Introduction
Vibration stimulation is gaining popularity as a neuromuscular training method with the potential to elicit muscular performance adaptations similar to those produced by explosive strength training. Studies on vibration have shown transient increases in muscle power output and chronic strength enhancement and significantly improved gait and body balance in elderly people. In addition, whole body vibration induced positive adaptations in peripheral blood circulation (increased blood volume and speed of blood flow), probably due to decreased blood viscosity and peripheral resistance and arterial vasodilatation. Additionally, vibration has the potential to activate large amounts of musculature during a movement, and appears to inhibit activation of antagonist muscles which would decrease the braking force during a movement. Other studies have shown that vibration may be able to
influence the excitatory state of the peripheral and central structures of the brain, which could facilitate subsequent voluntary movements.
Targeted Vibration Training
Due to the conflicting results and potential side-effects of whole-body vibration, applying the vibration directly to the exercising muscle only has demonstrated performance gains more than 300% greater than conventional training. Therefore, researchers Dr Mileva and Dr Bowtell hypothesised that vibration applied during a single resistance-training session would promote larger acute increases in strength than those induced by an identical session performed in the absence of vibration. It was further hypothesized that vibration stimulus would provoke a greater response when training at lower contraction intensity, where a smaller percentage of muscle fibers would be voluntarily activated. To accomplish this, researchers compared the acute effects of vibration stimulus during and after high- (70% of one-repetition maximum (1RM) and low intensity (35% 1RM) knee extension exercise.
Methods
Nine healthy male adults completed four trials on a knee extension machine (Technogym UK Ltd) either with (Vibrex, Exoscience Ltd) or without superimposed vibration at low (35% 1RM) and high (70% 1RM) contraction intensities.
Results
The main finding of the study was that vibration applied during knee extension exercise improved the mechanical performance of the quadriceps muscles, as manifested by increased dynamic muscle strength and power. Additionally, peak torque was significantly higher during the vibrated than the nonvibrated trials.
The improvement in strength and power after vibration training could be explained by the finding that the median frequency of the quadriceps muscle electrical activity was significantly higher in the vibrated than nonvibrated trials. This suggests that vibration increases muscle fiber conduction velocity and/or increased recruitment of muscle fibers with faster conduction velocities such as fast powerful muscle fibres.
A very novel finding from this study is that superimposing the vibration-like stimulus during low-intensity exercise simulates the response induced by higher-intensity exercise, evidenced by increased electrical activity in the quadriceps muscle.
The increase in contraction force implies that reflex feedback from the muscle receptors in contracting muscle is increased. One might expect such increases in exercising muscle activation level to elevate the oxygen requirement, and vibration tended to increase the rate of muscle deoxygenation during exercise, which is indicative of increased oxygen utilization.
Conclusions
Neural adaptations are the earliest changes that occur in the exercised muscle (first 3–5 wk of a training
program), permitting gains in strength and power without significant increase in muscle cross-sectional area. The acute enhancement of neuromuscular performance following vibration is probably related to an increase in the sensitivity of the stretch reflex. This would result in more rapid activation and training of a larger number of high-threshold motor units. Vibration-induced discharge of the muscle receptors also recruits previously inactive motor units into the contraction, as well as re-recruiting motor units that are already fatigued, and even increasing their firing patterns.
It is also an intriguing possibility that a chronic vibration training program may potentially increase the neuromuscular adaptations arising from light/moderate training. This would be of importance for individuals, such as the elderly, osteoporosis and rehabilitation where people are unable to complete more intense exercise programs.
Monday 17 December 2007
Tuesday 4 December 2007
Breathing vibration - can it make us stronger?
Introduction
Acute vibration stimulation enhances skeletal muscle activity and strength performance (Issurin & Tenenbaum, 1989; Bosco et al., 1999; Mileva et al., 2006). Vibration stimulation has also been applied to the respiratory musculature with demonstrable increases in respiratory activity in rabbits (Jammes et al., 2000), reduced breathlessness at rest in healthy humans (Edo et al., 1998), and reduced breathlessness during exercise in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients (Fujie et al., 2002).
We therefore investigated whether a vibration stimulus applied through air as it passes into the airways elicits increments of maximal breathing performance.
Methods
We recruited 12 healthy subjects (8 female, 4 male; 22-50 years old) from the University and they completed 3 maximal inspirations followed by 10 inspirations against a vibration stimulus (VIB; youbreathe, Exoscience Ltd., London, UK), an inspiratory resistive-load training device (RES) or resting breathing (CON; no load). 3 forced inspirations were repeated and compared to pre-training for maximal breathing power.
Results
Maximal breathing power was significantly greater (15%) after 10 breaths of vibrated resistance (VIB) when compared to PRE (VIB) and POST control (CON) and POST resistive-loading training device (RES). There was no effect of either resistance or control breathing on maximal breathing power.
Discussion
10 breaths of vibration lead to increased maximal breathing power suggesting that applying a vibration stimulus increases the voluntary force generating capacity of the inspiratory muscles, in a similar manner observed when vibration is applied to other skeletal muscles (Mileva et al., 2006).
The mechanisms underlying the changes in maximal breathing power require further study, however mechanisms such as shifts in neuromuscular recruitment via increases in stretch reflex sensitivity may have a role (Cardinale, 2003). This would enhance recruitment of higher-threshold motor units and the activation of previously inactive motor units. Confirmation of the mechanisms involved will require the acquisition of respiratory muscle EMG, transcranial magnetic stimulation and testing of peripheral reflexes.
Thus, vibration leads to an increased maximal breathing power suggesting there is an increase in neural inspiratory drive possibly via upregulation of the respiratory motoneurones.
Acute vibration stimulation enhances skeletal muscle activity and strength performance (Issurin & Tenenbaum, 1989; Bosco et al., 1999; Mileva et al., 2006). Vibration stimulation has also been applied to the respiratory musculature with demonstrable increases in respiratory activity in rabbits (Jammes et al., 2000), reduced breathlessness at rest in healthy humans (Edo et al., 1998), and reduced breathlessness during exercise in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients (Fujie et al., 2002).
We therefore investigated whether a vibration stimulus applied through air as it passes into the airways elicits increments of maximal breathing performance.
Methods
We recruited 12 healthy subjects (8 female, 4 male; 22-50 years old) from the University and they completed 3 maximal inspirations followed by 10 inspirations against a vibration stimulus (VIB; youbreathe, Exoscience Ltd., London, UK), an inspiratory resistive-load training device (RES) or resting breathing (CON; no load). 3 forced inspirations were repeated and compared to pre-training for maximal breathing power.
Results
Maximal breathing power was significantly greater (15%) after 10 breaths of vibrated resistance (VIB) when compared to PRE (VIB) and POST control (CON) and POST resistive-loading training device (RES). There was no effect of either resistance or control breathing on maximal breathing power.
Discussion
10 breaths of vibration lead to increased maximal breathing power suggesting that applying a vibration stimulus increases the voluntary force generating capacity of the inspiratory muscles, in a similar manner observed when vibration is applied to other skeletal muscles (Mileva et al., 2006).
The mechanisms underlying the changes in maximal breathing power require further study, however mechanisms such as shifts in neuromuscular recruitment via increases in stretch reflex sensitivity may have a role (Cardinale, 2003). This would enhance recruitment of higher-threshold motor units and the activation of previously inactive motor units. Confirmation of the mechanisms involved will require the acquisition of respiratory muscle EMG, transcranial magnetic stimulation and testing of peripheral reflexes.
Thus, vibration leads to an increased maximal breathing power suggesting there is an increase in neural inspiratory drive possibly via upregulation of the respiratory motoneurones.
Saturday 24 November 2007
Fitness for Skiing
It is ski season again and lots of people are doing their best to lose weight and build their fitness ready for the slopes and the après ski. I like everyone else wanted to get in shape for my annual ski trip so this sparked my interest about training for skiing and the resources available on the internet. Actually good resources about fitness for skiing was sparse and terms of quantity and quality. Clearly their are many components to a fitness programme so I will go through what is required including cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength and endurance, power and balance. I will also discuss the relative merits of vibration training, and whether there is any point in adding vibration to your programme. The advice I am going to give today is based on the idea of a 8 week programme (this is way too short but I am a realist).
Cardio fitness
Any activity that involved activity for a long duration, say 6 ours per day for 6 days, is going to require cardiovascular fitness. Add to that the fact that most skiing is done at high altitude, meaning that oxygen will be more scarce, which means that having good cardio health and fitness is an absolute necessity for skiing fitness.
Also having high cardio fitness also means that your powers of recovery will be better from each bout of skiing that you do. This means that you will be more ready to ski again after lunch or as you progress through your holiday.
I would suggest a minimum of 3 cardio sessions per week, probably 1 long slow session for up to 1 hour, 1 short fast session of around 20 mins and even 1 interval session lasting about 30-40 mins. Many of the equipment at gyms these days have interval programmes built in. The interval programmes are also good because they relieve the boredom of training indoors.
Other gadgets you can try are altitude simulation equipment, such as hybreathe (a portable altitude simulator) or one of the many altitude tents available.
Muscular Strength
Strength is an absolute must for skiers, especially novices. Most of your time will be spent climbing off your bottom and it takes a hell of a lot of strength to perform basic turns if technique is not yet perfected. Quad strength is absolutely paramount but also core strength and some upper body strength for using your poles.
Strength is the muscles ability to develop force, which in terms of skiing means lifting more than your normal body weight, often on just 1 leg. You will often be travelling at speed meaning that when you perform turns you will be lifting multiples of your body weight, and before you can actually turn you have to work eccentrically to stop your body from collapsing (I will talk a little bit more about this in the section on vibration training).
To develop strength there is no alternative than to lift heavy weights, close to your maximum with low repetitions – 2 sets of 5 reps is probably ideal. You need to train for strength minimum 2 times per week. The exercises I would include squat or dead lift, bench press, bicep curls and some core exercises front and back. You can supplement with other exercises to keep your training interesting. You can also find machines that incorporate vibration training into your strength by using machines with Vibrex, this technology is very new so might not be available to everyone yet.
Muscular Endurance
Once you have increased your strength it is then time to develop your muscular endurance as when you are skiing it will be for maybe 6 hours per day so being fatigue resistant is important. Muscular endurance is the ability to lift a submaximal force many times. You will be performing turns and stopping repeatedly so this could be the most important part of your programme, we have all felt our legs start to burn when we are only half way down a slope!
To develop muscular endurance ideally you need to lift around 50% of you maximum about 15 times, and I personally would do 3 sets of this per session. Keep the exercises the same as your strength training. As a shortcut you can even put the exercises in a circuit and include this as one of your cardio sessions.
Power
To develop power there seems to be good evidence that this is where vibration platforms can be very useful. Please click here for a PDF document showing different power exercises that can be performed on a platform. I would stick to dynamic squats, dynamic wide stance squats, dynamic one leg squats (this will also help with your balance) and jumping on the platform. As mentioned earlier the vibration platform will also help with eccentric strength, which is the strength you need to stop your body from collapsing especially when performing turns at speed.
When training for power you need to reduce the quantity of sessions you do as it is important your muscles are fresh each time you train. I would train 2 times per week on power.
If you don’t have access to vibration training, then you can use conventional exercises, lifting around 30% of your maximum but the key is to explode through the lift, and try to throw the bar away (obviously it would be good to have some help with this as safety is the most important thing. Lift about 7 reps per set and perform 2 sets of each exercise.
Balance
Everybody forgets about balance but this is one of the most important elements of a skiing programme. The key to good balance is having a strong internal focus. If you keep focussing on things outside your body then you will fall easily. Keep your attention inside your body and you will find your balance improving very quickly. A good place to focus is on your breathing, just behind your tummy. This is a good thing to remember when you are skiing also.
Again the vibration platforms are very good for developing balance for example doing one-leg squats and jumps. Also another vibration related product I cam across is called flexi-bar. This is very good for developing balance and it will help your core also.
