Wrist. Wrist problems are usually due to an imbalance in the forearm muscles or to flexing the hand too far back toward the elbow. Hanging wrist curls will assist in balancing the muscles and correcting the causes of wrist injuries.
Muscle soreness. Muscle soreness is caused by training and usually begins the day after training and lasts for approximately 3-5 days. If it persists or is severe, this usually indicates a deficiency of Vitamin C.
Muscle Spasm. Spasm is a term applied to involuntary contractions of muscles. Spasms can last for several days. Nerve pressure and lack of circulation also contribute to this problem. Common remedies usually include applying ice or moist heat on the troubled area; increasing intake of minerals, especially calcium; and stretching muscles surrounding the affected area.
Muscle Cramp. A muscle cramp is a contraction that usually comes and goes rapidly. It is usually caused by nerve pressure and/or a calcium, magnesium, and potassium deficiency.
Sprain. A sprain is a ligament injury. It can be caused by overstretching the ligaments while under stress or by too much twisting in areas around the joints that cause a partial tearing of the fibers. A sprain is one of the few problems that requires you to stop training the area of the sprain. Should you continue training the injured area, you will aggravate the injury and cause complications. You must see a doctor and rest the injured area.
Strain. A strain is a muscle tendon injury and is one of the most common injuries for athletes. The most common area for a strain is where the tendon attaches to the bone, such as the area of the anterior shoulder where the biceps tendon attaches. This injury is more common in bodybuilders who take steroid drugs and thyroid medication because of the mineral imbalances that these drugs create.
Bursitis. This is an inflammation of the bursa in the joint. A bursa is a saclike cavity containing synovial fluids to protect the joints from rubbing together. Each joint contains multiple bursae (8 in each shoulder and 5 in each knee), and isolation of the particular bursa that is inflamed has to be done by a skilled practitioner. Such joint problems can be greatly aggravated by training on machines that restrict the normal movement of the joint. This is another reason why it is better to use free style weights.
When you have this type of problem, consuming citrus fruits during training should be avoided because citric acid neutralizes the synovial fluid in the joints. If you suspect you have a problem with the bursa, most experts recommend that you not use heat. Heat increases inflammation of the fluid and the joint. I do not recommend having the fluid drained, except in severe cases, because the body will only produce more fluid to replace what has been drained. Ice probably is the best treatment to reduce the inflammation, along with elevation of the injured area.
Hernia. A hernia is a protrusion of an organ or a part through connective tissue or through a wall of the cavity in which it is normally enclosed. It comes as a result from a weakening of its supporting structures. In weight training, the most common type is the inguinal hernia in the groin, which occurs when intra-abdominal structures descend through the inguinal canal. If you have a hernia, you should seek professional medical care because lifting weights will aggravate it.
Tendonitis. Tendonitis is the inflammation of a tendon, which usually results from overuse of a particular area, or sometimes from a lack of circulation in the area. I have found that one of the best treatments for tendonitis is to apply ice to the inflamed area for one minute, then moist heat for 7 minutes twice a day. This is another injury where the area should not be trained until fully healed.
Fractures. A fracture is a break in the continuity of bone. There are many types of fractures and some are more severe than others. If you have reason to suspect that you have fractured some part of your body, then by all means see a doctor immediately. You will need to be examined and x-rayed. Do not attempt to treat fractures yourself. I have found minerals valuable in speeding up the healing time of fractures.
Exercises That Should Not Be Done
Throughout this book, I have attempted to make you aware of the fact that no matter what happens to the body, it tries to maintain balance and equilibrium. This tendency (homeostasis) applies to the body’s structure as well as its organs. The body always tries to keep going and to function as normally as possible in every situation. Thus, as soon as an imbalance is created in the body, it is immediately more susceptible to various injuries.
Because I have seen several exercises done repeatedly that actually cause imbalances in the structure, I have listed the most common ones below. Believe me, they are of no benefit to your body.
• Jumping jacks
• Twisting the spine, particularly with a stick on the shoulders
• Bench squat
• Head stand
• Side bends with weights
• Roman chair sit-ups
• Wide-grip bench press or incline press
Antigravity equipment. Antigravity apparatus (boots that allow you to hang upside down from a bar) has become more popular in recent years and the idea is excellent, especially for people with irregularities in the spine. Gravity pulls us down and contributes to compression in joints and also in organs. We have been familiar with antigravity machines for several years, and have used and recommended them for many of our patients. However, we have also found conditions where the antigravity machines were contraindicated and actually contributed to problems. I recommend checking with your doctor before using them.
Treatment of Injuries
Most injuries require professional care and should be seen by a doctor who specializes in sports injuries and understands the mechanism of various exercises. Many times you will be able to continue training, but your program will have to be revised. As I mentioned earlier, Doctors of Chiropractic are excellent with sports injuries that do not require surgery, because they are experts in structural alignment, body mechanics, and corrective exercises. Most of them are very well-versed in nutrition, also.
