Does scraping release toxins?

Is muscle scraping good for you?

- Should I get a personal trainer?

I'm 19 years old and have been running 5-6 days a week for the past three years. I am about to start my senior year of college in the fall and want to gain more definition around my shoulders, chest, and lower back (more "manly" looking). I am looking into getting a personal trainer because I'm tired of going to my college track club, running one mile, and having a good time with friends, while wondering why I work so hard. I have a solid track background, can out-run almost any girl, and work out 4 times a week. I just want to focus more on upper body strength and cardio endurance (but not completely sacrifice how I look in the process). Any tips/advice on what a personal trainer would help me with, and how I can make it worth it (besides the money)?

Also, I want to lose some weight. Is it better to just lose the fat, or should I just run at a slower speed? Thanks for any advice and comments. I'm still new to this board, but have been on many before.

The following 5 users would like to thank cee for this useful post: Re: ? Hi cee! I have a few thoughts regarding your post. 1) Your track background will be your best asset for your training programs. You'll do best by focusing on improving your cardiovascular capacity, muscular endurance and strength and the basic technique. These components should be your first priorities as the other elements of your running style should come from your training programs.

2) The key to making the investment worthwhile is being honest about where you are with your running ability and if you are willing to progress beyond that point. If you are happy at what you are doing then it's all fine but if you want more you need to acknowledge the limitations and ask yourself if it's worth the expense to improve. For example, do you think you could actually beat the current world's marathon record on your present race schedule? If so then why waste your money on a trainer who can teach you to run faster? If not then you might end up wasting your money and effort because your personal philosophy is that improvement requires sacrifice of non-running interests like partying, partying etc.

Does muscle scraping get rid of knots?

I think that it can.

I know that it's not a good idea to scrape something like the back of your knee or a big knot, but is it possible that, by scraping, say on the back of your head where you have a knot, it might pull it apart? Is muscle scraping not a good idea for my back? I think it can be very good. For example, if you find an area with a lot of pain and inflammation due to a bruise, the doctor would normally prescribe anti-inflammatory, or pain medication. However, if you found yourself to be in that type of a situation and wanted to do your own thing, you might try a muscle scraping as a technique to release the tight area.

I know that this may sound wierd, but I think that muscle scraping can be very good when there is an area of extreme pain due to a torn muscle, or an area that may be a little bit swollen. Because when you start to do this, you are trying to stimulate the pain receptors in the muscle (it doesn't hurt so much, however, you can still feel a little bit of that pain) and when you eventually try and push or stretch the muscle, the pain receptors help the muscle release what it needs to release. The way that I do it is to start by scraping along the muscle, which loosens the muscle up, and when I finish scratching the muscle, I grab some gel and rub the skin around the muscle until it's ready to stretch and then I gently stretch it.

For instance, let's say you have a muscle sprain in your ankle, and while you try to relax and bend the muscle, you find that it is not flexible and maybe a little bit stiff. So, what I do is I pick out a thin piece of cotton and put it behind my ankle on the bottom of my foot. I then put a small amount of gel, and I use a small scissor to cut through the gel, which helps loosen the muscle from the bottom to the top. Then, I use my fingers to put pressure all over the muscle and when I finish rubbing all over the muscle, I stop, which stimulates the pain receptors and then I wait for about a minute or two before I stretch it again, and repeat this process until I am finished.

Can you overdo muscle scraping?

My wife has been doing a lot of scratching over the past couple of weeks.

I've had to take the dog out 3 times when she couldn't help herself. I finally stopped the scratching today, but I don't want to kill her or overdo it. Her gums have been very swollen and inflamed, so I'm not sure how she'll be on her way back.

Is there a good way to do this? The scratching sounds more like something that you would need to take a look at with a veterinarian. But if the dog is in good health then it's just making sure that the gums are healthy. If your wife was in pain or uncomfortable I would probably take the dog back to the vet.

Ok, thanks. She was scratching her paws, and was clearly in discomfort. She seemed to be in pain, and we put the dog on some oral meds that she was having trouble swallowing. I didn't know what to do, because we couldn't have left her in pain for long without a visit to the vet.

I would keep her in the vet just as you described. They will make sure she is comfortable, that she doesn't have any infection or injury. If they find one then they will correct it.