Authors: Yuri Elkaim
USING
COLD THERAPY FOR RECOVERY
As a former pro athlete and strength and conditioning coach for top athletes, I can tell you firsthand that ice is necessary for speeding up recovery from injury since it reduces unwanted, prolonged swelling and inflammation. Not only that, but it can also be very beneficial for recovering from intense exercise. That said, this has been a controversial area over the last few years, and the science is split—some studies show no benefit of cryotherapy on recovery while others do show a benefit.
Here’s my experience: When I was the strength and conditioning coach for men’s soccer at the University of Toronto, one of the most important recovery strategies that kept our players healthier, less prone to injury, and “lighter” feeling was implementing optional ice baths after training and games. We had a very compact 3-month season, which involved training 5 days per week with two games on the weekends. Recovery was obviously paramount. Although it was a bit of a shock to their systems at first, most of the players fell in love with jumping in the ice bath for a few minutes after a hard session.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably not a pro athlete, and I sure don’t think you need to take an ice bath after your workouts. However, it’s still good to know that cold can help your body recover so that you don’t feel stiff and sore all the time. Even something as simple as taking a cold shower or lowering the temperature in your house can help. And if you’re not a fan of cold showers, then you can always take a hot-cold (“contrast”) shower, where you alternate between hot and cold water, which gets the blood flowing in and out of your muscles to speed removal of exercise-induced waste products, like lactic acid.
A 2008 study in the
European Journal of Applied Physiology
looked at the effect of cold water immersion, hot water immersion, and contrast water therapy on delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Thirty-eight men completed two experimental trials separated by 8 months. One trial involved an intense exercise bout (to cause muscle damage), followed by passive recovery and one of the three hydrotherapy protocols for 72 hours after exercise. These protocols were done for 14 minutes postexercise.
The results showed that both cold water immersion and contrast water therapy were effective in reducing the physiological and functional
deficits
associated with DOMS, with both fostering improved recovery of isometric force and dynamic power (measured by improved jump squat performance) and reducing localized swelling.
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I don’t know about you, but I’ll take any unfair advantage I can to help my body recover from intense exercise. And if it also helps me burn more fat and better my health, then that’s even better.
EASING YOUR MUSCLES WITH DEEP-TISSUE WORK
Although it’s important to keep your muscles in motion, that motion doesn’t always have to be strenuous. In fact, you don’t even have to be the one putting your muscles through their paces. In between workouts, I recommend various forms of deep-tissue work that alleviate muscular tension and make you feel great. Massage, active release technique, and Rolfing are just a few examples.
By all means, make use of them if you can, although I don’t expect that everyone has the money to pay a massage therapist on a regular basis. Thankfully, you can do some of the very same work before and after your workouts with a cheap foam roller. Yes, it’s really that easy. For less than $30 you can buy a cylindrical piece of hard foam that will do the trick. I have one, and I consider it to be my personal massage therapist. If you don’t have a foam roller, you can still get started today by using a simple tennis ball to roll out your points of tension. There really is no reason to complain about being stiff and sore all the time when you have simple options like this.
When your body has chronic tightness, tension, or an area with a history of injury or overuse, adhesions usually form in the muscles, tendons, and ligaments. These adhesions can block circulation and cause pain, inflammation, and limited mobility. This is known as the cumulative injury cycle (or cumulative trauma disorder). It means that a repetitive effort such as sitting or lifting a weight causes certain muscles to tighten. But here’s the dilemma: A tight muscle tends to weaken, and a weak muscle tends to tighten. This creates a vicious cycle.
As a result of weak and tight tissues, internal forces arise. Friction,
pressure,
or tension can be present at the same time, which then reduces bloodflow to the area. With less circulation, less oxygen comes to the tissue, causing fibrosis and adhesions to occur in the affected tissues. Eventually, a tear or injury occurs, and this restarts the adhesion process. That’s why lifting the groceries out of the car didn’t tweak your back. It was likely the years of sitting that created weak and tense tissues that were just waiting to snap.
Stretching does nothing to alleviate this. However, deep-tissue work does. It is simply the act of physically breaking down these adhesions, usually by applying direct deep pressure or friction to the muscles. As these adhesions are broken down by deep-tissue work, bloodflow and lymph flow to the affected area are enhanced. Instead of driving to a massage therapist several times per week, you can whip out your foam roller in the comfort of your own living room and work through your body’s tight spots while watching your favorite TV show. My foam roller is an integral part of our family. It has its own place in the corner of our living room. It’s almost ornamental. That way, it’s accessible and I see it regularly, which reminds me to use it every day.
There are many types of foam rollers on the market, but I recommend getting one that is very firm. Avoid the cheap ones that are nothing more than glorified flotation noodles like you find in many swimming pools. You can also get a little more adventurous and use a RumbleRoller, which is essentially a foam roller with protruding extensions that dig deep into your muscles. They’re certainly quite uncomfortable—but highly effective.
When it comes to your workouts, here’s the sequence I recommend.
1.
Light aerobic warmup
2.
Foam rolling
3.
Dynamic stretching
4.
Workout
5.
Cooldown with more foam rolling
Breaking up tension in your muscles is a good idea before you start hammering them again with heavy weights. In fact, a 2014 study
showed
that foam rolling before a workout improved hip and hamstring range of motion.
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Once you combine it with some dynamic-stretching exercises, you’ll feel like a million bucks. You’ll be able to dive into your workout knowing that you’re less prone to injury.
