http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
For most of us, this food is the stuff of nightmares – something from a horror movie or a reality show eating challenge. But for some, it holds the future of human survival. Cricket protein addresses many of the challenges facing our food supply today. And while they may seem ‘disgusting’ to us, insects are […]
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When Mark asked me to write a post about the toll the pandemic is taking on mental health and relationships, I didn’t want simply to detail the ways it’s hard to live through a pandemic. Nor did I want to throw a bunch of statistics at you about how many people are having a difficult time. You know that it’s like living in the world’s least entertaining Groundhog-Day-meets-dystopian-thriller film.
If you’re like me, you’re sick of kvetching about 2020. The fact is, though, that I don’t know anyone, myself included, who isn’t struggling in one way or another right now.
After a lot of reflection, I’ve concluded that a big reason why 2020 is so draining is that our usual coping strategies don’t work like we want or expect. Most are aimed at reducing the source of our distress or dealing with the emotional aftermath. This pandemic is ongoing. We’re stuck in the middle of it, with no end in sight, and no way to speed the process along.
That doesn’t mean we’re helpless, though. Personally, I’m a huge believer in practicing self-compassion as a means of coping, almost no matter the situation. I’m talking a formal practice of self-compassion, as outlined by Dr. Kristin Neff and others.1 This requires self-awareness—mindfully tuning in to what is happening in your brain and body—and then offering yourself understanding and grace for what you’re feeling and how you’re responding. It’s perfect for situations like the one we’re in now, where we have little control over our suffering (the term used in the self-compassion literature), but we desire peace.
Because of my background, in the quest for self-awareness, I always look at situations through the dual lens of ancestral health and social psychology. Ever the optimist, I also look for opportunities to learn and do better when possible. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far.
I said I didn’t want to gripe, but let’s acknowledge that the pandemic is taking a serious toll. Survey after survey shows that more people are struggling with depression and anxiety. Distance learning is a challenge. Healthcare workers are under a tremendous amount of stress, as our other essential workers. People are sleeping poorly. Substance abuse is on the rise. 2 3
Which is to say, 2020 is exhausting, for lots of reasons.
Mark talks about this all the time. Humans are best equipped to deal with brief, intense stressors. We fight, flee, or freeze, and then, assuming a saber-toothed tiger hasn’t eaten us, we recover.
Everything about the present situation is misaligned with our genetic expectations. We’re simply not built to withstand long-term, unyielding stress—not from our jobs, chronic cardio, chronic sleep deprivation, and certainly not from six months of pandemic with no end in sight.
Remember back at the beginning of the pandemic where people were all, “Use this time to work on a new skill, build your side business, Marie Kondo your whole house!”
Lololol.
Now we’re beating ourselves up for feeling unproductive, lacking the motivation to exercise, and craving comfort foods. Instead, we should be lowering our expectations and telling coronavirus, “It’s not me; it’s you.”
When it comes to stress, even chronic stress, the goal is usually to eliminate it as much as possible. Here, though, our only real option is to try to keep our heads above water while we wait for things to get better. It doesn’t surprise me that substance abuse seems to be on the rise. When we can’t control stressors, sometimes it seems easier to numb out. The problem is, numbing isn’t coping. It’s avoidance. Drinking a bottle of wine while binge-watching a show may be great escapism, but at best, it’s a temporary fix.
In many cases, our best option is, in fact, self-compassion, radical acceptance, whatever you want to call it, plus a heaping dose of self-care. The trick, I think, is to acknowledge that the goal isn’t to alleviate stress or feel “normal.” It’s to stay afloat long enough to see the other side.
Questions I’m asking myself:
I’ve come to believe that many mental and emotional hardships are due to a mismatch between why we’re struggling and what we’re told to do about it.
Let me back up. Psychologists have proposed various models of basic human needs. You’re probably familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy, for example. At the base of Maslow’s pyramid are basic physiological and safety needs (food, warmth), then you work your way up to belongingness (relationships), esteem (pride, accomplishment), and finally self-actualization.