Flexibility
Another frequently forgotten element of the ski training programme is flexibility. Good flexibility is important for proper efficient muscle action, and also to enable you to fall with less risk of injury.
After every training session stretch each muscle of your body (especially the ones you have been working) and hold each stretch for at least 20 seconds to develop good flexibility. If you are creative this is a good chance to develop your balance and a strong internal focus.
Breathing Muscle Training
One of the more recent innovations is in breathing muscle training. There are now several devices such as powerlung and powerbreathe. For extra benefit I would recommend a vibration breathing device such as powerbreathe as this can increase growth hormone which can enhance strength and recovery, cardio health as well as training the respiratory system.
Programme Plan
If you have lots of time you can phase your training to make sure you develop each component fully, but if you only have 6-8 weeks left I would recommend 2 cardio sessions per week (1 interval) and 2 circuit sessions per week. In the circuit sessions you can increase muscular strength and endurance whilst also training your cardio fitness.
Enjoy your skiing, see you on the slopes!
Cardio fitness
Any activity that involved activity for a long duration, say 6 ours per day for 6 days, is going to require cardiovascular fitness. Add to that the fact that most skiing is done at high altitude, meaning that oxygen will be more scarce, which means that having good cardio health and fitness is an absolute necessity for skiing fitness.
Also having high cardio fitness also means that your powers of recovery will be better from each bout of skiing that you do. This means that you will be more ready to ski again after lunch or as you progress through your holiday.
I would suggest a minimum of 3 cardio sessions per week, probably 1 long slow session for up to 1 hour, 1 short fast session of around 20 mins and even 1 interval session lasting about 30-40 mins. Many of the equipment at gyms these days have interval programmes built in. The interval programmes are also good because they relieve the boredom of training indoors.
Other gadgets you can try are altitude simulation equipment, such as hybreathe (a portable altitude simulator) or one of the many altitude tents available.
Muscular Strength
Strength is an absolute must for skiers, especially novices. Most of your time will be spent climbing off your bottom and it takes a hell of a lot of strength to perform basic turns if technique is not yet perfected. Quad strength is absolutely paramount but also core strength and some upper body strength for using your poles.
Strength is the muscles ability to develop force, which in terms of skiing means lifting more than your normal body weight, often on just 1 leg. You will often be travelling at speed meaning that when you perform turns you will be lifting multiples of your body weight, and before you can actually turn you have to work eccentrically to stop your body from collapsing (I will talk a little bit more about this in the section on vibration training).
To develop strength there is no alternative than to lift heavy weights, close to your maximum with low repetitions – 2 sets of 5 reps is probably ideal. You need to train for strength minimum 2 times per week. The exercises I would include squat or dead lift, bench press, bicep curls and some core exercises front and back. You can supplement with other exercises to keep your training interesting. You can also find machines that incorporate vibration training into your strength by using machines with Vibrex, this technology is very new so might not be available to everyone yet.
Muscular Endurance
Once you have increased your strength it is then time to develop your muscular endurance as when you are skiing it will be for maybe 6 hours per day so being fatigue resistant is important. Muscular endurance is the ability to lift a submaximal force many times. You will be performing turns and stopping repeatedly so this could be the most important part of your programme, we have all felt our legs start to burn when we are only half way down a slope!
To develop muscular endurance ideally you need to lift around 50% of you maximum about 15 times, and I personally would do 3 sets of this per session. Keep the exercises the same as your strength training. As a shortcut you can even put the exercises in a circuit and include this as one of your cardio sessions.
Power
To develop power there seems to be good evidence that this is where vibration platforms can be very useful. Please click here for a PDF document showing different power exercises that can be performed on a platform. I would stick to dynamic squats, dynamic wide stance squats, dynamic one leg squats (this will also help with your balance) and jumping on the platform. As mentioned earlier the vibration platform will also help with eccentric strength, which is the strength you need to stop your body from collapsing especially when performing turns at speed.
When training for power you need to reduce the quantity of sessions you do as it is important your muscles are fresh each time you train. I would train 2 times per week on power.
If you don’t have access to vibration training, then you can use conventional exercises, lifting around 30% of your maximum but the key is to explode through the lift, and try to throw the bar away (obviously it would be good to have some help with this as safety is the most important thing. Lift about 7 reps per set and perform 2 sets of each exercise.
Balance
Everybody forgets about balance but this is one of the most important elements of a skiing programme. The key to good balance is having a strong internal focus. If you keep focussing on things outside your body then you will fall easily. Keep your attention inside your body and you will find your balance improving very quickly. A good place to focus is on your breathing, just behind your tummy. This is a good thing to remember when you are skiing also.
Again the vibration platforms are very good for developing balance for example doing one-leg squats and jumps. Also another vibration related product I cam across is called flexi-bar. This is very good for developing balance and it will help your core also.
Flexibility
Another frequently forgotten element of the ski training programme is flexibility. Good flexibility is important for proper efficient muscle action, and also to enable you to fall with less risk of injury.
After every training session stretch each muscle of your body (especially the ones you have been working) and hold each stretch for at least 20 seconds to develop good flexibility. If you are creative this is a good chance to develop your balance and a strong internal focus.
Breathing Muscle Training
One of the more recent innovations is in breathing muscle training. There are now several devices such as powerlung and powerbreathe. For extra benefit I would recommend a vibration breathing device such as powerbreathe as this can increase growth hormone which can enhance strength and recovery, cardio health as well as training the respiratory system.
Programme Plan
If you have lots of time you can phase your training to make sure you develop each component fully, but if you only have 6-8 weeks left I would recommend 2 cardio sessions per week (1 interval) and 2 circuit sessions per week. In the circuit sessions you can increase muscular strength and endurance whilst also training your cardio fitness.
Enjoy your skiing, see you on the slopes!
Tuesday 9 October 2007
Respiratory muscle training
Respiratory Vibration Training
We have just had a research paper accepted this week, so everyone is on a bit of a high. The paper basically shows how youbreathe can increase respiratory muscle performance by 15% after just 10 breaths.
Here I have also included another article I have written about respiratory muscle training. Enjoy.
Respiratory Muscle Training
Research into respiratory muscle training has been ongoing since the 1970’s. However, results are conflicting most likely due to the different forms of training such as pressure-threshold training, voluntary hyperventilation and hypercapnic (increased CO2) hyperventilation; and the variety of outcome measures used……. These conflicting results have led to confusion as to whether there is any benefit to exercise performance from respiratory muscle training. There are now many devices on the market all promising to reduce your marathon time or increase your feelings of comfort during exercise such as Powerlung, Powerbreathe and Expand-a-lung. However, with technological advances and our increased scientific understanding, the current consensus of opinion is that respiratory muscle training does indeed help with exercise performance in healthy and clinical populations.
The mechanism of this effect seems to be two-fold :
1. An altered perception of breathing effort and exercise load, meaning that the exercise feels easier, this psychological effect shouldn’t be underestimated in fatiguing exercise!
2. A delayed metaboreflex, meaning that blood is not diverted from the skeletal to the respiratory muscles until higher exercise intesnities, allowing exercise at higher intensities to be maintained for longer (Romer & Dempsey, 2006).
Taken together these effects can be as large as a 4% increase in a 40Km cycling time-trial performance, which is substantial.
It has been demonstrated that acute (within 1 training session) vibration stimulation of exercising skeletal muscle enhances skeletal muscle activity and strength performance after 1 session (Mileva et al., 2006) and chronic training with superimposed vibration has been shown to increase strength up to 300% more than conventional strength training (Issurin et al., 1994). Vibration has also been applied to the respiratory musculature with demonstrable increases in respiratory nerve activity, reduced breathlessness in healthy humans and reduced breathlessness during exercise in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients (COPD; Fujie et al., 2002).
Until recently vibration had never been applied to a training device for the respiratory system, so we developed youbreathe, a hand-held device that applies rapid airway occlusions simulating vibration effects on the respiratory system. Preliminary results show that 10 breaths through youbreathe acutely augment breathing power by around 15%, compared to no augmentation after 10 breaths of breathing against matched resistance. These studies are under peer review currently and further work examining the long term training affect of continued use is under way.
Collaborations are also under way with clinical partners to assess the efficacy of youbreathe in complementing respiratory physiotherapy with youbreathe in cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. We are testing the hypothesis that the percussive effects of youbreathe may facilitate the removal of mucus leading to improved respiratory function in these patients.
In summary, research into respiratory muscle training is now gaining real credibility, but we are still at the dawn of our understanding of vibration training. Many issue remain to be resolved such as the mechanism of action and appropriate vibration prescription for desired effects. The potential benefits of respiratory vibration have not yet been fully explored, however this new intervention offers exciting potential to scientists, athletes and patients alike. For more information on youbreathe please visit http://www.youbreathe.com/.
Click here for a deeper discussion of inspiratory and expiratory muscle training for coaches and athletes.
Click here for a discussion of breathing training in the tour de france.
Also click here for an excellent review of respiratory muscle training in COPD patients.
We have just had a research paper accepted this week, so everyone is on a bit of a high. The paper basically shows how youbreathe can increase respiratory muscle performance by 15% after just 10 breaths.
Here I have also included another article I have written about respiratory muscle training. Enjoy.
Respiratory Muscle Training
Research into respiratory muscle training has been ongoing since the 1970’s. However, results are conflicting most likely due to the different forms of training such as pressure-threshold training, voluntary hyperventilation and hypercapnic (increased CO2) hyperventilation; and the variety of outcome measures used……. These conflicting results have led to confusion as to whether there is any benefit to exercise performance from respiratory muscle training. There are now many devices on the market all promising to reduce your marathon time or increase your feelings of comfort during exercise such as Powerlung, Powerbreathe and Expand-a-lung. However, with technological advances and our increased scientific understanding, the current consensus of opinion is that respiratory muscle training does indeed help with exercise performance in healthy and clinical populations.
The mechanism of this effect seems to be two-fold :
1. An altered perception of breathing effort and exercise load, meaning that the exercise feels easier, this psychological effect shouldn’t be underestimated in fatiguing exercise!
2. A delayed metaboreflex, meaning that blood is not diverted from the skeletal to the respiratory muscles until higher exercise intesnities, allowing exercise at higher intensities to be maintained for longer (Romer & Dempsey, 2006).
Taken together these effects can be as large as a 4% increase in a 40Km cycling time-trial performance, which is substantial.
It has been demonstrated that acute (within 1 training session) vibration stimulation of exercising skeletal muscle enhances skeletal muscle activity and strength performance after 1 session (Mileva et al., 2006) and chronic training with superimposed vibration has been shown to increase strength up to 300% more than conventional strength training (Issurin et al., 1994). Vibration has also been applied to the respiratory musculature with demonstrable increases in respiratory nerve activity, reduced breathlessness in healthy humans and reduced breathlessness during exercise in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients (COPD; Fujie et al., 2002).
Until recently vibration had never been applied to a training device for the respiratory system, so we developed youbreathe, a hand-held device that applies rapid airway occlusions simulating vibration effects on the respiratory system. Preliminary results show that 10 breaths through youbreathe acutely augment breathing power by around 15%, compared to no augmentation after 10 breaths of breathing against matched resistance. These studies are under peer review currently and further work examining the long term training affect of continued use is under way.
Collaborations are also under way with clinical partners to assess the efficacy of youbreathe in complementing respiratory physiotherapy with youbreathe in cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. We are testing the hypothesis that the percussive effects of youbreathe may facilitate the removal of mucus leading to improved respiratory function in these patients.
In summary, research into respiratory muscle training is now gaining real credibility, but we are still at the dawn of our understanding of vibration training. Many issue remain to be resolved such as the mechanism of action and appropriate vibration prescription for desired effects. The potential benefits of respiratory vibration have not yet been fully explored, however this new intervention offers exciting potential to scientists, athletes and patients alike. For more information on youbreathe please visit http://www.youbreathe.com/.
