Training Smart to Lower Your Risk of Injury

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Training Smart to Lower Your Risk of Injury

Visualization and Exercise

Visualization is an effective tool for creating the life you desire. It is also the key to making your workouts more beneficial. Visualization enhances the natural connection between your body and your mind. When you picture your muscles working in your "mind's eye", the "wiring" between your nervous system and your muscles increases. More nerve-muscle connections are created and enhanced, resulting in stronger and smarter muscles. It is really quite remarkable. And the nice part is that it doesn't take any extra effort, other than thinking about it!

Have you ever been out running when you suddenly experience pain in your shins?  Shin splints¹ are common in runners, but there are things you can do to lower your risk.


One thing you can do to lower your risk of injury is to make sure you have a plan for exercise. Having a well thought out strategy can help you train smart and train safe. When you train smart and follow your plan, then you can also train hard while minimizing your risk of injury.

Training smart and safe means paying attention to what is happening in your body as you workout. "Paying attention" is a learned skill that depends upon repetition and mental focus. Visualization is an important aspect of mental focus, and if you're visualizing ideal form while you're exercising, then you are automatically paying attention!

If you are a runner, you can focus on:
•    Visualizing a strong, fluid and erect spine, and a strong abdominal core.
•    Keeping your head upright, looking forward and slightly down, while keeping your chest open and relaxed.
•    Keeping your arms and shoulders relaxed while you move.
•    Visualizing a long, fluid stride with your feet landing gently, and then pushing off powerfully, as your leg extends behind you.

Training smart also involves trusting your instincts, instead of following your ego. This can be challenging for many of us. In the middle of a workout, it can seem imperative to complete your set and do that last rep even if your form is suffering. But the truth is, form is the most important thing.  If you end up sacrificing proper form to complete those last few reps, you may get an unexpected and unwelcome result.

It is the same for runners. If you are running and your form begins to break down, take that as a signal to lessen your speed enough to reestablish your good form. If you train while focusing on proper, effective form, you will be more likely to run a good race at a good pace when the time comes.

As in much of life, there is a sweet spot where you are training hard enough to get the results you're seeking, but not overtraining and increasing your risk of injury.  Remember, to pace yourself so that you continue to receive the benefits of training over the long term, rather than being side-lined by an injury.



¹Couture CJ, Karlson KA: Tibial Stress Injuries: Decisive Diagnosis and Treatment of "Shin Splints". Physician and Sportsmedicine 36(6):29-36, 2002 

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Chagas Disease: The New AIDS of the Americas

This is a re-post of Yahoo medical news 5/31/2012 http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/chagas-tropical-disease-really-aids-145745645.html

http://news.yahoo.com/video#video=29508674

Chagas Disease: The New AIDS of the Americas

Chagas, a tropical disease spread by insects, is causing some fresh concern following an editorial—published earlier this week in a medical journal—that called it "the new AIDS of the Americas."

More than 8 million people have been infected by Chagas, most of them in Latin and Central America. But more than 300,000 live in the United States.

The editorial, published by the Public Library of Science's Neglected Tropical Diseases, said the spread of the disease is reminiscent of the early years of HIV.

"There are a number of striking similarities between people living with Chagas disease and people living with HIV/AIDS," the authors wrote, "particularly for those with HIV/AIDS who contracted the disease in the first two decades of the HIV/AIDS epidemic."

[Related: U.S. relief program prevented 741,000 HIV/AIDS deaths in Africa]

Both diseases disproportionately affect people living in poverty, both are chronic conditions requiring prolonged, expensive treatment, and as with patients in the first two decades of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, "most patients with Chagas disease do not have access to health care facilities."

Unlike HIV, Chagas is not a sexually-transmitted disease: it's "caused by parasites transmitted to humans by blood-sucking insects," as the New York Times put it.

"It likes to bite you on the face," CNN reported. "It's called the kissing bug. When it ingests your blood, it excretes the parasite at the same time. When you wake up and scratch the itch, the parasite moves into the wound and you're infected."

[Related: Coming soon--an over-the-counter HIV test]

Chagas, also known as American trypanosomiasis, kills about 20,000 people per year, the journal said.

And while just 20 percent of those infected with Chagas develop a life-threatening form of the disease, Chagas is "hard or impossible to cure," the Times reports:

The disease can be transmitted from mother to child or by blood transfusion. About a quarter of its victims eventually will develop enlarged hearts or intestines, which can fail or burst, causing sudden death. Treatment involves harsh drugs taken for up to three months and works only if the disease is caught early.

"The problem is once the heart symptoms start, which is the most dreaded complication—the Chagas cardiomyopathy—the medicines no longer work very well," Dr. Peter Hotez, a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine and one of the editorial's authors, told CNN. " Problem No. 2: the medicines are extremely toxic."

And 11 percent of pregnant women in Latin America are infected with Chagas, the journal said.

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Dr Greg Millar