YOU and your MUSCLES
There are three types of muscle in the body:
Muscles are made up of thousands of tiny cylindrical cells called muscle fibres. These muscle fibres run parallel to each other and some can be as long as 30 cm. Muscles are connected to the bones by tendons, which consist of dense connective tissue. They are extremely strong yet very pliable. It is the muscle fibres and tendons that we need to stretch to gain the maximum benefits of good flexibility, and decrease the likelihood of injury.
Your Fitness:
Flexibility
Agility
Strength
Balance
Co-ordination
Power
Speed
Skill
Endurance
Researchers untangle the multifarious nature of muscle aging. So far, the only reliable treatment is exercise.
Sep 1, 2018
GILLIAN BUTLER-BROWNE, VINCENT MOULY, ANNE BIGOT, CAPUCINE TROLLET
7K48572 ABOVE: © ISTOCK, CHRISCHRISW
"To your readers over age 30, we’ve got some bad news for you. Chances are good you’ve already begun losing muscle. And it only gets worse. Up to a quarter of adults over the age of 60 and half of those over 80 have thinner arms and legs than they did in their youth."
--------------------
Muscle is a highly organized tissue with a crystal-like arrangement of its filaments. The standard model of muscle contraction focuses mainly on the sliding of myosin motors along actin filaments, while other muscle proteins play scaffolding or regulatory roles. But more recently, physiologists have suggested adding the giant elastic protein titin to the model of the muscle sarcomere, the basic contractile unit of muscle tissues. Despite its being the longest continuous polypeptide in the human body, some medical textbooks still do not include titin in their description of the sarcomere.
Titin was discovered four decades ago, but some physiology textbooks fail to recognize the important role it plays in muscle contraction.
Sep 1, 2018
JULIO M. FERNÁNDEZ
https://www.the-scientist.com/critic-at-large/opinion--stop-ignoring-this-filament-crucial-to-muscle-function-64689
--------------------- You have been losing muscle and gaining fat every day since you were in your twenties. When you don't build muscle, you lose muscle. Strength-training exercises, using free weights, weight machines, elastic bands or the resistance of your own body weight is the only way to stop your muscles from wasting away. Strength training also increases bone density in postmenopausal women and prevents bone fractures in women with osteoporosis. This is important because the poor balance, poor gait and low strength associated with Parkinson's can lead to falls. Aerobic exercise has little or no resistance and significantly increases your heart rate, but doesn't prevent the loss of muscle mass.
What is Muscle Strain?
Muscle strain is another term for a pulled muscle. Some experts recommend gentle stretching for muscles that are recovering from a strain.Muscle strains are painful injuries that can disrupt your usual routine. The pain and swelling from a strained muscle are uncomfortable. They also mean you can’t participate in your usual exercise regimens or engage in physical labor.
Most muscle strains will get better with proper care. It’s important to give the injury time to rest, then slowly resume normal activity. Stretching can be the first step in getting your muscles back to work after a strain.
Muscle strain is another term for a pulled muscle. They are one of the most common sports injuries, affecting anyone from recreational athletes to professional football players. Anybody can strain a muscle, but factors like age, a history of previous muscle injuries, lack of flexibility, and improper athletic form can put you at higher risk.
You get a muscle strain when you do something that causes tears in the muscle or the tendon that connects the muscle to your bones. You can strain any muscle in your body. These injuries are most common at the spots where tendons and muscles connect, such as hamstrings, lower back, shoulders, and neck.
Common causes of muscle strains include:
Muscle strain symptoms
If you strain a muscle, you might feel an immediate sharp pain as it’s happening. The spot where the muscle fiber is torn will likely continue to hurt, and you may have difficulty moving the injured body part. You might have pain even when you have the injured muscle at rest.
Treatment for muscle strains
Most muscle strains are not severe, and you can treat the symptoms at home. Many experts recommend icing the injury as soon as possible to reduce swelling in the area. Wrap ice or an ice pack in a towel and hold it to the injury for up to 20 minutes at a time. Do not place ice directly on your skin.
