6 Ways to Build Muscle Without Weights (Part 3)
Ok guys, here it is, the final part of my series on ways to build muscle without weights. This final part is going to be a little more advanced. If you're not already fit, it's probably not a good idea to follow this article in entirety. Some of the things involved are pretty intense, so make sure you know your limits before trying any of these.
The guy I saw introuce this type of training was the most hardcore of any of the instructors I had ever seen. A former commando, this guy had no time for being nice. He was hard and he trained even harder. So it probably shouldn't have come as a surprise when I saw him demonstrating his first exercise.
He led us back to the big hill and stood there proudly, with a look on his face that he suggested that he was about to inflict a whole world of hurt on us. He then walked over to an old car tyre and hooked it onto himself using some rope. He then ran right to the top of the hill, without stopping. Like I stated at the beginning of this article, I don't recommend you try this unless you're already fit, so don't go killing yourself then come whinging to me, ok?
To do this yourself is quite simple. You just need to find an old tire or any old useless piece of junk. Pick something that will challenge you physically, but don't go strapping yourself to a fridge and pretend to be superman. Leave that for the movies.
So once you have your piece of junk or tire, grab some rope or some way of attaching it to yourself. And once you do that, you're just about ready to rock and roll. Where you choose to run will also depend on your current level of fitness. Running uphill, through the scrub may be ok if you are an elite commando, but for average joes, running flat across a running track is fine.
The final way to build muscle without weights, that I'm going to write about is my favourite. It was also a favourite of the commando, but it's actually fun. Yes, it is great for building muscle without weights, but it is also fun. I'm sure you've done this before without even realising it's muscle building effects.
What you need to do is find a partner and both get on your knees. From there, you are both required to wrestle each other to the ground while remaining on your knees. This means the workout really pushes your upper body. It helps if your partner isn't a commando, but someone on par with you physically.
This makes it a really even fight and therefore a really hard workout. If you want to know some more ways to build muscle without weights, just use your head. Think of some way to use something heavy and then do something with it. Thats all it really comes down to. You certainly don't need to be a rocket scientist.
Well, that's it for my little 3 part course on building muscles without weights. If you don't want to train in a gym, then I highly recommend you check the whole series out (if you haven't already) and give it a red hot go.
Should We Question Genetically Modified Organism Technology ?
I traveled to Europe a few years ago for the first time. I was surprised to see a debate on something I hadn't thought too much about. It regarded Genetically Modified crops, or GMO (genetically modified organism) crops. The newspapers discussed the pros and cons, and government parliaments were involved in heated debates. Some nations were refusing GMO to be allowed into their agricultural systems.
I thought perhaps this public debate had just begun during my travels, but when I got back to the US, I was equally shocked to see virtually no debate or discussion of the pros and cons of GMO crops. In fact, with a little research I was disturbed to learn that GMO crops were already wide spread in the US. Companies had spread them across America with virtually no public debate on the subject.
America's lack of debate on GMO issues struck me hard a few nights ago, as I was out with a couple of friends dining on Indian food. The subject came up when I remarked on a rumour I'd heard about human DNA being inserted into pigs, and another one I'd actually read myself about human DNA being inserted into rice.
My fellow diners got irritated by my negative view of Genetically Modified Organisms and its dire possibilities. I became frustrated with them because I felt they were willing to gamble with our future, and put way too much confidence in men in white lab coats.
I explained that in past decades less and less money is provided for pure research in our universities from the public fund, and more and more is coming from corporate funding sources who have an economic interest in profitable results. They replied, "Well the funding has to come from somewhere."
My concern is that if our media is supported by the mega corporations that profit from GMO , and our university research funding is provided by the corporations that profit from GMO . . . then who'd be looking out for the interests of the average citizen?
I struggled to find an image that conveyed my sense of bloated human hubris, to think we could outsmart thousands of millions of years of evolution. I suggested that our generation was playing the role of someone standing at a roulette table in a casino, putting everything on the line, and shaking the dice saying, "I feel lucky." My point was that once life forms are released into the biosphere they cannot be contained, and how they play out is anyone's guess. My friends felt that I was an old frightened, alarmist fuddy duddy.
They said, why do you always have to look at things so negatively? Why couldn't it happen that these guys come up with something good, that can help humanity? Why do you have to see it as dangerous?
Since that night, the issue of GMO crops, and gene spliced animals, has rolled around in my mind. I needed a metaphor to explain why I was concerned. Last night, in my sleep, a metaphor came to me that illuminated my position, so I got up to do the math.
