Vernon Gambetta is succint.

Dave Van Skike · 06-21-2008, 02:38 PM

Don’t ignore the obvious; take care of the first 98% before looking for the last 2%, that is a huge problem today. Are your athletes getting enough sleep? What is their lifestyle away from training? What is their diet? Are they living on energy bars, supplements and recovery drinks or are they eating real food? You must accumulate a background of training and competition before any sophisticated recovery methods are necessary and in my opinion, effective. Hard massage is not recovery, that can cause soreness not alleviate it. Too much time in sauna or a hot Jacuzzi is not recovery, that can draining. It is always personal and optimum rather than maximum. Let’s go back to Bill Bowerman’s concept of a hard day followed by an easy day. It works. As training accumulates you can go a hard day, a medium day and then an easy day followed by rest. Always think of the 3P’s – Practical, Personal, and Proactive.

(emphasis added.)
I like this guy's philosophy...

functionalpathtraining.typepad.com

Garrett Smith · 06-21-2008, 05:18 PM

Nice. The fact that most people don't deal with the 98% before seeing ANY type of healthcare practitioner is why results are so piss-poor for any treatment.

I forget where the study was, but I remember it showing that several days of something like 5 hours sleep was enough to cause mild fibromyalgia-like pain symptoms in healthy people...if anyone knows where that is, please post.

Dave, how's your pain doing, BTW?

Dave Van Skike · 06-21-2008, 05:50 PM

pain is getting better, not sure which trick worked, but the ibuprofen bomb was immediately effective. have kept the nighshades out simply because I don't miss them. at the end of the day, the shoulder is a structural issue, I tore a pec in 1992 and never rehabbed it properly. Right now I'm fighting a monstrously tight pec minor on my left side but I have gotten back to pressing overhead two to three days a week light. will be moving up to heavier (for me) pressing in the next few weeks on shoulder friendly lifts like log and db press.

Garrett Smith · 06-22-2008, 08:18 AM

Glad to hear you're on the mend.

If you wanted to test the nightshades, just to see if you believe me, eat a boatload of them, breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks one day, as many different ones as you can. Then observe your pain levels that day and for two more. Most often, people will observe disrupted sleep, increased joint cracking/popping, increased muscle tension, and just plain increased pain (particularly in old troublesome injury spots).

If you don't want to test, that's fine too. If your pain ever does flare in the future and you can't figure out why, look over your diet for the last two days. I bet you'll find something--I always can with my patients...

Garrett Smith · 06-22-2008, 08:29 AM

Here's something along the lines of what I was saying before about sleep and pain:

Effects of selective slow wave sleep disruption on musculoskeletal pain and fatigue in middle aged women.

Quote:

CONCLUSION: Disrupting SWS [slow wave sleep], without reducing total sleep or sleep efficiency, for several consecutive nights is associated with decreased pain threshold, increased discomfort, fatigue, and the inflammatory flare response in skin. These results suggest that disrupted sleep is probably an important factor in the pathophysiology of symptoms in fibromyalgia.

Proper sleep is important, to which many of us say...duh. That is one major reason I take something to help me sleep nearly every night. I know that if at least my sleep is good, that can help cover a lot of other bases.

BTW, nightshade-sensitive people tend to wake up around 2-3am and really have a tough time falling back asleep. It is often associated with a bit of a sweat. That combo (disruption of sleep, reducing time spent asleep, plus the inflammatory characteristics of the nightshades) will synergize to make their pain even worse. Just some observations...