For the next three days, you can follow the "RICE" injury protocol:
- - 0 - - 0 - - - - - 0 09 - 0 99 - - -- = = = 0 = = =- --
Stretch your muscles:-
http://www.uptodate.com/contents/image?imageKey=PI/74870&topicKey=PI%2F1989&source=outline_link&utdPopup=true
A recent study of 16 people with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease found that, regardless of the presence of gait or respiratory problems, their capacity to exercise was comparable to the healthy control group. Normally, the level of physical activity for people with Parkinson's decreases more rapidly over time than normal individuals of the same age. If your Parkinson's disease is not in the advanced stage, start exercising now before muscle tightness and rigidity ultimately cause postural changes or make it impossible to move.
Poor flexibility creates many problems and can be so damaging. The best way to improve flexibility is to S t r e t c h.
Tight, stiff muscles limit our normal range of movement. In some cases, lack of flexibility can be a contributing factor to back and neck pain, while a simple stretching routine could help prevent this. In the extreme, lack of flexibility can mean it is difficult to even bend down or look over our shoulder.
Tight, stiff muscles interfere with proper muscle action. If the muscles cannot contract and relax efficiently, decreased performance and a lack of muscle movement control will result. Short, tight muscles also cause a dramatic loss of strength and power during physical activity.
In some cases, tight, stiff muscles can have an effect on blood circulation – needed for adequate amounts of oxygen and nutrients. This can result in increased muscle fatigue and ultimately, the ability to recover from a fall and the muscles’ repair process is impeded.
Muscle cramps facts: https://www.medicinenet.com/muscle_cramps/article.htm#what_are_muscle_cramps
MUSCLES and Exercise – The Benefits of Stretching
Exercise is a disciplined form of physical activity designed to place stress on the body. When the body recovers from that stress it is better prepared and more capable of performing that particular physical activity in the future.
A regular stretching program causes a number of changes to occur in the body:
1. By placing particular parts of the body in certain positions, we can increase the length of muscles and tendons. Thus achieving a reduction in general muscle tension and our normal range of movement is increased.
2. The benefits of an extended range of movement includes: increased comfort; a greater ability to move freely, and a lessening or our susceptibility to falls and injury.
3. During exercise many demands are made on the working muscles. One of the first things to occur to muscles when they are stressed beyond a comfortable, or sub maximal level, is that the individual muscle fibres become inflamed.
4. Due to the increased need for oxygen and nutrients the heart pumps large amounts of blood to the working muscles which causes them to swell. In the extreme, this puts pressure on the nerve endings and may result in pain.
5. When the stress of exercise on the working muscles is excessive a lot of damage can occur to the individual muscle fibres. This damage includes minute tears within the individual muscle fibres, called micro tears, and combined with swelling, can result in pain, a decrease in muscular performance and the possibility of serious injury.
During exercise the heart continually pumps blood to the working muscles. When the oxygen and nutrients in the blood have been used, the working muscles push the blood back to the heart. When the exercising muscles stop, so does the force that pushes the blood back to the heart, this results in blood pooling. This is when large amounts of blood accumulate in the muscles and results in a lot of pain due to the increased pressure placed on nerve endings.
6. Muscles also produce waste products such as lactic acid during strenuous exercise. Restricted blood flow prevents the drainage of these waste products from the muscles which can lead to pain and damage.
However, exercise is beneficial.
Correct exercise will improve the body but taken to extremes the results are unfavourable and instead of reaping the rewards of physical activity, the result will be sore, stiff muscles.
Stretching helps to alleviate muscular soreness by lengthening your muscle fibres, increasing blood circulation and removing waste products.
SO, S T R E T C H ... SO, S T R E T C H ... SO, S T R E T C H ... SO, S T R E T C H ...
Fatigue results in a decrease in both physical and mental performance. Increased flexibility through stretching can help prevent the effects of fatigue by taking pressure off the working muscles.
ü For every muscle in the body there is an opposite or opposing muscle.
ü If the opposing muscles are more flexible, the working muscles do not have to exert as much force against the opposing muscles.
ü So each movement of the working muscles actually takes Less Effort!
and now to relax with The Alexander Technique!