Academics don’t put a lot of stock in it, but it’s stuck around for more than seven decades because it has high face validity. That is, it feels right. We need to attend to physiological and safety needs before we can worry about connecting to other people, and certainly before becoming the best version of ourselves.
Those foundational needs are always more pressing, and all of us are facing novel threats to our safety. Not surprisingly, data from two polls conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and one from the U.S. Census Bureau confirm that the mental health toll has been greater for people who have experienced job loss or income insecurity.4 5
Yet, much of the coping advice is aimed at those higher-tier needs—connecting to others, learning a new skill, becoming a zen master. I’ve been guilty of this, too. I love talking about self-care. At the same time, I understand why people are sick of being told to take a bubble bath or go for a walk when they’re worried about paying rent. (I do think social connection is always important.)
My favorite psychological needs theory—doesn’t everyone have one?—is self-determination theory. SDT posits that humans have three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Unlike Maslow’s hierarchy, there is a boatload of research demonstrating how meeting those fundamental needs, or not, affects motivation and well-being.6
It seems to me that most common coping strategies address competence (developing mastery) or relatedness (connecting to others). However, loss of autonomy—the freedom to control our own actions—is undoubtedly a primary reason we’re struggling.
The problem is, there’s not much we can do about that. The best option is to focus on controlling the things we can control and accepting those we can’t (major serenity prayer vibes, here). I’m not suggesting that we should be reasserting our autonomy by flouting the rules and doing whatever we want, virus be damned. No, the point is to understand why things still feel hard even when we’re trying our best to practice self-care so that we might give ourselves grace.
Questions I’m asking myself:
I’m fascinated by people who are actually doing better now than before. Some kids are thriving at home, free from the social and academic pressures of traditional schooling. Lots of adults are realizing that they are happier and more productive working from home.
Getting back to the topic of this post, when I started to dig into the data on how the pandemic is affecting relationships, I expected to find dire news. I didn’t. While it’s logistically harder to see friends or travel to visit distant relatives, many people have seen their close relationships improve.
FThe Behavioural Science and Health Research Department at University College London is conducting weekly surveys looking at the psychological response to the pandemic, along with other socioemotional and behavioral variables. More than 90,000 people have responded. As of writing, data are available for the first 23 weeks here.
In July, week 16, the researchers asked about relationships. The majority of respondents said the pandemic had not changed their relationships with spouses, friends, family members, or coworkers. More people felt that their friendships had suffered since the beginning of the pandemic, compared to the number whose friendships improved—22 versus 15 percent of respondents, respectively. The data were similar for coworkers. However, relationships with some family members and neighbors were more likely to have improved:
I really wish there was more attention to being paid to those people. Why are they doing better? What’s their secret? It must have something to do with the time we have to invest differently in relationships now, but is there more to it than that? Academics are going to be writing about this for decades, I’m sure.
Since we have no choice about living through a pandemic, I hope we can at least learn from it.
When we go back to “normal,” it won’t be—and shouldn’t be—the normal we knew before. The ways people are suffering and thriving both offer important lessons about human nature, our ability to cope, and the ways we do and do not support one another effectively. That some people are doing better during an arguably terrible time is telling. It says a lot about the challenges and shortcomings of our pre-pandemic way of life.
The question is, will we heed the lessons?
What about you—how are you doing, really? Will you go back to “business as usual,” or have you gained any insights from the past six months that will change how you approach things in the future?
References
The post The Pandemic’s Toll on Mental Health and Relationships: What Can We Learn? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
If you start talking about building explosiveness with weights, someone always chirps about Olympic weightlifting movements. Learning Olympic lifts, though, is a slower and more arduous process than anyone who’s never tried it would think. There are more setbacks than breakthroughs. I should know, I dedicated a decade of my life to Olympic weightlifting.
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Today we welcome a post by guest author Ashleigh VanHouten, health and nutrition journalist, public speaker, certified health coach, and host of the Muscle Maven Radio podcast. Here, she explains why we’re missing out if we’re only eating boring boneless cuts of meat from the grocery store, and makes the case for eating nose-to-tail, for both our health and for our enjoyment. Her new cookbook, It Takes Guts, is available for preorder and hits the shelves in late October.
