Sleep to Improve Performance

Sleep should be one of the easiest, most natural responses to stress or dysfunction in the body, but a lot of people seem to be really bad at it. Many times it's the first thing to get neglected when we have a big project or important event coming up, to give ourselves more prep time. Sadly, high quality sleep is the thing we need most of all when it's time to lean into the hard work. 

According to an article published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care in 2016, “Chronic insomnia was seen in 33% of the adult population sampled." It's such a high priority issue, that they recommend “...all patients, especially middle-aged and diabetics, should be screened for insomnia by the primary care physician…”

If you fall into the one third of people with chronic sleep disruptions, how bad is it really? It can actually create challenges in many areas of your daily life. The National Sleep Foundation lists several things to watch out for: Fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, impulsive or aggressive behavior, and relationship difficulties. None of those traits sound like optimal performance to me. Physical or mental performance will certainly be impaired by lack of sleep.

If you are training to optimize athletic performance, quality sleep should be an even higher priority for you. Key body building and repair hormones Testosterone and Human Growth Hormone are only produced during deep sleep stages. Ladies, don't check out on me here, because you have T and HGH in your systems too, doing mostly the same jobs, just in different amounts. Testosterone can only be used by the body to repair itself during sleep. It cannot be stored in the body for use during the day, instead it breaks down into Estrogen, which is stored in fat, typically abdominal fat.

Dr. Shafiq Qaadri says in his excellent book, The Testosterone Factor, “Sleep is when you strengthen your bones, muscles, memories, blood, sperm and new learning. It’s when your onboard diagnostics and your immune system self-heal and detoxify. It’s when you repair both physical and psychological wounds. It’s when you grow both physically and psychologically.” He goes on to explain that “Testosterone leads, triggers, oils, oversees, contributes to, mediates or is involved in all of these restorative processes. The better you sleep, the more testosterone shines.  As this hormone level rises, it also promotes other brain chemicals important for quality sleep including, melatonin, serotonin, and human growth hormone.”

Definitely keep working out, because exercise, especially resistance training and high intensity interval training, pushes your body to produce more Testosterone naturally while you sleep. Just keep in mind, that if you don't get plenty of quality sleep after all the hard work in the gym, the results will never happen.

Thankfully, The Mayo Clinic has some suggestions on how to get better sleep. First of all, you need to keep a consistent sleep schedule. Start your bedtime routine at the same time every night and go to bed at the same time every night. Likewise, if your schedule does not allow for enough sleep at one stretch during the night, keep your daytime naps consistent as well. Another obvious tip is to limit your caffeine intake and even wean yourself off of caffeinated beverages entirely (we're looking at you, Coffee), if you're struggling with severe sleep disruptions.

Another key bit of advice from The Mayo Clinic is to be proactive about pain management. Since I'm a Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist, as well as a Certified Reflexologist, I'm obviously going to suggest that you start by managing your sleep disrupting pain by making an appointment with a well trained, properly licensed holistic practitioner, before seeking out pharmaceutical interventions. Sleep aids are notoriously habit forming and Opioid type pain relievers come with a host of side effects, including being extremely addictive. Here are some staggering stats from the CDC about the Opioid Epidemic.

Let's talk about Reflexology as an alternative for pain management and for encouraging sleep. There have been several studies over the past five years, published in reputable peer reviewed journals, that suggest that Foot Reflexology is highly beneficial for those needs. For example, The Journal of Clinical Oncology stated that "...plantar reflexology improved significantly the quality of Sleep" in breast cancer patients. According to the International Journal of Nursing Education and Research, "After receiving foot reflexology therapy, the subjects showed significant pain relief and improved sleep.” Even in a meta-analysis of 44 individual studies, the Korean Academy of Nursing concluded that "... Foot Reflexology is a useful nursing intervention to relieve Fatigue and to promote Sleep."

To find a knowledgeable, certified Reflexologist in your area, you can search on the Reflexology Association of America's site or check out the American Reflexology Certification Board to find one of my Nationally Board Certified colleagues. There are also state level Reflexology associations, like here in North Carolina where I’m a member.

