Massage isn’t just an amenity to make you feel good, but can actually help you recover faster from workouts  and prevent injuries! Let’s face it; we push our bodies to the limit every day.  I’ve trained with Bodysport for the last year and know just how beat up your body feels on a daily basis.  Overusing your muscles like this may often create problems and imbalances in the soft tissues.  A constant build up of tension in the muscles may lead to stresses on joints, ligaments, tendons, as well as the muscles themselves.  The muscles tighten and shorten over time leaving you vulnerable to strains and tears.  If these are ignored, they will hinder your rate of improvement, impede performance, and ultimately make you susceptible to injury.

Massage is the most effective therapy for releasing muscle tension and restoring balance to the muscular-skeletal system.  More specifically, sports massage which targets deeper tissues.  It treats problems before they are too obvious.  When giving you a massage, we can feel the variations in the tissues and use different techniques to restore muscles back to a healthier, supple state.  Regular massage as part of your training program will keep your muscles loose and flexible and therefore helping to prevent injury.

Elenir – Massage Therapist and Aesthetician

Independent Contractor at Bodysport Fitness Center

702-339-8433

Obesity linked to stupidity, brain scans show
by Kate Melville

A person’s risk of cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes and hypertension is known to be linked to obesity, and now researchers have established that being overweight can also affect a person’s brain.

In the journal Human Brain Mapping, Paul Thompson, a UCLA professor of neurology, and colleagues compared the brains of people who were obese, overweight, and of normal weight, to see if they had differences in brain structure. They found that obese people had 8 percent less brain tissue than people with normal weight, while overweight people had 4 percent less tissue.

“That’s a big loss of tissue and it depletes your cognitive reserves, putting you at much greater risk of Alzheimer’s and other diseases that attack the brain,” noted Thompson. “But you can greatly reduce your risk for Alzheimer’s, if you can eat healthily and keep your weight under control.”

The new study used brain images from an earlier study known as the Cardiovascular Health Study Cognition Study. The researchers converted the scans into detailed three-dimensional images using tensor-based morphometry, a neuroimaging method that offers high resolution mapping of anatomical differences in the brain.

In looking at both grey matter and white matter of the brain, the researchers found that the people defined as obese had lost brain tissue in the frontal and temporal lobes, areas of the brain critical for planning and memory, and in the anterior cingulate gyrus (attention and executive functions), hippocampus (long term memory) and basal ganglia (movement).

Overweight people showed brain loss in the basal ganglia, the corona radiata, white matter comprised of axons, and the parietal lobe (sensory lobe).

“The brains of obese people looked 16 years older than the brains of those who were lean, and in overweight people looked eight years older,” said Thompson.

“Along with increased risk for health problems such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, obesity is bad for your brain: we have linked it to shrinkage of brain areas that are also targeted by Alzheimer’s,” added co-researcher Cyrus A. Raji. “But that could mean exercising, eating right and keeping weight under control can maintain brain health with aging.”

Mel demonstrates his unique equipment for reverse hyperextensions.

Exercise: Reverse Hyperextension Machine
Category: Supplemental
Muscles targeted: Glutes, lower back, and hamstrings

This exercise is regarded by many strength coaches as being the best lower back, hamstring, and glute exercise. This is because it allows you to train all these muscles in unison. This is important because the muscles of the posterior chain are the same muscles responsible for running and jumping.

This is performed on a special bench invented by Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell Club. This exercise is also being use for rehabilitation purposes for those with back problems or herniated disks. This is because the bench decompresses the disks when the weights are in the midpoint position. To perform this exercise, there is a strap that wraps around your ankles or you place your ankles between rollers. You jump on the bench with your face down. Your entire torso is supported by the bench. This allows for your legs to hang down at a 90 degree angle. You perform the movement by contracting your glutes and raising you legs up to a horizontal position.

At this point, you try to contract your glutes and lower back as tight as possible. Then you lower the weight past the 90 degree starting point to a position where your ankles are in alignment with your head. This is the point where the disks are stretched apart to allow fluid to enter the joints.