Click here for a deeper discussion of inspiratory and expiratory muscle training for coaches and athletes.
Click here for a discussion of breathing training in the tour de france.
Also click here for an excellent review of respiratory muscle training in COPD patients.
Sunday 30 September 2007
Stress and cortisol - can youbreathe help?
Stress and Cortisol
We have some very exciting news to report this week. We have some pilot study results showing the youbreathe use can reduce cortisol (see graph below). Several subjects used youbreathe in a similar manner to the strength training protocol we devised (about 75% of maximum breathing power for 3 sets of 5 reps) and we tested cortisol before, 5 minutes and 30 minutes after youbreathe use. As you can see cortisol dropped off dramatically.
For those who don't know cortisol is called the stress hormone, as it is produced as part of the stress or "fight or flight" response, and in short bursts it can increase energy supply, heighten the senses and increase memory. Cortisol is secreted by the adrenal glands and involved in the following functions and more:
Glucose metabolism
Regulation of blood pressure
Insulin release for blood sugar maintanence
Immune function
Inflammatory response
But because of the stressful way we live our lives now we live with chronic stress symptoms and high cortisol such as muscle tension, chronic fatigue, depression and reduced cognitive abilities.
The key to improving this situation is through stress management programmes such as meditation, breathing, exercise and less work. Well now we know that we can apply youbreathe as a stress reliever, and only 5 minutes youbreathe use can reduce cortisol and reduce stress.
We know that people are not going to give up their busy lives so by using youbreathe for short periods throughout the day can reduce the stress response and keep your mind even. youbreathe can be central to any stress management programme and take away many of the negative symptoms of stress. Actually we think that youbreathe used in this way will increase relaxation, increase cognitive functions such as memory, increase energy levels and increase fat metabolism.
From my personal point of view I never really focus on stress until I get ill or can feel the tension so clearly. But as I use youbreathe anyway it is not difficult to combine my training with a stress management programme. I do the stress relieving training before I go for lunch and before I go for dinner, then over the course of the lunch hour and when I am at home for the evening I feel the tension drain out of my head and soon feel stress free, and I am sleeping better. I guess we live in a culture that we put things off until they become unavoidable. Sress is the biggest problem that I can perceive in the world today, you only have to do a google search for stress and the number of diseases that come up are amazing.
It is important to remember though that stress is our response to a given situation, it is not something that happens too us. It is therefore very important to change our reactions to situations as well as removing the symptoms of stress when they are there. I find that changing my reactions is easier when the symptoms are very small. Using youbreathe regularly I find that with lower cortisol levels I can often clear my mind very quickly and get my brain relaxed and positive. It is about being able to choose your reactions and enjoy your life as a positive experience, and not responding in a stressful way, and youbreathe can really help with this.
Cortisol and Slimming
Cortisol has been described as the slimmers enemy as it promotes carbohydrate metabolism as part of the fight or flight response. Carbohydrate can provide energy more quickly than fat so when you need to run to get out of the way of an approaching car, carbohydrate is the fuel of source for replenishing our energy supplies. But if we are trying to lose fat, having high levels of cortisol promoting carbohydrate metabolism is not a good thing.
Youbreathe as a slimming tool
This means that youbreathe use could help as a slimming aid by reducing the levels of cortisol helping the body use fat instead of carbohydrate. This of course doesn't mean that you can eat whatever you like and just use youbreathe, but that a healthy diet, regular exercie and youbreathe use could lead to easier weight and fat loss than just diet and exercise alone. Additionaly when we get the growth hormone results through, which promotes fat loss we will have even more reason to believe that youbreathe can help weight loss and slimming (I will devote a new post to this subject when we have more results).
For us a scientists, every time we test something with vibration it seems to pay off, it is such an exciting time to be involved in this. Hopefully we can help people to keep going with their busy lives, but increase the quality of lif through short simple youbreathe training.
Below is the info provided by http://www.holisticmed.com/stressfree.html Please visit their site for more info, I think it is an excellent resource.
Discussion
Millions of people are looking for a magic supplement and herb combination that will increase their health and vitality. People are ingesting Coenzyme Q, pycnogenol, magnesium, Vitamin C, Gingko, Echinacea and thousands of other products and combinations. In many cases, these supplements give a slight energy and health boost. In some cases, the body needs both healthy foods and supplements to help recover from an illness. However, for most people, much of the increased need for nutrients is due in a significant part to a high level of daily physical and/or psychological stress.
Taking steps to relax and body and mind (in addition to getting adequate sleep) can be enormously healing and is highly recommended for those interested in healing acute or serious chronic illnesses or preventing future illnesses. Relaxation techniques can add enormous power to other holistic healing techniques. I hope that you take the time to make gradual changes which will allow deep relaxation and the healing and vitality that comes with it to become an increasing part of your life.
Some Common Signs and Symptoms of Excess Stress
Regularly walking, eating or working in a rushed way.
Regularly thinking and worrying about the past or future.
Frequent tension in the body (esp. neck, face, shoulders, back and chest, and stomach) which often goes unnoticed until one slows down, breaths deep and carefully surveys the body.
Feeling of the "weight of the world" on your shoulders.
Emotionally "on edge."
Regular tiredness during the day.
Significant need for outside stimulation to feel good (coffee, sweeteners, food, sex, TV, alcohol, money, accomplishments, etc.)
The Goal
Occasional challenges, both physical and psychological, are not unhealthy for most people. Occasional challenging projects, arguments, difficulties with children, difficulties at work/school, etc. are a normal part of life. These types of stresses are normal and can actually be strengthening. The goal is not necessarily to avoid all stressful events, but to develop the ability to relax during day-to-day activities and during challenging occurences (such as those mentioned above). Persons who are recovering from an illness should attempt to keep challenging situations to a minimum but not necessarily avoid them totally unless they are extremely weak.
Strategies For Stress Relief
As part of the process of curing an illness, promoting health & vitality and preventing illness and premature aging, it is important to gradually move towards a daily life that less stressful.
Some Strategies to Avoid
Attempting to make everything in life stress-free.
Focusing on every event and constantly reminding yourself to relax.
Regularly avoiding the feeling of emotions (e.g., sadness, anger, joy, fear, etc.).
There are a number of other things which will not work in the long run when used by themselves only -- long vacations, execise, etc.
The type of strategy which tends to work is the combination of gradually and gently trying to change one's habits plus regular practices or situations which help put the body in a relaxed state. Both types of strategies are important in promoting stress reduction.
Regular Practices and Situations to Promote Stress Relief
Note: The positive effects of these techniques vary from person to person.
Examples of Powerful and Healing Regular Practices
Taking a class and going to regular group practices can be crucial in promoting a regular practice. Some people have moved into teaching centers in order to be certain they will have a regular practice and promote healing and transformation.
Yoga -- This is a wonderful practice for stress reduction and profound healing. I highly recommend printing out the Yoga Chapter, reading it and then taking regular classes.
Meditation
Tai Chi
Conscious Breathing Routine (Conscious Breathing, by Gay Hendricks, Ph.D., (Please see the Stress Reduction page of the Holistic Healing Web Page / Amazon.Com Bookstore for a listing).
Dancing
Bioenergetics Classes
Examples of Powerful and Healing Occasional Practices
Holistic Healing Retreat
Vacation
Massage (Some people practice regularly by exchanging with a partner.)
Daily Stress Reduction Tips
Note: As mentioned earlier, there will naturally be times when these tips are not used, but try to gradually incorporate them into your life where possible.
Add something beautiful to your life on a daily basis (e.g., flowers).
Do some enjoyable activities whenever possible.
Walk, work, and eat at a relaxed pace.
Take a short break after meals to relax.
If possible, go outside at least once per day and notice the simple things such as the weather, scenery, etc.
During the day, whenever you remember, notice and tension in your body (jaw, neck, diaphram, shoulders, etc.). Breath deeply and gently stretch and relax any tense areas.
If you notice your mind racing or worrying about the past or future, take a minute to breath deeply and gently focus on something in the moment such as your breath, scenery, birds.
Take breaks during the workday to relax.
Wear comfortable and loose clothing when possible. Take off your shoes when you can.
Avoid holding in feelings day after day, but instead, find a safe place to feel, express and embrace them.
Please be gentle with yourself. Some people find themselves falling back into excessively stressful habits from time to time. That is perfectly normal. Simply notice that change in a non-judgemental way and move back to the stress reduction practices and tips that promote a healthy way of life.
Stress Relief Ideas in Specific Situations
On many ocassions there are situations that come up which can cause significant amounts of stress. Listed below are a few such situations along with some ideas that I have found useful in addressing the situation. As in all of the idea listings on the Holistic Healing Web Page, please do not try to do everything at once.
Financial Difficulties
Financial difficulties can be enormously stressful for some people because our goals and our security is wrapped up in the need to have sufficient finances. Such difficulties often don't magically disappear, but there are some steps that can be taken to reduce or eliminate the stress and worry while working one's way through these difficulties. A few suggestions include:
Steps -- Carefully follow the plan outlined in the book, "Your Money or Your Life." (Please see the Stress Reduction page of the Holistic Healing Web Page / Amazon.Com Bookstore for a listing) This book will take you step by step towards financial independence. Following the program in the book can also be useful in helping to find your goals and make career decisions.
Share -- Tell at least one close friend, family member or religious leader (e.g., minister, rabbi) about your difficulties. Keeping the difficulties secret will often add stress and eventually cause inner turmoil. Some people find support groups such as those formed to work with the above-mentioned book or those seen with Debtors Anonymous (see below) to be very helpful.
Faith -- Persons who have a regular Meditation Practice or Spiritual Practice often develop enormous faith that difficulties can be worked through successfully. The potential stress can be reduced many-fold through these types of practices. While it doesn't directly effect the financial situation, these practices can improve health, reduce stress, make it easier to see worthwhile opportunities and make it easier to change habits that may, in some cases, contribute to financial difficulties.
Acceptance -- While it may seem strange, having a loving acceptance of oneself in the current situation is often an important key to making a permanent change in the situation. This goes hand-in-hand with having a strong faith. If you look at people who successfully turn their lives around, you will usually notice both a loving acceptance of who they are as well as a strong faith. The opposite end of the sprectrum are the unfortunate souls who have lost their faith and their self-esteem (or never had it).
Persons who have low self-esteem, having difficulty making simple changes or who have lost their faith may want to temporarily set aside working the steps in "Your Money or Your Life" and focus on choosing one inner transformational tool that addresses the situation. Some such tools are:
Meditation Practice
Spiritual Practice or Practical Spiritual Program such as Debtors Anonymous discussed below.
Affirmation Program such as found in the excellent book, "I Deserve Love." (Please see the Stress Reduction page of the Holistic Healing Web Page / Amazon.Com Bookstore for a listing)
Special -- Persons who have significant debt and/or habits of overspending may want to consider working the program detailed by Debtors Anonymous. Internet resources for the excellent program can be found on the Debtors Anonymous Information page.
Persons suffering from psychological illnesses which are contributing in some way to the financial difficulties can, if possible, have these health problems treated by a Holistic Healthcare Professional such as an Oriental Medical Doctor, Naturopath, Homeopath, Holistic MD or an experienced Medical Herbalist. Psychological therapy may be warrented as well. See the Directory of Practitioners Web Page to find a practitioner in your area.
Tasks and Time Constraints
There are situations where there is constant time and work pressure and which adds significant stress to one's life. Sometimes these situations are not easily avoidable. In order to start a medical training program with friends (who had planned to start at a specific date), I chose to continue to work full-time, take prerequisite classes nearly full-time and to continue to serve as the webmaster for the Holistic Healing Web Page. In order to come out of situations like these with one's health, it is helpful to consider a few ideas which I have related below.