After your workout is another opportunity to relieve built-up tension. This is not the time to stretch. After all, tension in your muscles is much like a knot in a rubber band—the more you stretch it, the tighter the knot gets. Again, save the stretching for another time. After a workout is when you should take a few minutes to cool down and bring your body back to a more relaxed state. You want to bring those stress hormones down. Follow your 5- to 10-minute cooldown with another few minutes on the foam roller, and you’ll feel amazing.
A 2015 study in the
Journal of Athletic Training
looked to see if foam rolling after a workout could alleviate muscle fatigue and delayed onset muscle soreness and improve physical performance. Participants performed two workouts 4 weeks apart, involving 10 sets of 10 squats at 60 percent of their 1-repetition maximum (that’s a lot of volume). They followed that up with either no foam rolling or 20 minutes of foam rolling either immediately or 24 hours or 48 hours postexercise. The researchers
found
that foam rolling improved quadriceps muscle tenderness by a moderate to large amount in the days after training. Sprint times also improved, as did strength-endurance, following the foam rolling.
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As effective as foam rolling and deep-tissue work are, I should warn you that deep-tissue massage (whether hands-on or via a foam roller) is not a comfortable, relaxing experience. The pressure and friction that deep-tissue work involves can be pretty intense. The best way to get through it is to breathe deeply and remind yourself that you’re doing your body a big favor. The tension will dissipate with just a few sessions, and with time you’ll feel so much better afterward. You should also be prepared for the possibility of soreness after deep-tissue work, because as the pressure breaks up adhesions and introduces friction into an affected area, your tissues will probably get the same type of inflammation-related fluid accumulation you get when you lift weights.
But now you also know that one of the best ways to alleviate the soreness is by using cold therapy. Take a cold shower or dunk your legs in cold water for a few minutes. You can even take an Epsom salt bath if you want something warmer and more relaxing. The salts in the bath are essentially magnesium sulfate, which can penetrate the skin and relax a lot of built-up tension.
What I hope you’ve gathered from this chapter is this: Relaxation is paramount when you’re on a regular exercise routine. However, because the human body was designed to move, it’s important for us to stay in motion, even when we’re recovering. The more you move, the less stiff you will be, and considering that the ultimate stiffness is rigor mortis, that’s something you want to avoid as much as possible! Staying in motion, quite literally, is what gives us life.
Sue’s Story
“I needed to lose a lot of weight because, among other reasons, my excess weight was causing back and knee problems. But at the age of 74, losing weight is not an easy thing to do. I have tried many different eating plans but always just lost a few pounds, then seemed to gain it back overnight, and often more with it.
“I was thrilled that I got to try this program with the prospect of possibly doubling my weight loss. I don’t eat a lot and generally eat healthy; however, I had never tried a program such as this one where I cycle how much I eat each day.
“In just 21 days, I lost 12 pounds. I reduced my waist and hips each by 4.5 inches. I am very happy so far with this program and am grateful to Yuri for creating it. I also slept better during the program, did not really have any cravings, and found the food choices to be really good. Thank you, Yuri!”
CHAPTER
8
STEP 6: SLEEP YOUR WAY THIN
W
hat’s the one thing everyone wants more of but can never seem to get enough of? If “money” was your answer, you’re not wrong, but that’s not the answer I’m looking for. Given the breakneck pace of modern life, I’d argue that sleep is the hot commodity so many of us are desperate for.
Day in and day out, we shuffle through endless errands like zombies, daydreaming about
actually
dreaming in the comfort of our beds, far removed from the world and its worries. I know it sounds like I’m exaggerating, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees with me. In 2012, the organization reported that nearly a third of Americans were sleep deprived, and in 2014 it declared that insufficient sleep was a public health epidemic!
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So, be honest with yourself: When was the last time you had a full, restful night of sleep?
As much as everyone loves to sleep, we too often skimp on it. After all, when you have a million and one things to do, it’s very easy to underestimate the importance of the one time of day when you can’t do anything at all. That’s a huge mistake, because even though you may not be ticking off items on your to-do list while you’re snoozing, your body is actually performing a number of critical functions, including:
•
Regenerating, growing, and repairing itself
•
Consolidating new learning
•
Cleaning up cellular garbage
We spend roughly one-third of our lives asleep, so sleep must be important, right?
What’s more, sleep is essential to our mission in this book: helping you to lose weight. Here’s a wake-up call: A good night’s sleep goes a long way toward helping you stay trim, and without it, all your exercise and healthy eating may be nearly useless. For that reason, it’s imperative that you understand the dynamics of sleep and the role it plays in weight maintenance.
SLEEP 101
The science of sleep is fascinating because it illustrates how connected we are to the natural world. For all our modern technology, from cell phones to drones, we are still animals programmed to rise with the sun and sleep when it sets. Like many animals on the planet, we evolved to get most of our sleep at night because that’s when it’s generally colder. Were we awake and active from sundown to sunrise, our bodies would have to expend more energy to keep warm.
Our bodies have become wired this way thanks to a tiny region in the brain very close to our optic nerves called the
suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)
. It controls our circadian rhythm, which you’ve probably heard of before. The circadian rhythm is your internal clock, which flows in accordance with the rising and setting of the sun, dictating when you feel alert or sleepy. This internal clock is so important that it gets better blood supply than any other part of the brain and is nearly impossible to destroy, even in the event of a stroke.
The SCN’s placement right by our optic nerves is very significant, as light plays a crucial role in steering our circadian rhythm. When it’s light outside, the suprachiasmatic nucleus sends a signal to your pineal gland to raise your cortisol levels and drop your level of melatonin, the sleep hormone. At night, this is reversed: Cortisol drops and melatonin
rises,
preparing us for a night of sleep. Simultaneously, our body temperature lowers in sync with the temperature outside. As you can see, we are biologically hardwired into a deep relationship with nature.