If you Don't Use It, You Lose It

 

Picture this: 

 

You’re 5 years old again…standing, staring up, up, up at…the candy counter.

 

Yes! I know right?

 

A candy counter showing every shape, type and artificial colouring of sugar in all its combinations. Growing up, our local grocery store had a candy counter placed strategically by the entrance. Somehow, you tricked your parents into allowing you to spend 50 cents on candy. You look down at the two quarters clutched tight in your hand. The combinations whirling in your mind.

 

Do you get ten 5 cent candies, or two big 25 cent candies?

 

Maybe a mixture of both? 

 

Blue whales or frogs? 

 

Cola bottles or dinosours? 

 

The options await….

 

How do you maximally get the most candy for your 50 cents? 

 

Why am I talking about candy? What does this have to do with health? 

 

Well, just like your inner 5 year old already knows how to maximize your resources, so does your body.

 

Let me show you how by beginning with a brief talk about adaptation. 

 

Adaptation is simply the ability for our body to shift, change and make adjustments so that we are better able to do whatever the task is in front of us. 

 

Let’s start simple…. you want to pick something up off the floor. We adapt our stance from standing up tall into a squat (ideally) and reach down to grab the object.

 

Next one... It’s May in Calgary and the weather can’t decide if it wants to rain, snow, sleet or let the sun shine. Like a multiple choice question, you get a strange mix of all the above and ice forms on the ground. The sidewalk feels slippery so you adapt and shorten your stride. Otherwise, you slip and fall. 

 

Easy...right?

 

Right… 

 

Just like you adapt your stance and walking styles in the above examples, changes are constantly taking place in your body. Whether we know it or not and similar to how the outside conditions influence the adaptations above, it’s generally what happens inside our bodies at a slower rate.

 

Let’s take a simple one - strength training. 

 

Usually, to elicit a response, we apply a stimulus that is slightly outside of what we are capable of doing. If we apply too little, there will be no effect (it’ll feel easy).  If we apply too much, we can get injured. So, let’s say you can easily lift 20 lbs for 10 repetitions. Great, what if we raise that to 22.5 lbs? By repetition 7, it may begin to feel tough but we were able to maintain our form and complete the 10th repetition. 

 

Awesome! 

 

The stimulus was applied in the form of a slightly heavier weight. The effect in those worked muscles is actually micro tears and small amounts of damage. Nothing is torn in the functional sense, but it’s what will give you the feeling that you did something more than you usually do. This is also known as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). 

 

Side-note: Remember, this is a simplified example. For actual gains in strength, endurance and power, you’d need to follow a program over a number of months with a qualified professional.  

 

This stimulus sends the signal to the body that something needs to shift and initiates adaptation. In, other words, the body will respond.  Usually, in strength training, depending on your focus, the body will increase the Sarcomeres (contractile units/what does the work), Mitochondria (cell powerhouse) and capillaries (blood supply) among other things. How, what and why this happens can be something we discuss another time. What’s important to note is that a stimulus was applied, and our body took it and adapted to it. 

 

Now, our body is efficient.

 

Not just a little, but very efficient. Here we are back again…You, 5 years old with 50 cents to spend at the candy counter. No candy gets wasted and no cent is left unspent. 

 

Our body wants to only reinforce and heal what it needs to. And, it wants to get the most 'bang for its buck.' So, if the body determines you need to upgrade 0.2% of your sarcomeres (contractile units), it will not overshoot this. You will get a 0.2% increase. No more, and maybe a little less depending on your nutrition, digestion, rest, age and overall health. And yes, FYI, gains have been shown in people over 90 years of age. 

 

The exact same thing happens within our bones. Bones respond to force from the outside, unless you are in space. They are constantly acted upon by gravity and your movements. Apply too little stimulus, bones decrease their density in the appropriate parameters trending towards conditions like Osteoporosis. Apply too much, you get some type of fracture depending on what you were doing and how long you applied the force. 

 

So, let’s review the main points up to now. 

