Hypertrophy
Cause: working out/muscle damage
Effect: muscle growth
Atrophy
Cause: inactivity
Effect: muscle loss
Fatigue
Cause: over training
Effect: fatigued, tired, muscle soreness, frequent illness, disturbed sleep and alterations in mood state …
Understanding that every cause has an effect, and every effect has a cause, sounds so simple and obvious. But the fact that people these days still focus on reducing or eliminating the effect is a great indicator that some don’t understand the concept of Cause and Effect.
Taking a sleeping pill to battle disturbed sleep, taking pills to battle illness, taking ibuprofen to battle muscle soreness, taking antipsychotics to battle mood swings, and so on. If the cause is over training, you keep training, you don’t adjust your training program, and you don’t rest, you’re not treating the cause. You’re just putting a band-aid on the effects.
If you experience golfers elbow pain, you can take cortisone and hide the effects of what the body is telling you, it’s saying that there is something seriously wrong, you need to change what you’re doing, you need to look at the cause, and treat it.
The cause for golfers elbow can be any repetitive hand, wrist, or forearm motion, like gripping tasks or resisted wrist/finger flexion. Golfer’s elbow can also occur when more force is applied to an area than the normal healthy tissues can handle.
Although both are forms of elbow tendinitis, don’t confuse golfer’s elbow with its close cousin, tennis elbow.
Again, taking cortisone for the pain which is felt when there is stress on the tendon, is a band-aid, not a solution. A solution would be to analyse which causes can be remedied.
Start by asking yourself:
- What do I grip repetitively?
- When do I feel that I resist wrist flexion?
- Did I lift too heavy?
Answers could be:
- Grip
- Kettlebell handle during kettlebell swings
Solution: rest, heal, improve grip, relax, reduce reps, program with progression - Barbell during deadlifts
Solution: rest, heal, improve grip, reduce reps, program with progression - Rope at my job
Solution: rest, heal, improve grip, relax, reduce repetition
- Kettlebell handle during kettlebell swings
- Wrist
- During heavy kettlebell swings
Solution: rest, heal, reduce weight, neutral wrist, program with progression - Ring muscle-ups
Solution: rest, heal, reduce repetition, program with progression
- During heavy kettlebell swings
- Heavy
- I do remember that time I tried swinging that 48kg beast I wasn’t ready for
Solution: rest, heal, reduce weight, program with progression - I do remember that chin-up with added weight
Solution: rest, heal, reduce weight, program with progression
- I do remember that time I tried swinging that 48kg beast I wasn’t ready for
Be prepared to put in time, analyse, and above all, listen to your body, it’s one of the best doctors you have access to. Get to the cause, get rid of the medicine.
One great example of a conversation on fb:
“Quick question, do you guys believe Chiropractic care helps? Dealing with a back injury and would Love to hear input.”
My answer: Yes. But. You need to understand, that if you need to keep going to the chiropractor, you’re not getting to the root cause. Usually strength and flexibility are the ultimate answer. Move through all planes.
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