womens sports and aching legs recovery
increased working years
Do Your Legs Suffer from Anger Management Problems?
Do you need a leg anger management plan?
If you are going to have to work longer than than you thought you were because of the economic crisis having one may help you work in more comfort and safety
Many people have home and social and work commitments-many of them with the economic downturn are losing large sums of their retirement nest egg now find themselves in a position where they have to continue working for a longer period than anticipated
This was the picture that may have been in their mind 2 years ago when considering their approaching retirement
This may be the reality for a few more years than anticipated
This may be the reality at the end of a long day
When will they finally be able to sit down and take the rest from work they had planned?
As we age our ability to cope physically with a demanding occupation that involves standing and walking, or even sitting down for long periods takes longer to recover from-the legs are so sore during and after work, and on sitting to rest they are very stiff on standing up again
Working some years longer than anticipated can be can be a stressful time, both mentally and physically, the legs have extra wear and tear placed on them, and you have to ask yourself about your ability to handle this?
- To help you cope you have to ask are you getting enough sleep?
- Are you eating healthily?
- Are you getting enough exercise?
- Is there any way you can decrease your stress levels at work?
Here are a few websites to get you started
http://takingcareofseniors.com/employment_matters_working_into_your_later_years.html
http://pause.acog.org/?q=category/health-topic-categories/healthy-living
https://www.health.harvard.edu/special_health_reports/living_independently_in_your_later_years
Above are a few websites to get you started but unfortunately none of them cover what I am covering
Just as importantly as the general health when working extra years, are the legs capable of carrying you and performing to the standard of efficiency you need them to?
or are you going to have problems because you have forgotten to look after them and they are aching and sore?
Aching Legs and Angry Muscles
Angry Muscles-I first heard this term when I was muscle recovering at the 2007 Antibes 6 Jour event when an American runner came in after 4 days on the track-I thought it a very descriptive term for what was going on in his legs
They were cramping, burning, exhausted, literally could not move another step, his muscles were tight, the skin sunburned, when he did try to sleep he could not stop them moving, they kept twitching, when he went back on the track, they would not start moving because he had stiffened up-he had tried everything he knew to get back out there
His muscles were so angry they were being antagonistic to him by refusing to cooperate with the rest of him-if your muscles are like this when you work on a daily basis, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage before you start-because your muscles are like his-they are angry and uncooperative
What are Angry Muscles?
Angry muscles are leg muscles that have been pushed too far, too fast, and too often-and not been allowed to calm down and recover themselves
Some of the symptoms of them include, fatigue, soreness, throbbing, not being able to keep the legs still, a feeling of restlessness, swollen ankles, cramping, irritability, stiffness
I have just spent 8 hours on a hospital floor-many people will have this problem of swollen ankles caused by the fluid going down to the lowest part of the body and the elasticated top of the socks keeping it there
(normally I do my own system whenever I sit down-this time I did not for demonstration purposes)
Another view-my feet were painful because it reduced the room in my shoes-notice the tightness of the calf muscles
Do your legs need an anger management course?
Assuming all possible medical causes has been cleared, then a look at whether a leg servicing system done on a regular basis may benefit them-an anger management course for the legs may be an option
Why do your legs get aching legs and the muscles get angry?
Overuse and abuse of muscles
These people have been running for 3 days-their muscles have been overused and are extremely sore to touch-the fibers have micro-tears in them which are being healed by the body-one of the first stages in their repair is inflammation which produces heat-the legs feel aching, hot and sore
If an attempt is made to use conventional methods of recovery at this stage, such as working on the muscles, it can break into the healing process and increase the time it takes to recover-rubbing the skin stimulates the pain receptors in the skin and muscle structures which are already overstimulated and angry
Legs are like people when they are angry, you can't reason with them or do anything much except just ride out the storm and wait for them to calm down on their own-if they are being abused on a constant basis, they will never calm down-they will be chronically angry
Or you can make an attempt to calm them down-usually you can do this by addressing the problem that caused the anger in the first place-this is what I did to the legs of the runner above
His legs were so angry half an hour before this picture was taken-his muscles had gone on strike and stopped working completely-he had run too far, too fast and too long and angered his muscles
I put his legs through an anger management course and showed them how to calm down-then I serviced them to get them moving again
Tight Muscles and legs fatigue
Angry muscles can be associated with muscle tightness which affects the flow of used blood out of the lower legs, the flow of fresh blood into them leading to leg fatigue, and through fluid buildup in the lower legs, feedback to the brain from the pressure receptors in the feet about underfoot environment
This fatigue can result in accidents and falls in the older worker-and unfortunately when an injury happens we do not heal as well as we did when we were younger
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/psychosocial/aging_workers.html#_1_6
So we have to be more careful of our health and occupational health and safety issues than we were previously-this is especially true for our legs that after all without which we would not be mobile at all, never mind working still in occupations that require us to stand-so we have to take as much care with them as we do the rest of the body (see www.hazards.org/standing for more information on leg problems)
The older worker compared to the runner (these distinctions will be important later)
Which one are you?