“It’s good for you and for the planet – and it’s easier and tastier than you think!” – Ashleigh VanHouten
Modified excerpt from It Takes Guts, shared with publisher permission.
If I had a dollar for every time someone told me, “I just can’t get my head around eating [insert type of organ meat here] because I didn’t grow up eating it,” I could retire now and live out the rest of my days eating animal hearts on a beach somewhere — but I have a secret for you. I didn’t grow up eating organ meat, either; I grew up eating cereal and bread and chicken breast, and while I always gravitated toward animal products, I certainly wasn’t eating liver or sweetbreads.
But as someone who has dedicated their career to researching, studying, and experimenting with nutrition, I believe strongly that one bite of something new won’t hurt you, and it just might open up a whole new world of pleasure and health. It’s a fact that organs are generally the most nutrient-dense parts of an animal, so if we can find fun and creative and even subtle ways to enjoy them, we’re winning. And by eating the whole animal, we’re also honoring and respecting the beings who sacrificed for our dinner plates by ensuring none of it is wasted.
I wrote my nose-to-tail cookbook It Takes Guts because I am passionate about honoring the animals we’re eating, and enjoying the full bounty of delicious and healthy options available to us. As the saying goes, the way you do anything is the way you do everything, and I believe we should all be approaching our plates, and our lives, with a sense of adventure and enthusiasm.
Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the reasons why eating organ meats is a good idea:
It would be wasteful to buy a huge house and use only one or two rooms, right? Adopting a whole-animal approach reduces waste, and buying from local farms and butchers helps decrease the carbon footprint created when meat is brought to you from far-flung places. In the process of breaking down an animal, less than half of it will usually end up as boneless cuts,
or the type of meat you normally pick up at a grocery store. Much of the rest is bone, hide, blood, and organs – the latter being the most nutrient-dense part of the animal, which we are essentially giving away to then eat the less nutrient-dense muscle meat!
If you’re reading this, you probably eat animals, and if you’ve accepted that eating animals is a natural part of living, the best way forward is to ensure that the animals you’re eating lived a healthy, natural life and were slaughtered humanely, and that we honor the animal’s sacrifice by not wasting any of it over arbitrary (and misguided) beliefs that some part of the animal are acceptable to eat and others aren’t.
It’s a fact: organ meats like liver, heart, and kidney are nutritional powerhouses, not just for their individual nutrients but for the synergistic effect of consuming these nutrients together. Nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin D, and magnesium work together with other food-based compounds. That’s why taking many of these nutrients on their own (in pill form, for example) doesn’t have as much of a positive effect on your body.
And to debunk a big myth about these cuts, it is untrue that organ meats like liver and kidney store and contain toxins. Organs like the liver filter toxins, usually moving them to the kidneys, from which they are eventually expelled through the urine. Toxins are removed from a healthy, well-functioning animal’s body via these miraculous organs just like they are in ours; eating fresh, healthy organs is the same as eating fresh, healthy muscle meat. If toxins do linger in the body, they are generally stored in fat cells (this goes for us too), which is why it’s crucial to source high-quality animal protein that is raised without pesticides or antibiotics, because that’s where they’ll end up: in your delicious, fatty rib-eye.
Organ meats are so nutrient-dense that you can eat very small amounts and get more benefit than you would from nearly any other food on the planet. A few ounces of beef liver contains your daily needs for many nutrients, including iron, copper, zinc, folate, choline, and vitamins A and B12. So even if I can’t convince you to love the taste of organ meats, I hope I can help you understand that these are superfoods that can dramatically improve your health.
Often, organ meats are less expensive than muscle meats simply because they aren’t in high demand. Imagine the nutrient-dense parts being sold for scraps while the basic protein is sold at a premium! Unlike prime cuts of grass-fed beef, grass-fed beef liver and heart are pretty cheap. A beef tongue can feed a party of six for about ten bucks; chicken hearts are often sold for a few bucks a pound; and you can buy a bag of tasty, protein packed chicken gizzards that will serve a whole family for less than you’d pay for a fancy salad at your local fast-casual restaurant.
