What the #$%^ is “met-con?”

Met-Con – Metabolic Conditioning

Metabolic – having to do with metabolism, which is the sum-total of chemical actions that take place within the body at any given moment.

Conditioning – the state of something, or the process of changing that state.

Okay, so that’s it eh?

Well…yes, that IS it.

Sit on the couch and eat potato chips and watch TV/play video games/wait for the paleocalypse = MetCon.

Workout till you puke = MetCon.

Go on vacation and hike/bike/swim/have fun every day = MetCon.

So can I ask a favor of you folks out there in the reading-world?

Please stop calling your workout session or methodology MET-CON!

We know it’s MetCon.

EVERYTHING IS METCON.

If someone is selling you “Met-Con,” and they’re not telling you specifically what aspect of your MET their going to CON (other than you wall-met…eh…alright that’s bad, but you get my point), take your money elsewhere!

Breaking up scar tissue in your body – why is it important, and how can you do it?

Andreo Spina has just come out with what I think is his best video yet. In it, he describes the way scar tissue adheres between layers of soft tissue in the body.

This information is critical to everyone who has a body. Soft tissue scarring is a fact of life. Everyone gets it. Knowing what to do about it and actually doing those things will improve your health, your movement, and your strength.

What are Soft Tissues?
The body has several layers of tissues.

There’s your skin, on the surface.

Under that, there’s the fascia, a contractile connective-tissue. Fascia is that white stuff you see on meat that you get in the supermarket.

Then there’s the muscle, which is attached to bone by tendons.

And the bones are attached to one another with ligaments.

Scar tissue, or “adhesions,” are areas where some part of the soft tissue gets damaged, and doesn’t actually heal. Instead it forms rigid connective-tissue bridges in order to stabilize the tissues and allow for movement.

Typically scar tissues remain when the body isn’t moved. But we’ll get to that in a second.

First, here’s Andreo’s video:

So you can see the importance of breaking up scar tissue. Imagine, as Andreo said, “stretching your leg up with a pair of skin-tight jeans on.”

You can’t do it.

That is, you can’t move well if your soft tissues are full of scar tissue that is preventing them from moving.

And if you can’t move well, your body can’t do several things:
1. It can’t pump blood back to your heart sufficiently. The contraction of muscle is what pumps blood back to your heart. If your muscles can’t (or aren’t made to…different issue) contract fully, your circulation sucks.
2. If that happens, metabolic waste builds up in your tissues…so, number two is You can’t clear metabolic waste produces efficiently. When those build up, disease happens.
3. You can’t feel the joy of movement. If you’re bound up by scar tissue, movement is probably painful. That’s no fun. And that doesn’t help you want to move.

So, what can you do about it? Here are a few things:

1. Get high-quality bodywork.
What do I mean by this? I mean bodywork from someone who understands the video above, and who isn’t just giving you a “relaxation massage.” People who label themselves as offering “sports massage” often have a good understanding of the above. Self-massage works as well. Investigate some techniques and apply them (on YouTube you can search for things like “myofascial release” or “skin sliding” or “break up adhesions” or “self-massage” or any combination of the above).

2. Take hot baths.
Yes, a nice hot bath is relaxing. Throw in some Epsom Salts if you want. The bath can also help to “liquify” the very soft tissues in your body, allowing them to slide again. But that will only happen on one other condition…that you:

3. Stay well hydrated.
This means drinking plenty of high-quality H2O. Not going to go into a lot of detail here. Simply try the pee-test. If your pee is not clear, you’re dehydrated (with exceptions). Also, try to get well-water from reliable local sources rather than drinking chlorinated/treated water from the tap.

4. Move Well, Move Often!!!
This may be the single most important factor. Moving itself, as long as your body gets heated up to a nice sweaty level, will help to resolve soft tissue adhesions. Of course, it won’t usually do everything, but it will sure help. And once those adhesions have been (manually) broken up, there’s nothing better than full-range, hot movement to keep things from sticking together again. That’s one of the reasons Tai Chi is so good for you. Getting down into the pose above (snake creeps down, I think) demands a high level of balance and strength, AND – to the point of this post – it puts the soft tissues of the body in the deepest possible level of stretching and contraction…

Foam rolling can help, but as Andreo points out, it doesn’t really or necessarily slide one layer of soft tissue over the other.

