Exercise as Therapy

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

http://www.massagetherapy101.com/massage-techniques/exercise-therapy.aspx

This article nails it! Among all of the natural therapies you can do, none are as effective as exercise. All other therapies are supplemental to exercise. Our view of exercise is so skewed at times because most of the exercise world encourages obsession over health. Which in turn, causes a vicious cycle of self medication with food due to the fact that we become so tired and discouraged because of energy it takes out of us to maintain this obsession! I have found that when you completely turn your focus of your routines from “what you need to fix” to the overall function, form and feeling of your body, the results come so much more quickly, and which so much more joy!

People forget, when we starve ourselves, exercise excessively, and maintain an unreasonable lifestyle, the drop-out rate is 100%. 100% !! Some people can stick with it much longer, but they will eventually let it go. As well, they are angry, agitated, sad, discouraged, etc. (Mostly due to the imbalance of serotonin because of carb deprivation).

A study was completed a few years ago in the United States; an equal number of females were placed into 2 groups. One group was given a low carb diet and the other a moderate to reduced fat diet. Both were given the same daily exercise requirements. At the end of 6 months, both groups both groups had lost measurably equal weight. However, at the end of 12 months, the reduced fat diet group had maintained it, and the low carb group had (on average) gained 75%-100% of the initial weight back. The study also questioned every day focus and wellbeing of the groups. The carb group reported poor focus, constant fatigue, and a feeling of agitation. The low fat group, on average, did not report these feelings.

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