relief of aching legs using the World Run Recovery System

Being a couch potato (or lounge lizard) can be a hazard to your leg health

What is a couch potato or lounge lizard?

They are someone who simply sits on a chair, couch, or floor for long periods, and their life revolves around reading books, newspapers, watching television, or staring at computer screens-these becoming the source of obtaining maintaining all their emotional and physical needs!

A student couch potato

Many of them consider any expenditure of energy to do anything beyond obtaining lifes basic necessities, like going to the bathroom and the refrigerator to be a waste of their valuable physical output-they may also consider getting out of the house and doing any form of exercise to to be inviting disaster and risk taking

Becoming a couch potato is easier than people think-I am a man and I know how easy it is to get drawn into these things because I was a shift worker and used to get up for something to eat halfway through the day-to have a bit of noise and company while I was eating I would put the television on and before I knew it was living in the world of daytime soaps

A couch potato called Beau settles to watch television

After studying someone who is a couch potato I decided to check on who led the most dangerous life-myself who is a partial couch potato who spends more time than they should working on the computer or someone who takes on the risks of getting out and doing things and takes physical risks like skydiving, or bungee jumping, or horse riding, or even ultra marathon running and walking (people who go for very long distance runs and walks)

These people are ultra marathon runners and walkers

Many women who are at home all day become couch potato's-it is easy, all you have to do is to get interested in the women's shows such as Oprah and get into a daytime soap like 'Days of our Lives' and you are on your way to no physical activity!

Beau settling to read the newspaper

You can get all the education and company and communications you need from the sitting level-you do not need to move except go to the toilet, do a little shopping and make something to eat-in fact the longer you do it the easier it becomes to find ways not to do something

Who is at most risk of dying early-the risk taker or the sedentary couch potato?

Marathon running-very few compared to the numbers of marathon runners
http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/emmett.htm

Horse riding deaths in Ohio-39 between 1990-1998
http://asci.uvm.edu/equine/law/amea/jun00nws.htm

Bungee jumping-2 deaths in 2 years
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/012697/spo_bungee.html

Skydiving-reports about 30 deaths a year
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080121195428AA1st7K

The figures show relatively few fatalities for sports when compared to the people involved in them so

How dangerous is the couch potato lifestyle?

Well the good news is that you are not going to die from a traffic accident unless a car smashes into you lounge room and crushes you in your chair-and you are not going to die the way James Fixx the author who wrote a best seller in running for fitness did-of a heart attack while running, or the cables snapping while bungy jumping

But there are plenty of ways to go simply by being a couch potato and leading a couch dweller lifestyle and leading a 'no risk' way of living

To give you a little education on how dangerous this lifestyle is, I will use a model called Beau (name changed to protect his identity) Beau is a real life person who is moving (or not moving) his way into an early grave through the couch potato ways of living

I will be giving Beau a copy of this article in the hope of trying to motivate him into doing something to save something of his life-if not then it will serve as a tribute to a man who has given his all to the lifestyle the rest of us can only dream about and sometimes envy-NOT

And make sure we don't follow in our hero's footsteps into the same grave

Beau has done nothing in the way of work for 15 years-he has absolutely got no plans to any if he can help it-he will do no formal study or learning, no ambition get a job, no need to learn to run a computer when I attempted to teach him the internet we got as far as Brittany Spears videos and the weather so I called a halt, no ambitions to travel, no thoughts of meeting any women, no need to socialise, barely watches television, has no need of a car, just listens to the radio and reads the newspaper in bed or in his chair!

His idea of excitement is to catch the bus to the main town for his beer and cigarettes!

So what do we have and how can this affect Beau's long term health and why does this matter to other couch potato's (male or female)?