But don’t just sit there reading this! Go do one of those three things (or all of them)! And put them into your regular practice!!!!

Breathing, Health, and Strength – Tap into the power within

I’m fascinated by breathing.

It’s one of a few activities that allow us to directly and immediately alter our physical, mental, and emotional states.

For instance, breathe faster or slower and feel how that changes your physical state.

Most people don’t really notice the effect breathing can have until after some sort of relaxing or traumatic event, or until it is pointed out to them.

When you get tense your breathing speeds up and gets more shallow. This leads to other physiological responses – tension in the body in general – which tends to have a snowball effect.

When you relax, breathing tends to slow down and deepen. General muscle-tone throughout the body follows suit.

In his book: Multidisciplinary approaches to breathing pattern disorders, Leon Chaitow and co-authors cover some of the physiological mechanisms that underlie breathing (or vice versa, depending on how you look at it).

Check it:

With metabolism relatively constant (i.e. insignificant variance from moment to moment), an increase in ventilation (the volume of air breathed from respiratory cycle to respiratory cycle) will increase the rate of flow of CO2 from tissue cells to the point of diffusion of CO2 from the pulmonary artery to the alveoli of the lungs. If this rate of flow is too fast, the concentration of CO2 in blood will be too lean, acid level of blood will drop, the crucial ratio of base to acid will increase, and the unbalanced pH will be alkal­otic. If the rate of flow of CO2 is too slow, its con­centration in blood will be too rich, acid level will rise, the crucial ratio of base to acid will decrease, and the unbalanced pH will be acidic. In healthy individuals under non-stressful conditions, the self-regulatory mechanisms of breathing will automatically calculate the amount of O2 needed for metabolism and increase or decrease the vol­ume of air breathed per unit of time so that the rate of flow of CO2 from cells to lungs will be just right, neither too fast nor too slow, and a stable level of balanced pH will be maintained. And what a delicate balance it is. From Ronald Ley’s introduction to the book

Chaitow stresses the structure/function relationship in the body, and particularly in the lungs – and that long-term functional use leads to change in structure, and therefore, long-term change in functional ability.

Pausing the Breath (pg. 199)
1. Pausing after the inhale, holding the lungs filled, creates tension and strain in the muscles of inhalation
2. Pausing after the inhale creates temporary hyperinflation, which works against relaxation and proper emptying of the lungs
3. Pausing after the exhale is more natural. The breathing system reduces volume by slowing the frequency, reducing the depth, and lengthening the post-exhalation pause. A post-inhale pause does not seem to occur naturally except when accompanying a state of suspense.

Yoga Breathing (pp. 238-239)
In a study by Nagarathna & Nagendra (1985), 106 individuals with asthma were divided into a treatment and control group, matched for age, sex, and severity of the condition. There were signifi­cantly greater improvements in the yoga group in weekly number of asthmatic attacks and in scores for drug usage as well as peak flow rates, which were still evident at 4-year follow-up.
• Cappo & Holmes (1984) used a pranayama breathing pattern (inhale quickly / exhale slowly) in their study, which compared the effects on arousal of that pattern with patterns of slow inhalation/rapid exhalation, as well as inhalation and exhalation at the same rate, and also with control groups (distraction control, and no treat­ment control). All three breathing pattern groups reduced their overall rate to six cycles per minute for a period of 5 minutes during the evaluations. The results showed that ‘inhaling quickly and exhaling slowly [the pranayama pattern] was consistently effective for reducing physiological (skin resistance) and psychological (subjective cognitive arousal) during anticipation and con­ frontation periods.’
• This result is consistent with yoga teaching about the value of slow exhalation. Van Lysebeth (1971) points out: ‘Every other point in the breath­ ing cycle involves muscle tension; so absolute relaxation can occur only when the exhale is com­plete: The point of equilibrium, the rest point between exhale and inhale, is a moment when the yoga therapy or traditional yoga methods is scanty; however, some verification exists: breathing apparatus is motionless. Cutting short the end of the exhale means that the exhale is incomplete and that the breathing muscles never quite relax between breaths. This may result in retention of more ‘used’ air than normal, and also can promote chronic hyperinflation and hyper­ tonic neck and shoulder muscles.
• A study of patients with congestive heart failure attempted to produce improvements by teaching the yoga ‘complete breath: This is a 3-stage breath that fills, in sequence, the abdomen, lower chest and upper chest, then reverses the order with the exhale. Breathing this way pro­duces a natural breathing rate of about six breaths per minute. The chronic heart conditions led to subnormal O2 saturation, limited exercise tolerance, and dyspnea; these all improved sig­nificantly with continued practice of the yoga breathing, and sensations of dyspnea dimin­ished. By improving the ventilation-perfusion ratios as well as alveolar ventilation, this style of breathing optimized breathing and made the most of available function. Respiratory efficiency improved and irregularity was reduced (instabil­ity in O2 saturation was associated with instabil­ity in breathing frequency and amplitude). The ‘spontaneous’ breathing rate (the rate at which subjects breathed when they thought they were unobserved) dropped from 13 to less than 8 (Bernardi et aI 1993). The heart and lungs operate in many ways as a cardiorespiratory unit. Breathing and heart action are closely related, and their synchronization sta­bilizes the autonomic nervous system (see Ch. 8).