Small Tasks -- Spliting projects and assignments into small pieces and doing a small amount of work on a regular basis on these projects is perhaps one of the very best ways to prevent becoming overwhelmed with work.
Priorities -- Choosing appropriate priorities for tasks is an important way to avoid stress. Is it better to performs A+ (4.0 grade) in school and study all of the time or to get a B average and spend the extra time having fun, exercising, etc.? Is it better to work overtime completing projects to earn extra money or job prestige and not see your family much or to somehow avoid overtime work and spend alot of time with your family? These are the types of decisions which are important and can have a significant effect on stress levels. The decisions should be made while keeping in mind what it important in life. In my case mentioned above, I chose to work extra hard for a year in order to start a medical program with my friends. But if such a decision would cause extreme stress that would lead to health problems, I would not have decided to work so hard.
Stress Reduction Practices -- Continuing a regular practice of stress reduction techniques such as yoga, bioenergetics or meditation can help one get through busy times with one's sanity. It can be many times easier to develop a regular practice by going to a class. Most people can spare at least 15-30 minutes per day to perform a short routine.
"I Hate My Job" Syndrome
Job stress can be one of the biggest sources of stress for many people. In many cases, people feel hopeless when thinking about solving serious problems on the job, dissatisfaction with the job, or making career choices. In fact, a large percentage of the people I have met have had this situation at one time in their life. It can be difficult to heal a chronic illness if you are experiencing a large amount of stress on the job. In addition, chronic illnesses may become more likely if the excessive on-the-job stress is not addressed. Below are a few ideas which may prove helpful.
Program -- The first four ideas suggested for Financial Difficulties above are highly recommended in this situation.
Improving the Job -- A couple of excellent resources for making the very best of a difficult situation are 1) the book, "The Corporate Mystic: A Guidebook for Visionaries With Their Feet on the Ground" by Gay Hendricks & Kate Ludeman (Please see the Stress Reduction page of the Holistic Healing Web Page / Amazon.Com Bookstore for ordering information), and 2) the article entitled, "The Spirit of 9 to 5" in the December 1997 issue (#137) of Yoga Journal. It only takes a minor effort to obtain these excellent resources and I highly recommend them.
Personnel Office -- The Personnel Office in most companies is responsible for helping resolve conflicts with other employees and for resolving and problems you are having with job responsibilities. If discussing the situation with your boss does not resolve the situation or if you do not feel comfortable discussing the situation with your boss, please consider whether the Personnel Office in your company can help find solutions for the problem.
Exploration -- Pursuing creative expression in various ways can be helpful in finding goals that may one day become a career. While it may not seem possible upon initial evaluation, many exciting hobbies can eventually become careers. Therefore, it can be helpful to take classes and explore various endeavors while paying attention to what excites you as a possible hobby or career.
Bioenergetics -- One of the goals with Bioenergetic Analysis is to help the student "find their own movement." By learning to find my own movement physically and expressing myself vocally using Bioenergetic techniques, I gained confidence and skills in both identifying and pursuing my own career goals. Others have seen similar effects. The classes can be helpful in this regard, but one-on-one work can be even more effective.
Questions & Answers
Difficulty Making Changes
I am having difficulty keeping a regular practice of yoga/meditation as well as eliminating habits that cause stress. I keep falling back into the same old patterns of stressful living and not taking care of myself. Do you have any ideas?
Having difficulty making changes can have a number of possible causes. Below are a few suggestions to consider:
Class -- Taking a class can make an enormous difference in one's ability to keep a yoga or meditation practice going. I know some practitioners who give classes because it is easier for them to keep up a practice by doing so. Try to find a class near your home if possible.
Friends & Family -- It can be much easier to make changes and sustain those changes you get regular support and love from close friends and family.
Positive Influences -- Spend time around positive, cheerful people whenever possible. There's little that can drag a person down more easily than a lack of positive attitudes in one's life or excessive exposure to negative attitudes. Some people move to yoga or meditation centers or take retreats regularly at such centers in order to learn and to be around people who are positive and taking care of themselves.
Programs -- Two different and very simple programs that people have found helpful are described in the following books. I would suggest only doing one program at a time.
I Deserve Love" by Sondra Ray
Primary Domino Thinking: Creating the Life You Want by Anthony S. Dallmann-Jones
Please see the Transformation Books section in the Stress Reduction page of the Holistic Healing Web Page / Amazon.Com Bookstore.
Meditation -- Inner Transformation techniques such as meditation has proven extremely helpful for many people in making changes.
We have some very exciting news to report this week. We have some pilot study results showing the youbreathe use can reduce cortisol (see graph below). Several subjects used youbreathe in a similar manner to the strength training protocol we devised (about 75% of maximum breathing power for 3 sets of 5 reps) and we tested cortisol before, 5 minutes and 30 minutes after youbreathe use. As you can see cortisol dropped off dramatically.
For those who don't know cortisol is called the stress hormone, as it is produced as part of the stress or "fight or flight" response, and in short bursts it can increase energy supply, heighten the senses and increase memory. Cortisol is secreted by the adrenal glands and involved in the following functions and more:
Glucose metabolism
Regulation of blood pressure
Insulin release for blood sugar maintanence
Immune function
Inflammatory response
But because of the stressful way we live our lives now we live with chronic stress symptoms and high cortisol such as muscle tension, chronic fatigue, depression and reduced cognitive abilities.
The key to improving this situation is through stress management programmes such as meditation, breathing, exercise and less work. Well now we know that we can apply youbreathe as a stress reliever, and only 5 minutes youbreathe use can reduce cortisol and reduce stress.
We know that people are not going to give up their busy lives so by using youbreathe for short periods throughout the day can reduce the stress response and keep your mind even. youbreathe can be central to any stress management programme and take away many of the negative symptoms of stress. Actually we think that youbreathe used in this way will increase relaxation, increase cognitive functions such as memory, increase energy levels and increase fat metabolism.
From my personal point of view I never really focus on stress until I get ill or can feel the tension so clearly. But as I use youbreathe anyway it is not difficult to combine my training with a stress management programme. I do the stress relieving training before I go for lunch and before I go for dinner, then over the course of the lunch hour and when I am at home for the evening I feel the tension drain out of my head and soon feel stress free, and I am sleeping better. I guess we live in a culture that we put things off until they become unavoidable. Sress is the biggest problem that I can perceive in the world today, you only have to do a google search for stress and the number of diseases that come up are amazing.
It is important to remember though that stress is our response to a given situation, it is not something that happens too us. It is therefore very important to change our reactions to situations as well as removing the symptoms of stress when they are there. I find that changing my reactions is easier when the symptoms are very small. Using youbreathe regularly I find that with lower cortisol levels I can often clear my mind very quickly and get my brain relaxed and positive. It is about being able to choose your reactions and enjoy your life as a positive experience, and not responding in a stressful way, and youbreathe can really help with this.
Cortisol and Slimming
Cortisol has been described as the slimmers enemy as it promotes carbohydrate metabolism as part of the fight or flight response. Carbohydrate can provide energy more quickly than fat so when you need to run to get out of the way of an approaching car, carbohydrate is the fuel of source for replenishing our energy supplies. But if we are trying to lose fat, having high levels of cortisol promoting carbohydrate metabolism is not a good thing.
Youbreathe as a slimming tool
This means that youbreathe use could help as a slimming aid by reducing the levels of cortisol helping the body use fat instead of carbohydrate. This of course doesn't mean that you can eat whatever you like and just use youbreathe, but that a healthy diet, regular exercie and youbreathe use could lead to easier weight and fat loss than just diet and exercise alone. Additionaly when we get the growth hormone results through, which promotes fat loss we will have even more reason to believe that youbreathe can help weight loss and slimming (I will devote a new post to this subject when we have more results).
For us a scientists, every time we test something with vibration it seems to pay off, it is such an exciting time to be involved in this. Hopefully we can help people to keep going with their busy lives, but increase the quality of lif through short simple youbreathe training.
Below is the info provided by http://www.holisticmed.com/stressfree.html Please visit their site for more info, I think it is an excellent resource.
Discussion
Millions of people are looking for a magic supplement and herb combination that will increase their health and vitality. People are ingesting Coenzyme Q, pycnogenol, magnesium, Vitamin C, Gingko, Echinacea and thousands of other products and combinations. In many cases, these supplements give a slight energy and health boost. In some cases, the body needs both healthy foods and supplements to help recover from an illness. However, for most people, much of the increased need for nutrients is due in a significant part to a high level of daily physical and/or psychological stress.
Taking steps to relax and body and mind (in addition to getting adequate sleep) can be enormously healing and is highly recommended for those interested in healing acute or serious chronic illnesses or preventing future illnesses. Relaxation techniques can add enormous power to other holistic healing techniques. I hope that you take the time to make gradual changes which will allow deep relaxation and the healing and vitality that comes with it to become an increasing part of your life.
Some Common Signs and Symptoms of Excess Stress
Regularly walking, eating or working in a rushed way.
Regularly thinking and worrying about the past or future.
Frequent tension in the body (esp. neck, face, shoulders, back and chest, and stomach) which often goes unnoticed until one slows down, breaths deep and carefully surveys the body.
Feeling of the "weight of the world" on your shoulders.
Emotionally "on edge."
Regular tiredness during the day.
Significant need for outside stimulation to feel good (coffee, sweeteners, food, sex, TV, alcohol, money, accomplishments, etc.)
The Goal
Occasional challenges, both physical and psychological, are not unhealthy for most people. Occasional challenging projects, arguments, difficulties with children, difficulties at work/school, etc. are a normal part of life. These types of stresses are normal and can actually be strengthening. The goal is not necessarily to avoid all stressful events, but to develop the ability to relax during day-to-day activities and during challenging occurences (such as those mentioned above). Persons who are recovering from an illness should attempt to keep challenging situations to a minimum but not necessarily avoid them totally unless they are extremely weak.
Strategies For Stress Relief
As part of the process of curing an illness, promoting health & vitality and preventing illness and premature aging, it is important to gradually move towards a daily life that less stressful.
Some Strategies to Avoid
Attempting to make everything in life stress-free.
Focusing on every event and constantly reminding yourself to relax.
Regularly avoiding the feeling of emotions (e.g., sadness, anger, joy, fear, etc.).
There are a number of other things which will not work in the long run when used by themselves only -- long vacations, execise, etc.
The type of strategy which tends to work is the combination of gradually and gently trying to change one's habits plus regular practices or situations which help put the body in a relaxed state. Both types of strategies are important in promoting stress reduction.
Regular Practices and Situations to Promote Stress Relief
Note: The positive effects of these techniques vary from person to person.
Examples of Powerful and Healing Regular Practices
Taking a class and going to regular group practices can be crucial in promoting a regular practice. Some people have moved into teaching centers in order to be certain they will have a regular practice and promote healing and transformation.
Yoga -- This is a wonderful practice for stress reduction and profound healing. I highly recommend printing out the Yoga Chapter, reading it and then taking regular classes.
Meditation
Tai Chi
Conscious Breathing Routine (Conscious Breathing, by Gay Hendricks, Ph.D., (Please see the Stress Reduction page of the Holistic Healing Web Page / Amazon.Com Bookstore for a listing).
Dancing
Bioenergetics Classes
Examples of Powerful and Healing Occasional Practices
Holistic Healing Retreat
Vacation
Massage (Some people practice regularly by exchanging with a partner.)
Daily Stress Reduction Tips
Note: As mentioned earlier, there will naturally be times when these tips are not used, but try to gradually incorporate them into your life where possible.
Add something beautiful to your life on a daily basis (e.g., flowers).
Do some enjoyable activities whenever possible.
Walk, work, and eat at a relaxed pace.
Take a short break after meals to relax.
If possible, go outside at least once per day and notice the simple things such as the weather, scenery, etc.
During the day, whenever you remember, notice and tension in your body (jaw, neck, diaphram, shoulders, etc.). Breath deeply and gently stretch and relax any tense areas.