He is a fifty one year old who gets no exercise (except for carrying cartons of cigarettes and beer)

• Cigarettes

Estimates the 4 million people will die worldwide from smoking related illnesses
http://www.drdonnica.com/fastfacts/00000797.htm
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/ped_10_1.asp

• Beer

Estimated 85,000 US deaths a year due to alcohol
http://cme.medscape.com/viewarticle/552195
http://www.tcada.state.tx.us/issues/danger.html

• Binge drinker

http://alcoholism.about.com/od/binge/Binge_Drinking.htm

• Not worked-the muscles lose condition and weaken; they will not support the body in the end-prone to obesity

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/10dec_muscles.htm

• Lack of any goals except quote 'to be happy'-no direction in life

http://www.theosophy.ph/trans_11.htm
http://www.goal-setting-guide.com/goal-setting/38-goal-setting/190-is-happiness-your-goal.html

• No plans to study-no mental stimulation-prone to alzheimers-dementia-depression-drugs, anti depressives to combat the depression

http://hitchedmag.com/article.php?id=38
http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/exercise.html
http://www.leaderpost.com/health/seniors/Studies+link+heart+diabetes+risks+with+dementia/1373546/story.html

• Stress from money worries-drinks and smokes more to forget them-considers them to be stress reliever

Deaths from stress-2 thirds of medical practitioner visits related to stress
http://www.rhodes.edu/12094.asp
http://stress.about.com/od/understandingstress/tp/effects_stress.htm

• No woman to help him live longer-single men die younger than married ones

http://www.unmarriedamerica.org/members/news/2004/May- News/study_shows_married_men_make_more_money_than_single_men.htm
http://www.unmarriedamerica.org/members/news/2004/August-News/study_says_marital_status_affects_health_risks.htm

• No need to socialize-loses social skills-becomes argumentative

http://www.lifeskillstraining.org/socializeforhealth.htm

• Lack of exercise-diabetes

Estimated 100,000 hospital stays a year through Diabetes
http://www.aafp.org/afp/20050501/editorials.html
http://www.healthystud.com/lifestyle/lack_of_exercise.php

• Sits or lies down all the time-muscle wastage

http://www.naturalnews.com/001547.html

• Spends lot of time in bed-deep vein thrombosis-other circulatory problems

estimated 2 million Americans may develop DVT a year
http://www.medicinenet.com/deep_vein_thrombosis/page2.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/deep-vein-thrombosis

If you are a couch potato and you come under anyone of these headings, you are more risk of meeting your maker than if you had gone out and done an extreme sport

Sitting for long periods is an issue because the long term effect of poor leg circulation them on health is very real (see www.hazards.org/standing)

Poor lower leg circulation is a health hazard to the legs-maintaining their health is important but can be difficult to deal with when all your living day is spent sitting or being a couch potato in the lying down position

In order to reduce our risks of dying earlier than we have to, it is actually far safer to get off the couch and go and do base jumping, bungy jumping or sky diving-they have far less fatalities than couch potato's-but if you are not yet convinced and still thinking about it there are some good reasons to at least maintain your lower leg circulation if nothing else

Why is it so?

When sitting immobile for hours, the calf muscles are inactive-they are not doing their job as motors for a pumping system designed to move used blood and lymph fluid from the lower legs

A swollen lower leg and ankle-showing how lack of movement can affect lower leg circulation

Sitting down in front of the television or computer for hours causes the ankles to swell and can lead to deep vein thrombosis because the legs are in an upright position and the calf muscles are not working at pumping used blood up the legs

Recently a link has been made between sitting for hours and deep vein thrombosis, or as it is sometimes known, 'economy class syndrome'-this is where the balance between the clotting and anti-clotting agents in the blood go out of synchronisation in favour of the clotting agents, and blood clots form in the deep vein in the leg

These can break away and lodge further up in the body disrupting blood flow back to the heart

The leg would look something like this-if your legs look like this go to the hospital-fast

The blood is made up of many components including water, clotting agents and anti-clotting agents-when the blood is static in the lower legs, the water (or lymphatic fluid) separates from the blood and flows into the spaces in the tissues around the ankles-as the calf muscles are not working, it can't be pumped away fast enough so the ankles swell

The blood that is left thickens and clots as the balance is tipped in favour of the clotting agents-if the veins have a roughened area in the inside walls, they may start the process of forming a clot in the deep veins

How does the couch potato reduce the chances of this happening?

