Disclaimer: all opinions and techniques in this post series are solely based on Mark’s personal and professional education and experience knowledge. There are other professional options and approaches to addressing body fluid dynamic treatment and management.
The active contraction of muscle tissues promotes the movement of all body fluids through its intrinsic and adjacent extrinsic vessels. For example, when doing a bicep curl, your bicep needs oxygen and other nutrients to contract, and it also needs help removing byproducts such as lactic acid. This is what gives a gym-goer their “pump” after an exercise.
Fatigue-inducing efforts of pulsatile contraction create further oxygen demand to the muscle resulting in greater dilation of blood vessels and increased blood flow. With repetitive acute blood flow response, the body will address this ongoing increased demand by enlarging the blood vessels leading to more efficient vascularity over time. This is why athletes are often more vascular in appearance. Additionally, significant muscle contraction results in micro-tearing of the muscle tissue. This creates a demand for more nutrients to repair the tears as well as removing the damaged cells from the muscle. This is also facilitated by body fluid dynamics such as blood, lymph, and intracellular and extracellular fluids.
All repetitive exercises will induce pulsatile muscular contraction. However, the key is to do the exercises well without compromised form. Compromised form will result in unnecessary wear and tear which can do more harm than good. You will want to perform enough repetitions to fatigue the muscles. The use of external resistance or load is optional, depending on your training level.
To get started on these at home, consider trying our Foundation Five and Erasers.
The Foundation Five include Pelvic Tilt, Plank, Knee Rock Back, Side Double Leg Raise, and Crunch.
The Erasers we focus on include Butterflies, Bicycles, Wrap-n-Slaps, and Arm Swings. But any exercise can be an Eraser.
Check out Tiff’s Introductory Foundation Program for more details!