If you notice your mind racing or worrying about the past or future, take a minute to breath deeply and gently focus on something in the moment such as your breath, scenery, birds.
Take breaks during the workday to relax.
Wear comfortable and loose clothing when possible. Take off your shoes when you can.
Avoid holding in feelings day after day, but instead, find a safe place to feel, express and embrace them.
Please be gentle with yourself. Some people find themselves falling back into excessively stressful habits from time to time. That is perfectly normal. Simply notice that change in a non-judgemental way and move back to the stress reduction practices and tips that promote a healthy way of life.
Stress Relief Ideas in Specific Situations
On many ocassions there are situations that come up which can cause significant amounts of stress. Listed below are a few such situations along with some ideas that I have found useful in addressing the situation. As in all of the idea listings on the Holistic Healing Web Page, please do not try to do everything at once.
Financial Difficulties
Financial difficulties can be enormously stressful for some people because our goals and our security is wrapped up in the need to have sufficient finances. Such difficulties often don't magically disappear, but there are some steps that can be taken to reduce or eliminate the stress and worry while working one's way through these difficulties. A few suggestions include:
Steps -- Carefully follow the plan outlined in the book, "Your Money or Your Life." (Please see the Stress Reduction page of the Holistic Healing Web Page / Amazon.Com Bookstore for a listing) This book will take you step by step towards financial independence. Following the program in the book can also be useful in helping to find your goals and make career decisions.
Share -- Tell at least one close friend, family member or religious leader (e.g., minister, rabbi) about your difficulties. Keeping the difficulties secret will often add stress and eventually cause inner turmoil. Some people find support groups such as those formed to work with the above-mentioned book or those seen with Debtors Anonymous (see below) to be very helpful.
Faith -- Persons who have a regular Meditation Practice or Spiritual Practice often develop enormous faith that difficulties can be worked through successfully. The potential stress can be reduced many-fold through these types of practices. While it doesn't directly effect the financial situation, these practices can improve health, reduce stress, make it easier to see worthwhile opportunities and make it easier to change habits that may, in some cases, contribute to financial difficulties.
Acceptance -- While it may seem strange, having a loving acceptance of oneself in the current situation is often an important key to making a permanent change in the situation. This goes hand-in-hand with having a strong faith. If you look at people who successfully turn their lives around, you will usually notice both a loving acceptance of who they are as well as a strong faith. The opposite end of the sprectrum are the unfortunate souls who have lost their faith and their self-esteem (or never had it).
Persons who have low self-esteem, having difficulty making simple changes or who have lost their faith may want to temporarily set aside working the steps in "Your Money or Your Life" and focus on choosing one inner transformational tool that addresses the situation. Some such tools are:
Meditation Practice
Spiritual Practice or Practical Spiritual Program such as Debtors Anonymous discussed below.
Affirmation Program such as found in the excellent book, "I Deserve Love." (Please see the Stress Reduction page of the Holistic Healing Web Page / Amazon.Com Bookstore for a listing)
Special -- Persons who have significant debt and/or habits of overspending may want to consider working the program detailed by Debtors Anonymous. Internet resources for the excellent program can be found on the Debtors Anonymous Information page.
Persons suffering from psychological illnesses which are contributing in some way to the financial difficulties can, if possible, have these health problems treated by a Holistic Healthcare Professional such as an Oriental Medical Doctor, Naturopath, Homeopath, Holistic MD or an experienced Medical Herbalist. Psychological therapy may be warrented as well. See the Directory of Practitioners Web Page to find a practitioner in your area.
Tasks and Time Constraints
There are situations where there is constant time and work pressure and which adds significant stress to one's life. Sometimes these situations are not easily avoidable. In order to start a medical training program with friends (who had planned to start at a specific date), I chose to continue to work full-time, take prerequisite classes nearly full-time and to continue to serve as the webmaster for the Holistic Healing Web Page. In order to come out of situations like these with one's health, it is helpful to consider a few ideas which I have related below.
Small Tasks -- Spliting projects and assignments into small pieces and doing a small amount of work on a regular basis on these projects is perhaps one of the very best ways to prevent becoming overwhelmed with work.
Priorities -- Choosing appropriate priorities for tasks is an important way to avoid stress. Is it better to performs A+ (4.0 grade) in school and study all of the time or to get a B average and spend the extra time having fun, exercising, etc.? Is it better to work overtime completing projects to earn extra money or job prestige and not see your family much or to somehow avoid overtime work and spend alot of time with your family? These are the types of decisions which are important and can have a significant effect on stress levels. The decisions should be made while keeping in mind what it important in life. In my case mentioned above, I chose to work extra hard for a year in order to start a medical program with my friends. But if such a decision would cause extreme stress that would lead to health problems, I would not have decided to work so hard.
Stress Reduction Practices -- Continuing a regular practice of stress reduction techniques such as yoga, bioenergetics or meditation can help one get through busy times with one's sanity. It can be many times easier to develop a regular practice by going to a class. Most people can spare at least 15-30 minutes per day to perform a short routine.
"I Hate My Job" Syndrome
Job stress can be one of the biggest sources of stress for many people. In many cases, people feel hopeless when thinking about solving serious problems on the job, dissatisfaction with the job, or making career choices. In fact, a large percentage of the people I have met have had this situation at one time in their life. It can be difficult to heal a chronic illness if you are experiencing a large amount of stress on the job. In addition, chronic illnesses may become more likely if the excessive on-the-job stress is not addressed. Below are a few ideas which may prove helpful.
Program -- The first four ideas suggested for Financial Difficulties above are highly recommended in this situation.
Improving the Job -- A couple of excellent resources for making the very best of a difficult situation are 1) the book, "The Corporate Mystic: A Guidebook for Visionaries With Their Feet on the Ground" by Gay Hendricks & Kate Ludeman (Please see the Stress Reduction page of the Holistic Healing Web Page / Amazon.Com Bookstore for ordering information), and 2) the article entitled, "The Spirit of 9 to 5" in the December 1997 issue (#137) of Yoga Journal. It only takes a minor effort to obtain these excellent resources and I highly recommend them.
Personnel Office -- The Personnel Office in most companies is responsible for helping resolve conflicts with other employees and for resolving and problems you are having with job responsibilities. If discussing the situation with your boss does not resolve the situation or if you do not feel comfortable discussing the situation with your boss, please consider whether the Personnel Office in your company can help find solutions for the problem.
Exploration -- Pursuing creative expression in various ways can be helpful in finding goals that may one day become a career. While it may not seem possible upon initial evaluation, many exciting hobbies can eventually become careers. Therefore, it can be helpful to take classes and explore various endeavors while paying attention to what excites you as a possible hobby or career.
Bioenergetics -- One of the goals with Bioenergetic Analysis is to help the student "find their own movement." By learning to find my own movement physically and expressing myself vocally using Bioenergetic techniques, I gained confidence and skills in both identifying and pursuing my own career goals. Others have seen similar effects. The classes can be helpful in this regard, but one-on-one work can be even more effective.
Questions & Answers
Difficulty Making Changes
I am having difficulty keeping a regular practice of yoga/meditation as well as eliminating habits that cause stress. I keep falling back into the same old patterns of stressful living and not taking care of myself. Do you have any ideas?
Having difficulty making changes can have a number of possible causes. Below are a few suggestions to consider:
Class -- Taking a class can make an enormous difference in one's ability to keep a yoga or meditation practice going. I know some practitioners who give classes because it is easier for them to keep up a practice by doing so. Try to find a class near your home if possible.
Friends & Family -- It can be much easier to make changes and sustain those changes you get regular support and love from close friends and family.
Positive Influences -- Spend time around positive, cheerful people whenever possible. There's little that can drag a person down more easily than a lack of positive attitudes in one's life or excessive exposure to negative attitudes. Some people move to yoga or meditation centers or take retreats regularly at such centers in order to learn and to be around people who are positive and taking care of themselves.
Programs -- Two different and very simple programs that people have found helpful are described in the following books. I would suggest only doing one program at a time.
I Deserve Love" by Sondra Ray
Primary Domino Thinking: Creating the Life You Want by Anthony S. Dallmann-Jones
Please see the Transformation Books section in the Stress Reduction page of the Holistic Healing Web Page / Amazon.Com Bookstore.
Meditation -- Inner Transformation techniques such as meditation has proven extremely helpful for many people in making changes.
Sunday 16 September 2007
Vibration training slimming and weight loss
Hi,
This week I have done google searches for the effect of vibration training on slimming and weight (fat) loss and found hundreds of responses from all sorts of different companies promising slimming miracles if you go to their gym and stand on this platform for 10 minutes. Claims such as these are some of the promises made:
Helps Reduce Cellulite
Clears Lymph glands
Exercises & Oxygenates the entire body
Slims, Tones, and increases flexibility
Stimulates Human Growth Hormones
Reverse Osteoporosis
Feels Wonderful, Like a Deep Massage
Stimulates Serotonin (Happy Hormone)
Gently re-aligns organs
Clears Lymph glands
Reduces cortisol
Increases circulation
But no-one ever backs up their claims with results. Lets look at the evidence for vibration and slimming. Well as far as I can see there are only two studies that have examined the effects of whole body vibration training and fat loss, and the results are contradictory. The first study was conducted in non-active females. This study compared whole body vibration with conventional training and found vibration to be slightly superior in terms of strength. There was also a slight increase lean mass (fat-free mass) with the vibration training. But there was no effects of any of the training on fat loss (which is a little strange and needs repeating I think). The other study was conducted in physically active men and compared squatting with and without vibration. The results from this suggest that adding vibration did increase the energy demand of the exercise, which seems reasonable to me as recruitment muscle patterns would change and efficiency would be reduced with vibration.
Vibrex from Exoscience
So far we have discussed the potential benefits of whole body vibration on slimming, but vibration has been applied to the respiratory system also, and preliminary results suggest that youbreathe reduces cortisol and increases growth hormone. Further studies are underway to examine these effects as they could promote fat loss.
So, vibration does look to have potential for slimming, but the studies have not been done properly or in enough volume to draw conclusions. I hope we can change this at London South Bank where we are now investigating the physics, biomechanics, physiology and neuroscience of whole body and targeted vibration training. Of course the key to slimming and fat loss is increasing metabolic rate and controlling diet. Now if vibration training helps users to keep going to the gym then that can only be a good thing.
One more thing we need to add to this discussion is the effects of growth hormone release on fat loss, but I can save that for next time.
Sunday 2 September 2007
Vibration training support
Hi,
This week I have been continuing my work into the effects of youbreathe on respiratory strength and power, the results are looking ever more exciting with gains of about 15% after just 10 breaths of youbreathe use vs no increase with 10 breaths of resistance. We will be continuing these studies and I will update you when they are finished.
Also we are continuing our research into how youbreathe can be applied to respiratory therapy in conditions such as cystic fibrosis or any condition where excess mucus is a problem. Because youbreathe provides pulses to the respiratory system we believe that it can be used to release excess mucus that would normally require chest physiotherapy. When we start getting the full results through I will keep you updated.
Another thing more generally I would like to talk about is to talk about personal trainers. Lots of personal trainers are now jumping on the vibration training bandwagon before we have a full understanding of the effects of vibration training on performance. But I recommend if you want to include vibration training in your training programme, you sould find someone who knows their stuff. There are still no independent qualifications for personal trainers to take, so I would advise contacting a University who research vibration training such as the Human Performance Centre at London South Bank University or a personal training company like Home Health Fitness (http://www.homehealthfitness.com) who are all University graduates and are applying vibration training in a controlled manner supported by University Research.
This week I have been continuing my work into the effects of youbreathe on respiratory strength and power, the results are looking ever more exciting with gains of about 15% after just 10 breaths of youbreathe use vs no increase with 10 breaths of resistance. We will be continuing these studies and I will update you when they are finished.
