AWeber - FOHAC Newsletter Slow Squats #448

Published: Sun, 03/04/18

Fair Oaks Health News

Welcome

March 4, 2018

Slow Squats

Hi ,

A couple weeks ago I wrote about little movements that can make a world of difference in our health. Three minutes, two or three times a day, of vigorous, but very simple movement triggers a flood of nitric oxide into our blood stream opening up our blood flow throughout our body. It is good blood flow that both brings the necessary oxygen for energy formation to our tissues as well as the necessary nutrients for both energy and cellular repair. You need that same flood of blood to flush away the toxic byproducts that are released from normal cellular functioning, the most important being simple carbon dioxide. The blood is able to carry these wastes to the lungs for release in our breath, to the kidneys for discharge in our urine, and to our liver to be broken down and then dumped into our colon for later discharge.

The most common complaint heard by doctors everywhere is lack of energy. Everyone is tired. Everyone wants more energy. Coffee and energy drink sales are at an all time high. These give you fake energy by amping up your brain, but they do not really give you more actual physical energy. Physical energy is manufactured in each cell by the mitochondria energy factories in the cell. Physical energy is carried in our bodies by a chemical called ATP. ATP is like a tiny full battery that flows around the cell until energy is needed to do something. It donates electrochemical energy by splitting apart and releasing its stored energy. The pieces of the battery now travel back to the mitochondria, where they are reassembled with a load of new energy. Those of you that took biology in school might remember this process as the Krebs cycle and electron transport chain. Sugar or ketones go in the top, and are slowly broken down and form high energy ATP from the low energy ADP and P along the Krebs pathway.

One of the hard things to get across to people is that to have energy, you have to use up energy. You have to eat the right foods to create energy – people understand this even if they don’t do it, but then that food has to get to the cells, and that means good blood flow. Well the body is

super good at conserving energy, so if you do not demand a high level of performance from the body, it will automatically downgrade to the lowest level of energy use it can get away with. That means starving your cells for nutrients and instead storing that energy for later use as fat. It is vigorous exercise that counters that process by opening up the blood flow and getting that nutrition to the cells where the mitochondria in the cells can turn it into lots of ATP.

Now here is an interesting physio fact I just learned – it takes lots more energy to relax a muscle than it does to tighten up a muscle. That is why muscles tighten up into rigor mortis when we die – there is not enough energy to relax. What does that say about those chronically tight muscles in your neck and back? Maybe they do not have enough energy to relax. The blood flow is restricted to them because of stress tension and now they only have enough energy to stay tight – a nice self-perpetuating cycle. Opening up blood flow is the key to having enough muscle energy to simply be able to relax. That is why I tell people after I adjust them to engage in a simple rhythmic activity, like walking. We want to encourage blood flow without straining the muscles. They would like to curl up into a ball on the couch and take pain meds, but this only makes the healing take longer because it slows down circulation. Lack of movement is destroying our health.

This is counter intuitive I know, but there you have it. It is what it is. The problem is that people have been conditioned to believe that exercise means a hour of pounding the pavement or killing yourself at the gym. This is exhausting and drains you of the energy you are seeking...and is unnecessary for health. You would do far better doing little movements, little short bouts of vigorous movement two or three times a day, than you would do going to the gym for an hour or two at a time. I am talking about the average person here, not the high functioning athlete pushing the boundaries of their performance envelope. For some of you that are seriously out of shape, this vigorous activity might only need to be 20 seconds three times a day to start, and then you gradually work up to three minutes over as many months as it takes. You should feel better after doing these little bouts of exercise, or at least the same. If you feel worse and more tired, then you have done too much… cut it back. Exercise is meant to invigorate you, not exhaust you.

More importantly, it is the opening up of the circulation that will build you more energy for the rest of the day because of the reasons I outlined above – more ATP production and the flushing of the wastes. You have to convince your body that you are serious about really needing more energy before it will give it to you. Doing less to rest in hopes of getting more energy turns out to be the exact opposite of what you need to get more energy. You need to do just a little bit more exercise. A lot more exercise will drain you of energy and leave you with less energy over-all. Like everything else in life, just the right amount is good, but too much or too little is bad.

The “Little Movements” article was about generating energy for you. This time I want to address another concern – strength. Energy will do you no good if you do not have the strength to get up and do. The most basic medical measure of aging is the getting up out of a chair test. It means exactly what it says. Your doctor watches how you get up out of a chair. Do you pop up directly in one smooth movement without using your hands, or do you have to heave yourself up by pushing with your arms on your thighs or on the arms of the chair? There is a rating scale based on how fast and how much you have to help yourself up that translates to an age equivalent for general strength.