As you can see, sleep is a priceless tool in maintaining your health. Since it can benefit you in so many areas, start taking advantage of it tonight to improve your performance in whatever you’re working on- physical or mental- so you can crush your goals and feel amazing!

The last thing I want to share with you is a Leonardo daVinci quote, "A well-spent day brings happy sleep."

Stress Threshold, Stress Awareness, and Migraines

Here are some thoughts about how we deal with stress daily, hourly, and even down to the second. Every little thing adds up so you have to be mindful of your personal "Stress Threshold" and what triggers set you off, so you can prevent critical events like Migraines or Painful Flare-ups elsewhere in the body. 

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How Much Do You Squat, Bruh?

I'm not really asking how much weight you can stack on a bar for a set of Squats at the gym. The real question is, "How often do you Squat?" 

A Deep Resting Squat is one of the most natural positions for humans to spend time in, but unfortunately, most of us don't spend much time squatting at all, after we hit school age. If you watch toddlers exploring and playing in their environment, they will frequently squat down to look at something more closely and/or grab it to examine it physically. Soon, however, we start introducing the modern chair and table, which disconnects the lower body from the upper body. We don't need any flexibility or movement from the bottom half to bring things closer to our face and hands for learning. 

In "Developed" or "Western" countries, a typical young student will spend 8 hours a day sitting in a desk like these and maybe another 2-5 hours a day sitting in a cafeteria chair, a bus or car seat, and then some kind of chair at home doing homework. A physical education class or recess period will most likely be less than 1 hour. That's quite an imbalance, in my opinion, which sets up our bodies for failure later. In Traditional Thai Massage there's a philosophy that "Aging begins in the legs."Immobility and frailty of the hip joints are notoriously bad signs for elderly people. It's a shame that we set up those habits culturally, decades earlier. 

I just did some manual therapy on a patient who is an IT professional.  He is working through some lingering low back pain after a car accident, and shared that his coworker was suffering from sciatica. He asked if I knew any stretches for those issues. I told him to squat. Just get in a deep squat and sit for 20-30 seconds. It will feel very foreign at first, but you can slowly build up to longer. Just moving through that full range of motion a few times throughout the day will do wonders for back and hip flexibility.

A deep, comfortable, heels to the ground, body weight squat is invaluable for ankle mobility, plantar fasciitis relief, blood flow, lumbar discs, sciatic pain, and more. Even if you need to cheat by leaning your back into a wall as your tissues get accustomed to this infrequent positioning, give it a try every day for a week and see if you've improved in any way. 

Think about the squatting in terms of growth vs. gains. Sure it's easy to get some quick gains doing consistent sets of squats at the gym. You can rack up more and more weights and lift it easier and easier as you strengthen your ankles, legs, hips and low back over time. You can see and feel a difference. It's trackable in your workout log. That's all gains, but I'm talking about growth. Growth is when your brain figures out the balance of your body in 3 dimensional space, in every tiny, nuanced vector of force and resistance throughout the entire range of motion of the squatting exercise. Even better if you're dealing with uneven terrain during some of your squatting motions, as opposed to a perfectly flat even gym floor. Your brain has to be engaged during the exercise in addition to the gross muscles. Best case scenario, both your brain and muscles work in concert, to produce strong, stable, balanced, consistent, adaptable movement. The more holistic concept of growth is superior, in my opinion, to simple gains in numbers of pounds added to the bar. 


Here is a video that examines squatting vs. chairs and how it affects other movements throughout the body:

Healthy Stress Management vs. Training to Failure

Stress is ever present, so you can't shelter yourself forever. Since you can't eliminate stress, you have to learn to deal with it in an efficient way. Stress shapes who we are and how we interact with the world. All change is basically a form of stress and it's probably the most common source of stress in our modern, fast paced world. That means we have to deal with change to be able to manage stress efficiently.

