Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Sports-related activities, as well as falls and other trauma, can injure the cartilage within a joint and, if it is not provided sufficient time to heal, chronic pain and persistent disability can follow. These activities and incidents may increase the risk of osteoarthritis, especially if there's impact involved or there's the risk of injury to ligaments. Additionally, damage to the bone surface can start a biological process that results in joint degeneration. This, in turn, often leads to rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis.
Arthritis is often a chronic disease meaning it can affect the person afflicted over a long period of time. It cannot be cured, but it can be treated through a variety of methods and products. Learning how to manage your joint pain over the long term is an important factor in controlling the disease and maintaining a good quality of life. This is a brief overview of some of the methods that arthritis sufferers can use to alleviate many of the symptoms associated with arthritis, especially joint pain. Products, both prescription and over-the-counter, for of relieving arthritic joint pain are described in Joint Pain Products.
Heat and cold
Heat and/or cold therapy is not recommended to alleviate symptoms associated with all types of
arthritis and as such, the decision whether to use it or not should be discussed with your doctor or physical therapist. If your care provider determines that the use of heat and/or cold is appropriate for use on your arthritis pain, it must be determined which kind of temperature treatment should be used. Moist heat, such as a warm bath or shower, or dry heat, such as a heating pad, placed on affected joint for about 15 minutes may relieve the pain. An ice pack or bag of frozen vegetables wrapped in a towel and placed on the sore area for about 15 minutes may help to reduce swelling and stop the pain. If you have poor circulation, do not use cold packs.
Joint protection
In order to relieve the stress of everyday activity on an afflicted joint, which can exacerbate the condition and may lead to additional injury, a splint or brace can be used to allow joints to rest and keep them from being used. As with many other treatments, a medical care provider such as a physician or physical therapist can make recommendations and possibly provide you with the brace.
Massage
Massage is associated with temporarily relieving joint pain, one of the major symptoms associated with arthritis, rather than treating the underlying cause of a loss of cartilage. A massage therapist will typically lightly stroke and/or knead the muscles around the joint, which increases blood flow to the stressed area. It is important to realize that arthritic joints are very sensitive, so the massage therapist must be familiar with the disease and problems associated with the affected joints.
Exercise
Low-impact exercises such as stretching exercises, swimming, walking, low-impact aerobics, and range-of-motion exercises may reduce joint pain and stiffness while increasing joint mobility. A physical therapist or gym trainer can help plan an exercise program that will give you the most benefit with the least stress on the arthritis-stressed joints.
Weight Reduction
In addition to alleviating some symptoms, the weight loss associated with an exercise program is beneficial in relieving the extra stress that extra pounds put on weight-bearing joints such as the hips and knees. Studies have shown that overweight women who lost approximately 10 pounds substantially reduced the development of osteoarthritis in their knees. In addition, these studies suggested that if osteoarthritis has already affected one joint such as the knee or hip, weight reduction would reduce the chance of it occurring in the other knee or hip. A physical therapist or gym trainer can help plan an exercise program that will give you the most benefit with the least stress on the arthritis-stressed joints.
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation uses a small device that is placed near the joint afflicted with arthritis and directs mild electric pulses to nerve endings in and around the arthritic joint. It is theorized that TENS blocks the pain messages sent to the brain from the nerves and modifies the body's perception of pain. Although TENS relieves some joint pain associated with arthritis, it doesn't offset the joint inflammation that is associated with arthritis.
Surgery
In some extreme cases of persons with arthritis, surgery may be necessary. The surgeon may perform an operation to remove the synovium, realign the joint, or in extreme cases, replace the damaged joint with an artificial one. Total joint replacement provides not only dramatic pain relief but also significant improvement in joint motion and mobility for many people with arthritis.
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Muay Thai Training Techniques
Muay Thai is a Thai mixed martial art form. It has many techniques of fighting. While using Muay Thai techniques, also known as "Mae Mai Muay Thai," fighters use the entire body including fists, elbows, shins, feet and knees.
The basic Muay Thai training techniques include punch techniques (jab, straight right/cross, hook and uppercut), elbow techniques (horizontal, diagonal-upwards, diagonal-downwards, uppercut, downward, backward-spinning and flying) and kicking techniques (push kick, roundhouse kick, etc.). The following are some special Muay Thai techniques:
The Clinch
This technique is exclusively used in Muay Thai fights. While combating the fighter applies this technique by holding his opponent either around the neck and head or around the body. It is known as Thai clinch.
To apply the clinch, the fighter has to hold his opponent either around the neck and head or around the body. The fighter also has to press his forearm against his opponent's collar bone while his hands are around the latter's head rather than his neck.
