After reading this, you are probably going to think I’m
crazy. What if I told you that I have
virtually eliminated the soreness and fatigue in my muscles, simply by relaxing
in a very specific way for 5-10 minutes, immediately after my workout? Well this is no myth, at least in my case,
this works and it’s quite miraculous. I
recently saw an article talking about a new machine that various college and
professional sports teams are starting to use.
The title of the article grabbed my attention when it said that this
product works better than steroids for some.
Being one who doesn’t like to do things with too much outside help… and who
is quite afraid of needles… and who enjoys at least one alcoholic beverage to
wind me down in the evening, steroids aren’t for me. A key benefit to steroids is that they reduce
your recovery time substantially, allowing you to train more often and with
more intensity. This is the key benefit
to using this machine as well. I really wanted
one, but I simply wasn’t going to put up the $3,000 that they are asking for
it. Not being one who gives up easily,
my brain was locked on this concept for a few days. At the gym last week, I had one of those
eureka moments! I believe that I have
discovered the poor-man’s version of this machine. The reason I am sharing this bit of knowledge
is that I want your feedback. I want to
see if you experience the same results as I do; and if you do, by all means,
please share this with others.
The concept behind the machine is quite simple. It cools the palm of your hand, while
applying a slight vacuum to the hand in order to increase blood flow to the surface
of your hand. You see, animals and
humans alike have networks of veins that are localized in specific parts of the
body and work as natural and highly efficient “radiators” for the body. They cool your body very quickly through the
circulatory system, and that’s why Stanford News Service calls them our “built-in
radiators”. These special veins are
called arteriovenous anastomoses or
AVAs. In humans they are found on the
bottom of our feet, our faces and especially in the palms of our hands. In dogs, they are found in the tongue (hence
the panting to cool down); in rabbits they are in the ears; bears in the pads
of their feet and the tips of their noses (which allows the huge creatures to
not overheat during hot summers with all of their fat and fur). So what does this have to do with muscle
soreness and fatigue?
By cooling these
regions after a workout, you allow your muscle cells to cool back to a state
where the enzymes they use to preform work are once again in an active state. According to Stanford, this is “essentially
resetting the muscle’s state of fatigue.”
The results are immediate.
Lately, I have had to think about which body parts I just worked on when
reviewing my workouts. The painful
muscle fatigue that I was so used to, that I thought was necessary to grow, no
longer exists just a few minutes after my workouts. You can train more often and more intensely,
similar to the effects one see when using steroids. You can walk around with no pain after doing
your heavy squats and deadlifts! The
results literally blow my mind. In fact,
the only time I have been sore over the last week was the day after I walked
uphill for an hour, which made my calves a bit sore. The 400 pound free-weight squats to failure? No soreness at all. The difference? I didn’t use this technique after the uphill
walk. I would not believe this had I not
experienced it. Ok, so how am I doing
this?
The concept is
simple, increase blood flow to the surface of the skin, then cool the regions where
you find the AVAs, but not so much that you constrict the veins and actually
reduce circulation to these areas. I do
this by filling up a 32 oz. sports drink bottle with cold tap water (not ice
water, just cold tap water!), then hopping into the sauna for 5-10
minutes. While I’m in there, my palms
are wrapped firmly around the smoothest section of the bottle to get as much
direct contact between my palms and the cool bottle as possible. I rest like this for 5-10 minutes, I get out,
I go home… that’s it. When you walk back
to your car you will know if this worked for you. You will feel different than you usually do
after a workout, especially if you worked your lower body. No more waddling back to the car, you can
proudly and painlessly walk back to your car instead. As I mentioned, I am sharing this with all of
you as somewhat of an experiment. I want
to see if this works for others and if it does, I think we should all be doing
this after our workouts. Please leave
your feedback below – thanks!
Core Cooling AVAcore
Addendum:
I have been
trying a few new things and wanted to share them with you. I started using a 64 oz. bottle that is
smoother allowing the water to stay cooler longer and to keep more of the
bottle’s surface area in contact with the palms of my hands. I have tried using the refrigerated water
fountains for water and I see similar results with them as well. Last night, for the first time, I hopped in
the sauna after an exhaustive set of shoulders (DC training style) and after a
half completed chest set. Before getting
in, I did the Hammer Strength shoulder press and got the weight 7 times, then a
rest-pause (basically a deep-breathing 15 second pause), 2 reps, rest-pause and
1 final rep. I finished that off with
one 30 second static rep. Then I warmed
up and did one set to exhaustion on the Hammer Strength bench press. After that, I sat in the sauna holding my
bottle for only about 3 minutes, because I didn’t want to sweat too much before
getting back onto the equipment. When I returned
to the shoulder press, the same weight felt much lighter than I expected and I was
able to press the weight 5 more times.
The problem is that I don’t know my baseline, because I am usually so
exhausted after the initial DC training set that I would never even attempt
another set. I can honestly say that
just because I had to muscle strength to even attempt the exercise (and be able
to press it 5 times, when I can only press it 7 times fresh), I definitely
noticed a difference.