Also we are continuing our research into how youbreathe can be applied to respiratory therapy in conditions such as cystic fibrosis or any condition where excess mucus is a problem. Because youbreathe provides pulses to the respiratory system we believe that it can be used to release excess mucus that would normally require chest physiotherapy. When we start getting the full results through I will keep you updated.
Another thing more generally I would like to talk about is to talk about personal trainers. Lots of personal trainers are now jumping on the vibration training bandwagon before we have a full understanding of the effects of vibration training on performance. But I recommend if you want to include vibration training in your training programme, you sould find someone who knows their stuff. There are still no independent qualifications for personal trainers to take, so I would advise contacting a University who research vibration training such as the Human Performance Centre at London South Bank University or a personal training company like Home Health Fitness (http://www.homehealthfitness.com) who are all University graduates and are applying vibration training in a controlled manner supported by University Research.
Sunday 26 August 2007
Strength Training
Hi,
This week I want to get back on to my common thread about vibration training and strength. I want to talk a little about strength training from a nerve and brain perspective.
There is a lot of debate about what the best strength training programmes are such as high weight/low rep vs lower weight/high rep. It really depends upon what you are training for. To develop strength heavy weights have to be lifted at least some of the time. Your muscles now are capable of developing a lot more force than your brain and nerves will allow you to use. To increase your strength first you have to retrain the nerves, which you can only do by lifting almost all you can a small number of times.
If you lift lower weights more times then your nerves will adapt to do that very well, but it won't necessarily lead to large increases in strength. The key is training the nervous system the way you want it to work. But if you want to increase muscle mass then higher reps are advisable.
Some people may start worrying about injuries, but most injuries happen when the body is fatigued, high weight/low rep doesn't fatigue the body and concentration should be better. I think the risk of inury is less with higher weight training. The key to strength, like with vibration training is increasing the quality of the stimulus, and reduce the quantity.
This could be why vibration is so effective, the neural stimulus is much higher so the nervous system adapts giving you access to your unused strength.
Now combne this with youbreathe use to increase growth hormone and you should be on to a winner. Your training should also leave you energised, not exhausted, and should be done more often.
OK, I have been promising you a strength training manual for your youbreathe device, please click on the link below to download it. It is important that if you have high blood pressure or any cardio-respiratory disease to check with your doctor to make sure this is a safe form of training for you.
Strength Manual
See you next time.
This week I want to get back on to my common thread about vibration training and strength. I want to talk a little about strength training from a nerve and brain perspective.
There is a lot of debate about what the best strength training programmes are such as high weight/low rep vs lower weight/high rep. It really depends upon what you are training for. To develop strength heavy weights have to be lifted at least some of the time. Your muscles now are capable of developing a lot more force than your brain and nerves will allow you to use. To increase your strength first you have to retrain the nerves, which you can only do by lifting almost all you can a small number of times.
If you lift lower weights more times then your nerves will adapt to do that very well, but it won't necessarily lead to large increases in strength. The key is training the nervous system the way you want it to work. But if you want to increase muscle mass then higher reps are advisable.
Some people may start worrying about injuries, but most injuries happen when the body is fatigued, high weight/low rep doesn't fatigue the body and concentration should be better. I think the risk of inury is less with higher weight training. The key to strength, like with vibration training is increasing the quality of the stimulus, and reduce the quantity.
This could be why vibration is so effective, the neural stimulus is much higher so the nervous system adapts giving you access to your unused strength.
Now combne this with youbreathe use to increase growth hormone and you should be on to a winner. Your training should also leave you energised, not exhausted, and should be done more often.
OK, I have been promising you a strength training manual for your youbreathe device, please click on the link below to download it. It is important that if you have high blood pressure or any cardio-respiratory disease to check with your doctor to make sure this is a safe form of training for you.
Strength Manual
See you next time.
Sunday 5 August 2007
Fit-flop
Hi,
Thought I would write about something different this week. Something called Fit-flop is gaining massive media attention and has even been shown on the Oprah Winfrey show. This is quite a good idea. It is the brainchild of Dr Dave Cook and Darren James both of London South Bank University.
Their idea was to take a flip-flop and make it ever so slightly unstable during the mid-phase of walking i.e. after the foot has made contact with the floor and before the foot pushes off floor for the next step.
The results are great, it really does make the legs work harder during walking and will also increase resistance to injury, similar to walking and running barefoot (actually wearing sports shoes is not very good for our health!).
I have spoken to Dave and Darren about these things and they are a really inspirational pair with lots more fantastic ideas for footwear and training devices.
I hope you enjoyed the variety to this weeks blog.
See you next time.
Wednesday 25 July 2007
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia cont.
Hi again,
This week I would like to show you some results we have been getting in our labs, specifically relating to respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Remember RSA is the variation in heart rate during inspiration and expiration, and shows the effect of breathing on cardiovascular control. Actually what RSA is showing is the level of parasympathetic control over the cardiovascular system. Sympathetic control should only be active in times of stress such as fight or flight, but because of the way we live our lives and more importantly because of the way we breathe, we can stay in a state of high stress demonstrated by low RSA.
I have been working in the lab with Dr Dave Green from Kings College London and we have been looking into the effects of youbreathe use on the cardiovascular system. If you look at the graphs below, the top one shows a fit guy, but his RSA is low (see there is no regular pattern in the bottom line relative to the top line).
This week I would like to show you some results we have been getting in our labs, specifically relating to respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Remember RSA is the variation in heart rate during inspiration and expiration, and shows the effect of breathing on cardiovascular control. Actually what RSA is showing is the level of parasympathetic control over the cardiovascular system. Sympathetic control should only be active in times of stress such as fight or flight, but because of the way we live our lives and more importantly because of the way we breathe, we can stay in a state of high stress demonstrated by low RSA.
I have been working in the lab with Dr Dave Green from Kings College London and we have been looking into the effects of youbreathe use on the cardiovascular system. If you look at the graphs below, the top one shows a fit guy, but his RSA is low (see there is no regular pattern in the bottom line relative to the top line).
Now compare that to the trace below. This guy is not as fit, but trains regularly with youbreathe, and you can see the high regularity between the two lines.
This is a very important finding and a sign of the long term benefits of youbreathe use on cardiovascular health.
We are continuing with this research which we will publish in due course. Please read my previous posts for a full description of the kinds of physical symptoms we are talking about today.
See you all next time.
Sunday 15 July 2007
Flexi-bar
Hi,
This week I want to talk a little bit about another vibration related training modality - Flexi-bar. I actually know the distributors of this product and the guy from all the videos, Steve Schiemer. Before we get on to the product, I would like to say that Steve is a really great guy and knows what he is talking about.
Flexi-bar is an interesting device and the theory behind it is sound. I tried one for a few weeks and found it to be challenging but also interesting. Maybe this is where it's real benefit lies, making training varied and fun. Some of my colleagues at London South Bank University, Drs Jo Bowtell and Katya Mileva did some testing and found that there were differences in muscle recruitment with Flexi-bar but the investigations were not deep enough to allow real conclusions to be drawn. It looked like Flexi-bar was doing something.
I haven't seen the athletic version yet, but I think for core stability training it could be an excellent addition to a training programme. I know Wayne Rooney's girlfriend Coleen McLoughlin has been seen using one plus I know a few sports teams use them especially in Germany.
Hope this helps
Best wishes
Tuesday 10 July 2007
youbreathe vibration breathing training and Taekwondo
Hi,
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This week I want to report on some youbreathe users who have had some great success. Jaguar Taekwondo are using youbreathe as part of their training regimes and as a recovery tool during competition. They report have faster recovery profiles and greater endurance during fights.
We decided to go along and watch their latest competition which was held at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre on Sunday 8th July. They had 7 fighters competing in total and they finished with 2 golds, 1 silver and 3 bronzes, which could have been higher if not for injury.
I always feel immensely proud when I see youbreathe users doing well. I am not saying that their success is down to youbreathe but that youbreathe has played even a small part in their success. This is immensely gratifying for me.
Watching these athletes was also incredible. Then speed, stamina and skill they demonstrated was exceptional. They are coached by Dr Dave Cook who is a biomechanist, and he has done a great job with his athletes.
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Cystic Fibrosis
Tomorrow I have a meeting with a cystic fibrosis clinician who wants to use youbreathe for his patients. We have known for a long time now that as well as breathing improvements, we can also utilise youbreathe for clearing mucus in cystic fibrosis, asthma, cancer plus other diseases. This is why we created youbreathe, to solve problems like this, and I hope youbreathe can be available to everyone who needs it. After all youbreathe is for everyone who breathes!
Monday 2 July 2007
Human Growth Hormone continued
Hi,
I am going to continue to talk a little more about human growth hormone responses, but this week I want to talk a little more about breathing. When we designed youbreathe we did so with neuromuscular and hormonal responses in mind. We knew that growth hormone responded very strongly to vibration with exercise, and we knew there were effects of breathing on growth hormone responses. We always had in mind to see if youbreathe would cause growth hormone responses as the theory predicted.
We have some prelim results and it certainly looks promising. We have a couple of elite sprinters and some strength and conditioning coaches trying programmes out with youbreathe use for strength, sprint and power training. All feedback so far has been very positive.
We have several programmes developed so far but we need to continue the research to see which gives the best responses. In the next couple of weeks I will provide here a beta version for you to try in your own training regime. It makes training harder but the potential benefits will be well worth it.
We hope to be able to apply this to many clinical situations were atrophy is a problem and also maybe to obesity.
See you next time
I am going to continue to talk a little more about human growth hormone responses, but this week I want to talk a little more about breathing. When we designed youbreathe we did so with neuromuscular and hormonal responses in mind. We knew that growth hormone responded very strongly to vibration with exercise, and we knew there were effects of breathing on growth hormone responses. We always had in mind to see if youbreathe would cause growth hormone responses as the theory predicted.
We have some prelim results and it certainly looks promising. We have a couple of elite sprinters and some strength and conditioning coaches trying programmes out with youbreathe use for strength, sprint and power training. All feedback so far has been very positive.
We have several programmes developed so far but we need to continue the research to see which gives the best responses. In the next couple of weeks I will provide here a beta version for you to try in your own training regime. It makes training harder but the potential benefits will be well worth it.
We hope to be able to apply this to many clinical situations were atrophy is a problem and also maybe to obesity.
See you next time
Monday 25 June 2007
Human Growth Hormone
Hi,
I am going to get back onto my normal thread this week by talking more generally about vibration training. I would like to talk about hormonal responses to vibration training, specifically human growth hormone. Generally there are very conflicting responses to vibration training largely because of the variation in the methods used and protocols followed. But in growth hormone responses the situation seems a lot more clear. Vibration definitely affects growth hormone responses! There still does seem to be some variability in these responses depending upon the muscle chosen to be vibrated, some muscles such as the soleus (which is a more slow type muscle) can cause a depression in growth hormone release.
One point which does seem to clarify this whole situation is that vibration combined with strength training stimulates human growth hormone release more than either vibration or strength training alone. For a long time now I have never thought of vibration training as a replacement for conventional training, but as an adjunct to other forms of training. This info about human growth hormone release seems to support that view, which is bad news for the lazy amongst us.
Also in the treatment of many clinical conditions treatment of artificial growth hormone is prescribed, with signficant side effects, but encouraging the body to produce it's own growth hormone seems a much more sensible and safe idea.
These are the reasons we developed out vibration training solutions such as youbreathe and vibrex which superimpose the vibrations on to traditional exercise. And the results we get are excellent.
OK, I promised you a download for training yourself to perform abdominal breathing, and it is done and tested now.
Please click this link for the training manual.
http://www.youbreathe.com/general/pdf/abdominal%20breathing%20user%20manual.pdf
Thanks
I am going to get back onto my normal thread this week by talking more generally about vibration training. I would like to talk about hormonal responses to vibration training, specifically human growth hormone. Generally there are very conflicting responses to vibration training largely because of the variation in the methods used and protocols followed. But in growth hormone responses the situation seems a lot more clear. Vibration definitely affects growth hormone responses! There still does seem to be some variability in these responses depending upon the muscle chosen to be vibrated, some muscles such as the soleus (which is a more slow type muscle) can cause a depression in growth hormone release.
