If you are a sporty soul, you have probably already realised that you feel less stiff, tender and shorter if you haven’t supported your body to support you and your very much loved sport.
Exercise isn’t about the more it hurts, the more you will gain.
Three simple actions you can massively benefit from are water, stretches and oxygen. Taking a deep breath while stretching will allow you to stretch deeper. If it hurts when you stretch, just take the stretch to a slightly less dynamic angle and it will ease.
Breathing at the correct time during your exercise will also assist you in building up less lactic acid in the first place.
Repairing your muscles after you have worked them hard will allow you to be sustainable in your choice of sport.
I know drinking alcohol often goes hand in hand with post exercise, especially in the context of a team. However, alcohol will prevent blood circulation when your muscles are relying on it to recover. If there is a lack of blood circulation to the muscles, they will just remain in the same state as they were when you exercised, so this then makes it harder for you to get rid of the lactic acid now trapped in your muscles, making it harder for you to perform better, or to the same standard the next time you do a workout.
Lactic Acid
Lactic acid builds up in the muscles when exercise is undertaken. If stretches are not carried out post treatment, you are more likely to injure yourself. This is because when the muscles are full of lactic acid they are hard, sometimes distorted, and stuck together. When the muscle fibres are stuck together the muscle cannot work efficiently, as it is glued together. This will seriously decrease your range of movement. You can understand why people who aren’t a fan of stretching often injure themselves.
Following these three pointers will better support you to improve your performance and even get a greater range of movement, whilst at the same time achieving a personal best!
My job is to remove the lactic acid left behind by assistive stretches, sports massage and a range of movement tests before and after your treatment.
It is important to me that you can see the clear big difference this treatment will make to you.
Ice treatment
I can use ice treatment to help relieve pain from a sports injury or overworked muscles. This involves placing a specially made ice pack on the affected part of the body. This reduces inflammation by slowing blood flow to the area, giving the body time to start repairing the damage, and can help reduce muscle spasms. This is known as cryogenic therapy and is a pain free, rapid way of removing lactic acid and established knots.