If you want to get the best nutritional bang for your buck with protein, your best bet is to throw some offal in there. Make friends with your local butcher, too, so you learn about and source the best stuff!
If you can reframe your perceptions of organ meat being “gross” or extreme and see it for what it really is—just a different part of the animal you’re already eating, and a much more nutritious part at that—you can start having fun with different recipes and preparations.
Nose-to-tail eating is also a celebration of culture and history, honoring the traditional foods off different countries; a time when people were less swayed by grocery store marketing and more driven by instinct; when we gave more respect to the time, skill, and labor of providing meals for our families, and when nourishment mattered more than hyperpalatability.
Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it—that’s what I’m always telling my skeptics. While certain organ meats have stronger flavors and unique textures and may never appeal to some people, the same can be said for less controversial foods (don’t even get me started on broccoli—now that’s an acquired taste!) I know I’ll never win everyone over, but if you’re willing to at least try,
I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how delicious, delicate, and decadent offal can be. If you’d like to learn more about the health, history, and deliciousness of organ meats, including my personal journey and more than 75 offal-based recipes created by myself and a range of other fantastic chefs, you can pre-order my book, It Takes Guts, now!
Ashleigh VanHouten is a health and nutrition journalist, public speaker, certified health coach, and self-proclaimed muscle nerd. She has written for Paleo Magazine for more than eight years, along with a number of other health publications. She hosts the Muscle Maven Radio podcast, which has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times, where she’s interviewed some of the biggest names in health and wellness, including Mark Sisson, Dave Asprey, and Steph Gaudreau. She’s also worked with other top-rated health-related podcasts, such as Barbell Shrugged, Muscle Intelligence, and Paleo Magazine Radio. Combining her formal education and professional experience in marketing and communications with her passion for healthy eating, exercise, and learning, Ashleigh works in a consulting role for a number of professionals in the health and wellness world, working alongside individuals like Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, Ben Pakulski, and Elle Russ. Find out more at ashleighvanhouten.com.
The post Why We Should All Be Eating Organ Meats appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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There are few things more embarrassing than getting caught picking your nose…but sometimes, those pesky boogers make this nasty habit hard to resist. With 91 percent of adults admitting to picking their noses from time to time, it’s clear that almost all of us struggle with boogers occasionally. But have you ever noticed that you […]
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When you think of a Cubano, or Cuban Sandwich, you probably think of some combination of flavorful pork, Swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard on bread, grilled until the layers meld into a salty, tangy, warm pork and cool pickle flavor bomb. This Keto Cubano Sliders Recipe gives you the Cuban Sandwich experience you crave without messing up your carb count.
Cuban Sandwich Sliders are versatile, and if you make the pork and bread ahead, you can throw them together for any occasion. Virtual learning with the kiddos? Throw them together for a lunch that makes everyone happy. Having your quarantine pod squad over for a late summer get-together before the fall chill sets in? Cubano Sliders will be a hit with everyone. Weeknight dinner? Serve sliders along with your big-ass salad and call it good.
A few tips:
Ready to get started?
Serves: 8
Time in the kitchen: 2 hrs 2o min, including 2 hrs hands-off roasting time
In a bowl, combine half of the oil, lime juice, orange juice, lime and orange zest, cumin, oregano, coriander, salt, garlic powder and black pepper.
Pour it all over the pork butt and place it in the fridge for 1 hour. 
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Heat a dutch oven over medium heat with the remaining oil. Once hot, add the garlic and stir until fragrant. Remove the pork from the marinade and place it in the pot. 
Allow the meat to sear for about 2 minutes on both sides. Pour the marinade into the pot as well as the chicken broth. Bring the liquid to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer.
Cover the pot and place it in the oven for about 2 hours. At this point, flip the meat over and cook for an additional 30-45 minutes, or until you can shred the pork. Shred the meat and place the pot back into the oven uncovered and increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Allow the pork to roast for about 30 minutes, or until some of the liquid has evaporated and the meat is tender. Set the meat aside.
Prepare your Keto Bread in a loaf pan and bake according to the instructions. 
