You are here: Home / Archives for Muscle Problems

How To Strengthen Back Muscles Without Doing Sit Ups

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Walking 4-5 times a day for 1-hour each is the ideal and a lot of this up hills if possible. This is really great at strengthening your back and abdominal muscles and you get a good cardio work out. Unfortunately, the amount of time necessary can be daunting.  After you are done with the walk you lie flat on your back and squeeze your buttocks as hard as possible and hold for 10 seconds. Do this 30 times, but take your time so you can get the best benefits possible. This exercise strengthens the buttock muscles that help hold your body up. Do half of these on your stomach.   It won’t be very long before you will start feeling your muscles beginning to tighten.

Lay flat on your stomach and draw your naval in as hard as possible. Hold this for 10 seconds then release and repeat 30 times. Take your time with this, also. This exercise tightens the stomach muscles. This is a real good exercise for those who can’t do sit ups. Do some of these also on your stomach, whichever you like the best.

Lay on your back and raise your whole back up in a curve toward the ceiling. Do not hold, release and repeat. Do these a little at a time because this one can be a little painful at first. Then increase as you get use to them. Do these at your own pace until you have done 50 without your back hurting.  This exercise strengthens the back muscles very well. Tell yourself it will make you feel so much better when you have conquered them all.

Lay on your stomach  and raise both legs up off the bed including your buttock  and hold for 10 seconds. This is another hard one to do so take your time. The pain relief will be worth it later on. Just start out with a few until you get used to doing them without pain, then increase to 50 a day or so. Don’t let yourself get too sore with this one or you might not do it anymore. This one is very important for strengthening those back muscles.  Be sure to understand, though the back muscles are important, of even more importance is having strong abdominal muscles.

Sit in a chair one foot  slightly above the other foot.  Raise up and go back down without any help from the other leg and use the armed chair for balance only.  Do not help by pushing yourself up with your arms.  Change feet, the other foot slightly above the other foot and raise up again and go back down. Do a few at a time until you have done 50 each leg.

Keep one leg straight and off the floor while your pushing up on the other one.  This is an excellent strength builder.

Always check with a doctor to see if you can do these exercises. Not all exercises are for all people. Be sure you take your time with all of these and don’t push it. After awhile they will become easier.

Be consistent with these and don’t give up. If you do them every day or every other day you will start to notice the way you look in your stomach and the way your back feels. Take care of yourself, no one else will do it for you.

Written by Teresa Farmer
I am a freelance composer

More Muscle Problems Articles

Filed Under: Muscle Problems Tagged With: , , , ,

Tens Machine For Your Every Muscle Problem

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The human body is a great artistic and mechanical form of work made by nature. Over several thousand years of practice and determination we are able to train our body to learn different things. Our brain has developed to a greater extent. Now it is possible to perform several difficult tasks which modern computers and machines cannot do. Our body is a brilliant example of several things like the kidneys performing the filtration of the whole body, the blood and other fluids carrying  various useful and unwanted materials to and from all parts of the body etc. And still we are lacking the complete information about our bodies. For example our muscles which are made up of fibers are the most tough and flexible parts of or bodies. With continuous practice and hard work one can train his or her muscles to lift heavy weights and other such things. Though our muscles are very tough and flexible, they are delicate also.

If not treated in a proper way, these muscle fibers can get torn up. During a workout session in the gym or while playing a sport in the fields or due to any sort of sudden unexpected jerks, our muscles can develop injuries with resultant  swelling.   It is very much advisable that a person should do a proper warm up before lifting weights or doing exercise.  If these muscles are not in proper condition, then it will difficult to move properly and this could easily promote an injury.  A proper warm up session  thus helps in avoiding injuries in the muscles.

The modern technological developments made in the medical field are helping people with problems concerning their muscles.  Trans-cutaneous electrical nerve stimulation machines or simply T.E.N.S machines help the physiotherapists to treat their patients. T.E.N.S. machines are devices with which the physiotherapists can deliver electrical currents of low intensity to the effected muscles. This stimulates the nerves and muscles with frequently an overall reduction in pain. With some more technical development in this regard, there are now several forms of TENS units available in the market.  The TENS unit can be portable and can be worn by the patient during the day and or night while at home or work.  A personal experience is required to remind the patient that driving while the unit is attached and active can be potentially dangerous.  I had the experience of one of the leads coming off a pad with a resultant shock occurring.  I was able to control the vehicle, but the next person might not be as fortunate.  Due to these portable TENS machines the patients aren’t required to come to the clinics or hospitals as often. The doctor can simply treat the patient at his or her home with the help of these portable devices.  This has proven to be very  useful as the patients who are already in pain and discomfort can get the treatment while relaxing at their homes.

 

 

Filed Under: Muscle Problems Tagged With: , , , ,

Gaining Muscle: Protein Problems

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

When you’re out to gain muscle, there’s no way around the basic fact that you need to be consuming more than you are burning caloric-wise. That means you must eat more than your maintenance levels of calories, and this can be quite difficult if you are a large person or if you have other medical issues. However, as thousands of frustrated people who have failed to take nutrition seriously can attest, not eating enough protein can lead to serious problems as they fail to grow at the same pace that they increase the intensity of their workouts, resulting in long term burn out and frustration. In today’s article we’re going to take a closer look at the problems people have with protein intake, and see if we can’t help you figure out not only how to do it, but what you might be doing wrong if you’re having problems.

Let’s start with some basic facts.

How much protein should you be eating? A good baseline if you are seriously trying to put on muscle is about 1 gram of protein for every pound of weight you have. So if you are a 175 pound guy, you need to be eating 175 grams of protein. To get an idea as to how much protein that involves, look at these commonly eaten items. An egg has about 8 grams of protein, a can of tuna has about 40, a chicken breast has 35. A 6oz steak has about 42 grams, while a cup of milk has 8. Half a cup of cottage cheese has about 15 grams, a cup of tofu has about 40 grams, while most beans have about 7 to 10 grams for every half cup.  As you can see, this individual would need to eat quite a lot of protein to eat his 175 grams, and that can be the difficultly right there.

If you are not aware of how much you should be eating, it’s quite easy to have only half your required intake. Therefore you need to decide at the beginning of each day how much you are going to be eating, and keep track of it as you go.

An easy way to boost the amount you are getting is to make a protein shake. A scoop of good protein powder can have about 30grams of protein, and when you add a cup of milk for another 8 grams, a table spoon of peanut butter for another 4, you’ve already got a solid 42 grams right there.

 

Filed Under: Muscle Problems Tagged With: , , ,