- sprinter (short distance)-marathoner (long distance)-ultra marathoner (super long distance)
the sprinter (working only a few hours a day)
(a sprint) working only a few hours a day there is not too much problem with leg coordination, the brain can pass messages to and from the legs informing them of underfoot hazards and making sure we avoid them-then it is time to go home
- the marathoner (working a full shift or longer)
(a marathon) the brain puts the legs into automatic mode early on, and the legs carry her forward of their own accord-during the run as the shift passes, fatigue starts to set in, muscle soreness develops and the person will try to ignore it by concentrating on other things-the work, time, position, drinks-anything but the way the leg muscles feel-cutting them off and ignoring them can be dangerous and can lead to accidents because you do not move so quickly in emergencies
The legs may be tired and the ankles may have swollen by the end of the day-the distance between brain and muscles widens, so as tiredness affects the brain it is not sharp anymore, and judgement starts to be affected and the messages telling the legs what to do are lost in translation and so the legs just do what they have been doing all along-moving-the muscles do what they have been conditioned to do through repetition
the ultra marathoner (working full shifts consecutively)
- Ultra marathon is very long distance competition where they have to run or walk as far as possible in a given time; it can be over 6 hours-24 hours-48 hours-6 days-16 days or even around the world www.worldrun.org
This presents all the problems that the marathoner has, only because it is everyday, the legs do not get time to recover before having to do the same thing all over again!
The ultra Marathoner represents someone who has worked all their life and who was looking forward to the finish line, only to find that the distance they have to run has been extended
Do you have Anger Management issues with Your Legs after an exhausting day?
When you are exhausted, the mechanisms that ensure usual daily smooth bodily needs have totally shut down-and when the the body finally stops, the mind and body just wants to just shut down, so does the brain-but do the muscles know?
The legs may stop moving, but the brain can't tell the muscle fibers and motor units to close down, the muscles are exhausted, sore, separated from the rest of the body and ANGRY!
The chart shows in simple numerical distance values how the performance of the legs can be affected by fatigue over a six day period and what using an anger management system can do to pick the legs up again and possibly maintain a state of equilibrium
It shows how angry muscles can decrease your performance, and anger management can increase it once the muscles have been calmed down before they are dealt with
What calming the muscles can do
The table reads from left to right in both laps and distance in 24 hour periods-I have underlined where Light Manual Muscle Relaxation started to take effect as I developed it-it also shows the drop in the next 24 hours where I either did not use it at all or someone else took over or went back to the old system of working on the muscles rather than working with them as is done with Light Manual Muscle Relaxation
It is possible to see on a daily basis from day one how fatigue and soreness can slow the runner and decrease their distance-as I perfected the management of these, the recovery rate and consequent increase in distances resulted from more time spent on the track and less time on the recovery table
This is the event when I threw out everything I knew previously about muscle recovery and restarted everything afresh-it is a 6 day event held in Coburg, Victoria, Australia-the laps are counted by independent lap counters and officials and verified by the governing ultra marathon body AURA
http://www.aura.asn.au/
Do you need to put your legs on an Anger Management Course to help you cope with those extra years of work?
