Hawaiian Experience Spa

Exercise is essential to muscle health

Achieving a healthy state in your body requires more than massage; it also requires regular exercise good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.  Your massage therapist can relieve muscle tension and trigger points, but if you do not stay fit your muscle disorder is much more likely to return. 

Definition of being physically fit
One definition of physical fitness is as follows: “Being physically fit is having the energy to perform your daily duties alertly and with vigor, while also maintaining adequate energy for leisure activities.”  Over a series of articles this simple statement will be dissected and additional components will be filled in to provide readers with an understanding of what their goal really is when they say they want to be physically fit.

Definition Component #1 – “having the energy”
First, being physically fit is “having the energy…” Energy is the capacity to do work.  You must first have a reserve of energy before you can do any work.  An airplane receives its energy from its stores of gasoline while our body receives it energy from our stores of glucose (sugar) and fats which are produced by the foods we eat. 

In order to use the energy, however, we must have an efficient system of converting the energy to work.  The potential energy in a tank of gasoline may be very significant, however, if the engine has mechanical problems we may not even be able to get started in the morning, let alone make it through the entire day with vigor and alertness.  Additionally, if an airplane has more potential energy then it has the capacity of using, the energy is just extra weight and is not useful.  Similarly, an obese person has an enormous amount of potential energy in his body.  Each pound of fat can produce about 3,500 calories of energy, however, carrying all of that extra energy is inefficient and actually detrimental.  Unlike a polar bear that has to accumulate vast quantities of stored fat so he can live off it during hibernation, it is not healthy for humans to have significant fat stores.

Therefore, one of the first goals of getting fit is to eliminate the excess fat.  By converting fat to muscle we take extra and unproductive weight fat mass and convert to a useful muscle mass.  Unlike fat, muscle has the useful ability to use energy so it can sustain itself and can help carry an extra load such as the load you put on it each day while working and playing.  Carrying an extra 20 pounds of fat is like carrying 20 pounds of groceries on your back.  It is a reserve of energy that is unnecessary and unproductive.

Hawaiian Experience Spa is more than a fluff and buff day spa.  We provide a complete range of services from exotic and relaxing spa treatments to serious medical level massage.  The spa is great for special occasions, regular “every month” massages, and injury and pain treatment.

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By: Steve Ibach

Have you ever considered using electricity, in the form of a TENS Belt, to tighten those muscles?  If so you might want to think again.  TENS, which stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation, is a method of treating pain used by physical therapists.  However, America being what it is, this medical device has made its way to the general public in the form of a TENS Belt which is used to tighten abs without working out.  You can even tighten those abs while watching TV – or so the ads go.

My article today is about a client of mine who used such a device with unexpected results. Last week she called the spa to make an appointment with me for a Neuromuscular Massage Treatment because she was getting severe pain in her left leg. She had seen her doctor the previous day for the pain and he diagnosed her with phlebitis (an inflammation of a vein).  My assessment of her leg showed extreme sensitivity to pressure (the slightest touch caused severe shooting pains) and hypertonic (tight) muscles in the adductors (inner thigh muscles) and gluteal areas.

I work on clients daily with pain caused by a vast variety of reasons, however, I had never seen anything quite like this.  If my client did not just come from her doctor I would have recommended that she see one.  However, something else was different this time.  My client told me she had been using a TENS belt. Obviously, I have no clinical evidence of this, however I believe, and her doctor has subsequently agreed, that there is a high probability that the TENS belt over stimulated the client’s nervous system causing her symptoms.  I was able to release the muscles in the area and calm the nerves down using heat and ice, however, that was not the end of it. Her pain in her leg was gone, but pain in her abdominal area started.

It is still not clear what is causing this pain but she did find out something new yesterday about the TENS belt.  Hidden among its approximately eight pages of warnings – warnings which include such things as don’t put this belt around your neck – was a warning relevant to her: Don’t use this device if you have a hernia. Due to the vast number of warnings, many of which were simply ridiculous or common sense, she had missed this one.  My client was diagnosed with a hernia about two years ago.

Whether or not her pain is related to using the TENS belt with a hernia, or whether it just over stimulated her abdominal muscles or nerves is not clear.  Again, we do not actually have clinical evidence that the TENS belt caused all of this – maybe it was all a huge coincidence.

So what is the point of this whole post?  Well the point is this.  There are no safe shortcuts to fitness.  The further you move away from simple mainstream exercises by adding electronic devices, taking wonder supplements, using a 3 minute a day super exercise routine, or whatever, the more careful you have to be.  Every warning must be read in detail, and the device, supplement, or routine should be discussed with your doctor and/or someone with the training to understand the new fangled exercise enhancer you are considering using.

Better yet, just stick to the simple stuff. Sit ups, push up, and squats may not be sexy but you can do them while watching TV if you want.  They will get you in shape in a healthy and natural way.  If you are struggling with getting in shape, invest that money you where going to spend on QVC in a session with a personal trainer.  He can show you how to tighten those abs safely – lets save the electricity to power your iPod while on the treadmill.

Hawaiian Experience Spa Web Site

by: Steve Ibach

Build muscle tissue and burn more calories even when you are not exercising. It is absolutely true that muscle tissue burns more calories than fat, even when you are not active. That means if you can increase the amount of muscle tissue in your body, compared to the amount of fat tissue, you will burn more calories every minute of the day just to maintain your body’s systems.

How do I do this? Add weight lifting to your exercise routine in the right proportions and you will build muscle tissue and lose fat tissue without building huge muscles. Simply starting a weight lifting routine where you do 20 repetition of each exercise at the heaviest weight you can properly handle and still do 20 repetitions. Then work out those muscles twice a week until you can do 25 repetitions. Once you can do 25 reps, increase the weight so you can only do 20 reps again. This routine will build muscle tone (not bulk) and will help you lose weight along with a proper diet.

Always consult a doctor before starting an exercise routine and seek professional training on how to properly perform weight lifting exercises.