One point which does seem to clarify this whole situation is that vibration combined with strength training stimulates human growth hormone release more than either vibration or strength training alone. For a long time now I have never thought of vibration training as a replacement for conventional training, but as an adjunct to other forms of training. This info about human growth hormone release seems to support that view, which is bad news for the lazy amongst us.
Also in the treatment of many clinical conditions treatment of artificial growth hormone is prescribed, with signficant side effects, but encouraging the body to produce it's own growth hormone seems a much more sensible and safe idea.
These are the reasons we developed out vibration training solutions such as youbreathe and vibrex which superimpose the vibrations on to traditional exercise. And the results we get are excellent.
OK, I promised you a download for training yourself to perform abdominal breathing, and it is done and tested now.
Please click this link for the training manual.
http://www.youbreathe.com/general/pdf/abdominal%20breathing%20user%20manual.pdf
Thanks
Monday 18 June 2007
More hyperventilation problems
Hi,
I would like to continue this week on the same theme as last week.
This problem of breathing too much because of chest breathing is intriguing me. I have continued trawling the literature and it seems that this problem can be a cause of many other cardiovascular and respiratory disorders such as asthma, variant angina, coronary spasm and sudden death plus other problems such as migraine and spastic colon. These many problems seem to occur as a result of the blood becoming alkaline which leads to constriction of airways and blood vessels.
As I talked about last week, by retraining the breathing to be abdominal instead of chest breathing, the breathing can be slowed whilst still fully oxygenating the blood and avoiding the blood becoming alkaline. This seems to have a protective effect for many of the problems mentioned above and more.
For these reasons I think long term use of youbreathe for slowing the breathing could be so important for maintenance of optimal health long term. For this reason I am in the process of producing an abdominal breathing user manual with exercises for retraining the breathing pattern. I will post that here and on the youbreathe website when it is finished.
Have a great week.
I would like to continue this week on the same theme as last week.
This problem of breathing too much because of chest breathing is intriguing me. I have continued trawling the literature and it seems that this problem can be a cause of many other cardiovascular and respiratory disorders such as asthma, variant angina, coronary spasm and sudden death plus other problems such as migraine and spastic colon. These many problems seem to occur as a result of the blood becoming alkaline which leads to constriction of airways and blood vessels.
As I talked about last week, by retraining the breathing to be abdominal instead of chest breathing, the breathing can be slowed whilst still fully oxygenating the blood and avoiding the blood becoming alkaline. This seems to have a protective effect for many of the problems mentioned above and more.
For these reasons I think long term use of youbreathe for slowing the breathing could be so important for maintenance of optimal health long term. For this reason I am in the process of producing an abdominal breathing user manual with exercises for retraining the breathing pattern. I will post that here and on the youbreathe website when it is finished.
Have a great week.
Sunday 10 June 2007
youbreathe and back pain
Hi,
This week I want to talk a little about using youbreathe and it's potential effects on back pain. Seems like a strange connection to make, but there could actually be a strong benefit of regular youbreathe use on treating back pain.
Let me explain. One chronic problem that can lead to very diverse negative symptoms is chronic hyperventilation (breathing to much and too quickly). Most people actually breathe too much and this has been explained as a probable cause of many diseases such as some cases of asthma and various cardiovascular diseases. Now when you hyperventilate your blood carbon dioxide level goes down which leads to a removal of the neural drive to the breathing muscles. So if the drive to the diaphragm is lower it means the diaphragm is in a more relaxed state. The diaphragm also has a role to play in core stability and stabilising the mid to lower spine, so this means that a more relaxed diaphragm gives less support to the lower back, possibly risking injury.
Additionally, chest breathing and not using the diaphragm means that you are not going to oxygenate the blood very well, and also the blood will become more alkaline, meaning oxygen transport is compromised.
This has certainly been my experience. I have suffered from back pain since I was in my mid teens but since developing youbreathe and using it regularly my back pain has cleared up. I still do my stretching as a flexible back is also very important for injury prevention and health. For more info on youbreathe please visit www.youbreathe.com
There are too many potential symptoms for me to cover in this blog, but the exciting part is that using youbreathe with it's vibration can enable people to relearn abdominal breathing quickly and permanently.
For more info on back pain please visit these sites:
NHS - Back Pain
Back pain general information
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke - Back Pain
Back pain tutorial - prevention
Please visit the abdominal breathing section of the downloads page on the youbreathe website : http://www.youbreathe.com/
Hope this is all clear.
Have a great week.
This week I want to talk a little about using youbreathe and it's potential effects on back pain. Seems like a strange connection to make, but there could actually be a strong benefit of regular youbreathe use on treating back pain.
Let me explain. One chronic problem that can lead to very diverse negative symptoms is chronic hyperventilation (breathing to much and too quickly). Most people actually breathe too much and this has been explained as a probable cause of many diseases such as some cases of asthma and various cardiovascular diseases. Now when you hyperventilate your blood carbon dioxide level goes down which leads to a removal of the neural drive to the breathing muscles. So if the drive to the diaphragm is lower it means the diaphragm is in a more relaxed state. The diaphragm also has a role to play in core stability and stabilising the mid to lower spine, so this means that a more relaxed diaphragm gives less support to the lower back, possibly risking injury.
Additionally, chest breathing and not using the diaphragm means that you are not going to oxygenate the blood very well, and also the blood will become more alkaline, meaning oxygen transport is compromised.
This has certainly been my experience. I have suffered from back pain since I was in my mid teens but since developing youbreathe and using it regularly my back pain has cleared up. I still do my stretching as a flexible back is also very important for injury prevention and health. For more info on youbreathe please visit www.youbreathe.com
There are too many potential symptoms for me to cover in this blog, but the exciting part is that using youbreathe with it's vibration can enable people to relearn abdominal breathing quickly and permanently.
For more info on back pain please visit these sites:
NHS - Back Pain
Back pain general information
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke - Back Pain
Back pain tutorial - prevention
Please visit the abdominal breathing section of the downloads page on the youbreathe website : http://www.youbreathe.com/
Hope this is all clear.
Have a great week.
Sunday 3 June 2007
What is youbreathe?
Hi,
Some feedback I have had about this blog from friends is people reading this might not know what youbreathe is. So this week I will explain a little more about youbreathe but without trying to make this into a sales pitch.
youbreathe is a hand-held device that applies the principles of vibration to the breathing muscles. There are currently several respiratory muscle training products on the market but non of them utilise vibration. So youbreathe allows people to train their breathing muscles without any discomfort or great effort. We have submitted some results recently showing that using this device for a little as 10 breaths can increase breathing performance by up to 15%. Obviously when you train long term the benefits are much greater than this. So breathing in and out of youbreathe for around 5 mins a day, 5 days a week can have amazing effects on performance.
Another colleague who is a national strength and conditioning association coach has been using youbreathe and found that when he goes for a run he gets into the zone so quickly since using youbreathe. Again this is great for me to hear that something I invented can actually help someone. For more info please see www.youbreathe.com.
OK, I hope this clears up what youbreathe is.
I am going to start working on some youbreathe exercises that are combined with eastern philosophy and some visualisation exercises, as training the body and mind is far superior to training just the body.
Ok have a great week, see you next post.
Bye
Some feedback I have had about this blog from friends is people reading this might not know what youbreathe is. So this week I will explain a little more about youbreathe but without trying to make this into a sales pitch.
youbreathe is a hand-held device that applies the principles of vibration to the breathing muscles. There are currently several respiratory muscle training products on the market but non of them utilise vibration. So youbreathe allows people to train their breathing muscles without any discomfort or great effort. We have submitted some results recently showing that using this device for a little as 10 breaths can increase breathing performance by up to 15%. Obviously when you train long term the benefits are much greater than this. So breathing in and out of youbreathe for around 5 mins a day, 5 days a week can have amazing effects on performance.
Another colleague who is a national strength and conditioning association coach has been using youbreathe and found that when he goes for a run he gets into the zone so quickly since using youbreathe. Again this is great for me to hear that something I invented can actually help someone. For more info please see www.youbreathe.com.
OK, I hope this clears up what youbreathe is.
I am going to start working on some youbreathe exercises that are combined with eastern philosophy and some visualisation exercises, as training the body and mind is far superior to training just the body.
Ok have a great week, see you next post.
Bye
Monday 28 May 2007
Hi,
This week I have been working on sales channels for youbreathe. We are getting so much interest from people wanting to sell youbreathe. Once people try it they get hooked. You can pretty much feel the benefits straight away so it really markets itself. I guess this is what sales people are looking for, somthing they can make money from that takes little or no effort whatsoever.
This week I have been working on sales channels for youbreathe. We are getting so much interest from people wanting to sell youbreathe. Once people try it they get hooked. You can pretty much feel the benefits straight away so it really markets itself. I guess this is what sales people are looking for, somthing they can make money from that takes little or no effort whatsoever.
I have also been working with the team at London South Bank University on the science of vibration training. We have been looking at stimulus characteristics and transmission. Obviously the vibration pulses get damped by the tissues of the body so working out which stimuli have the best transmission is just about as important as working out what stimuli have the best effects on the body. I will let you know more later.
I am also planning to add some meditations and visualisations that will be downloadable from the website as I think covering the psycho-physical is better than just covering the physical, especially when breathing is involved.
See you soon
Sunday 13 May 2007
this weeks news
Hi,
Lots happening this week. We have had a good presence at the Scottish Vitality Show http://www.thevitalityshowscotland.co.uk/. youbreathe was received with lots of excited interest, people do seem intrigued by vibration training and what is offers.
We are continuing to get lots of interest from media, again they can see the potential of vibration training as something that people want to know about. I will keep you updated about where to go and what to do.
OK, let talk about some physiology of vibration training. Vibration affects sensory receptors within the muscles called muscle spindles, you already know about these from when you were children and u used to tap the front of your knees and your lower leg used to kick out. This is called a stretch reflex. Now imagine doing this 20-50 times a second. It can lead to huge muscle contractions. As we talked about previously if you do this at the same time as a muscle contraction then it is possible to get higher force contractions.
This also has effects of bone. Bones are constantly being broken down and reformed, which is why astronauts can only stay in space for relatively short lengths of time. There is no gravity in space which means there is no stress on the bones so they become soft. This is why vibration training has been so important to space as it acts like hypergravity, causing greater stress on the bones meaning they get stronger.
Hopefully we will be off to Italy later this week as we are having a meeting with one of the worlds largest gym manufacturers about working together on our vibration technology.
I will keep you updated as to how that went.
Have a great week
Lots happening this week. We have had a good presence at the Scottish Vitality Show http://www.thevitalityshowscotland.co.uk/. youbreathe was received with lots of excited interest, people do seem intrigued by vibration training and what is offers.
We are continuing to get lots of interest from media, again they can see the potential of vibration training as something that people want to know about. I will keep you updated about where to go and what to do.
OK, let talk about some physiology of vibration training. Vibration affects sensory receptors within the muscles called muscle spindles, you already know about these from when you were children and u used to tap the front of your knees and your lower leg used to kick out. This is called a stretch reflex. Now imagine doing this 20-50 times a second. It can lead to huge muscle contractions. As we talked about previously if you do this at the same time as a muscle contraction then it is possible to get higher force contractions.
This also has effects of bone. Bones are constantly being broken down and reformed, which is why astronauts can only stay in space for relatively short lengths of time. There is no gravity in space which means there is no stress on the bones so they become soft. This is why vibration training has been so important to space as it acts like hypergravity, causing greater stress on the bones meaning they get stronger.
