Have a Beer?

I'm always excited about any wellness advice that goes against the Puritanical approach. Lately we've been seeing some interesting research coming out about the advantages of drinking beer after a workout. As one who gets cravings for a Hopalicious pale ale after hot summer exercise, I'm all in favor of this trend.

Here are some findings:

1) Spanish researchers found that drinking a pint after exercise hydrated athletes better than water. We know that beer promotes urination, but apparently not enough to cancel out this effect in the short term. Beer has a high electrolyte content, and a small amount of protein in addition to the carbs. This all helps restore blood glucose levels rise quickly, easing the recovery process. Also, we've seen so much about fermented foods having more bioavailable nutrients, nutrients which have been pre-digested by bacteria and yeast, and are easier for us to absorb. Here's a more in-depth and enjoyable analysis of the study.

2) In another study, unsurprisingly run by a German university, nonalcoholic beer aided marathon recovery, reducing inflammation and fending off respiratory infections following intense training. This article is a little misleading: in the beginning, it says that only nonalcoholic beer was effective, but later reports that alcoholic beer wasn't tested.  So we don't really know. Still, if it were alcoholic, you couldn't very well drink the sheer amount of beer used in the study, unless you're one of the late-night bicycle enthusiasts who populate Madison. Apparently some of the benefits of beer relate to it's polyphenol content, which is even higher in regular beer, but may be working against the alcohol in that case.

Most of the articles on the subject trip over themselves to emphasize that non-alcoholic beer was being tested in the second case, and I'm sure no one wants to get sued or induce alcoholism by recommending beer as a sports drink. I also suspect also that our cultural background makes it verboten to advocate for things which are so hedonistic.

On the other hand, might the muscle relaxing effects of alcoholic beer also contribute to muscle recovery? I know from tai chi practice how much it helps to stay relaxed when doing difficult movements, and massage can help with muscle soreness following overtraining. So it seems reasonable. When I volunteered at the Madison Marathon a couple of years ago, in the massage tent at the finish line, we were told by the medical staff that we should suggest a (regular) beer for recovery.

So as of now, I'm drinking a beer after training, especially as the hot weather approaches. Cheers!

Have a Buddha Belly

Do not fear the belly. Love the belly. Let your body breathe into it, let it expand and contract on the ever changing waves of breath, without forcing anything. Don't get too hung up on always taking "deep" breaths, but allow the air to flow all the way out before the next wave comes in. Maybe there is a little or long pause between the outbreath and inbreath, maybe not. Maybe you can feel the sides and back of your body, or the floor of your pelvis, moving a little with your breath.

The way that our bodies work, this actually gives our abdominal muscles a little workout. They naturally relax before an inbreath if they are allowed to, and then they contract to help you exhale. It doesn't make you fat, or unhealthy; these thoughts are just useless societal debris. On the other hand, it helps relax the whole body, and makes breathing more efficient.

Your chest (and neck) muscles are your backup system for breathing. They are best used when you need to move a lot of air, but they are inefficient and contribute to stress if used for long periods. Letting your belly move allows the powerful and efficient diaphram to sink down into your core, dragging your lungs open (and giving your chest organs a little massage). As you breathe out, your diaphragm passively rises, like a rubber band returning to an unstretched position.

There are many good reasons that arts like yoga, karate, Zen meditation, and tai chi emphasize abdominal breath. And there are many variations of breath practices, which you can go into with the help of a teacher or a good book. The simple practice of allowing breath to occur easily and naturally is something you can do anywhere to bring your body into a relaxed, alert state, benefiting your digestion, circulatory and nervous systems, and overall health. Enjoy!

Get Your Soma On

A recent study demonstrated that people who had back pain and used mirrors to watch their own backs while they were moving were able to decrease their pain significantly. This isn't surprising to me, since many healing arts have long depended on using awareness for decreased pain and increased function. These arts are referred to as "somatic" disciplines, meaning that they increase awareness of the body, or "soma."

Any fitness program should incorporate some kind of somatic art or treatment, in my opinion. There are many to choose from: yoga, tai chi, Rolf Movement, Feldenkrais Movement Education, dance therapy, Alexander Technique, etc. All of them develop awareness in different ways, allowing you to move more effectively with less pain, sometimes drastically so.

The important thing with these arts is that you find a good teacher who will guide you toward increased awareness, not just encourage you to push yourself harder to accomplish athletic feats. Many people go to classes where they are pushed too hard, and end up developing poor movement patterns, or worse, getting hurt. If you are with the right kind of teacher, you will notice that your body awareness improves, allowing you to do more without straining. Otherwise, you might as well just go to the gym.