Like many people, I have a hobby of running that relieves stress. I've been thinking about therapeutic properties of regular, aerobic exercise, but I also want to approach this as if I am building up my health, NOT breaking it down, recovering, and overworking again- cycling through pain and exercise with a "No Pain, No Gain" attitude. That's what I see in many of my clients who do marathons and triathlons, unless they have already taken several years to build up to that elite status.

That being said, we must start slow and steady- a little bit every day. Let's go for a short, peaceful run to build up some oxygen and pump the heart, instead of training to exhaustion. 

Here's a great video about how important it is to use your Brain to understand how Stress is affecting your Body- to have a healthy perspective about it.

How Much Water Should I Drink after a Massage?

The other day I got to speak with a particularly inquisitive massage therapy client, who likes to get each different therapist's unique perspective on his situation, by asking thoughtful questions throughout the massage. I like his questions, because I feel that he takes advantage of my hands and my brain.

When leaving this last time, he asked me, "How much water should I drink after a massage?" I have several stock answers, because it's a common question, but my most common answer is "The most important thing is to stay well hydrated all the time. One half your body weight in ounces- for example, if you weigh 100 pounds, drink 50 ounces of water daily, to maintain normal hydration. Then, drink a bit more, like you've had a good workout, to minimize soreness from the massage."

Hydration is very subjective, however. My inquisitive client got me thinking. Staying hydrated all the time is the key. It's just like sleeping habits. If I only sleep 4-5 hours a night with loud ambient noise and bright lights, most nights, then sleeping 12 hours on the weekend days isn't going to help much. I get clients who come in with a gallon jug of water and start chugging as soon as they stand up from the table. If they are primarily drinking energy drinks, diet soda and coffee most days, and only have a little bit of water daily, that gallon after the massage is an extreme change!

The body doesn't handle extreme changes well. Your body prefers consistent, well balanced habits. The gallon chugger probably isn't going to hurt himself, if he is already well hydrated from consistent intake of clean water as a daily practice. So, like getting a good night's sleep regularly, staying hydrated consistently will keep the body functioning optimally before, during, and after the massage.

Check out this Water Intake Calculator with several unit conversions.

*Notice I didn't say anything about "Toxins." Neither massage nor reflexology are flushing out Toxins into your bloodstream. That's been debunked as the science has advanced. Here's a good article about that from Massage Magazine. 

What's the Difference Between Sports Massage and Deep Tissue Massage?

Yesterday I had a couples massage on a regular client. Afterward, when washing up, the other therapist said that I had done one of the best "Sports Massages" she had ever seen. That compliment was funny to me, because I was doing much more rehab/injury type work than sports work. The client had been working with a Chiropractor daily for a week to resolve some severe lumbar pain and spasm. I was thinking way more about that challenge, than preparing him to get back to training for the half marathon he has coming up. His sedentary desk job was exacerbating the issue just as much as running would have.

I mention this, because I feel like there's a lot of confusion about "Sports Massage" and what that label means. To me, it is applying Myofascial Release, Neuromuscular Therapy, Structural/Postural Alignment, Stretching and/or Flushing Swedish techniques to a specific soft tissue imbalance, in a person who is doing something athletic. I can use this very same definition for "Deep Tissue Massage" except that the client may not be using his body for specifically sports or athletic training. Sitting at a computer several hours a day isn't "Athletic," but it is using the body repetitively. Which is the unifying theme- Repetition.

There's not a list of secret "Sports" techniques that only apply to athletes. I'm going to do whatever kind of massage the client needs for the specific problem area that day. Problem areas usually come from some kind of repetition mixed with imbalance. When the body is not used to doing a movement and is then forced to repeat the movement, you create strain. After strain comes compensation,  creating more imbalance. I'm going to look at any client who comes to me from that perspective; to unravel the compensation, imbalance and overuse to restore the optimal movement in the body. If you want to call that "Sports Massage," I'm happy to take the compliment. If you want to call that "Deep Tissue Massage," we are starting to speak the same language.