Listed below are some guidelines that are recommended for home treatment of sports injuries.
• Apply ice immediately after the injury has occurred.
• Try to relax the muscles by applying pressure at the center of the spasm.
• Use moist heat on chronic muscle spasms
• Do stretching exercises.
• If you are injured while training and the pain is severe, send for professional help immediately.
Chapter 8
NUTRITION
As you become more involved in bodybuilding training, you will need to learn how to increase your food supplements and to change your eating habits. Vigorous training sets up a stress condition in the body that requires strict attention to the foods you eat so essential nutrients are replaced more frequently than is necessary for the average person. I will provide you with informal guidelines for using a variety of nutrients as well as provide suggestions on how to improve your eating habits.
Food Combining: The Right Way to Eat
Before I explain the basics of nutrition, I would like to tell you some things about the importance of proper eating habits and the preparation of food. Knowing what vitamins and minerals can do for you is important, but if you don’t eat foods in a proper order or if you prepare food in such a way that you destroy the food’s nutrient values, all that valuable knowledge will be wasted.
My Background in Nutrition
As you know, I come from the remote island of Sardinia, which is located in the Mediterranean Sea between France, Italy, and Spain. The people of my hometown still use the same cooking methods that they have used for hundreds of years. I was fortunate enough to spend the first 19 years of my life there, eating only fresh, organically grown food.
Sardinians naturally eat well because they rarely purchase anything from a store. They have their own animals and grow their own food without any sprays, chemicals, or hormones. Fruits and vegetables are always eaten in season, when they are picked fresh and can be cooked or eaten raw — wit
hout processing. Because there is little in the way of refrigeration on such a poor island, meat and poultry also are eaten fresh. And when the meat is cooked, it is roasted in the fireplace over a wood fire where it is watched and turned constantly. Thus, the meat cooks evenly by the heat and very little of the smoke gets into it.
It is customary in Europe as well as Sardinia to eat food in the following order. First, we have a small bowl of soup, which would cue the body’s digestive system to prepare for digestion. Second, we would have the main course of dinner, which would provide protein (fish, poultry, or meat). Afterward, we ate our salad. Later, we might have a small amount of fresh fruit — I cannot remember my mother ever opening a can of anything — and cheese. These would provide us with carbohydrates. We drank wine with our meals, which aided digestion and provided a few minerals.
By eating protein foods first, the digestive juices were not diluted and the most difficult-to-digest nutrients had the best chance to be fully digested and assimilated by the body. Imagine my surprise when studying for my Ph.D. in nutrition that my people, though poor and barely educated (at least compared to most Americans), knew more about eating correctly than most Americans! When I arrived in America, I noticed that almost everyone was eating huge plates of salad and slices of bread first. I tried this and found myself feeling very bloated and uncomfortable. Then I learned that most Americans are always on some kind of diet and that, by eating the salad and bread first, they think that they will fill up and not eat as much of the more fattening foods. Actually, they end up eating more and digesting it less.
Other Examples of Poor Eating Habits
I was very surprised to see people grilling meat with charcoal in the United States. When meat is grilled with charcoal, the poisons from the coal and smoke accumulate in the meat. Studies have shown these poisons to be carcinogenic; in fact, one charbroiled steak is equal to smoking over 100 cigarettes. I avoid eating anything that has been cooked this way and recommend that you do likewise.
Another thing that amazes me is the number of people who, in trying to reduce their weight, drink diet drinks. These drinks are loaded with all types of chemicals (including sodium chloride, which causes water retention). These chemicals have been known to place a strain on the thyroid gland, altering its regulation of the metabolic rate. Such an alteration actually causes weight reduction to be more difficult! Along with the fluid retention caused by the sodium chloride found in most diet drinks, reduced metabolism is not going to help one lose weight. This is just another example of how “dieting” to lose weight is self-defeating.
To me, the answer to dieting is simple: All things in moderation — protein, fat, and unrefined carbohydrates. Eat small amounts of food only when you are physically hungry — we all know that most people overeat for psychological reasons — and enjoy every bite. Train hard and you will not have to spend the rest of your life looking for magic diet secrets because they just do not exist.
Food Combining
Most gastric problems, as well as weight problems, could be eliminated if people ate small meals and combined food properly. For the most part, Europeans eat only what foods are in season. They are not able to combine so many different types of food as Americans can because the foods are not available at the same time. Let me present one more example of the typically American way of eating before I explain food combining.
Shortly after I arrived in America, Arnold told me that we were going out to lunch with some other well-known bodybuilders from the gym. Since I did not speak much English, I was happy to have lunch and get to know them outside the gym. Arnold and I met them at a smorgasbord-type restaurant. When we walked in and I saw all of this food, I thought that it was a cafeteria similar to the one that I ate in while training in Germany. There, we merely selected one or two things to eat and no more. At this restaurant, I watched the bodybuilders going through the line and coming back to the table with huge plates of food. I sat there in shock as they began to eat all of it.