Sometimes it's best to work one-on-one with a teacher. Feldenkrais lessons, in my experience, are incredible when done this way. You can take what you learn from an occasional lesson or series of lessons, and apply it on your own once you've gotten the hang of it. Other times, as in tai chi, practicing in a group can add to the overall gain in awareness.

Whatever you try, somatic disciplines can help you with the rest of your athletic and fitness routine by making you aware of what you're doing when you're out running, at the disco, or throwing the discus around. They also help you with daily activities, and keep the pain of modern living (i.e., sitting at a desk or on a couch all the time) at bay.

Also, stick with your study for a while, once you find a good one. Awareness takes patience and time. Don't be one of these people who bounces into each new exercise fad without developing any real skill. That may work for some things, but not for somatics. Ok, enough preaching. Once you develop awareness, it becomes maybe your most potent DIY tool!

Anti-Postural Tip: A Soft Heart for a Healthy Spine and Mind

People complain quite a bit about shoulder and back tension, so this tip is a way to begin addressing these issues from a mind-body approach. We hold a great deal of tension in our chest and shoulders. One way to help relax this tension is to imagine your heart area softening, allowing your chest to open and release. Often this causes the chest to sink a little bit, which is ok. This softening means that the ribs, and the muscles that connect the ribs to the shoulders, are able to relax, which also takes pressure off of the upper spine and neck. As an added bonus, breathing becomes more natural, more centered in the diaphragm (your big abdominal breathing muscle), and less centered in the upper chest.

Avoid using any force to push your chest down, however. Just allow it to deflate as much as it will on its own. We want the ribs to stay soft and mobile, not held in position. Whether the chest is lifted and locked, or locked down, we generally lose good function.

When the breath begins to drop down in the body as a result of reduced tension in the chest, it will continue your relaxation further, promoting states of calm awareness and improved digestion and metabolism. Again, this is not based on force, but an absence of tension. When your body is truly at rest, the diaphragm will take over the task of breathing. When you are doing aerobics, it becomes important for the chest and neck breathing muscles to engage. These guys are your backup system, and they work best for short-term, intense need.

I find that softening my heart causes my eyes to also soften somewhat, reducing the strain I am putting on them. It can make me more emotionally available and receptive to others, just as having a "hard heart" in metaphorical terms means being cold and unavailable to others' needs. As with any mind-body approach, the effects can be global, extending into emotional realms quite easily.

What effects do you notice when trying this? Does it change the way your body weight sinks into the ground? How about the way your upper spine and shoulders feel? Play with this a little, and see what you can learn.

Enjoy!

Anti-Postural Tip: Soft Feet

So, we have established that posture is dumb. What now? In future blog posts, we'll go into some mind-body explorations which help us gain an innate sense of poise, ease, and stability in our bodies to replace dull, unhelpful rules imposed externally.

Let's start with the feet. In standing, your feet are your roots. In sitting, this can be partly true as well, assuming your chair is at the right level. The feet and ankles feed a large amount of information to your brain about the balance of your weight on the ground, so if your feet are alive and awake, your brain gets a bunch of accurate information and is able to control postural muscles more effectively. If there is tension and a lack of awareness, this information is distorted or reduced. 

One simple way to explore this is by first standing normally, taking a moment to become aware of your whole body. Then bring your attention to your feet, imagining them to be very soft on the ground (they can be sinking into wet mud, or they can be made of soft foam, or whatever image helps you to imagine best). Let your feet yield your weight into the ground. Don't "do" anything extra except imagine this softening in the soles. Notice if anything shifts in your body. Is there a change of balance? A change in muscle tone? 

Next, imagine the soles turning very hard, like a brittle shell or unyielding iron. Imagine it drawing away from the ground, turning a cold shoulder. What does this do? Take a moment to scan your body, and then go soft again to watch the changes.

If you want, you can try having one foot be soft and the other hard- this was very interesting when I tried it, and I felt like one foot was down in the ground, and the other lifted up. I also noticed my shoulders changing tension levels along with my feet. You may notice something different. 

You can do this any time, and it wakes up the muscles of your toes as well, so they can stabilize and propel you more effectively. Most importantly, the effect can go through your whole body, and relax your mind at the same time. It is pretty unreal how much power your feet can have when you learn to connect to them. 

Enjoy!