If you spend much of your working life, hobbies, sports or other activities on your legs, using them, or just sitting down inactive, the ability to pump used blood and fluid from the lower legs back up to the body for refreshment and recycling is affected-If muscles are not constantly supplied with fresh oxygen filled blood, they fatigue within a short time
The calf muscles are the motors and power supply for a pump that moves used fluid up the legs back to the body if they are not being worked efficiently the flow of used blood and fluid from the lower legs is reduced, and when the legs are used too much, reduced flow of fresh blood to the muscle tissues reduces the ability to recover quickly
To keep the circulation in the lower legs going, a similar volume should be pumped out of the legs as flows into them-to do this, the legs rely on something called
The Calf Muscle Pump
The calf muscle pump is made up of all the muscles in the legs, but the motors that provide the power for the pump are the calf muscles-these are made up of 2 basic movers-they are Soleus which is primarily used for standing upright, and Gastrocnemius used for running and jumping
As the muscles move, they increase and decrease pressure on the vessel walls (the veins) which have one-way valves in them, open to let the blood pass through them, and close to prevent the blood flowing back towards the feet
They need all the muscles working properly to be efficient
By not moving the legs, and staying static the pump does not work as well as it should-this disrupts the cycle and allows used blood to remain in the lower legs-as it its not being removed, water (lymph fluid) separates from it and fills the tissue spaces, as it is not being pumped away quickly enough, the ankles swell
Problems caused by calf muscle pump inefficiency include
- Poor circulation
- Lymph system inactivity
- Venous return reduced
Calf muscle fatigue, tight muscles, and poor lower leg circulation can chase each other around in a cycle that is difficult to break out from-each is a self destructive part that props up the other parts of the cycle and it will take a circuit breaker to disrupt the cycle of fatigue
Circuit breakers
Most people just need something simple and effective to maintain the health of their legs as there may not be much wrong with them except that they spend too much time on them, so they do not need to use a sledgehammer to break an eggshell when a teaspoon will do the same job
- The 'sledgehammer'
The sledgehammer way-working on the muscles
Conventional approaches to dealing with angry muscles usually involves working on the muscles with the hands and fingers-because it uses sliding and gliding strokes over the surface of the skin to attempt to relax the muscles, it requires the use of a lubricant to assist in increasing the local blood flow and prevent friction burns to the skin from heat build up
I refer to this as a 'skiing' technique-it can cause problems with 'angry' muscles because the depth of pressure of the fingers uncontrolled, it can stimulate pain receptors in the skin and surrounding tissues and irritate them more
When the muscles are angy simply running the hands over the skin can stimulate pain receptors in the skin and surrounding muscle tissues-if it is done too much then the muscles can become angrier as the receptors are overstimulated-the effects of this this can be seen in the table above
The 'passive' approach
The most advised way of helping the legs recover is to lie with the legs elevated higher than the body to let the used blood and fluid in the ankles flow back; it took the legs hours to get like this-how long is it going to take for gravity to drain it all back?
Many people seem to find may be passive methods such as lying down with the legs elevated to let gravity drain the fluid out of the legs back to the body so that fresh blood can flow into the muscle tissues to help them recover
Elevation is too 'passive' and obviously not too efficient and does nothing to calm the muscles as there are so many lost days off work still through industrially caused diseases
Most people with aching legs and angry muscles do not have the time for a passive approach to their aching legs
The tea spoon to crack the eggshell approach-calming the muscles
Light Manual Muscle Relaxation uses a 'snow shoe' technique
This involves using the width of the hand in a compressing movement-resulting in a more controlled pressure and less pain receptor stimulation as experienced with skiing-so the muscles are calmed easier
A calm area in Central Park in New York
Anger management and servicing fatigued leg muscles to calm them down
Anger management means calming the muscles first and then using the muscles themselves to work at increasing the leg circulation-by increasing the flow of fresh blood into the legs, the muscles will recover faster-as can be seen in the table, it is reflected by less time to recover and more time to be out doing positive activities
This is applied through
The latest in non-technical, non-invasive 'cutting edge' solutions to fatigued aching legs relief
Light Manual Muscle Relaxation
The advantages of using this system
- Do It Yourself Leg Servicing
- No disrobing
- Works with the muscles not on them
- No oil used
- Non invasive
- User friendly
- It works with the muscles not on them
Light Manual Muscle Relaxation-A tested Trusted Anger Management and Servicing Course-for aching legs relief, anything else is a luxury or not necessary
What is Light Manual Muscle Relaxation?
It is a leg servicing and anger management system developed for ultra marathon runners and walkers leg recovery and has been tested on long distance events worldwide (ultra marathon is any distance over marathon-42.19 kilometers/26.385 miles)
How Light Manual Muscle Relaxation leg servicing works
Do you have an anger management plan for your legs?-if not get one now and put it into practice to help you work longer more comfortably
Using just these-and the knowledge of how to use them
To get the knowledge you can buy an expensive book on medical physiology or you can pay US$20 for a PDF manual
you can download now and save an awful lot of hard work and experimentation and trial and error-you will also be contributing to some LLMR workshops I will be setting up in third world countries
Michael Gillan Ultra Marathon Recovery Specialist
Some References
Michael's methods of massage and blister care helped me to stay mobile throughout the race and to recover quickly afterwards. His techniques are safe and gentle.
Unlike some treatments, which put the runners and walkers at risk of muscle tears or infection, Michael's techniques are gentle, safe, reassuring, and highly effective. They enhance comfort and flexibility, build confidence, and promote success.
This booklet will help others to learn and practice Michael's methods. It is recommended reading for everyone who walks and runs and who wants to go further, go faster, or just to enjoy life more!!'
SANDRA BROWN 1996 Ladies 1000 Mile World Record Holder
1999 Ladies 100 mile Race walking World Record Holder
"I know that your massage kept a number of competitor<>s in the event. The cold weather of Saturday afternoon and night certainly got to many of the walkers and your prompt action had them back in the race after a short stop.