Stress Pandemic by Paul Huljich Book Review

The latest book in my recommended reading list is Paul Huljich's Stress Pandemic: 9 Natural steps to Survive, Master Stress, and Live Well. It is a good overview, greatest-hits-of-health kind of book that is probably going to cover a lot of things you already know, but it's worth the refresher.

http://www.stresspandemic.com/

Spoiler Alert! None of the "9 Natural Steps" in this "Lifestyle Solution" is Massage Therapy. That being said, there is plenty of good stress management info here. What are the 9 steps?

1. Take Charge
2. Kick Your Bad Habits
3. Learn to Say No
4. Affirmations
5. Exercise
6. Nutrition
7. Sleep
8. The Power of Awareness
9. Don't Give Up

How do I apply these 9 steps to my life?

1. I take charge by researching methods to improve myself by reading books (like this one), watching documentaries (usually about health and nutrition), blogging about how I apply the stuff I learn (like I'm doing now), and I make a clear plan of attack utilizing moderate, attainable goals.

2. Everyone has bad habits. Mine include but are not limited to: staying up late, Chinese buffets, and being a workaholic. Some have easy solutions, like going to bed earlier and avoiding Chinese buffets. The workaholism, however, takes some more planning to better prioritize my time. The trick is to be aware of the bad habits and make positive strides in the right direction, once you recognize your less desirable trends.

3. Saying "No" is hard for me, see the aforementioned workaholism, because I usually have a multitude of good options of things to do with my time and energy. I'm always struggling to say no to stuff I actually want to do. Also, because I am constantly cranking the gears in my introverted head, I have many ideas and projects in development, which are hard to put aside. Prioritizing is big on this one too.

4. I have to admit, I have a huge ego. I rarely need affirmations, from myself or others, to boost my mood or self esteem. I don't spend much time looking in the mirror talking myself up, but I don't want to discount that as a good practice for many people for stress reduction, to gain perspective about their self image.

5. Personally, my favorite exercise is bike riding. I am a "bicyclist" and not a "cyclist" for many reasons, but the neurotic stress related to being a "cyclist" is the primary one. Since we moved into an apartment, I walk our tall leggy greyhound mix dog 3 times a day for about a half mile each walk. This relieves my stress immensely, because it gets me going first thing in the morning and helps me decompress from work as I look at the stars and breathe in fresh air at the end of the day.  Since we moved, we are also much closer to several gorgeous beaches. Some within biking distance. If you're stressed while walking on the beach, you have bigger problems than this massage therapist can fix.

Watching the sunset this evening, from my bike seat.

6. There was a lot of good nutrition info in the book. I love my veggie juice, Nutribullet smoothies, and mono-meals. The juice and smoothies help me boost my intake of healthful foods in a quick and easy way. One food mono-meals, like eating a bunch of bananas for dinner at work, keeps things simple. It takes about 30 seconds to prep my lunch before I leave the house. It's super easy for my body to burn the food when it's one ingredient, and I don't have to leave work, wait in a line at a restaurant, and rush back in time to eat it.

7. Like I said above, my natural tendency is to stay up late and sleep less than I should. Lately, I've been listening to brain wave based, sleep enhancing music which is supposed to enhance the quality of the sleep. I am also striving towards consistency in terms of sleeping the same 8 hours every night, at the same room temperature, and with a sleeping mask.

8. Awareness, in my opinion, should be #1 on this list. Knowing what is stressing you is the first step to "Master Stress" so you can "Live Well." Either way, journaling (blogging in my case) to document what's going on in your life is a good way to be aware. Reading books like this one is also a good start to identify major, common stressors.

9. Don't give up. That one is hard to put a tangible description on. I guess I do it by using a results based approach. When I want to give up on something, I re-examine the results I want and what I'm doing wrong. If I don't know what's wrong with my routine/methods/practices, I hit the books and search the internet for better info. If I can find people who are getting the results I want, I am encouraged that it is possible to achieve, if I can learn how they did it.

So, take a look at this book and take steps towards Living Well!