjusting the incline function on a treadmill. The resistance on the elliptical primarily creates the need for more muscle strength and endurance in the legs, while an increase in jogging resistance primarily increases the cardiovascular challenge.

Difficulty

The elliptical generally allows a wider range of difficulty than jogging. Jogging, even slowly, requires a moderate level of physical fitness, while the elliptical can be adjusted to accommodate those just beginning an exercise program.

Variations in Movement

The elliptical permits both forward and backward motions, allowing the user to vary the way the leg muscles are used. While a person can certainly run backward, it is often difficult to do safely. A jogger, however, can vary stride length to accommodate changes in speed, whereas an elliptical user cannot.

Muscle Groups

While both the elliptical and jogging rely primarily on the leg muscles, some elliptical machines have moving handholds that allow the user to add upper body muscular endurance training to the workout.

Calorie Burn

Contrary to popular belief, the elliptical does not burn significantly more calories than jogging. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, even though an exercise engages more muscle groups, it does not necessarily engage as much muscle mass; engaging more muscle mass will generally burn more calories.

5 types of yoga

Since yoga was introduced to Westerners at the latter end of the 20th century, many disciplines of yoga have evolved. Most of these focus only on the physical aspect of yoga, asana practice. However, traditional hatha yoga is an ancient philosophy which includes teachings on diet and nutrition, prayer and meditation, ethical living or codes of conduct, in addition to the postures or asanas that are popular today. Yoga teachings are found in Hinduism as well as Buddhism. In their book "From Here to Nirvana," authors Anne Cushman and Jerry Jones explain that there are five main types of yoga: Jhana, Bhakti, Karma, Raja and Hatha.

Jnana Yoga

The first path, or type of yoga, is Jnana yoga. Yoga Guru Patanjali taught that meditating on the question, "Who am I?" would eventually lead to self-realization, and enlightenment. Jnana yoga is the path of right inquiry. To reach enlightenment, we must dedicate ourselves to the search for truth, by asking the right questions. Jnana yoga is the path of study and intellectual development.

Bhakti Yoga

Bhakti yoga is the path of love, devotion, and worship. Sri Yogi Hari explains that Bhakti is actually an intense love for God. Yogis teach the personal development of this love of God naturally leads one to love all beings, to see the "god" in all forms of creation. By practicing bhakti yoga, the individual lets go of feelings of hate, jealousy, and vengeance; and instead embraces compassion, tolerance and love.

Karma Yoga

Karma yoga is the path of selfless service. Many have heard the terms "good karma" or "bad karma." These refer to actions which either are for the benefit of others, or actions which only benefit the self at the sacrifice of others. The latter stems from feelings of greed, pride, anger and fear. To practice karma yoga is to perform acts of kindness and service. Yogis believe karma is based on a universal law, which is: For every action, there is an opposite reaction. By serving others, we invite good acts into our own lives.

Raja Yoga

Raja yoga is the path to control over the mind. It includes a moral code, breath control and a meditation. Yogi Hari teaches the human mind is a bundle of thoughts which are often fragmented. This agitated mind keeps human beings trapped in a state of stress, anxiety and focused on the external world. This distracts the individual from the happiness he is seeking, which yogis teach, comes from focusing inward on the soul. This path of yoga takes discipline and time to master, but can be accomplished through pranayama, or breathing exercises, and meditation.

Hatha Yoga

Hatha yoga is the path of physical exercise. This is the face of yoga which is most familiar to people in the West. It involves regular practice of a series of asanas, or postures, to heal the body and promote well-being. Yoga has its roots in Ayurveda, an ancient system of medicine from India. This system identifies seven energy centers in the body, called chakras, which, when functioning properly, maintain good health. Yoga postures are designed to stimulate these chakras, and balance the body's energy.

Nada Yoga

Another overlooked aspect of yoga is sound or vibration techniques, called nada yoga. Nada yoga incorporates chanting, singing of bhajans, or hymns, and using different instruments to produce healing vibrations. Music or sounds are often used in popular yoga classes throughout the western world, although few know this practice stems from nada yoga

ref:The Yoga Journal, Anne Cushman & Jerry Jones 1998

OT's Group Training/Bootcamp

There is nothing like getting out and getting your body moving to help set the pace for the rest of your day. Our group training will help set a positive pace for the rest of your day!

EXCERCISE is the answer

Want to be sharper at work? Feel less tired at home? Spend some quality time with your spouse? How about enjoying a cookie without guilt?

If you answered "yes" to all of these questions (and who wouldn't?), exercise is the answer.

Resistance training increases your muscular strength and endurance.

•Boosts your energy, improves your balance and flexibility
•Maintains or even builds bone density
•Powers up your metabolism
•Transforms your muscles into powerful fat burners
•Lifting weights also firms and shapes your body
•Optimizes your body composition