Life on planet earth began about 4,000 million years ago. Humans, or Homo Sapien Sapiens appeared about 100,000 years ago. This means that humans have been on the scene in Earth's evolution of life for about .000025 percent of the lifespan of our planet's biosphere. To see this in human terms, given that the average human's life expectancy today is 67 years, the time humans have been on Earth is equal to 50,073 seconds, or 835 minutes, or in other words we as a species are about 14 hours old in human terms.
It has taken 4,000 million years of evolution to create the complex web of life that involves thousands of species interacting to create a biosphere that is an interconnected net of highly sophisticated endless links of interdependent relationships. Small changes can have great effects. We know that as we scratch our heads and wonder why the bees are dying in huge numbers. According to an article in Germany's Der Kritischer Agrarbericht (Critical Agricultural Report), Albert Einstein once said, ""If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."
It is as if the biosphere or web of life on our planet is now going in for surgery, and the nurse wheels in a 14-hour-old-infant, and places a scalpel in his pudgy little trembling hand. The infant's newborn eyes struggle to open in the operating room's bright light, and its hand recoils at the cold steel scalpel the nurse is forcing into its trembling hand, as she struggles to close those tiny infant pasty fingers around the scalpel, so that the infant can begin the surgery on the body of Earth's web of life.
The shocked patient, representing everything we know of as life, looks up in horror and disbelief, as the nurse pats the patient's colorless sweat beaded forehead and soothingly murmurs, "Calm down, don't be so negative, he might get in there and actually do you some good."
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Bill Douglas is a world media authority on natural health, specifically mind/body health issues. Bill's also written on social, environmental, and spiritual issues. He is the author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong," presenter in "Anthology of Tai Chi & Qigong: The Prescription for the Future" DVD, and is the Founder of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, http://www.worldtaichiday.org .
Fibromyalgia, CFS and MLD: Autonomic Immunity, Connective Tissue, and the Circulatory System: Part 3
Connective Tissue Function
Connective tissue is an essential organ and as such has many functions and capabilities.
� Connective tissue is the vehicle of the unconscious and undifferentiated body functions.
� Connective tissue regulates energy processes and has primary control of the physiochemical and bioelectrical activities of the body.
� Connective tissue regulates a host of vital bodily functions such as temperature, water, mineral and energy balance, including glycolysis and respiration.
� Connective tissue forms the basis of the system of general and unspecific defense regulation, and along with its fibres represents a mechanical barrier to bacteria.
� Connective tissue serves as the physiologic reservoir of the human body for all essential nutrients.
Protein, carbohydrates and water are stored in the connective tissue as well as fat cells which contain fat not yet transformed into energy.
Water occurs in two different forms in the body:
1. As active hydrodynamic, available water
2. As inactive stored water.
The first form serves as a means of transport in the circulatory and lymph system as well as in connective tissue. It functions as a reactive partner and a solvent in the metabolic processes of cells and tissues.
Stored water (2) on the other hand is used to determine the volume of a molecule which is not a compact, but rather a diffuse, externally open molecule that extends over a large volume.
Evolution has cleverly placed its central reservoir for all essential nutrients, in the most imaginably convenient spot in the body, the connective tissue.
In this way the connective tissue fulfils two functions.
� Firstly, it is a hydro culture in which all cells of the body are suspended and nourished.
� Secondly, it is the ubiquitous reservoir for all the nutrients of the entire organism.
In this way every body cell can withdraw any nutrient from the tissue fluid in which it is bathed. If a nutrient deficiency occurs, every cell can at any time draw nutrients out of the connective tissue reservoir without any delay due to long transport routes.
The connective tissue is indeed another organ of the body, meaning the life quality of the cells is dependent upon the environment.
This view is logical due to the presence of nerve fibres in the soft connective tissue which represent the termination of the autonomic nerves. The axons of these nerves are able to release transmitter substances directly into the connective tissue, thereby exerting a regulatory effect.
A further characteristic of connective tissue is its ability to regenerate, for example, the formation of scars.
Connective tissue has another important function as a defense system against life threatening invasions from foreign cells such as bacteria. Connective tissue fibres represent a protective barrier that detains invading cells until the defense cells can do their work
A good healthy connective tissue is essential for health and beauty.
An accumulation of metabolic waste products impairs the function of connective tissue. In mild cases this leads only to cosmetic blemishes, but in more serious cases it will lead to health disturbances such as Fibromyalgia and CFS.
The same is true if disturbances occur in the water balance of connective tissue or if its composition deviates from the norm in one of many other possible ways.
Microoedeamas in connective tissue are the cause of many diseases.
Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD) aims to clean and purify the tissue by draining it of pollutants.
