Part 2c: Helpful recovery techniques

It's almost guaranteed that the muscle damage inflicted while training will give rise to a decreased range of motion, increased muscle soreness, stiffness and swelling, as well as decreased muscle force production. In order to accelerate muscle recovery, there are several recommended techniques:

1) Light Exercise During Recovery - Research has shown that performing a few sets of light exercise with the sore and damaged muscles may decrease muscle soreness and increase recovery. Both studies used approximately 50 easily performed sub maximal contractions in order to promote this effect.

2) Massage - Research has suggested that muscle soreness can be improved with regular massage therapy, however this technique does not appear to increase blood flow or force recovery.

3) Underwater Warm Jet Massage - One study showed that 20 minutes of underwater jet massage therapy, three times per week might help maintain performance capacity during intense training.

4) Muscle Compression - In a recent study, a few days of continual compression of damaged muscle tissue decreased markers of muscle damage and increased force recovery.

5) Cold Water Immersion - Although few studies have been done with cold water immersion, athletes have reported good results after soaking for 20 minutes

As you can see, there is a good range of techniques - so even if you don't have access to a gym (like me), you're still able to help your self.

In the next part, we'll look at the building blocks of muscle.

Part 2b: Can prolonged recovery time lead to 'detraining'?

This article is related to how long you're allowed to wait after an intense workout, before you start to "detrain".

It's no surprise to anyone that a consistent weigh training program produces gains in muscle strength and muscle size. Initially, the strength changes occur as a result of increased neural efficiency, but long-term increases in strength are a result of increased muscle mass. These gains occur as a result of changes in muscle protein status. Allowing the muscle to fully recover from muscle damage can maximize these adaptations. But how long can you afford to sit still before your muscles start to "detrain"?

Detraining is defined as a prolonged period of reduced exercise volume or muscle inactivity. Interestingly, although frequent and intense exercise is needed to yield gains in muscle strength and size, detraining studies have demonstrated that muscle strength and power can be maintained with intense workouts separated by as much as 10 to 14 days. Other data show that muscle strength actually increases with eight days of low volume exercise recovery and may even increase during two to eight days of complete detraining. In the detraining group, strength was lost only after eight days off.

It is clear that muscle force production improves with adequate recovery. This may be a result of full muscle damage repair as well as energy replenishment. All data indicate that a minimum recovery time of seven days is necessary, but no more than 10 days should separate intense weight-training workouts for a specific body part.

In the next part, I'll go over some helpful recovery techniques to speed up the process enabling you to jump back into the action.

Part 2a: What happens to muscle during and after training?

Today we're going to go through what kind of things are going on - during weight training or general exercise. Conventional weightlifting consists of two distinct phases of movement. The concentric phase is the positive portion of the lift (i.e. the upward push on the bar during a bench press) while the eccentric phase is the negative portion of the lift (i.e. the downward lowering of the bar during a bench press). Each portion of the lift can contribute to the muscle damage seen during weight lifting as follows:

The eccentric portion of the lift is, by definition, a form of forced lengthening of the muscle. Forced lengthening with high weight loads causes microscopic tears in the small fibers that make up the muscle and the connective tissues.

Eccentric contractions tend to involve fewer muscle fibres than other contractions meaning that each individual fibre that is used to perform the action takes a huge beating - causing muscle to become physically damaged.

During the concentric portion of the lift the force is dispersed over more fibers, which tends to require much more metabolic activity. This metabolic activity leads to depletion of muscle energy stores such as ATP and muscle glycogen (carbohydrate). This depletion, while exercising, may lead to greater susceptibility to the damage seen above.

Both the physical damage caused as well as the metabolic depletion can lead to an altered cellular calcium balance during and after exercise. The amount of calcium in the cell actually increases. This excess can activate enzymes that break down cellular proteins including contractile protein. In addition, calcium can build up in the mitochondrion of the cells, thereby decreasing cellular energy production.

Because of this disruption - the body calls for help - as there are now dysfunctional muscle debris that need to be cleaned up. So after excise, fluid begins to build up in the damaged cells in order to bring immune cells, such as neutrophils and macrophages, to the site of injury. While these cells end up clearing away damaged tissue, their activity leads to the build up of free radicals. This is why anti-oxidants are so important. Free radicals may cause further muscle damage, prolonging recovery time.

Whilst this cycle of destruction and healing continues, normal muscle function such as he ability to take up and store carbohydrates, is compromised. The result is a prolonged recovery of muscle energy, further delaying full healing.

Stiffness after training / exercise
During conventional weightlifting, muscle force production (strength) is diminished for at least one to three days after the damage has occurred. This loss of strength, which may take seven to 14 days to recover, is most likely due to several factors including the disruption of muscle calcium balance and energy production, the poor recovery of muscle energy during this period and the decrease in muscle protein content. In addition, this loss of strength can cause you to feel like a 90-pound weakling for several days after exercise.

Muscle swelling, as a result of fluid accumulation and immune cell delivery, occurs almost immediately after exercise. This swelling typically lasts three to four days, but may take as many as seven to subside. It's generally joined by muscle stiffness, decreased range of motion and an inability to comb your hair - if you just trained arms.

Everyone's favorite, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), typically lasts from two to four days after exercise and is mostly gone within five. This soreness may come as a result of both swelling and stiffness, but some scientists now think that biochemical changes in the muscle may increase nerve sensitivity, leading to muscle pain.

Importance of recovery time
In weight training and exercise, recovery time you may now realise is JUST as important as the actual exercise it self. Without giving your body a chance to recover, you are not giving your muscles a chance to grow stronger.