Yoga breathing emphasizes full use of the diaphragm in breathing (Fig. 9.4). The diaphragm is attached by fascia to the heart’s pericardium in such a way that diaphragmatic movement pro­vides a massaging action to the heart. Also, the vena cava, which carries freshly oxygenated blood from the lungs to the heart, passes through the diaphragm and is alternately squeezed and released during breathing. This action promotes a periodic acceleration of blood flow toward the heart. As Andrew Thomas (1993) states: ‘The fully and correctly operating diaphragm is thus a second heart.’

Yogic alternate nostril breathing (pg. 239)
(Box 9.4; Fig. 9.5)
In health one nostril is more dominant than the other at any given time in terms of the volume of air flow. There is an alternation every 1 t to 3 hours throughout the 24-hour cycle, with one nostril being more open than the other (Gilbert 1999). Evidence suggests that whichever nostril is more open, the opposite hemisphere of the brain is slightly more active, and in yoga this is utilized to enhance different activities related to particular hemispheric functions. These tradi­tional yogic intuitions and observations have been confirmed by modern research in which EEG readings from the brain have been found to correlate with increased hemispheric activity with the currently dominant nostril (Rossi 1991, Shannahoff-Khalsa 1991, Block et al 1989). Some yoga breathing exercises alternate between the two nostrils, breath by breath, with the intent of regulating the balance between the two hemispheres. This is thought to promote proper alternation between sympathetic and para­sympathetic nervous system functions.

WTF?!

The point here is that you can directly alter BRAIN/MENTAL and PHYSIOLOGILCAL/PHYSICAL (and their intermediary…EMOTIONAL) states simply through the use of breath.

How do you practice this?

1. PAY ATTENTION.
When you’re going through your day, occasionally check in – are you holding your breath?

Especially when you’re going into a situation you know to be stressful for you – regulate your breathing to remain relaxed.

Track the relative amount of tension in your muscles and the tension in your breathing. If you’re holding your breath or breathing shallowly, you’re most likely gripping in your body someplace (check the hands (fists), and glutes).

2. PRACTICE
Practice some sort of relaxation technique that exploits and explores the connection between breathing and body-states.

Two great places to start:
LET EVERY BREATH: Secrets of the Russian Breath Masters

This book is GREAT. It does not go into the ridiculous level of scientific depth covered in Chaitow’s book (or this post). It simply presents practices to help you connect breathing to your body state.

Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing

I like Andrew Weil’s approach, especially a lot of his earlier works.

This is a listen-along program that leads you through some breathing exercises.

THE POINT
The point of all of this is for you to be able to access the power that resides deep inside your body.

It is, to borrow the words of Frank Forencich – “primal, practical, and playful.”

The only way to tap into it and harness this power is to USE IT.

So get to work.