Hopefully we will be off to Italy later this week as we are having a meeting with one of the worlds largest gym manufacturers about working together on our vibration technology.
I will keep you updated as to how that went.
Have a great week
Wednesday 2 May 2007
This weeks update
We have had a good couple of weeks in terms or research and what we have learnt about vibration. One of our devices has also received great coverage in Athletics Weekly magazine in the week leading up to the marathon. I find it so rewarding when someone comes back with a very positive experience using something that I did or contributed to. This is why we got into Science and this line of research. As a side note the editor of Ultra-Fit (http://www.youbreathe.com/general/images/17-2%20Vibration%20Training.pdf) magazine came back and said youbreathe had really helped him in his rowing time trial performance. These are exciting times indeed.
Many people keep asking me about vibration training and one of the most important questions I keep being asked is do I think it is bad that people are looking for quick fixes rather than doing the hard yards of a conventional training programme. Honestly I agree but what we have to realise is that our society is changing and we have to change with it. People don't seem to have the time to commit to regular training like they used to. So vibration training is one way we can try and keep the world healthy and happy even with a short amount of time and effort.
We also have an exciting week coming up for some of our other vibration inventions. We have a meeting coming up next week with the largest gym equipment manufacturer in the world who want to use our technology for their equipment. I think there hasn't been any major advances in training methods and gym equipment for a good 30 years. Vibration training is a quantum leap forwards for those who embrace it first. I hope soon everyone can have access to a vibration suite based on our technology. That would be fulfilling indeed, especially with the London Olympics coming up.
OK, will keep you updated regarding all things vibration.
Bye
Many people keep asking me about vibration training and one of the most important questions I keep being asked is do I think it is bad that people are looking for quick fixes rather than doing the hard yards of a conventional training programme. Honestly I agree but what we have to realise is that our society is changing and we have to change with it. People don't seem to have the time to commit to regular training like they used to. So vibration training is one way we can try and keep the world healthy and happy even with a short amount of time and effort.
We also have an exciting week coming up for some of our other vibration inventions. We have a meeting coming up next week with the largest gym equipment manufacturer in the world who want to use our technology for their equipment. I think there hasn't been any major advances in training methods and gym equipment for a good 30 years. Vibration training is a quantum leap forwards for those who embrace it first. I hope soon everyone can have access to a vibration suite based on our technology. That would be fulfilling indeed, especially with the London Olympics coming up.
OK, will keep you updated regarding all things vibration.
Bye
Sunday 15 April 2007
Vibration training
Hi Again,
This week things have been moving on. I am currently writing a paper about vibration training and specifically vibration training. We are really just at the beginning of seeing how far vibration training can take us. We have shown some miraculous results in our lab, but other results that have just been average. It seems to me that each person may have a sweet spot to the vibration frequencies and amplitudes and that you can get it perfect for everyone, although we are working on something that I will reveal in a few weeks.
This week I have some exciting meetings coming up with potential partners who can see the benefit of vibration training. Most people are getting very excited about youbreathe. Lets see how it goes.
See you next time.
This week things have been moving on. I am currently writing a paper about vibration training and specifically vibration training. We are really just at the beginning of seeing how far vibration training can take us. We have shown some miraculous results in our lab, but other results that have just been average. It seems to me that each person may have a sweet spot to the vibration frequencies and amplitudes and that you can get it perfect for everyone, although we are working on something that I will reveal in a few weeks.
This week I have some exciting meetings coming up with potential partners who can see the benefit of vibration training. Most people are getting very excited about youbreathe. Lets see how it goes.
See you next time.
Saturday 10 March 2007
Work less, Benefit more.
Recently a “new” training modality is hitting the headlines. Due to its use by celebrities such as Madonna and Kylie Minogue, vibration training is becoming all the rage with outrageous claims being made for the benefits including “45 minutes worth of exercise in 15 minutes…!” Clearly strap lines like this make for great headlines to sell magazines, newspapers and vibration devices, but is it true?
Researchers at London South Bank University have published a paper in a peer-reviewed scientific journal demonstrating that during and subsequent to a single bout of leg extension exercise with vibration at 35% of 1-repetition maximum (1-RM), subjects responded in a similar manner to the responses observed subsequent to the subject performing a single bout of leg extension at 70% 1-RM without vibration. The longer-term training studies are not finished yet but this result suggests that lowering the exercise intensity (weight lifted) and adding a vibration stimulus could lead to similar benefits as high intensity resistance training. It is still very early days for vibration research and application but the important principle appears to be reducing the stimulus quantity and increasing the stimulus quality. For these reasons it’s been always recommend that someone interested in using vibration for training, especially at the elite level, consults qualified strength and conditioning practitioners as part of a training programme, such as the Human Performance Centre at London South Bank University.
The most common method of vibration training is that of vibrating platforms that the user performs exercises on. These devices have been used often in research but the results produced, although offering potential, are not consistent. Some users find that these devices can cause nausea, and if used incorrectly can cause the vibration to be sent straight up the spine to the base of the scull (as this user found out to his cost!). For these reasons we prefer the idea of targeted vibration directly to the exercising muscle ensuring a more specific training stimulus and eliminating any of the unpleasant side effects.
I have recently released a targeted vibration device for the respiratory system called youbreathe which causes the airflow into and out of the lungs to be pulsatile stimulating the stretch reflex of the respiratory muscles. Preliminary results look very exciting with similar acute responses to those seen in the leg training above. youbreathe is currently being used by elite cyclist, tri-athletes, footballers and rugby players who all report perceptible benefits for their sports performance. More trials are under way with future plans to conduct clinical trials with the aim of reducing symptoms of cardio-respiratory disease such as coronary heart disease, asthma and COPD.
In conclusion, vibration training certainly seems to offer the possibility of increasing the return on your exercise investment, getting more response for a given effort. However it would be too soon to draw conclusions about which is the best vibration training method (targeted vs platform) or which protocol is best for a particular desired effect (endurance vs power). I’d like to recommend taking advice from qualified practitioners and incorporating vibration training in a complete training programme. Certainly vibration training seems to offer great potential for rehabilitation in clinical populations and for training the elderly.
Researchers at London South Bank University have published a paper in a peer-reviewed scientific journal demonstrating that during and subsequent to a single bout of leg extension exercise with vibration at 35% of 1-repetition maximum (1-RM), subjects responded in a similar manner to the responses observed subsequent to the subject performing a single bout of leg extension at 70% 1-RM without vibration. The longer-term training studies are not finished yet but this result suggests that lowering the exercise intensity (weight lifted) and adding a vibration stimulus could lead to similar benefits as high intensity resistance training. It is still very early days for vibration research and application but the important principle appears to be reducing the stimulus quantity and increasing the stimulus quality. For these reasons it’s been always recommend that someone interested in using vibration for training, especially at the elite level, consults qualified strength and conditioning practitioners as part of a training programme, such as the Human Performance Centre at London South Bank University.
The most common method of vibration training is that of vibrating platforms that the user performs exercises on. These devices have been used often in research but the results produced, although offering potential, are not consistent. Some users find that these devices can cause nausea, and if used incorrectly can cause the vibration to be sent straight up the spine to the base of the scull (as this user found out to his cost!). For these reasons we prefer the idea of targeted vibration directly to the exercising muscle ensuring a more specific training stimulus and eliminating any of the unpleasant side effects.
I have recently released a targeted vibration device for the respiratory system called youbreathe which causes the airflow into and out of the lungs to be pulsatile stimulating the stretch reflex of the respiratory muscles. Preliminary results look very exciting with similar acute responses to those seen in the leg training above. youbreathe is currently being used by elite cyclist, tri-athletes, footballers and rugby players who all report perceptible benefits for their sports performance. More trials are under way with future plans to conduct clinical trials with the aim of reducing symptoms of cardio-respiratory disease such as coronary heart disease, asthma and COPD.
In conclusion, vibration training certainly seems to offer the possibility of increasing the return on your exercise investment, getting more response for a given effort. However it would be too soon to draw conclusions about which is the best vibration training method (targeted vs platform) or which protocol is best for a particular desired effect (endurance vs power). I’d like to recommend taking advice from qualified practitioners and incorporating vibration training in a complete training programme. Certainly vibration training seems to offer great potential for rehabilitation in clinical populations and for training the elderly.
Sunday 21 January 2007
Detox Time
Hi again,
Have just finished my detox programme. Basically I drink a litre of apple juice per day for 6 days and then on the 6th day we stopped eating and drank epsom salts and squeezed pink grapefruit mixed with olive oil. The next morning all hell breaks loose and you pass (poo) hundreds of these liver and gallstones. All very nice.
This is the 6th month I have done this and previously I have passed hundreds of stones, but this time I seem to be running out, maybe this is a sign of my increasing health? Looking forward to my KFC bonanza tonight though.
OK back to my main topic, vibration training. This week I did a presentation of some of my work to the DTi. I have basically invented several devices, one of them named Youbreathe is a vibration training device for the respiratory system. We are getting some good results from this, but now my work is taking me more into the realms of business. We are going through the commercialisation of this device, which is quite a laborious process. Currently we are trying to raise finance so that we can increase production and fund a marketing campaign.
We hope eventually to get the device used in the NHS where we believe it can have the most benefit, but that takes time. We currently have many elite athletes using the device. This is quite scary for me as something I have created is being used and being judged by many elite athletes. But when you get good feedback it is so rewarding. We have a GB sprinter called Dwayne Grant using the device. Dwayne is asthmatic and is receiving great benefit from the device. I hope we can help more people like this.
OK, time for my lunch. Have a good weekend.
DP
Have just finished my detox programme. Basically I drink a litre of apple juice per day for 6 days and then on the 6th day we stopped eating and drank epsom salts and squeezed pink grapefruit mixed with olive oil. The next morning all hell breaks loose and you pass (poo) hundreds of these liver and gallstones. All very nice.
This is the 6th month I have done this and previously I have passed hundreds of stones, but this time I seem to be running out, maybe this is a sign of my increasing health? Looking forward to my KFC bonanza tonight though.
OK back to my main topic, vibration training. This week I did a presentation of some of my work to the DTi. I have basically invented several devices, one of them named Youbreathe is a vibration training device for the respiratory system. We are getting some good results from this, but now my work is taking me more into the realms of business. We are going through the commercialisation of this device, which is quite a laborious process. Currently we are trying to raise finance so that we can increase production and fund a marketing campaign.
We hope eventually to get the device used in the NHS where we believe it can have the most benefit, but that takes time. We currently have many elite athletes using the device. This is quite scary for me as something I have created is being used and being judged by many elite athletes. But when you get good feedback it is so rewarding. We have a GB sprinter called Dwayne Grant using the device. Dwayne is asthmatic and is receiving great benefit from the device. I hope we can help more people like this.
OK, time for my lunch. Have a good weekend.
DP
Thursday 18 January 2007
Welcome
Welcome to my blog. This is my first try at blogging, always thought it was for geeks, maybe that is what I have become!
I guess it is a good idea to write down your thoughts and experiences, but I am usually too lasy or too busy to do so, but I am going to try.
I hope I can have some good fun doing this and get some witty feedback, nothing rude though please. But I guess most of my friends can't yet use computers so I don't have to worry about that! Those that can I hope have evolved enough to write intelligently, but I could be wrong.
My reason for writing this blog is to chat about vibration training, which is one of my main interests. I hope I can learn some stuff from this, as it all seems so complicated now, but with so much potential.
Speak later
I guess it is a good idea to write down your thoughts and experiences, but I am usually too lasy or too busy to do so, but I am going to try.
I hope I can have some good fun doing this and get some witty feedback, nothing rude though please. But I guess most of my friends can't yet use computers so I don't have to worry about that! Those that can I hope have evolved enough to write intelligently, but I could be wrong.
My reason for writing this blog is to chat about vibration training, which is one of my main interests. I hope I can learn some stuff from this, as it all seems so complicated now, but with so much potential.
Speak later
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