Exercise reduces inflammation

Exercise can lower inflammation.

Inflammation causes almost all modern diseases

Inflammation seems to be the cause of all degenerative diseases like cancer, diabetes, coronary artery disease and Alzheimer's.

For the majority of our readers who won't check out the validity of the above link, the source comes directly from the Harvard Health Medical Website. I would recommend giving the article a read-through if you want a more detailed, scientific explanation about how inflammation causes the four diseases mentioned above.

Current research points us to the fact that inflammation could cause almost all non-communicable diseases.

Inflammation starts off as the immune response to an issue within the body. Science discovers different pathways that inflammation uses to affect our physical state almost every day.

Inflammation at healthy levels is actually good for you. It protects you from infections and prevents you from hurting yourself even more when you scrape your knee or overdo it at the gym. This refers to acute inflammation because it comes when it is needed and goes when its job is done.

Chronic inflammation, on the other hand, is not healthy. It is basically an inflammatory response that doesn't switch off. It's always on.

This has many, various, detrimental effects on the body. The body can't enter a solid state of rest and recovery to heal from the inflammation and return to normal. Inflammation can cause the body to attack its own tissues - like in the case with autoimmune diseases.

Chronic inflammation is like a war the never stops - even when there aren't any bad guys to fight.

Chronic inflammation is unhealthy.

Exercise reduces inflammation

One of the many benefits of exercise is its ability to reduce chronic inflammation. Inflammation goes down as soon as you start exercise - regardless of the intensity or duration. A light, 5 minute stroll is enough to reduce chronic inflammation to some degree.

The anti-inflammatory effects of exercise increase with intensity and duration. A light, 5 minute stroll might decrease your total inflammation; but a faster walking pace at 10 or 15 minutes will be even better. 

Your body will improve its natural ability to reduce inflammation as your over fitness level improves.

This fitness challenge is a fantastic way to enhance your total fitness levels within 30 days.

The benefits start on the first minute.

20 Minutes of moderate exercise reduces inflammation by 5%

Exercise is shown to suppress the inflammatory response in this study.

Researchers found that 20 minutes of moderate exercise on a treadmill lead to a 5% decrease in inflammation.

How does exercise reduce inflammation?

1. Exercise lowers inflammation by activating the sympathetic nervous system.

2. Exercise suppresses inflammation by stimulating epinephrine (adrenaline) and nor-epinephrine.

There are different explanations to why exercise lowered inflammation, according to the above study.

Too much rest will kill you.

1. Exercise lowers inflammation by activating the sympathetic nervous system

Exercise activates the sympathetic nervous system, which then down-regulates the inflammatory response.

It makes sense that your body would spend less energy on internal battles if there are external battles to face instead. You can't run away from a lion or chase down your next meal if most of your energy is tied up with internal processes.

This might explain why exercise lowers inflammation in the long term - living organisms need to fight for survival. If there is no external fight for survival, your body could bring the fight inwards.

Inflammation is part of the body's healing and repairing process. This happens when we aren't spending vital energy on other external activities. Too much time without physical challenges or physical activity may, theoretically, put us in the parasympathetic (resting) state for so long that the body ends up creating issues of its own.

It's as if the pendulum swings too far in the opposite direction without physical activity to balance out extended periods of rest.

Maintain balance.

2. Exercise suppresses inflammation via adrenergic receptors

Test tube studies (as per the above study) observe that epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) and nor-epinephrine prevent TNF (inflammatory molecules).

The study discusses how adrenergic receptors prohibit inflammation via exercise. Adrenergic receptors refer to the way that the body uses neurotransmitters like adrenaline and noradrenaline.

Inflammation is a natural part of immune function. The body produces inflammatory cells to protect itself against pathogens that cause disease. 

These inflammatory cells declare a state of war throughout the body so that your tissues become inhabitable by germs. The problem is that healthy cells will also die off if this inflammatory state goes too far.

Exercise stops the production of these inflammatory cells, and one of the ways that it does this is through adrenergic receptors. 

Exercise increases your body's need for physical energy. Hormones like adrenaline and noradrenaline are up-regulated in order to create this physical energy. This lowers inflammation.

In order for physical energetic processes to switch on, other processes need to be switched off. This maintains a state of balance in your body - like how you only shiver when you are cold and you only sweat when you are hot. You only produce certain inflammatory cells when you are at rest.

Your body won't produce certain inflammatory cells when adrenergic receptors are stimulated. When adrenergic receptors are stimulated, inflammation is turned off so that more energy is dedicated to performing whatever physical task needs to get done.

If adrenergic receptors aren't stimulated through exercise often enough, inflammatory pathways are turned on for too long. This leads to an accumulation of inflammation that causes disease.

Exercise more. Suffer less.

Cold therapy can increase the anti-inflammatory effects of exercise

It is interesting to see that epinephrine production (from exercise) scientifically suppresses inflammation.

This explains why cold therapy is so effective at speeding up muscle recovery (because cold temperatures trigger epinephrine release as well).

You can therefore increase your anti-inflammatory efforts by adding cold therapy to your exercise regime. Stay Strong!