Move the legs to make the calf muscle pump work

The Calf Muscle Pump

The calf muscle pump forces used blood against gravity up the legs back to the body for recycling-it is made up of all the leg muscles-the main motors for the pumping system are the calf muscles, the soleus which is used for standing and walking and the gastrocnemius used for running and jumping

The calf muscles

They usually work as a pair by alternately putting pressure on the veins and releasing it-this takes used blood back to the body through one-way valves which stop it flowing back down towards the feet again

But when you are couch potato-ing neither of them are moving at all

Lack of movement reduces the veins ability to open and close by keeping constant tension on them, this is called calf muscle pump inefficiency it also affects the Lymphatic System through a reduction of lymph fluid flow

Problems caused by calf muscle pump inefficiency include

• Poor circulation

• Lymph system inactivity

• Venous return reduced

Muscle health is based on having a constant supply of oxygen and nutrients to them

To maintain the supply of fresh blood to the lower legs a balance between what goes into the muscles and what comes out of them is important-fresh blood can't enter the muscle tissues if nothing is coming out of them

While not being able to help the couch potato (or lounge lizard) with the other health risks-you have to have the motivation and the help to do that) I can make suggestions on how to help minimize the risks from not moving-and you barely have to move!

You don't need to attend any courses, or even go out and buy any equipment such as massage table towels or massage oil

You can do everything off your couch or chair!

You can take a walk when you are not having a walk (although a walk would be better for you) and you can keep the lower leg circulation going while watching the tv or working the computer!

Light Manual Muscle Relaxation the Massage-Lite leg assistance

Light Manual Muscle Relaxation combines a sound medical physiological based theory with simple movement to offer a practical ongoing system for self recovery

While the practical part of it is fully hands on work at many ultra marathon events both in Australia and internationally (see references for events and research undertaken) the theoretical part is based on
'Pumping caused by external Compression of the Lymphatics'
Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0 (p. 182)

It is an alternative stripped down basic tool which uses the muscles to work with themselves rather than relying on the skills of someone who works on them

You can use aimless guesswork and prod and poke and just move the legs in an aimless fashion and hope what you are doing is working and to some extent any movement is better than none

Or you can use planned and structured movement that is based on medical physiology and been tested on many ultra marathon runs and walks around the world that takes into account the problems of the client and makes the most of any (self imposed) movement restrictions placed on them

The advantages of having a massage-lite system

• No equipment needed

• No disrobing

• No oil

• No washing up

• No long training

• No clean area needed

• Can be done by anyone-they can do this because it works with the muscles not on them

Light Manual Muscle Relaxation-(Massage-Lite) works through

• Simplicity

• Predictability

• Consistency

• Non invasive

• User friendly

How user friendly?

I worked for 24 hours off this chair (next to the bottles) without any equipment in unhygienic conditions

How to do this just needs the knowledge of how to work with the muscles not on them!

Light Manual Muscle Relaxation is a Do-It-Yourself method based on encouraging the muscles and tissues to assist with their own circulation

It makes it easier for someone who has to become their own physical and muscle therapist-and they have to learn how to do this with a minimum of education and training

You are at this website because you obviously have an interest in lower leg problems so if you want more information on Light Manual Muscle Relaxation and you can afford it-please buy a manual

The money raised from this goes towards supporting my project on establishing classes around the world in countries that do not have access to many health services

Michael Gillan (I was a couch potato once)

Long distance recovery specialist-ex couch potato

Here is a manual to help with your circulation-and you don't have to expend any unnecessary energy to do it

only $20 in pdf format


I should point out I am not a doctor so I am not treating anything and what I say should not be taken as a medical treatment or implied that it is-medical treatment should be sought and advice taken about whether it is suitable for your complaint

