Exercises for the Shoulder to Hand - Release Your Kinetic Chain. Dr. Brian James Abelson DC.

      With performance training, it is often necessary to work through your muscle pain.

      I am often asked the question, “How do I know the difference between acceptable muscle pain and injury pain?”

      Muscle pain from exercising will usually diminish with time, but pain from an injury will not. I tell my patients that they should never work an area if they feel constant pain even when they are not exercising.

      Pain from an injury is usually quite distinctive with sharp, stabbing sensations – or much more intense than normal muscle pain. It is also common to have injury-related pain increase with physical activity.

      If you are injured, you need to return to a rehabilitative approach in your exercise program (for the affected structure). Working through injury-related pain is a sure way of continuing the injury or creating even more severe problems.

Principle 4: Develop Your Aerobic Zone Before Working on Your Anaerobic Zone

      Anaerobic training (in which your tissues are working with reduced oxygen levels) is an essential aspect of performance training. However, as we mentioned earlier, you must first establish a good aerobic base before you can even consider beginning your anaerobic training.

      Athletes who fail to train their aerobic base to a sufficient level before embarking on anaerobic training (intervals) can find themselves dealing with soft tissue injuries, diminished energy, slow healing, and even decreased performance levels. See Working within your Aerobic and Anaerobic Zones - page 20 for more details about aerobic training.

      The anaerobic or lactate system is very different from your aerobic system since it only operates for 5 seconds to about 2 minutes at a time. This anaerobic system is very efficient at producing power, but it also produces a considerable amount of waste by-products.

      Do not start anaerobic training until you have established and maintained your aerobic base for several months. Once you start anaerobic training, your Lactate Threshold is established as you move back and forth between your aerobic and anaerobic systems. Your goal is to increase your anaerobic capacity (Lactate Threshold) since this will allow you to train for longer periods of time (within your aerobic zone), at faster speeds, and with greater intensity. A higher Lactate Threshold will also allow you to recover faster from your workouts.

Comparing the Benefits of Aerobic and Anaerobic Training

      Cardiovascular warm-ups are all about increasing your circulatory function and increasing your energy production. Building up your aerobic base makes you heal faster, perform better, and even turns back your biological clock! Aerobic exercise does this by:

       Increasing the density of capillaries in your muscles.

       Increasing the mitochondrial function of your cells

      Serious anaerobic training should only be taken up after you have built a good aerobic base. Anaerobic training causes your body to increase its production of Human Growth Hormone, which brings a whole host of health benefits to your body.

What is the Importance of Aerobic Warm-ups?

       What Happens During Aerobic Warm-ups

      The aerobic warm-up helps to prepare your body, both physically and mentally, for the upcoming exercises by:

       Increasing circulation to your tissues.

       Preparing your heart for the upcoming exertions.

       Warming your tissues and thereby reducing your chances of injury.

       Making your muscles more flexible and ready for action.

       Priming and preparing your nervous system for new instructions.

       Improving your reaction times.

       Speeding healing of existing injuries.

       Increasing the mitochondrial function of your cells.

      It may sound a little strange when we tell you to “warm up” your entire body, especially when you feel that your pain is localized in one area like your jaw, neck, or shoulder, and you just want to get started on resolving that particular issue.

      But this initial aerobic workout (lasting for 10 to 15 minutes) is one of the first things you should do before you ever begin working on your injured or restricted areas, and definitely before you begin any exercise routine.

Improving Cellular Function with Aerobic Exercises

      Aerobic exercise is the fastest way to increase the strength and function of your cardiovascular system. By increasing the density of capillaries, you are able to get more nutrients into your muscular tissue, thereby helping them to heal and perform better.

      The increased density of capillaries means that you are better able to eliminate the waste by-products of healing and metabolism from your cells, again allowing them to perform more efficiently.

      Aerobic exercise also increases the function of mitochondria in your cells. This increased mitochondrial function immediately boosts your body’s ability to generate power and energy since your mitochondria are the principal energy generators for your cells.

      Mitochondria convert existing nutrients into ATP (adenosine triphosphate), a form of energy that is readily usable by all the cells in your body. Your body uses this energy to perform all of its functions – from healing existing injuries, to eliminating waste, to powering your muscles when you walk, talk, or perform any action.

      As we age, or when we injure ourselves, our ability to produce ATP decreases. Exercise is one of the few factors that will naturally increase ATP production to give you increased energy.

Aerobic Warm-Ups...how they helped resolve my injury!

      I have had a personal experience that showed me the importance of cardiovascular warm-ups as they relate to recovering from an injury.

      I am speaking about an injury for which most people would never perform an aerobic workout. A few years ago I suffered from a severe case of Bell’s Palsy (weakness of the nerve that innervates and controls the muscles for facial expression) on one-half of the face.

      Bell’s Palsy left me with the muscles of one-half of my face paralyzed and expressionless. I was told it would take 3 to 6 months before normal nerve function would be restored!

      I was unwilling to live with this condition for that long and immediately researched means for reducing this time frame. One of the first things I did after getting Bell’s Palsy was to get on my road bike/wind trainer for at least 20 to 30 minutes each day. I followed this up with TMJ massage and a variety of jaw, neck, and shoulder exercises.

      To everyone’s amazement, I recovered fully, with complete neuromuscular control of the muscles in my face, within about a month. I am convinced that my daily aerobic exercise is one of the major reasons I got over this condition in about a third of the normal time. The aerobic exercises I did every day resulted in increased circulatory function and improved mitochondrial activity (energy production)!

      So take the time to do your aerobic warm-up before doing these exercise programs...you will be amazed