There are three types of muscle in the body:
- Skeletal (voluntary muscles that move the body, arms and legs)
- Smooth (involuntary, found within the walls of internal organs, like stomach, intestine, bladder and blood vessels)
- Cardiac (the muscle of the heart)
Muscles are made up of thousands of tiny cylindrical cells called muscle fibres. These muscle fibres run parallel to each other and some can be as long as 30 cm. Muscles are connected to the bones by tendons, which consist of dense connective tissue. They are extremely strong yet very pliable. It is the muscle fibres and tendons that we need to stretch to gain the maximum benefits of good flexibility, and decrease the likelihood of injury.
Your Fitness:
Flexibility
Agility
Strength
Balance
Co-ordination
Power
Speed
Skill
Endurance
Researchers untangle the multifarious nature of muscle aging. So far, the only reliable treatment is exercise.
Sep 1, 2018
GILLIAN BUTLER-BROWNE, VINCENT MOULY, ANNE BIGOT, CAPUCINE TROLLET
7K48572 ABOVE: © ISTOCK, CHRISCHRISW
"To your readers over age 30, we’ve got some bad news for you. Chances are good you’ve already begun losing muscle. And it only gets worse. Up to a quarter of adults over the age of 60 and half of those over 80 have thinner arms and legs than they did in their youth."
--------------------
Muscle is a highly organized tissue with a crystal-like arrangement of its filaments. The standard model of muscle contraction focuses mainly on the sliding of myosin motors along actin filaments, while other muscle proteins play scaffolding or regulatory roles. But more recently, physiologists have suggested adding the giant elastic protein titin to the model of the muscle sarcomere, the basic contractile unit of muscle tissues. Despite its being the longest continuous polypeptide in the human body, some medical textbooks still do not include titin in their description of the sarcomere.
Titin was discovered four decades ago, but some physiology textbooks fail to recognize the important role it plays in muscle contraction.
Sep 1, 2018
JULIO M. FERNÁNDEZ
https://www.the-scientist.com/critic-at-large/opinion--stop-ignoring-this-filament-crucial-to-muscle-function-64689
--------------------- You have been losing muscle and gaining fat every day since you were in your twenties. When you don't build muscle, you lose muscle. Strength-training exercises, using free weights, weight machines, elastic bands or the resistance of your own body weight is the only way to stop your muscles from wasting away. Strength training also increases bone density in postmenopausal women and prevents bone fractures in women with osteoporosis. This is important because the poor balance, poor gait and low strength associated with Parkinson's can lead to falls. Aerobic exercise has little or no resistance and significantly increases your heart rate, but doesn't prevent the loss of muscle mass.
What is Muscle Strain?
Muscle strain is another term for a pulled muscle. Some experts recommend gentle stretching for muscles that are recovering from a strain.Muscle strains are painful injuries that can disrupt your usual routine. The pain and swelling from a strained muscle are uncomfortable. They also mean you can’t participate in your usual exercise regimens or engage in physical labor.
Most muscle strains will get better with proper care. It’s important to give the injury time to rest, then slowly resume normal activity. Stretching can be the first step in getting your muscles back to work after a strain.
Muscle strain is another term for a pulled muscle. They are one of the most common sports injuries, affecting anyone from recreational athletes to professional football players. Anybody can strain a muscle, but factors like age, a history of previous muscle injuries, lack of flexibility, and improper athletic form can put you at higher risk.
You get a muscle strain when you do something that causes tears in the muscle or the tendon that connects the muscle to your bones. You can strain any muscle in your body. These injuries are most common at the spots where tendons and muscles connect, such as hamstrings, lower back, shoulders, and neck.
Common causes of muscle strains include:
- Injuries from sports
- Pushing, pulling, or lifting a heavy object
- Exercise injuries or overusing muscles during exercise
- Falling
Muscle strain symptoms
If you strain a muscle, you might feel an immediate sharp pain as it’s happening. The spot where the muscle fiber is torn will likely continue to hurt, and you may have difficulty moving the injured body part. You might have pain even when you have the injured muscle at rest.
Treatment for muscle strains
Most muscle strains are not severe, and you can treat the symptoms at home. Many experts recommend icing the injury as soon as possible to reduce swelling in the area. Wrap ice or an ice pack in a towel and hold it to the injury for up to 20 minutes at a time. Do not place ice directly on your skin.