Years ago I noticed myself getting lazy to the point that I had to use my arms to get up out of a chair. When I caught myself, I realized how lazy I had gotten, so I started doing chair squats to rebuild my lower body strength. I was in my 50’s and acting like I was in my 70’s. So the idea here is that strength training is a special type of little movement for building strength rather than energy. The idea I came up with was based on the super-slow weight training I was doing in the gym. And yes, even though I was training in the gym, my hip muscle strength was really wimpy.

So here is the idea – go to a chair and try to take ten seconds to sit down super slowly and then immediately go to stand up also super slowly taking another ten seconds. Immediately repeat this process without any rest at all until you can’t lift up out of the chair at all. That’s it. Don’t do this again for at least four to seven days.

Obviously if you are deconditioned you will have to use your arms and hands just to get up and down, and you may not even be able to do one repetition. That is ok. If you take ten seconds just to go down half way and another ten seconds to come back up, then that is just fine. Do what ever you can do, just do it super slowly. When you reach muscle failure, meaning you can’t move any further, you are done for about a week. You need that long to allow your body to recover and rebuild. It is when you take a muscle to failure that you are telling your body that you really want it to build more muscle. As long as you stay in your comfort zone, your body will constantly decrease its abilities. Comfort equals the slow winding down of your body towards death. Growth only occurs when you push out of your comfort zone – for the body and the soul.

This is just a little 1-2 minute a week health building challenge.

Take care,

David

Ellen update:

One of the challenges Ellen has faced is things as simple as trimming her nails. She has had to pay a manicurist to come over every so often and do her nails. Last week she decided she wanted to be able to do her own nails. After a lot of searching the internet I found a product that she is able to handle well enough to be able to trim her own nails. Most products requite two hands to use, but this one does the job.

Here is a link to the electric nail trimmer - GO HERE

Fish oil and probiotics in pregnancy reduce childhood allergies

In a review of 400 studies involving 1.5 million people the clear conclusion was that taking fish oil and probiotics reduces childhood allergy and eczema by 30% and 22% respectively. This was the mother taking these supplements in the last half of her pregnancy and for several months after delivering her child.

Allergies
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"Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing"

~ Sophocles

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Ibuprofen kills thousands every year - what alternatives do we have?

The link takes you to a nice review article by Greenmed of alternative pain relief herbs. My two favorite alternatives are not included - CBD oil and the turmeric extract curcumin. None of us like pain, but taking pain relievers that endanger our health and survival does not seem like a good choice either.

Pain
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"The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities."

~ Sophocles
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Ultra processed food destroys health

This was actually a national study of diet and health in America. Ultra processed refers to foods like breakfast cereals, pizza, chips, chicken nuggets, basic fast food fare. In the cross sectional study these foods supplied almost 60% of American's calories and greatly pumped up their sugar intake. Dr. Mercola did a nice review of this study.

Study

Mercola
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"There is a time when even justice brings harm.."

~ Sophocles
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Our address is 9725 Fair Oaks Blvd. suite A
Our hours are M - F 9 to 1 and M, Tu, & Th 3 to 6

Finding the new location is very easy. Coming from highway 50 up Sunrise Blvd, you turn left and go up a block. We are on the right hand side - the building just past the Subway Sandwich shop. If you are coming down Sunrise from the Mall area then just turn right on Fair Oaks Blvd and up a block on the right.

If you are coming from the Roseville area you could come down Sunrise Blvd, but that is a long trek. It is probably shorter time wise to come down Auburn Blvd - San Juan Ave like you have been for the Sunset office, but instead of turning left at Sunset, keep going straight 3 more lights to Fair Oaks Blvd and turn left. Go down 2 lights to New York Ave, go through the intersection, and immediately turn into the turn lane once the center divider ends. We are on the left.

You are free to reprint this article in your newsletter as long as you include the following statement in the same size type and color:

"This article appears courtesy of Fair Oaks Health News, offering natural and healthy solutions for body, mind and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.fairoakshealth.com"

Referral doctor for when we are out of town:

Jennifer Webb DC
6216 Main St. suite C1
Orangevale
988-3441

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About Dr. DeLapp

Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 35 years. He began experimenting with medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis. In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education. Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic. He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice.
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health.
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities.
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth. The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework. Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.

Fair Oaks Healing
& Arts Center
Staff