Slice your Keto sandwich bread into 16 slices (or for a thicker bread, cut into 12 slices). 
Take two slices for your first sandwich. Spread a little Primal Kitchen Dijon or Spicy Mustard on one side, and then top with the pickles, ham, and a little of the shredded cuban pork. Place the Swiss cheese on top of the pork and then top with the second slice of bread.
Heat a small amount of butter in a small skillet. Swirl it around and once hot, carefully place the sandwich in the pan. Use another skillet or a pot to carefully press down on the sandwich. 
Maintain the pressure on the sandwich until the cheese melts slightly and the bread begins to brown slightly. Turn the sandwich over and repeat on the other side until both sides are golden. Repeat with the remaining sandwiches. Slice your sandwiches in half and enjoy!
Calories: 710
Total Fat: 59g
Total Carbs: 10g
Net Carbs: 7g
Protein: 38g
The post Keto Cubano (Cuban Sandwich) Sliders Recipe (Gluten Free) appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
Everyone wants to take care of their bodies, but not everyone knows how. The first step for many is learning how to cook. If you are at this stage and really want to make dietary improvements, don’t be discouraged. As you are transitioning and learning how to cook, you can still eat healthily if you […]
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
People with amnesia often gain weight because they forget they’ve already eaten.
Caffeine makes alcohol more rewarding.
Taller people have stronger testosterone responses to exercise.
Despite widespread dairy consumption, Bronze Age Europeans had relatively low frequency of lactase persistence.
Episode 444: Ashleigh VanHouten: Host Elle Russ welcomes Ashleigh VanHouten back to the podcast.
Episode 445: Dude Spellings: Host Brad Kearns welcomes Dude Spellings back to talk about micro-workouts, calorie compensation, blue light and melatonin.
Primal Health Coach Radio Episode 75: Laura and Erin chat with Stacey Claxton about learning from your body.
Female python lays 7 eggs despite no male contact for twenty years.
Could face masks be a quick-and-dirty COVID vaccine?
Have we unwittingly discovered the biggest productivity hack of the century?
More people are grinding their teeth.
A nice treatise on walking.
Post-hurricane mosquito clouds are killing livestock.
Podcast I loved doing: Health Theory with Tom Bilyeu. We talked about living awesome.
Interesting article: We know how to prevent massive wildfires.
Imagine that: Indigenous cattle are a viable path to economic and nutritional self-sufficiency in South Africa.
What to say when someone proposes that kids and adults avoid animal foods to stave off chronic disease: NO.
Another senseless tragedy: Vegan parents starve baby with homemade formula.
Should veganism be illegal for children?
One year ago (Sep 5 – Sep 11)
“The only free lunch is the cheese in the trap.”
-Good one, Fritz.
The post Weekly Link Love — Edition 98 appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/
What’s DOMS?
That’s easy – DOMS stands for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.
How do you relieve DOMS?
That…gets a bit trickier.
Luckily, you’re in the right spot. We help clients in our Online Coaching Program deal with sore muscles by practicing “active recovery,” and today we’ll share with you the goods too.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
I can see that you’re in a lot of pain (tough workout, eh?), so let’s get right to it.
Although you’re probably already familiar, you’ve never been formally introduced to DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness).
First of all, don’t panic. DOMS is totally natural, and you’re going to be fine. Great, even!
In short, DOMS is a result of teeny tiny tears in your muscles from really strenuous activity, meaning you did things that your body is not normally used to.[1]
If you’re brand new to working out or have taken a few weeks off only to jump back in at a high level of stress (heavy squats after a few weeks off), think of DOMS like your muscles saying: in exchange for the recovery I have to do, I’m gonna make YOU feel it.
Don’t panic, this process is TOTALLY normal.
It tends to peak around 48 hours after training, but can occur anytime after your training day (hence the “Delayed” part of DOMS).
Note: this should definitely feel like a soreness (even a painful or deep soreness is okay), but sharp pain or severe pain is something you should speak to your doctor about.
So, think of our friend DOMS like an obnoxious friend complaining:
“Whoa whoa whoa, I didn’t sign up for this much activity. You just did a lot of things I’m not used to. So I’m going to piss you off tomorrow and make you super sore. And the day after that? It’s going to be WORSE.”