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Benefits of cold exposure

Discover the health benefits of being cold

Benefits of being cold

Cold exposure is good for your health. It challenges the body to adapt and become stronger - much like exercise. A process that challenges the body and makes it stronger in the long run is called hormesis.

Examples of hormesis

There are many types of hormesis. Here are a few of them:

1. Exercise
2. Heat exposure
3. Cold exposure
4. Fasting
5. Mental challenges
6. Sun exposure

Adversity creates strength.

1. Cold exposure reduces muscle pain and speeds up recovery from exercise

Cold water immersion reduces muscle soreness when done within 24 hours after exercise. The cold acts as an anti-inflammatory agent within muscle tissue. This reduces swelling and speeds up the healing process.

Cold showers reduce muscle pain

I use cold exposure to speed up the healing of a certain muscle group if it takes too long to heal on its own. Cold exposure prevents blood from pooling in muscle tissue.

Blood pooling stops new blood with fresh nutrients from reaching the muscle and stops old blood with by-products of the healing process from circulating away to be cleansed.

Inflammation isn't always a bad thing. It is the signal that tells our muscles to grow and get better. Exercise produces the inflammation that eventually leads to an increase in muscle size and strength.

Cold therapy to speed up muscle recovery

If you need to recover as soon as possible (like from a strenuous sports event and there's another one coming up shortly), I'd recommend using cold therapy as soon as you can.

If you want to increase your fitness level, I'd recommend using cold therapy a few hours after exercise so that your body can learn to deal with inflammation on its own.

Cold therapy is also good to speed up muscle or joint recovery because of its anti-inflammatory effects.

Use cold for exercise performance.

2. Cold showers reduce depression and increase energy levels

This study investigated whether cold showers could be used as an effective treatment for depression. The results were astonishing. Depressive symptoms were reduced almost instantly and the cold showers showed no indication of dependence or addiction.

The study proposes that one of the major causes of depression is a lack of hormesis that challenges our brain and body (just like how exercise reduces depression). Cold showers challenge the brain to switch on certain areas that aren't stimulated enough with our current, comfortable lifestyles.

A 2-3 minute cold shower of 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) was done once to twice a day. This was enough to elicit the mood-enhancing effects of cold exposure.

The same study showed that cold reduced pain in the same way as pain medication (via an analgesic effect).

A short, cold shower has lasting benefits.

Cold exposure activates the sympathetic nervous system

The study showed that cold exposure (in the form of cold showers) activated the mechanisms in our bodies that cope with physical stress. These are the same mechanisms that are activated during exercise. Increased energy production throughout your body creates an energizing effect.

Hormones released through cold exposure

Cold exposure increase blood levels of beta-endorphin and noradrenaline. This leads to a mood-enhancing, euphoric and energized feeling. These hormones explain why some people claim that cold showers wake them up better than coffee.

Cold showers are better than coffee.

3. Cold therapy increases metabolism

Cold exposure can increase your metabolism by 16%. It costs energy to warm the body up or cool it down. Your body will take this energy from fat stores. The increased energy levels and activation of the sympathetic nervous system, as we have discussed in the previous point, will also increase your body's energetic burn rate.

How much weight can you lose in one cold shower?

Not much. The amount of fat that you burn in a single cold shower is minuscule. You can't sit in a cold shower until you've lost a certain amount of body fat. You will enter into hypothermia before you lose any noticeable amount of fat.

The weight loss effects of cold training are adaptive. This means that your body will burn more fat mass per cold session over time as it adapts by learning to burn more fat to create heat. The more often you take a cold shower, the more fat storage you can burn per cold shower.

The metabolism-boosting effects of cold exposure persist afterwards because of sympathetic nervous system activation and the release of endorphins and noradrenaline.

Do it regularly (like exercise).

Benefits of cold exposure

The above findings tell us that cold exposure has the following benefits:

1. Better ability to respond to stress
2. Decreased recovery time for muscles and joints
3. Prevents blood pooling from strenuous exercise
4. Better elimination of the by-products of muscle recovery
5. Anti-inflammatory: Reduce pain and swelling
6. Increased ability to turn fat into energy
7. Increased energy production
8. Better mood and a sense of euphoria
9. Protection against depression

Cold is good for you.

It seems like we have been too successful at making ourselves comfortable. Doing things that make you uncomfortable from time to time will help your body to stay strong and fit. It is okay to feel cold from time to time.

Remember to never push your body further than it can handle. You can want to strengthen your body - not break it down.

I stop my cold therapy as soon as I start to shiver. Your body will get stronger and be able to endure more cold before it shivers as you go on. Stay Strong!

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Shoulder Joint Pain From Weight Training (and What To Do About It)

SA Spotters looks at the causes of joint pain and how to solve it.

When I first experienced shoulder joint pain, I decided to ease off the exercises that aggravated the pain and allow my shoulders to recover before it became worse. The problem is that SO MANY exercises include the shoulders. I stopped my back, chest, bicep, triceps and shoulder exercises, meaning that almost my entire routine was affected and I basically stopped all upper body training. That was a huge setback. Shoulder joint pain can lead to serious injury if left unchecked and can significantly decrease your performance.