For the next three days, you can follow the "RICE" injury protocol:
- Rest: avoid using the muscle as much as possible
- Ice: apply ice for 20 minutes every hour
- Compression: use an elastic bandage to wrap the injured muscle
- Elevation: If possible, keep the strained muscle above the level of your heart to prevent more swelling
- - 0 - - 0 - - - - - 0 09 - 0 99 - - -- = = = 0 = = =- --
Stretch your muscles:-
http://www.uptodate.com/contents/image?imageKey=PI/74870&topicKey=PI%2F1989&source=outline_link&utdPopup=true
A recent study of 16 people with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease found that, regardless of the presence of gait or respiratory problems, their capacity to exercise was comparable to the healthy control group. Normally, the level of physical activity for people with Parkinson's decreases more rapidly over time than normal individuals of the same age. If your Parkinson's disease is not in the advanced stage, start exercising now before muscle tightness and rigidity ultimately cause postural changes or make it impossible to move.
Poor flexibility creates many problems and can be so damaging. The best way to improve flexibility is to S t r e t c h.
Tight, stiff muscles limit our normal range of movement. In some cases, lack of flexibility can be a contributing factor to back and neck pain, while a simple stretching routine could help prevent this. In the extreme, lack of flexibility can mean it is difficult to even bend down or look over our shoulder.
Tight, stiff muscles interfere with proper muscle action. If the muscles cannot contract and relax efficiently, decreased performance and a lack of muscle movement control will result. Short, tight muscles also cause a dramatic loss of strength and power during physical activity.
In some cases, tight, stiff muscles can have an effect on blood circulation – needed for adequate amounts of oxygen and nutrients. This can result in increased muscle fatigue and ultimately, the ability to recover from a fall and the muscles’ repair process is impeded.
Muscle cramps facts: https://www.medicinenet.com/muscle_cramps/article.htm#what_are_muscle_cramps
MUSCLES and Exercise – The Benefits of Stretching
Exercise is a disciplined form of physical activity designed to place stress on the body. When the body recovers from that stress it is better prepared and more capable of performing that particular physical activity in the future.
A regular stretching program causes a number of changes to occur in the body:
1. By placing particular parts of the body in certain positions, we can increase the length of muscles and tendons. Thus achieving a reduction in general muscle tension and our normal range of movement is increased.
2. The benefits of an extended range of movement includes: increased comfort; a greater ability to move freely, and a lessening or our susceptibility to falls and injury.
3. During exercise many demands are made on the working muscles. One of the first things to occur to muscles when they are stressed beyond a comfortable, or sub maximal level, is that the individual muscle fibres become inflamed.
4. Due to the increased need for oxygen and nutrients the heart pumps large amounts of blood to the working muscles which causes them to swell. In the extreme, this puts pressure on the nerve endings and may result in pain.
5. When the stress of exercise on the working muscles is excessive a lot of damage can occur to the individual muscle fibres. This damage includes minute tears within the individual muscle fibres, called micro tears, and combined with swelling, can result in pain, a decrease in muscular performance and the possibility of serious injury.
During exercise the heart continually pumps blood to the working muscles. When the oxygen and nutrients in the blood have been used, the working muscles push the blood back to the heart. When the exercising muscles stop, so does the force that pushes the blood back to the heart, this results in blood pooling. This is when large amounts of blood accumulate in the muscles and results in a lot of pain due to the increased pressure placed on nerve endings.
6. Muscles also produce waste products such as lactic acid during strenuous exercise. Restricted blood flow prevents the drainage of these waste products from the muscles which can lead to pain and damage.
However, exercise is beneficial.
Correct exercise will improve the body but taken to extremes the results are unfavourable and instead of reaping the rewards of physical activity, the result will be sore, stiff muscles.
Stretching helps to alleviate muscular soreness by lengthening your muscle fibres, increasing blood circulation and removing waste products.
SO, S T R E T C H ... SO, S T R E T C H ... SO, S T R E T C H ... SO, S T R E T C H ...
Fatigue results in a decrease in both physical and mental performance. Increased flexibility through stretching can help prevent the effects of fatigue by taking pressure off the working muscles.
ü For every muscle in the body there is an opposite or opposing muscle.
ü If the opposing muscles are more flexible, the working muscles do not have to exert as much force against the opposing muscles.
ü So each movement of the working muscles actually takes Less Effort!
and now to relax with The Alexander Technique!