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Baseline level -> Too little stimulus -> Decrease in baseline 

 

Baseline level -> Too much stimulus -> Injury

 

Baseline level -> “Goldilocks” 1 stimulus -> Appropriate Adaptation 

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Why Goldilocks? Like the fairy tale, not too much and not too little. 1

 

So, we’ve covered that your body adapts to outside forces. This is all fine and dandy, but what happens when we adapt to less than ideal scenarios?

 

You might be thinking - what’s a less than ideal scenario?

 

As we mentioned above, our body is constantly adapting. It is trying to fine-tune our capabilities to be in sync with whatever we are throwing at it (within reason). We cannot expect 'Hulk' results spending all your time in a laboratory like Bruce Banner - that is fiction. 2 

 

Adaptation works in multiple ways. Just as you can become adapted to physically demanding tasks, you can also become adapted to decreased activity. 

 

If you don’t use it, you lose it…slowly.

 

The type of tissue and its normal function determines the properties of that tissue. For example, skeletal muscles (these are what move us around) are made to lengthen and shorten. However, if we don’t utilize the lengthening and shortening capacity to its fullest, our body notices this and starts to fine tune. Sarcomeres (contractile units) are decreased appropriately to how much of a decrease we have in the activity or range of motion (ROM). 

 

Continue this pattern long enough and their spots are eventually taken up by non-moving connective tissue. This happens because cells that accomplish functions are more ‘expensive’ to keep around. They require more nutrition, energy and upkeep than the non-moving type. 

 

Much like having a car. Even if you don’t drive it, you still have to maintain it to safely use it in the future, lest it become a non-moving feature of your lawn.

 

Simply broken down, moving parts eventually become non-moving parts IF you don’t utilize them to their potential from time to time. 

 

Side note: Immobilization can also occur with injury and illness, which can be discussed another time. 

 

Now, you might be thinking to yourself that this is a less than ideal scenario, and you’re right - it is. 

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This brings us to Nature's design...

 

One of the beautiful things I appreciate about Osteopathy is the focus on Nature’s design.

 

If something is used to being in motion, our goal as Osteopathic Manual Therapists is to help it return closest to that original state. The area in question simply functions better and continues to help its neighbours in the near and far regions of the body if we can help it return closer to that original state.

 

Sometimes, bones, tissues and organs can get locked into a position where they aren’t sure what to do. Moving less and less until eventually, they become immobile. 

 

Like a truck, stuck in a tractor rut in the muddy spring, it ain’t movin’. It doesn’t matter how much gas you give it or how much genetically modified canola seed you sprinkle under the tires. 3

 

This can result in giving you some sort of unwelcome sensation such as discomfort, pain, swelling, indigestion or headaches depending on what isn’t moving.

 

And, just like the truck that got stuck in the tractor rut that eventually pulled out the Ford, 3 we sometimes need a tractor to come along and give us a hand. 

 

This is where your friendly neighbourhood Osteopathic Manual Therapist comes in. With a detailed understanding of anatomy and physiology, we are trained to help tissues get moving again regardless of where they are in your body. Once they get moving, we can also give you some advice on how to keep them moving so that you can get back to adapting.  

 

 

 

So, to summarize:

 

• Your body is constantly adapting to whatever you are doing. Walking, biking, or sitting in a car - you are providing the stimulus.

 

• Adaptations can be ideal or less than ideal depending on what kind of stimulus you are providing resulting in discomfort, pain, indigestion, etc…

 

• Your Osteopathic Manual Therapist can help with the less than ideal adaptations and give educated advice on how to keep them away.

 

 

 

References

 

1.  Referring to Robert Southey’s fairytale, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” originally published in 1837. 

2.  Referring to Bruce Banner / Hulk featured in Marvel comics and movies.

3.  Referring to “The Truck Got Stuck” featured on Corb Lund and the Hurtin’ Albertans’ 2005 album, Hair in my Eyes like a Highland Steer.