In years past, that would have ended up as a non-finish. A number of walkers were able to keep going for the full 24 hours on the basis of your expert help."
Tim Ericson Secretary Australian Centurions Club
'I have known Michael Gillan for many years and have always got quick relief for my aches and pains from the stretching he performs'.
CLIFF YOUNG-75-80 24 Hour World Record Holder (150.07 kilometers)
A word from Jesper Olsen World Runner about Light Manual Muscle Relaxation
"If I hadn't had the qualified help from the excellent masseur Michael Gillan, taking several thousands of km out of my legs, I could spare myself the effort!"
"My crew for the current stages, Michael Gillan, has proven to have other talents than the quite taxing job of taking care of all the requirements of a really tired ultra runner!
He has since years back been working on a new approach to stretching and muscle-rebuilding for ultra runners. I have the last two days tried his careful stretch and massage, and a bit to my surprise the muscles are beginning to feel like before the start back in Greenwich, London!!
Usually I doesn't take massage as the legs of an ultra runner will often be quite sore during the long time events (and especially in an multi-year event like this...), and getting a massage can at times cause more injury and cramping up than good. For example my last massage was some 12 000km ago when I ran the 12-hour competition in Finland. And so far that has been the only one.
But Gillan came with best recommendations from my main contact in Australia, Phil Essam, who besides being vice president in the Australian Ultra runners Association has heaps of good knowledge to share. And this new kind of mild massage for ultra runners is definitely one of the good tips! There should be a fair chance that I actually get fresh enough to do some decent running at the 6 Day Race that I have coming up in Colac from the 21.November. I quite look forward to that, even though I can't expect to make a top class result :-)"
He won! 756.2 kilometers (Jesper holds the record for the longest run in history over 26000 kilometers and the first person to run around the world Taken from www.worldrun.org
To: mgillan@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: Emailing: m gillan reference.doc
Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 16:48:31 +1000
Hi Michael,
COBURG 24 HOUR CARNIVAL
May 3rd 2009
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
For many years Coburg Harriers has conducted the Victorian 24 hour Track Championship and the Australian Centurion 24 Hour Race Walk, the overall event being the Coburg 24 Hour Carnival, which also includes a separate 6 Hour run/walk event.
This type of event is very demanding on Competitors, and each year, in addition to First Aid support, we seek to have the services of a masseur who can work on tired legs and also treat blisters in order to keep entrants on the track.
We have been privileged for many years to have had the voluntary services of Michael Gillan who with his techniques is able to coax renewed life from extremely tired muscles and legs to get athletes back on the track when they were thinking that they would have to retire.
Michael has a very well deserved reputation in the "Ultra" running and walking fraternity who look forward to his presence at our events as they know he gets results without causing further injury with his treatments.
It is rewarding to see exhausted competitors come from the track in the early hours of the morning, convinced that they are unable to continue, only to see them return to the event after being treated by Michael.
Our Organising Committee at Coburg is grateful to Michael for his dedication to the sport and can commend his techniques to Athletes.
Yours Sincerely, Bernie Goggin Raceday Director / Referee Coburg 24 Hour Carnival 2009
http://www.coburgharriers.org.au/joomla1/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
Calf Muscle Fatigue
There are many medical reasons for fatigued calf muscles, and to find out whether any of them are contributing to them, they should be checked out by a medical professional so that the cause can be addressed-do not take chances and self diagnose-you could be risking your life if they are ignored
ANGRY muscles are giving a reaction to overuse by standing or walking on a consistent basis-they do not have chance to recover properly before repeating the same action over and over.
Contact mgillan@hotmail.com
Physiology References
The calf muscle pump
(p.209) Physiology: a regulatory systems approach. Fleur L. Strand. Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc.ISBN 0-020979860-4
(p.209)Physiology: a regulatory systems approach. Fleur L. Strand. Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc.ISBN 0-020979860-4
"Venous valve incompetence and varicose veins"
'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0
Effect of "Hydrostatic" Pressure on Venous Pressure ( P.165)
'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0
Effect of Hydrostatic Factors on Arterial and Other Pressures (P.167)
'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0
Calf muscle pump inefficiency
'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0
' (P.177) 'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0
The Blood Circulatory System
(P.150) 'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0
"The Lymphatic System
(P.180) 'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0
"Pumping caused by external Compression of the Lymphatics
Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0 (p. 182)
Leg Anger Management-your Responsibility
Please note
Bear in mind that many of the problems discussed may have a medical component to them so you should be getting them checked out and treated by a medical professional
Once this has been done, it is time to consider other options such as podiatrists, physiotherapists, chiropractors to see if there is a physical contribution to them that can be sorted out-it is no use treating the symptoms unless the cause has been addressed