When I asked Arnold (in German) if they actually were going to eat everything, he assured me they would.
“But aren’t they going to enter the contests?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Arnold, “this is how they eat in America.”
I completely lost my appetite just watching them wolf down all of that food as I sat there with some fish and vegetables on my plate. Arnold had little more to eat than I, but the bodybuilders kept asking him if I was sick or what was wrong, Arnold finally had to tell them that I wasn’t hungry because I had eaten before I had gone to train. That certainly didn’t prevent the bodybuilders from going back for desserts and ice cream!
My point is: There is no way that anyone can properly digest all the combinations of food that are served in such a restaurant. If you do go to a smorgasbord restaurant, limit your food selections and be sure to bring along plenty of enzyme supplements. You will need them.
Each enzyme is specific in its action. That is, each one acts upon only one class of food; enzymes that act upon carbohydrates do not and cannot act upon proteins or salts or fats. They are even more specific than this would indicate because there are various stages in digestion and each stage requires the action of a different enzyme. Furthermore, an enzyme is capable of performing its work only if work in the preceding stage has been properly performed by the appropriate enzymes.
Because the stomach secretes a different kind of juice when a starch food is eaten than when a protein food is eaten, carbohydrate and protein foods should be eaten separately as much as possible. Even protein foods differ enough to require modifications of the digestive juices. Protein foods in combination with other proteins and different classes of foods — even the timing of secretions — have different effects on the digestive process.
I will have more to say about enzymes later in this chapter, but what I have to say now is just that eating is not as simple an act as you may think. What works best is to have either vegetables with protein or vegetables with carbohydrates and not carbohydrates and proteins at the same meal. Do not combine different types of protein at the same meal and eat only such fruits as papaya, pineapple, apples, and grapes with protein foods.
Believe me when I tell you to keep your meals very simple — you will eliminate any digestive problems you may have as well as avoid digestive problems in the future. If you are still hungry after your simple meal, then wait an hour or two and have another small meal. If you allow yourself the time to digest your food efficiently, you will not have problems overeating even if you eat five or six times a day.
Follow my example and you can’t go wrong. (You should consult your doctor about allergies, which are most likely a result of improper food combining anyway.) In the morning, I eat three eggs over medium — cooked as little as possible. I have a dish of plain yogurt and add fresh fruit to it sometimes. The fruit must be fresh and in season, not from a can. If I have toast, I eat it together with the eggs, but not before. If I train in the morning, I wait an hour before training — you shouldn’t train on a full, or empty, stomach.
During lunchtime, I will have fish — a big serving — and either eat a salad with the fish together or have the salad after eating the fish to make sure the hydrochloric acid (HCl) breaks down the fish. Eating the salad first wastes the little value the content of the salad has. At lunch, I can drink a beer or a glass of wine. This applies any time of the year, before or after a contest. I can follow this lunch with a snack of fruit; if I’m not competing, I might indulge myself with a slice of cheesecake.
Since I usually train in the late afternoon, I have another dish of plain yogurt, yogurt with fresh fruit, a big piece of fruit, or a piece of cheese with some fruit at around three o’clock. I will train about an hour later.
At dinner, I will have the same combination I had at lunch. If I can’t get good fish, I’ll have chicken (with skin removed), and if I can’t get, or don’t want, chicken, I’ll have meat. I may have a baked potato and I can have the salad, e
aten together or after. If I’m training very hard, I might have a late night snack: a small dish of yogurt, small piece of cheese, perhaps a little piece of tuna, tuna fish, or some kind of sardine. It is important not to eat a large amount of carbohydrates in the evening when your next workout is many hours away. Eat your desserts at lunchtime, never before going to bed.
I eat this way every day and make adjustments just as any active businessman must. But whenever I eat, I carefully consider what I am putting into my body. I prefer eating fruit before going to the gym because it gives me energy. I may even bring along a bag of fruit to help sustain me through a grueling workout and to restore depleted glycogen. I do not gorge myself on fruit — or on fish, yogurt, cheese, wine, or supplements. Everything in moderation, as I said before. Don’t make your diet a list of “don’ts,” just pay attention to what you eat to find what works for your body and what doesn’t. Then replace what doesn’t work with what works, rather than restrict your eating with the latest diet. A proper diet is just as much a matter of attitude as it is knowledge of nutrition.
Nevertheless, I believe the process of changing your eating habits requires a basic understanding of nutrition. What I will proceed to tell you now is all you need to know about nutrition to formulate your new diet. Coupled with hard training and a positive attitude, you will be able to become a champion with the body of a champion.
Franco Columbu’s Complete Book of Bodybuilding Page 10
