The Impact of Sitting All Day – Part 6

I know lots of people love travelling, but travelling to a new time zone can result in jet lag.  Personally I did so much business travelling in my late 20's and then in my 30's I travelled for pleasure, that more recently I have been happy to stay put in England and simply pop over to Europe when I wanted some sun.  This year I am planing to go on a training course in Canada so when I saw some recent research on avoiding jet lag it caught my eye. Jet lag occurs when your circadian rhythms are slow to adjust to the new time zone and remain on their original biological schedule for several days. This results in your body telling you it is time to sleep, when it's actually the middle of the afternoon, or it makes you want to stay awake when it is late at night. Here are some tips for minimizing the occurrence of jet lag:

• Select a flight that allows early evening arrival and stay up until 10 p.m. local time. (If you must sleep during the day, take a short nap in the early afternoon, but no longer than two hours. Set an alarm to be sure not to over sleep.)
• Avoid alcohol or caffeine at least three to four hours before bedtime. Both act as "stimulants" and prevent sleep.
• Try to get outside in the sunlight whenever possible. Daylight is a powerful stimulant for regulating the biological clock. (Staying indoors worsens jet lag.)
• On the flight set the time on your watch to the local time of your destination so you can mentally start adjusting to the new time zone.
• When you arrive eat with the locals.

Traditionally people have just slept off jet lag.  Recently university researchers in Surrey tested their theory that instead of sleeping, you should start eating meals at the same time as the locals.  They tested the theory on 60 long haul cabin crew workers, who either ate meals regularly on their days off in the destination city or followed no meal plan and ate when they felt like it.  Although both groups suffered some jet lag, the symptoms were less severe among those who followed a regular meal plan based on the local time.  They were also more alert. Reference Cristina Ruscitto, Jane Ogden. The impact of an implementation intention to improve meal times and reduce jet lag in long-haul cabin crew. Psychology & Health, 2016; 1 DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2016.1240174

The first reaction when we are in pain is often to take a painkiller.  I know from experience in clinic, when that the painkiller stops working that is when our clients book a massage.  But would exerise help?  To me it is counter-intuitive to exercise when in pain so I was interested in a recent study that looked into this. A study of 176 people investigated if the standard Fustra20Neck&Back exercise programme (scroll to bottom for full details) for reducing pain and increasing fitenss of office workers with neck or lower back pain works.  All the participants sat for at least 6 hours a day at a desk and had experienced at least 2 episodes of moderate pain in the last month before the study started.  The study participants included both men and women between 30 - 50 years old.  Half were asigned to the exericse group and half to the control group.  The exercise group carried out the Fustra20Neck&Back exercise programme for 1 hour twice a week for 10 weeks. More than 90% of the particpants in the exercise group found that the intensity of the pain and fequency of the pain decreased significantly.  Improvements in neck & shoulder flexibility and quality of life were also recorded.  However there was no significant differences in lower back pain. Reference

Fustra20Neck&Back exercise programme The programme comprised a 10 minute aerobic warm-up on a cross-trainer.  Then 10 functional flexibility exercises, four strength exercises, five core exercises and a 10 minute cool down. Click below to see the 10 functional exercises for your shoulders.      

Click below to see the strenght and core exercises.

We all know that sports stars take ice baths and I am often asked why they do it, and do I need to do it after I run.  So today I am going to answer that question. Cryotherapy is one of long accepted tools of a sports masseur.  If you have ever watched a football match on telly, you will have seen someone fall to the ground and the coach run on with a bucket of water and the magic sponge and the player then hopefully gets up and hobbles around before taking an active part in the game.  So the magic sponge, (the application of cold water to an injured area) is Cyrotherapy in its most basic form.  The local application of ice or cold water is beneficial because

• It relieves pain
• Reduces muscle spams (i.e. athletes take ice baths to avoid feeling stiff the next day)
• When someone is injured it moderates inflammation

Probably equally important to all those benefits is that the treatment is very convenient, inexpensive and effective. So to go back to the questions should I have an ice bath after training. If you have injured yourself during training you should definitely follow the RICE (Rest Ice Compression and Elevation) protocol

• Rest - by which I mean avoid weight bearing activities and anything that causes pain for 24 - 48 hours.
• Ice - Use either cold water or ice wrapped in a tea towel and apply for 2 - 20 minutes for 2-3 days then 3 times daily.    When applying ice you go through the cold, aching, burning and numbness sensation cycle, it is very important to stop at numbness to avoid burning yourself.
• Compression  - use a compression bandage if necessary
• Elevation - if the injury is to a limb, elevate it to help it heal.

The only exception to using Ice for injuries is for people with a peripheral vascular disease e.g. diabetes, anyone who is hypersensitive or has a physiological aversion to cold if you are frail or if you have varicose veins in the injured area or  the injury is a broken bone. However, what if you haven't injured yourself, should you have an ice bath after training.    Taking an ice bath or sometimes a cold-water immersion is certainly now more popular amongst athletes than ever before.   The key reason is that as it reduces muscle tightness and soreness and it allows athletes to recover more quickly after intense training.   The big draw back is that is uncomfortable and not really scientifically proven.  My recommendation would be only to do it if you are training really intensively and you are not contraindicated (see above exceptions to using ice) and want to, as ice baths are optional.  For me the most important thing to prevent injury and allow you to recover quickly is a well designed training plan where you build up the intensity of the exercise slowly, with adequate warm up routine and a cool down routine and stretching. Remember if you do get injured or have tight muscles after training, a good masseur will be able to sort these out.