Contents
Pharmacy, Locks & Keys and Metabolism
Development of flexibility is more than just loosening up before your run. It is a vital and essential part of the balanced training program whether you are an athlete or exercise for health. Stretching helps you to achieve your maximum range of motion which translates into better form and increased efficiency during your workout. it develops concentration and endurance as you learn to focus the attention on the breath and hold the postures
It also reduces the likelihood of injury and prevents lactic acid build-up which causes fatigue and painful cramping. Finally, the following program works specifically to strengthen as well as to stretch all of the muscles you use in running.
If you've tried stretching exercises before and didn't discover any of these benefits, its probably because you were stretching incorrectly.
There are two wrong ways to do it.
Deep breathing aids concentration, smoothes, relaxes muscles and increases energy, enabling you to get the most from every mile.
Many runners tend to stop the breath at mid-chest or even higher. Yet at full abdominal breath-inhaling all the way down to the pelvis--actually requires less energy expenditure and is far more efficient than three to four upper chest pants. You may wish to practice "belly breathing" using your total lung capacity, inhaling fully and deeply down to the abdomen--several times before you begin your stretching exercises.
A muscle can only be stretched safely when it is warm. You can run for a couple of minutes to work up a sweat, and then stretch. Or, save your stretching routing until right after you've finished running. It's ideal to do both, but pick whatever works best for you.
The best place to stretch is on a towel or mat indoors--or on a flat, open stretch of grass outside. Bare feet are better for balance and stability so consider taking off your shoes.
Remember to move gently at all times and never strain. Never bounce, or jerk yourself into position. Move through your routine with awareness. Never "collapse" out of a stretching "pose". The idea is to build strength with this practice, not wear yourself out. We all have different areas of tightness and different problems of flexibility. So don't expect to be equally proficient in all the postures. Adapt or modify these exercises, as necessary, to suit your own level of ability and your training needs.
Many of you know that health promotion education is a second career for me. For seventeen years before I started the corporate fitness business that evolved into the multi-dimensional career I have today, I was a hospital pharmacist. Pharmacy school is where I learned a concept I call keys and locks.
When pharmacists study drugs they are particularly interested in the pharmacology or action of the drug on the body in general as well as the effect on each organ, organ system, and individual cell. Pharmacists also learn how the body processes drugs. This field is called biopharmaceutics which is subdivided into four different categories:
When I want to work in my office, which I keep locked, I must have a key. I can have many keys but without the correct one I can't get inside the office.
Drugs and food (the study of which is called nutritional biochemistry) act in a similar way. They must be absorbed and distributed to the proper receptor site. Then, if they carry the right "key", they can get inside the appropriate organ and do their job. Sometimes there are also agonists involved. This antonym of antagonist describes chemicals which stimulate a response at the receptor--like an enforcer that gives the door an extra push after it has been unlocked.
Insulin is a good example of this phenomena. It has a "key" which unlocks cell walls (including fat cell), allowing blood glucose to get inside. A diabetic, who is insulin deficient, doesn't have the key to unlock the cells so sugar builds up in the blood stream. The proper dose of insulin provides the key to open the cell and help maintain normal blood sugar levels. Exercise is an agonist for insulin. So, many diabetics who exercise regularly need less insulin. Too much or too little insulin and the fat cells don't release fat.
Hundreds of these key and lock searches are going on in our body at any given time and it's not unusual for one reaction to precipitate or hinder another.
So, what's the point? If exercise changes your metabolism you can imagine how it will effect much more than whether your heart beats strongly or you sleep better at night. And, it's obvious that a balanced and varied, lower in fat and sugar and higher in fiber diet goes beyond feeding a hungry heart. You also have to have sufficient calories to keep all these systems functioning. A body that's deprived of calories is not going to be concerned about opening fat cells.
Even stress affects the lock and key phenomena and we're foolish if we ignore its role in how well or how poorly our body functions. For example, we now know that stress plays a significant role in this lock and key phenomena at the fat cell. Research hasn't revealed what that role is, but if, under stress, blood sugar levels increase (part of the fight or flight mechanism) resulting in the release of insulin by the pancreas to manage blood sugar levels we're back to keys and locks.
I wouldn't leave my house without the right key to fit the house lock so I can get back in safely. I wouldn't leave my valuables in a storage shed that didn't have a good locking mechanism. When I grasp the concept that keys and locks are an important part of how my body works it becomes more important to exercise regularly, eat smartly and manage my stress so I can lock into a long and healthy life!!
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