Transport Systems of the Body
The human body consists of one third solid substances and two thirds of a liquid similar to seawater in composition. One could argue that this is evidence that we originally evolved from marine life.
Health is almost entirely dependent on the circulation of substances (metabolism), and so becomes a matter of efficient transport.
All substances that are transported in the blood must pass through the connective tissue to reach the cells. Waste products formed during combustion must also pass through the connective tissue in order to be removed by the blood.
These facts are crucial to understanding how MLD works.
Circulation
Parallel to the venous system we have another vessel system, the lymph system.
A good analogy for the circulatory systems would be to say that the arterial network forms the supply channels to the tissues, with the venous and lymph networks representing the drainage systems.
In turn, venous and lymph systems have their own differing tasks.
The venous system conducts blood back to the heart, but must also remove small molecular substances such as salt, sugar, water and gas from the connective tissue, and transport them.
The lymph system is responsible for removing large molecular substances and water from the tissue, and transporting them. Large molecules consist of proteins, immobile cells, cell fragments, waste products, bacteria, viruses, inorganic substances, water and large molecular fats.
Lymph Nodes
Lymph nodes can be regarded as filtering stations. Lymph will not leave an organ or a body region without being filtered through a lymph node. Lymph nodes represent direct connections to the circulatory system.
Lymph nodes are full of lymphocytes, plasma cells and phagocytes (all vital immune system units with their own individual purpose).
Lymphocytes will remain in the lymph nodes for several days but will only stay in the blood for at most 24 hours.
There are around 600 lymph nodes in the body, with around 160 concentrated in the neck region, hence the dreadful neck pain experienced during an infective episode.
Lymph nodes bind, attack and breakdown antigens but also concentrate deposits of glass, dust, mineral dust and dyes for elimination into the blood capillaries.
The majority of an organism's immunological reactions and activities occur in the lymph nodes.
Lymph nodes are generally devoid of musculature with the exception of those in the intestinal region which are able to contract. This is due to the enormous pressure and the pure volume of activity in the intestinal area.
The functions of the lymph nodes are:
� Biological filtering,
� Lymph Concentration (water is resorbed into the veins resulting in lymph thickening,
� Immunological function (lymphocyte replication), � Storage for substances that cannot be immediately broken down and eliminated.
Anatomy of the Lymph Vessels
The largest lymph vessel of the human body is the thoracic duct. It originates in the navel region and ascends through the diaphragm in front of the vertebral column. At the sternum it arches to the left and empties into the left subclavian vein.
It transports the lymph from the lower body and legs. It also takes some of the lymph generated in the thorax.
All lymph originating below the navel is transported by the thoracic duct.
The lymph of the skin and muscles of the head and neck is transported by the jugular trunk to the venous arch of that side. There are many lymph nodes in the neck and facial region.
The cervical lymph nodes are situated above and below the fascia of the tissue.
Of particular note to Fibromyalgia and CFS sufferers is that the brains "lymph obligatory load" flows through the lymph nodes of the neck.
This is a crucial factor to remember in treating Fibromyalgia and CFS patients, as will be discussed later.
The brain and spinal cord have no direct lymph vessels of their own: the pre-lymph from these areas drains via cerebrospinal fluid and along spinal nerves.
What is particularly interesting in the Fibromyalgia and CFS debate is that recent scientific evidence reports the discovery brain and spinal cord lesions in Fibromyalgia and CFS patients.
Readers should by now be able to deduce for themselves that it is no coincidence that these areas happen to be organs that have no direct access to lymph vessels.
The viral, chemical or bacterial trigger infection pre diagnosis was allowed to cause damage to these areas due to extreme lymphostasis during the infective period.
The lymphostasis is a direct result of musculoskeletal anomalies affecting the thoracic duct, the main drainage channel of the lymphatic system.
As I have spoken about a great length in previous articles, all Fibromyalgia and CFS patients present with some degree of musculoskeletal imbalance in the T7 area which as I have presented in this article is the main "crossroads" of the lymphatic system.
My working strategy includes the following:
� MLD focusing on specific areas of lymphostasis, working the tissues in specific directions,
� mobilization of particular musculoskeletal restrictions,
� improve overall musculoskeletal balance,
� simultaneously employ a sequence of rotational exercises,
The results normally include:
� reversal of chronic lymphostasis,
� improvement trigger point pain,
� reduction of stress hormone production,
� improvement overall immune function ,
� reduction of the fatigue experienced by true CFS and Fibromyalgia sufferers.
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Mark J Shaw.
Mark is the author of a new digital book and training manual �Beat Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"
http://www.BeatFibroAndFatigue.com
Mark also publishes in a regular blog at: http://www.BeatFibroAndFatigue.blogspot.com
