Aging Backwards_10 Years Lighter and 10 Years Younger in 30 Minutes a Day

by Miranda Esmonde-White

  Another way to help heal scar tissue is to massage the affected area in order to dislodge the layers of skin that have become glued together. The sooner we massage a scar, the less likely it is that the layers of skin will glue together. This is why doctors recommend gentle massage after surgery or trauma.

  When it comes to internal scarring, a massage by a therapist can dig only so deep into our muscles. But we can replace the massaging action with gentle, rotational, twisting and turning movements. Rotational movements help to loosen internal scar tissue, sloughing off the excess debris and liberating the bound-up muscle.

  A note of warning for those who don’t exercise after undergoing a major surgery: I’ve had clients who have come to me many years after having had surgery (abdominal, knee, ankle, or spinal) and who didn’t exercise or do the physical therapy their doctors prescribed. Predictably, a few years later, the entire body began to feel some degree of pain caused by the restricted movement from internal scarring. They come to me because they are suffering.

  Atrophy happens to people of all ages, whether they’re 15 years old or 80 years old. And while old scars and years of immobility are more difficult to treat than new wounds, we can still help to repair old injuries. In 2012, the University of Vermont’s Program in Integrative Health and Dr. Helene Langevin, Professor of Orthopedics, Rehabilitation, and Neurology, released preliminary research for three studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These breakthroughs have opened a conversation about using dynamic stretching to prevent and heal injuries and pain.

  Dr. Langevin’s work showed that dynamic stretching employing a full range of motion can have an effect in regulating the tension level of connective tissue; this regulation in turn helps to relieve conditions like back pain.34 Dynamic range of motion stretching is the same type of movement that is used in Classical Stretch, ESSENTRICS, and tai chi. This research could explain why so many people who do ESSENTRICS report reduced or totally relieved pain, and it is groundbreaking for sufferers from back pain, athletes, and physical therapists alike.

  BREAST CANCER AND SCAR TISSUE

  When I was 50, I had breast cancer. After my breast cancer surgery, my biggest problem was the scar tissue that had accumulated under my arm where the surgeon had removed lymph nodes. I had difficulty raising my arm even to shoulder height because doing so tugged on the scar in my underarm. I was afraid that if I pulled too hard I might reopen the incision, so I stopped raising my arm whenever I felt a tug on the scar tissue. Soon, even raising my arm to shoulder height was painful.

  Fortunately, with the advice and encouragement of the physiotherapists and nurses at the Royal Victoria Hospital, I was able to work within my limits and through the pain. They showed me that I wouldn’t rip the scar tissue or cause additional damage to the wound if I was careful (one of my biggest worries). I followed their advice, working within their prescribed limits, until I regained the full range of motion in my arm in about 8 weeks—but the sensations of tugging and stiffness took more than 10 years to go away. And every time I lift my arm above my head (which is every day, as it is a basic movement in my fitness program), I still feel a slight pain, though it disappears rapidly.

  I realized that if an exercise specialist like me had difficulty understanding the simple instructions that breast cancer patients are given after surgery, there must be millions of women experiencing similar confusion. With support from the Royal Victoria Hospital and Novartis, I created a complete breast cancer rehabilitation workout that’s available free of charge on my website (www.classicalstretch.com) for any woman who has undergone breast cancer surgery.

  Once I understood the full nature of my problems, I was inspired with the confidence to push through painful rehabilitation exercises. To this day, 14 years later, every time I raise my arm above my head, I still feel a slight tug against the scar. But within seconds as I continue the stretch, the tugging sensation disappears. The scar may never go away, but I’m grateful I made sure to retain my mobility and the full use of my arms!

  Anytime there is interference with the ability to move, there is a risk of atrophy. This means that scar tissue can lead to atrophy unless we consciously move all of the tissue (both skin and muscle) surrounding the scar. Regular exercises can get rid of scar tissue and, thankfully, the movements required to release scar tissue are the easiest exercises to perform.

  We’ve talked a lot about helping to relieve pain and increase our flexibility with the stretching component of ESSENTRICS. But the other half of the eccentric approach—to strengthen as we stretch—is equally important. Let’s look at how we can increase our strength while simultaneously increasing the number and power of our cells’ antiaging mitochondria.

  CHAPTER 6

  MAXIMIZE MUSCLE POWER

  BOOSTING STRENGTH AND ENDURANCE

  Our muscles have many jobs to perform to keep us healthy and vibrant. They move us around, give us our shape, regulate our weight, and supply us with energy. The muscular system is also designed to work in harmony with the other major systems of the body to keep them functioning efficiently. But the muscular system needs to be cared for before it can start doing its own jobs and assisting all our other systems.

  Perhaps the most obvious role muscles play in our lives is the image we see every day in the mirror. Muscle and bone create the structure of our bodies. But we cannot change the shape of our bones; we have no control over the basic form that we have been born with. Neither do we have control over our height. Those qualities are determined by our genetic profile and we cannot alter them. In contrast, we can do a great deal with our muscles. We can make them strong, flexible, and lean, or rigid and bulky. Or we can ignore them entirely and just let them become weak and flabby—the choice is ours. One thing is clear: The best way to care for our muscles is not to spend hours in the gym. Instead, the best way to strengthen, lengthen, and protect the health of our muscles is to try to simulate the way we humans have always moved our bodies. This natural movement, the inspiration for ESSENTRICS, is the most effective means of strengthening every muscle in the body and stopping aging in its tracks.