Here are a list of reasons why you might be experiencing shoulder joint pain and what you can do about it:

1) Bad Form

Make sure that your form is right for every exercise that you do. Pull ups, bench presses, dips, bicep curls and dead lifts (among others) are all exercises that could lead to shoulder pain and injury if performed with incorrect form.

2) Overuse

The shoulder joint is one of the most susceptible joints to damage from overuse. Using the shoulder too much can damage the joint and continuing with overuse when the shoulder is already in pain can cause permanent damage that might require surgery to correct.

The cure: Use it less

This sounds simple because it is. Decrease the amount of strain the shoulder takes when it feels sore and give it time to recover and adapt before resuming your usual exercise regime. For example, when my shoulder starts to hurt one of the first things I do is decrease the intensity of my shoulder workout. Remember, your shoulders are used during your chest, back, bicep, triceps AND shoulder days, so they often don't get enough rest.

3) Imbalance

Most people focus on the body parts they can see in the mirror and less on the ones they can't. This means often, that more emphasis is placed on the front of the body like the chest, abs, and biceps with less attention being paid to the areas at the back of the body like the lower back and triceps. Therefore, muscular imbalances often occur. Many shoulder injuries occur because people focus more on pushing exercises and less on pulling exercises. This leads the front part of the shoulder to become over developed and the back part of the shoulder to become underdeveloped. This can lead to joint pain in the shoulders. For example, when you do a bench press the front part of your shoulder is involved in moving the bar, but the back part of your shoulder is needed to stabilize the shoulder during the movement. 

The cure: Keep the balance

Make sure that the amount of pulling exercises performed is greater to or equal to the amount of pushing exercises that you do. Pulling exercises like pull ups and rows develop the back part of the shoulder muscles, which will help to support pushing exercises like the bench press. 

4) High Weights, Low Reps

As great as low reps are for muscle growth, they can have a cumulative strain on the muscles. The reason for this is because muscle grows and adapts faster than joints, which adapt faster than bone. For example, your chest, triceps and shoulder muscles might already be adapted to move a bench press of 120 KG, so you increase the weight. However, your joints haven't gotten used to it yet and therefore need to catch up. Bone density increases at a slower rate than joint strength, which is why in extreme cases lifters who increase in muscle mass and performance too quickly cause fractures in the bones as they move on to higher and higher weights without giving their bones a chance to increase in density, which takes more time. 

The cure: Alternate between high and low reps

Your shoulder joint might not be used to the weight that your muscles have already grown accustomed to. Instead of keeping on the same weight and rep count while the joint adapts, which will slow down muscle growth, change to a lower weight, higher rep routine while your shoulder joint adapts to the higher weight. This way, you are still growing muscle while you give your joints a chance to recover, since higher reps can also stimulate muscle growth. Scientists have found that higher reps help joints recover from low-rep, high-intensity workloads.

5) Not Warming Up the Shoulder

By warming up the shoulders before placing them under heavy weight, they are less prone to injury and are more 'ready' for the workload that follows. This is done by many as a 'prehab' instead of a rehab, as it is better used to prevent injury. An example of warming up the shoulder joints would be doing light shoulder work with an extremely light weight (like a 5 kg dumbbell) like lateral and front raises. Do about 20 reps each (no need to count, just do them until you feel a light burn). This increases blood flow to the area and activates the muscle fibers. Another way to warm up the shoulders is to do perform a warm-up set. Do the exact same exercise you would do with only half the weight before doing it properly.

How you can Speed up Shoulder Joint Recovery

1) Go easy on the shoulder for a while

Take as much pressure on it as you can so that it can heal without needing to perform. You can buy a shoulder brace from sports shops or chemists if the joint pain is serious and if it hurts with ordinary movement. Wear this until it is no longer painful to move around normally and then start training it on lower weights until it becomes strong enough to take on heavier loads. Make sure to increase the load you put on it slowly, because an injured joint is much more likely to become injured again and recurring injuries are very hard to correct.

2) Massage, Hot and Cold Treatment

See a physiotherapist in order to speed up recovery. They might also pick up a deeper injury which needs correcting. Cold temperature (ice) will decrease inflammation to the area and hot temperatures will increase blood flow. A common practice is to mix hot and cold therapies (ice, then a hot bath, then ice) to bring blood to and from the area to speed up recovery. This works for muscle recovery as well.

Nutrition for Joint Health

Many supplement companies sell joint supplements that can help protect and aid joint recovery. Other things that can also help are:

1) Fish Oil

Fish oil will lubricate the joints which help speed up recovery and prevent injury. I personally take fish oil (1000 mg) each day especially for joint protection.

2) Gelatin

Gelatin is what makes jelly firm and comes from cow hooves and animal joints. The best source of gelatin is bone broth. By increasing your gelatin intake, you give your body the component it needs to rebuild joints, ligaments, nails, hair etc. as this is what they are made of. 

Be wise and don't let joint pain turn into a life-long struggle. Stay Strong!

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