Of note, DOMS isn’t the pain you feel during the exercise. That’s “acute soreness.”[2]
Think of it this way:
Whether it’s “acute” or “delayed,” the pain from working out will lead us to some questions.
Now you’re thinking, “I read on a motivational poster once “No Pain, No Gain!” … is that true?”
Yeah, those things really are everywhere:
Although admittedly, this is awesome.
What you’re really asking:
When you exercise (especially strength training), you’re breaking down your muscles, and over the next few days they are rebuilding themselves up stronger.
But if you are SUPPOSED to break down your muscles, then soreness is good. And if SOME soreness is good, then DOMS should be your new best friend because it means it’s REALLY working, right?
Worth it?
Maybe.
THE TRUTH: Yes, being sore after a workout CAN be a sign that you adequately pushed your muscles hard to elicit a response from them – especially if you haven’t worked out that intensively in a while.
However, when reviewing studies, DOMS doesn’t precisely correlate with intense exercise or muscle damage.[4] That’s because your body can send signals to grow muscle without any significant soreness.[5]
Plus, your muscles will get accustomed to the exercises you do, which will reduce further DOMS.[6]
This means that once you get used to this level of training, DOMS will go away and you can make huge progress in your training without this soreness. Yes, even if you gradually increase the intensity.
In other words:
Don’t think that you need to be sore in order to get a good workout. DOMS goes away quickly and most of your progress will come without DOMS.
Also, DOMS isn’t without consequences to your training. You might feel so sore and stiff and tight that you don’t think you could possibly work out today (even though it’s a scheduled workout day).
So, some soreness is good, but don’t go searching to destroy yourself in a single session. We’re after real, long term progress, remember?
That’s why we subscribe to eight-time Mr. Olympia Lee Haney’s motto: “stimulate, not annihilate” method of training at Nerd Fitness. I don’t want you puking, I don’t want you so sore you can’t move, I don’t want you so tired at the end of a workout that you just want to lie down on a mat and die.
Yup, it’s tough to find that balance, especially if you’re brand new to training and have no idea what level of soreness you should feel. Most people first feel DOMS and think something is wrong, when in fact that level of soreness is totally normal.
Don’t be afraid to take a trial and error, self-experimentation mindset!
Of course, if you’re sitting there right now with T-Rex arms and leg muscles so sore you’re like Tin Man, you’re probably thinking the following:
Luckily, the next section is for you.
Real quick…
Want more guidance on strength training TODAY? If you do, we’re experts, so you’re in the right hands.
Download our free guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know! Get it free when you sign up for our email list in the box below.
So you’ve met DOMS, and whether it’s been 24 or 48 or 72 hours, he’s pretty much immobilized you.
Luckily, there are a few things you can do right now that may offer relief.
To help alleviate DOMS and sore muscles:
#1) Engage and move your muscles. It may seem counterintuitive, but trust me:
You’re going to do your workout as scheduled. If it’s the day after the workout, you’re going to do some light activity or “active recovery.”
You see, when you exercise, you’re increasing blood flow to your muscles. By putting your body through the motions, you’re actually speeding up your recovery.
No, this will not cause further damage to your muscles. In fact, this is the best possible way to improve the soreness you’re currently feeling.[7]
Yes, it’s going to suck for the first few repetitions, but each repetition is exercising those sore muscles, stretching them back out, and making them less sore. Think of it like you’re showing your muscles there’s really nothing to be afraid of.
Movement is the best cure for soreness.
That’s why if you’re feeling sore the day immediately after, you can stretch, take a walk, and perform light versions of your movements in order to expedite the healing process!
So when in doubt, move and stretch. This can be done throughout the day, when you wake up, before, during, and after your workout.
Just MOVE MORE!
Also, because you’re so sore and tight, your range of motion initially will be much smaller than a few days prior. NBD.
If you want to help fight off DOMS, consider mixing in some yoga on your off days to speed up recovery and elongate those muscles!