  THE “WORKOUTS” OF THE PAST WERE THE BEST

  Strong, flexible muscles are essential for every waking moment of your life. You need your arms, hands, and fingers to be strong and flexible enough so that you can open doors, carry everyday household items, put on your clothes, throw a ball with your grandchildren, reach into high cupboards, type on a computer. Muscles make it possible to complete any of the normal, everyday tasks life requires of you.

  The human body has no superfluous parts. Every single part has a function and a purpose, and it is our job to maintain each part. Anything less than a full-body workout leaves the unexercised muscles vulnerable to atrophy. But research on elders has proved that exercise not only increases strength but also reduces oxidative stress and improves mitochondrial dysfunction, the two primary triggers for the aging process.35

  If you watch children playing in a playground or park, you’ll see them engaging their full bodies through a variety of movements. As they run around in a game of tag, they make rapid changes of direction to escape being caught. This naturally engages vast numbers of muscles, from the heart to the arms, hips, legs, and feet. They have to bend and rotate on the spine, as they turn their heads and twist their bodies. Tag is a wonderful activity to stimulate children’s growth and muscle development. Also, remember the seesaw in the old playgrounds? What an amazing fitness apparatus it was, requiring foot, knee, and hip work as the children pumped it up and down. As a complement, the children’s swing set uses the full range of motion in the shoulder joints while it is strengthening the abdominal and spinal muscles as the child leans forward and backward to generate enough momentum to propel the swing higher and higher. Young children, when given the opportunity, dynamically stretch and stimulate every muscle and joint in their bodies simply by playing.

  Similarly, adult domestic chores can also work the full-body m
usculature, if we allow them to. Making a bed requires bending forward, which engages both the abdominal muscles and the spine. Cleaning windows works the shoulders, spine, and waist. Mopping the floor requires lifting a heavy bucket of water and lowering it to the floor, engaging the shoulders, arms, and hands. Pushing heavy objects, as when you move furniture, strengthens the hips, spine, and shoulders; and reaching to dust the top of your window frames stretches the muscles of the spine. These simple ideas engage the full body from head to toe, rebalancing and strengthening the entire musculature.

  But the unfortunate truth is that many of us rarely do these chores anymore, and if we do them at all we don’t do them long enough to derive any real benefit from them. The irony is that laborsaving devices have worked too well—they haven’t just “saved” labor; they’ve actually spared most people in the Western world from having to do any labor at all. Most of us do not mop floors or push furniture on a regular basis, but once you understand the unique benefits of everyday movement for the human body, you can apply the same concepts to a workout routine.

  When we string together a bunch of exercises that look like everyday activities, we are better able to work through our full-body musculature in a short time. There is actually a name for this type of movement: isotonic. I designed the exercises in ESSENTRICS to mimic daily life or familiar movements, and I then scientifically sequenced them together to stretch and strengthen all 620 muscles.

  THE SCIENCE OF EVERYDAY MOVEMENTS

  While these everyday movements seem simple to us, they’re actually combinations of hundreds of smaller movements. For example, one of the better isotonic exercises that mimic the action of everyday life is cleaning a table, which uses your shoulder, abdominal, and back muscles and also targets your waist! Let’s take a closer look at the technical terms for these movements and how they describe the process your body uses to strengthen itself.36

  Isotonic

  “Isotonic” literally means equally resistant. In exercise science, isotonic contraction is a contraction in which the tension, or resistance, remains constant as the muscle either shortens or lengthens. Lifting an object off a desk, walking, and running all involve isotonic contractions. We see isotonic exercise in the gym when a dumbbell is lifted from the ground and used to perform an exercise. The resistance (tension) generated by the dumbbell is now the constant—if you pick up a 10-pound dumbbell, it will weigh 10 pounds whatever you do with it.

  In ESSENTRICS, you will not use any external weights such as dumbbells. Instead, you will use your own body mass as the constant weight. In the entire program, you are always in motion and the resistance (tension) is generated by your body, which is now the constant. If you lift your 20-pound leg, it becomes the constant—it will weigh 20 pounds whatever you do with it.

  Concentric

  Also referred to as positive training, concentric movement happens when the muscle shortens during tension. Concentric movement also causes a shortening of the angle of the joint. One example of a concentric movement is a biceps curl: When we lift a weight by bending the elbow, the biceps flexes and the muscle shortens.

  When the muscles are challenged to any degree, they react by fighting back and strengthening. Lifting weights, running, tennis, hockey, squash, baseball, and football are all activities that concentrically strengthen the muscles, as most of the movements in these sports are done with bent joints. In these sports, the power is generated with bent knees and elbows, pulling the muscles toward the center of the body in a concentric motion. The bending of the knees and elbows in concentric movement is how the body develops bulkier muscles.