References

Michael's methods of massage and blister care helped me to stay mobile throughout the race and
to recover quickly afterwards. His techniques are safe and gentle.
Unlike some treatments, which put the runners and walkers at risk of muscle tears or infection, Michael's techniques are gentle, safe, reassuring, and highly effective. They enhance comfort and flexibility, build confidence, and promote success.
This booklet will help others to learn and practice Michael's methods. It is recommended reading for everyone who walks and runs and who wants to go further, go faster, or just to enjoy life more!!'
SANDRA BROWN 1996 Ladies 1000 Mile World Record Holder
1999 Ladies 100 mile Race walking World Record Holder

"I know that your massage kept a number of competitors in the event. The cold weather of Saturday afternoon and night certainly got to many of the walkers and your prompt action had them back in the race after a short stop.
In years past, that would have ended up as a non-finish. A number of walkers were able to keep going for the full 24 hours on the basis of your expert help."
Tim Ericson Secretary Australian Centurions Club

'I have known Michael Gillan for many years and have always got quick relief for my aches and pains from the stretching he performs'.
CLIFF YOUNG-75-80 24 Hour World Record Holder (150.07 kilometers)

A word from Jesper Olsen World Runner about Light Manual Muscle Relaxation
"If I hadn't had the qualified help from the excellent masseur Michael Gillan, taking several thousands of km out of my legs, I could spare myself the effort!"
"My crew for the current stages, Michael Gillan, has proven to have other talents than the quite taxing job of taking care of all the requirements of a really tired ultra runner!
He has since years back been working on a new approach to stretching and muscle-rebuilding for ultra runners. I have the last two days tried his careful stretch and massage, and a bit to my surprise the muscles are beginning to feel like before the start back in Greenwich, London!!

Usually I doesn't take massage as the legs of an ultra runner will often be quite sore during the long time events (and especially in an multi-year event like this...), and getting a massage can at times cause more injury and cramping up than good. For example my last massage was some 12 000km ago when I ran the 12-hour competition in Finland. And so far that has been the only one.

But Gillan came with best recommendations from my main contact in Australia, Phil Essam, who besides being vice president in the Australian Ultra runners Association has heaps of good knowledge to share. And this new kind of mild massage for ultra runners is definitely one of the good tips! There should be a fair chance that I actually get fresh enough to do some decent running at the 6 Day Race that I have coming up in Colac from the 21.November. I quite look forward to that, even though I can't expect to make a top class result :-)"

Couch Potato Article

There are many other problems caused by venous inefficiency and it may be worthwhile looking at
Peripheral Arterial Disease in People With Diabetes

Peripheral Arterial Disease in People With Diabetes
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/26/12/3333
http://www.o-wm.com/article/8057

Controversies Regarding Vascular Disease in the Patient with Diabetes: A Review of the Literature
VOLUME: 53 Issue Number: 11 author: Robert J. Snyder, DPM, CWS
http://www.videomd.com/PeripheralArterialDisease-fv-465.aspx

http://www.promote-health.org

physiology references

The calf muscle pump
(p.209) Physiology: a regulatory systems approach. Fleur L. Strand. Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc.ISBN 0-020979860-4

(p.209)Physiology: a regulatory systems approach. Fleur L. Strand. Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc.ISBN 0-020979860-4

"Venous valve incompetence and varicose veins"
'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0

Effect of "Hydrostatic" Pressure on Venous Pressure ( P.165)
'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0

Effect of Hydrostatic Factors on Arterial and Other Pressures (P.167)
'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0

Calf muscle pump inefficiency
'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0
' (P.177) 'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0

The Blood Circulatory System
(P.150) 'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0

(P.150) 'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0

"The Lymphatic System
(P.180) 'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0

"Pumping caused by external Compression of the Lymphatics
Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0 (p. 182)

Deep vein thrombosis
(P.391) 'Guyton-Textbook of Medical Physiology eighth edition-1991 W.B. Saunders Company-ISBN 0-726-3994-0


My knowledge offers a simple self help-system developed on and for ultra marathon runners and walkers that works with the muscles-this makes it easy to do and it does not need equipment or any complicated hands on training to do


mgillan@hotmail.com


Some links

http://www.feet-and-legs.com

http://www.holidays-all-inclusive.net

http://www.home-and-garden-show.info