We talk about more gentle workouts to do of your “off days” in our Guide to Active Recovery.
#2) Massage Your Muscles.
A 2017 study discovered that those who received a massage after an intense workout reported less soreness than those who did not.[8]
Plus, massages feel great:
Win-win.
If you can’t go get a massage, a foam roller might help a lot too by providing a self-massage. Scope this video for a brief tutorial on how to get rolling:
#3) Ice Baths.
There’s decent evidence that a 10-15 minute cold bath can help in dealing with sore muscles.
Even water at a temperature of 50–59°F (10–15°C) can have some benefit.[9]
Now, unless you own a ray gun and have plans to take over Gotham, ice baths aren’t exactly a fun time.
However, on the flip side…
#4) Warm Baths.
Now we’re talking!
Heat, whether through a warm wrap or a hot bath, has been shown to help treat sore muscles.[10]
So the next time someone yells at you for hanging out in the bathtub too long, shout back “I’m treating my sore muscles so I can grow strong! Leave me be.”
That always works for me.
Now, let’s talk about avoiding severe DOMS altogether.
Outside of not working out (don’t do that), there’s no real way to prevent DOMS.
However, here are some best practices that might help lower your “ouch” level.
#1) Stay hydrated.
One study found that between two groups of men training outside in the heat, the group that drank water before, during, and after the exercise experienced less soreness than those who didn’t.[11]
Drinking plenty of water is good advice in general, so make sure you stay properly hydrated during your workout.
#2) Warm-up.
We always recommend Rebels spend about 5 minutes doing a dynamic warm-up prior to their training.
One of the reasons why: it might help prevent a little soreness after your workout.[12]
Here’s a quick warm-up sequence you can try:
#3) Cool-down.
A 2012 study found that light cycling after some intense leg exercises helped in easing DOMS, compared to the control group.[13] It might be worth spending a little bit of time in light movement immediately after strength training to help with soreness.
#4) Ease into it.
We mentioned earlier that DOMS and muscle soreness really hit those who aren’t used to training.
That’s why newbies should take it easy on their first day in the gym.
Bodyweight workouts might be a good first step too for those just starting their strength training journey, which you can scale to be easier at first, like doing knee push-ups:
When initially building your own workout, don’t worry if it seems like you can do more. They’ll be plenty of time for that down the road. Just get comfortable engaging your muscles at first, then we can worry about revving up the intensity later.
If you want help building a workout, one that won’t leave you sprawled out on the floor incapacitated the first day, we got you covered.
Here are three ways we can help you:
Option #1) If you want a professional coach in your pocket, who can build a workout for your experience level, provide feedback, and adjust your training based on your progress, check out our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program!
For example, let’s say you find yourself stuck indoors during a pandemic, and you want to start training with the equipment and furniture you have. That’s where an online coach is a game-changer!
Personally, I’ve been working with the same online coach since 2015 and it’s changed my life. You can learn more by clicking on the image below:
Option #2) Exercising at home and need a plan to follow? Have questions you need answered? Join Nerd Fitness Prime!
Nerd Fitness Prime is our premium membership program that contains at-home exercise routines, live-streamed workouts with NF Coaches, a supportive online community, group challenges, and much more!
Option #3) Become part of the Rebellion! We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.
Sign-up below and receive our free guide Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know. It includes step-by-step instructions on how to start weight training, even if you don’t have any equipment.
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
TL;DR:
What other questions do you have about our obnoxious friend DOMS?
-Steve
PS: If you want more, our Guide for Active Recovery will help you deal with muscle soreness on your “off days.”
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photo source: Goku: No Pain, No gain, Injured Stormtrooper, Sorry but I really can´t see anything in your radiography, LEGO medics, Not all heroes wear capes,
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
Experts warn that cigarette smoke and coronavirus may be a deadly mix, making you susceptible to infection. But what about vaping? Since the onset of the pandemic, self-soothing behavior has become the norm, whether it’s overindulging in chocolate and wine — or vaping marijuana and tobacco. But now, new information is shedding a light on […]
For now classes are 6pm and 640pm at 2840 Wildwood st in the Boise Cloggers studio.
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