  Eccentric

  Eccentric movement happens when a muscle extends and lengthens while in contraction. For example, when we lower a heavy bag of groceries, the elbow straightens and makes the biceps lengthen, creating an eccentric movement. Even though it is elongating as it lowers the heavy groceries, the biceps remains contracted. Eccentric movement is also referred to as negative training.

  All movement originates in protein filaments that are the building blocks of the muscles. Millions of these filaments are bundled together to make a muscle. These protein filaments slide together or apart as we strengthen or stretch them. Eccentric movement sends conflicting messages to the protein filaments. One message is to contract or slide together while the other is to lengthen or pull apart, thus creating a tug-of-war effect. That tug-of-war among the protein filaments is what creates strong and lean muscles.

  In ESSENTRICS, we are always extending every movement, straightening the legs and arms and pulling away from the center as much as possible. The muscles are given two commands: one to shorten and one to lengthen, creating a tug-of-war. We all know how much effort is expended in a tug-of-war, and when people start the program their muscles often tremble. Not surprisingly, the tug-of-war within ESSENTRICS’ two messages and the added stress caused by the heavier weight from a longer lever makes a beginner’s muscles tremble. Often the muscles will continue to tremble until they become strong enough to support the lengthened position.

  You can see the results of eccentric training by looking at a ballet dancer’s body, which is famously strong, lean, and well defined. Many people come to us seeking a ballet dancer’s thin, strong body, with its perfect posture. That’s one of the reasons we designed this program—to help our clients achieve that look!

  Clearly, eccentric exercises benefit us in multiple ways. But why are static exercises so dangerous?

  HOLDING POSES HURTS US

  When we move in our daily lives, we move smoothly from one activity to another. We don’t stop to hold a pose; we transition seamlessly into the next movement. We are not robots and should not train ourselves to move like them, especially while doing exercises.

  We should also not force ourselves to hold positions for long periods of time, which requires a great deal of strength and many hours of training to do safely and effectively. High-performance athletes and ballet dancers train for hours a day, from a very young age, to be able to hold poses properly. One of the most challenging parts in the famous ballet Swan Lake demands that the corps de ballet hold poses while the Swan Queen dances with the Prince. In Swan Lake, I would dance nonstop for three hours, but by far the most difficult part always was holding those poses!

  Holding positions requires much more strength than most people realize, and can cause problematic imbalances in the rest of the body. A workout that requires such controlled pauses is great for athletes but difficult and dangerous for average people. The extreme strength required to hold a pose can place tremendous stress on the muscles, causing, or leading to, pain and injury. For example, carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, and back pain are all stress-related injuries that are very common in people who practice yoga.

  The ESSENTRICS exercises are exaggerated so as to maximize benefits of the simultaneous strengthening and stretching. When the body is in continuous motion, the muscles never have a chance to seize up and compress, as they are repeatedly being stretched to their maximum. Once they reach their maximum flexibility in one movement, they continue on into the next one, never stopping. We strengthen them and simultaneously stretch them because we are always in motion.

  All movements require some degree of strength. Even something as simple as moving your little finger requires a tiny bit of strength. A program that involves continuous motion is by definition always strengthening the muscles. Because the muscles are being stretched to their maximum in this program they are being strengthened in a lengthened or decompressed position. This is what eccentric movement is all about.

  THE SLIDING DOOR OF STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY

  A muscle is made up of many cells bundled together. The strength of one cell alone is insignificant, but when many tiny cells are bundled together, they become a powerful force. Each cell has stringlike fibers that slide together or apart every time we move, just as the sliding doors of a store open and close. The stringy fibers within each cell slide together whe
n we contract our muscles and slide apart when we stretch them.

  But there is a catch: The law of all movement is that muscles have to contract when we move and have to relax when the movement is finished. When the muscles contract, the fibers slide together, and when the movement is complete the muscles automatically slide apart. Like sliding doors, muscle cells have preset limits on how far they can slide in either direction. When the two sides of a sliding door move toward each other, they are stopped when they touch; they don’t go past their point of contact. That’s exactly the way muscle cells work: They slide until each reaches the tip of the other, and then they stop. The same principle applies when sliding doors separate: They slide neatly into a slot in the walls. Muscle cells, too, can slide apart for only a predetermined distance. If they slide beyond that point, they tear, an effect we refer to as a torn muscle.

  Each muscle has the ability to slide to a predestined length; it can contract 25 percent of its resting length when it slides in and 75 percent when it slides out. Most people use only 30 to 40 percent of their muscles’ ability to slide in either direction because daily life doesn’t tend to require maximum use of our strength and flexibility.

  In contrast, athletes, dancers, and fitness enthusiasts will use a greater range of motion in their muscles than average people. A ballerina doing splits is taking her hip mobility to its absolute extreme; a weight lifter might maximally contract his muscles as he lifts 150 pounds over his head. And while these are extreme examples, they illustrate an important lesson: In our day-to-day lives, we do not even come close to approaching the limits of what our bodies are capable of doing.