After seven to 14 days, the muscle damage stops, the immune system does it's job, muscle energy is replenished, and the muscle fibers are built back up bigger and stronger than before. The only way to improve muscle size and muscle strength is to ow adequate recovery time between workouts for the same muscle groups.

Without adequate recovery of calcium balance, muscle energy, and muscle protein content, your muscle force will be lower with each subsequent workout. In a nutshell, you'll going to grow progressively weaker. So much for getting stronger. In addition, unless you wait until full structural recovery occurs, you will simply be destroying the new muscle tissue being formed to replace the damaged tissue. And this is no way to get bigger.

How long should I wait between workouts?
So how long should you wait between workouts? Tt appears that when doing intense weightlifting, a seven-day recovery period would be a good starting point. However, individuals may vary. Of course, certain recovery techniques may speed up healing.

Signs when you are ready to begin training again...

• muscle soreness is completely gone.
• full range of motion has returned.
• muscle strength is better than it was during the previous workout.
• muscle swelling has gone down. (You'll have to measure your relaxed muscle circumference before training to know when it has returned to normal.)

In Part 2b, I will look at whether prolonged recovery time - or not doing any exercise / weigh training for a while at all will lead to "detraining" e.g. losing muscle mass or strength.

Part 1: What is muscle?

Hello there... I think before diving into anything, it's best to have a bit of background information as to what you're actually doing. Understanding how something works gives you a better idea of what you need to do to achieve a desired effect... And I don't tjust think that applies to this category, but more like almost everywhere... So - before you go workin out them muscles, I think it's best to know what one is. You may also understand why certain things take time, and why certain things happen too! I'm going to try and make this not a daily installment but not too far spread apart. Now, onto the science.

So... what is muscle?
Put simply, a muscle is tissue that is a composite of fibres capable of contracting to cause movement of, and within the body. In general, the bodies muscle comes in three various forms: striated, smooth and cardiac - however we will concentrate on striated muscle. More on this down below.

Below is a fantastic diagram of all the different muscles of the body. It's a bit more complicated than the kind of angle I'm coming from - but it's a powerful resource. Well worth a print out and a stick on your wall (appologies to ladies, I couldn't find one - but the muscles are still the same! :).

Figure 1: A diagram showing all muscles of the body

For a lot of people that have never looked into weight training before, there are probably a lot more muscles than they first imagined. From head (or neck as it were) to toe, there are a HUGE range of muscles to play with. We'll see in a later blog what I think a good group of muscles would be to work out that wouldn't be too taxing, for an improved physique (oh how we adore the V shape). But back to today.

Skeletol (striated) muscles are attatched to the skeleton via tendons - usually in pairs that pull in opposite directions e.g. biceps (flexor) and triceps (extensor) that move the forearm at the elbow. Striated muscle (muscle which we and animals have conscious control over) - is composed of numerous cylindrically shaped bundles of cells, each enclosed in a sheath called the sarcolemma. Each muscle fiber contains several hundred to several thousand tightly packed strands called myofibrils that consist of alternating filaments of the protein substances actin and myosin. Now you know why protein is so good for muscle!

For the keener person, some more detailed information on the muscle...
The energy required for muscle contraction comes from the breakdown of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a substance that is present in the cells and is formed during cellular respiration. A muscle fiber is stimulated to contract by electrical impulses from the nervous system. The point of contact between nerve and muscle is the neuromuscular junction, where the chemical substance acetylcholine is secreted, initiating the changes that cause the muscle to contract.

The tensed up feeling you get after a workout...
During resting states, some of the fibers in the musculature are maintained in a state of partial contraction, known as muscle tone. This permits muscles to contract quickly when stimulated without having to overcome the inertia of total relaxation.

In the next part, we'll look at what actually happens during the training of muscles, and what causes the feeling the following days after a hard work-out (and isn't it a great feeling?). Until then - train hard, and train safe!

My Blog on Weight Training and Fitness: Introduction

Apologies for the late initial post, it's been a very lazy day for me. This blog is where I'm going to talk about the physical aspect of life e.g. keeping fit, and as a hobby... weight training. I'm pretty into the whole thing as I like to look and feel good. I tend (most of the time), to watch what I eat and also weight train. I'm hoping to provide my insight on some truly good tips without ram-raiding the reader with lots of jargon and "get a carved 6pack in 2 weeks" type jibber-jabber.

After trying numerous things I feel like sharing these with other people, who could also perhaps extend on this. I noticed when researching the best way to weight train - there was an overwhelming amount of information, and on top of that people providing different suggestions as to what they think works best. The truth is that every person, so what works for one person may not work for another.

One of the biggest problems when someone decides to lose weight, or gain muscle - is not knowing where to start and if they do, then what exactly to do. The big question is do they start by losing weight, or trying to put on the muscle first? Then there are all sorts of other questions that result of either decision. What weights to start with? Methods of burning calories? How often to do these things? etc etc, the list can go on forever. I think the key to getting results from wanting to put on muscle or generally get fit is to plan and understand what it is your taking on, thus what you have to do to achieve this. As both of these things take motivation, persistence and time, working blindly does not work. The chances are trying this way will end up in getting bored after a few weeks and giving up.

My aim is to slowly try and break down the field, providing you with information for what has worked for me, and to give an insight in general. Fitness and weight training are much bigger than people think. However they tend to discover this before they begin, meaning they drop out once they realise what is needed of them, to achieve results. Weight training is more than going to the gym, curling a dumbbell 200 times, eating lots of protein shakes etc. And becoming fit and healthy is more than going on a round the block run for 2 weeks, and starting a fad diet for 4 weeks, and expecting to look slim. There is a lot more involved.

I hope readers will return, possibly even help me out too! Now you know what the blog is about, tune in tomorrow for a deeper insight :)