The picture on the left shows you the difference between five pounds of fat and five pounds of muscle. What does this have to do with building muscles? How will this help me better understand how to better build muscles? Great questions, and I will attempt to answer each one for you. I think it is important to state that these pictures are normally touched up for effect  but we aren't concerned with that as much as the importance of building and strengthening the muscle fiber within our body.

Let me also clarify and state that exercise is not a ways and means to weight loss.  What proper exercise will do is help you build muscle, which helps use excess fat deposits for energy post exercise, which will help alter the shape of your body. Starvation will also burn fat for energy but also deplete the body of necessary minerals and foods it needs to survive. 

Many people follow a fad, or what the experts call "healthy diets", and lose weight, normally 5 to 10 pounds the first week. They get excited and now they start one of the fad exercise programs or just walk, which can be very good for you. The problem with most of these diets is that they end up losing muscle and not fat. What metabolizes fat best is strong, lean muscles, and when you lose muscle fiber you don't burn fat. 

Now if you starve yourself, once you burn fat and don't substantiate caloric intake with caloric output you will eventually deplete the fat storage of the body. What strong healthy muscle fiber does is increase your metabolic rate, which in unscientific verbiage means you are able to burn more calories at rest because the muscle requires more energy and the body will proceed to the fat bank to make withdrawals. 

By burning more and more of the fat deposits in our bank we start to produce stronger and leaner muscle fibers. How do we do this with efficiency? Most individuals feel that they need to get their heart rate up and racing at a high rate, wrong! If I don't sweat then I am not really "working out"! What you do when these occurrences happen is you place your nervous and hormonal system under great stress. What do most individuals want to remove from their lives? Stress, so why do we add that component. When exercising properly the body should be under minimal duress, while focusing on using the proper muscle fibers and creating a healthy environment of blood and oxygen, that is what builds muscle and burns fat. 

In the practice of Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® and Fundamental Movement Therapy (SM) your breathing patterns is what the therapist and instructor look for and correct initially. In order for the muscles to fire correctly they need to have proper blood and oxygen. The body moves in a vertical and rotational pattern to overcome the dynamics of gravity. The breathing pattern of the body is truly from head to foot and also includes the hands. This is how the body directs the flow of blood and oxygen to the necessary areas. 

Without getting into the specific forms of muscle fibers, there are four, as the brain  determines the movement pattern it intends to travel, it prepares by bringing proper nutrition to the area. If there is not enough "sugar" the body will go to one of its safe deposit boxes and withdraw some fat from it and use it where needed. As the muscle fibers begin to fire and create the necessary tension and dynamics that will fatigue and deplete themselves. What happens next is where your strength comes in, it recruits from within itself when the body is positioned and stabilized properly. As you build these additional fibers, you increase the body's internal metabolism and that is when you properly burn "fat". 

Fundamental Movement Therapy (SM) uses Pilates based movement equipment to assure that you stay supported and in the proper position during movement. It is based on maintaining the proper tension on the bones of the body while using the proper muscle fiber. Pilates based movement, as mentioned previously was called Contrology by Joseph Pilates, and was meant to be SLOW and DELIBERATE not fast and furious. It truly was meant to change movement patterns and as a result strengthen the correct muscle fibers. 

How does this relate to the topic of burning fat? As we build proper muscle fiber strength, and continue to use that muscle in movement, we will need to access our fat bank and therefore build muscle and reduce fat. Improper movement does not build muscle strength but in actuality will weaken the muscles because it will fatigue them and force the brain to recruit from other areas of the body. 

Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® was developed so that the brain will fire in the proper pattern and allow the brain to make correct choices. It performs this task by balancing the muscle tension on the skeleton and allows the ligaments to place the bones into proper alignment for movement purposes. 

Please send us your questions and comments right on this blog page. Next week I will talk about bone density and osteopenia and how to prevent osteo-arthritis by using these techniques.....

Remember there is always a REASON TO HOPE!!

Dennis

PS The essential oil that I have been rolling on has reduced the inflammation in my Thyroid area. I must also admit I do believe my energy level is picking up, now we will patiently await the metabolism.

It seems over the past few weeks that this question has come up in casual conversation; I guess now that the Summer weather is with us people are thinking more of outside activities.  This is a very controversial topic, and I am sure if you ask ten people you will probably get ten different answers! But this is how I describe it as it relates to movement and relief of chronic pain. -  Muscle Strength vs. Muscle Tone?!

Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® was developed to enhance Muscle Tone so that the muscle would be able to add Muscle Strength. They are two separate entities and you can't have one without the other. Muscle Strength provides the dynamics necessary for proper movement. Muscle Tone provides the ability of the muscle fiber to be in the proper position to be strengthened. 

What is meant by this, muscle fibers must be aligned properly with the skeletal structure or bone that they are meant to move. Through any form of trauma or injury fibers often realign themselves in a posture that accommodates the misalignment, and therefore are no longer in a positive position of movement. The brain does not recognize muscles but does control movement patterns so even when exercising the proper muscle fibers do not have to "fire" because the brain is trying to replicate a movement pattern not have a particular muscle fiber work.

That dilemma forces the body to recruit other fibers and this is what often creates future problems in the pain cycle. People often continue to "strengthen" muscle fibers that are not properly aligned and this will cause the wrong fibers, or the ones that are holding improper posture, to become stronger than the ones that should be working.

What Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® does is find the improper tension in the muscle fibers by determining the improper movement patterns, releasing the protective posture and allowing the individual's brain to "release" back to a natural position and tension. This is proper muscle tone!

With proper muscle tone the movement patterns used in strengthening will function at a higher level and this access will force the muscle to recruit from within itself. This is a very complex topic to wrap yourself around but it is an important one to try and understand because one can actually make their discomfort worse by moving in an improper pattern. 

What does Fundamental Movement Therapy - FMTh(sm) / Pilates do for you? There is a major misconception that Pilates is meant to be an aerobic exercise that produces much perspiration and supposedly strengthens you. When Joseph Pilates developed his theory of Contrology or controlled movement it was with the purpose of using the proper muscle fibers to move and strengthen in the proper movement patterns. He would position the frame to work accordingly with the overall structure, much as any mechanical structure needs to. 

As you are taken through the process of proper movement the brain will encourage the proper fibers to work and thus strengthen. The objective of forcing the body to perspire is contradictory to what needs to be done as this forces the body to work under stress. This stress forces the brain to diversify itself and the hormonal imbalance is overworked therefore limiting the efficiency of the body and brain.

As you can see this is a complicated process that I will attempt to simplify over the next few weeks. If in the meantime you have any questions, please call us at 216.364-0152 and speak with anyone of us to help you understand better what will give you......

a Reason To HOPE so that your pain can be eliminated.....


Dennis

PS Essential Oil update for my Thyroid, the inflammation has gone away and i do believe I am now starting to get more stamina. Thank you to Marge and Stacey for finding and putting together this remedy. I will keep everyone posted.
Stacey Abbe will be at the Wellness Center on Tuesday 6/11/2013 from 10:00a-2:00p with the Zyto Scanner. Compliments of Stacey, if you sign up for the Zyto Scan, purchase an oil, - you will receive a complimentary oil blend. Call CVWC at 216-364-0152 t