A common clinching technique used in Muay Thai fights is to just tap the head downward then give a throw. The fighter can also throw the opponent to his left in case the latter is using a knee from the right. It can cause the opponent to lose his balance.
The Kru
This is a tough technique. A new fighter takes a lot of training and hard work to learn this technique. The technique is provided by the fighter’s Krue or Thai boxing training. The trainer makes the fighter work hard and learn the technique. It is a tradition for the fighter to express his respect to his trainer through a ritual called Wai Kru.
There are some elements that are part of Muay Thai training techniques. These include:-
•Running – A trainee has to run 18 km running per day (around 12 km in the first half and around 6 km in the second half).
•Stretching – The trainee has also to do stretching for around 20-30 minutes. It improves muscular elasticity and reduces the stretch reflex.
•Shadow boxing – This training includes around 20 minutes of shadow boxing. Shadow boxing is usually practiced in front of a mirror.
Muay Thai training takes a lot of hard work. To become a good fighter young people have to go through a lot of physical and mental strain. It takes sheer dedication, commitment, and “never-say-die” attitude that a trainee transforms himself into a sound Muay Thai fighter.
About the Author
Shin Chang writes about various Muay Thai
training and Muay Thai training techniques. His articles have been published in various sports magazines. He lives in New York. For information visit us at: http://www.muaythai.cc/
About Sports Nutrition Health
The sports nutrition that any athlete consumes is a very important aspect and a huge determinant of his health and in turn affects his performance. Everyone knows that in today's competing world of sports, one must perform at his best to even qualify. And when it comes to winning, it's not enough to give your best- you need to be better than the best.
To play any sport, an athlete must maintain a healthy lifestyle. It's not only required to practice and polish the skills of the sport, but is also equally important to nourish the body so that there will be enough energy and strength to play that sport. Let's take a look at how the right sports nutrition can help in this regard.
You, assuming that you are an athlete or thinking of becoming one, must, first and foremost, understand the principles of sports nutrition completely. What is the point of staying healthy when you do not even know what being healthy is all about?
Firstly, it's important to avoid engaging yourself in false beliefs and misconceptions. Myths are completely different from facts, and your sports nutrition health is indeed a fact so do not, under any circumstances, mix unreal and unproven principles with facts. Compromising with your health based on misinterpretation of the facts can seriously jeopardize your career as an athlete.
It's easy to talk about managing your health than actually doing it. So to start with, you must take note of nutrition requirements that are related to your training program. Failure to recognize these said requirements would cause stress not only to your body, but also mentally. When you don't know what are up against, how can you build energy to tackle it?
Taking experts' advice on the sports nutrition is helpful too. You might be taking carbohydrates all right but not in the right amount or in the amount that is appropriate for you. So there will either be an excess or a lack, and neither is helpful for your health status.
Let's make one point clear though. There is a lot of difference between having well balanced sports nutrition and dieting to lose fat. Do not, under any circumstances, mistake them to be the same thing or else your health will be compromised.
You may have an extremely busy schedule, being an athlete and all, but you must still consume appropriate amount of food. So you must manage your time well to have an adequate time for eating. Time management is definitely the key.
For starters, you may not be financially stable right away, but that is how it always is when you are just beginning. However, this scarcity of finances might be a factor for you not to be able to attain adequate food supplies.
For those who are already making it big, your sports nutrition health should always come first. This means you have to manage your money efficiently so that you can have the appropriate supply of food, and still have enough to spend for maintaining your lifestyle.
A usually ignored, but quite important nutrition and health impairing factor is frequent traveling. Besides from the fact that traveling is expensive, it comes with a huge tendency that you will be taking your food on the road which leaves you with very few healthy choices.
Or if you carry the food, it minimized the selection of your food items to those that are portable. That will leave out the food that is difficult for you to carry but is important for your sports nutrition health. The time for eating should also not be modified.
Sports nutrition experts break the nutrition into the basic three types that the food basically is made up of. That is protein, carbohydrates and fats. A correct balance of these components in your body is very important. Anything in excess or in deficiencies could be a cause of a nutritional downfall.
Proteins give energy to the body. Whereas fats are the things that you should be more concerned about since these are the ones that decide what kind of shape to give to your body. You must not lose more than one half pound of fat in a week because if this happens, your body will individually think that you are undergoing a fasting, trying to starve yourself. If this is the case, your metabolism slows down since there is a need to conserve calories that have been used and also since your muscles will be used as sources of energy.
To say the least, you need to carefully follow the guidance about sports nutrition and ponder over the tips given in this article. Remember, it's possible to be a successful athlete provided you maintain your health well!
Discover the proper sports nutrition information and learn how to improve your nutritional diet and sporting performace by reading a free sport nutrition information book at sports nutrition website. More article on the various aspects to sports nutrition can be found at sports nutrition articles.
