Issue 60: Dealing With Chronic Pain; Rest Between Sets

Have nagging aches and pains?

I have to be honest with you: I’ve been pretty lucky in that department.

Except for two times in my life.

That’s when this rather odd bit of advice came in really handy.

I’d like to share it with you in case you’re experiencing ongoing pain in any area of your body.

Before I do, it should go without saying that pain could be a sign of something serious, so always have your doctor take a look to be safe.

But for millions of people who have done just that, doctors have no good answer.

“Take a lot of Advil and call me in three months.” Thanks doc!

That’s not a good answer. In fact, pain meds like ibuprofen can really put a strain on your liver.

Here’s what I discovered:

Medical hypnosis.

I’ve mentioned this before, but some recent experiences brought it to my attention so I thought I’d mention it again.

If you are dealing with pain that doctors say you either have to “live with” or are giving you pain meds for, you owe it to yourself to give medical hypnosis a shot.

If you think this is a “scam”, listen up:

People have had surgery using nothing but hypnosis as the anesthesia.

It’s really hard to fake feeling no pain when a scalpel is cutting through your skin, you know?

Medical hypnosis is used frequently when patients are allergic to or simply cannot tolerate anesthesia.

It’s also used by people like you and me when we feel pain we cannot manage.

The best guys in the business of medical hypnosis are found at The Hypnosis Network.

They’ve been featured in The New York Times, on CNN, and in Prevention Magazine.

They’re the real deal.

Here’s the link to their Pain CD. They promise results, too –

http://tinyurl.com/pain-cd Click For Pain Help

Highly recommended. Let me know how it works for you.

For me it works wonders.

Exercise And The Brain

If you ever needed another good reason to exercise, I’ve got one for you:

Exercise makes your brain bigger.

Actually this isn’t entirely accurate. To be more specific, exercise was found to increase brain size slightly, but far more important to increase “spatial reasoning.”

This is the ability to recognize patterns, remember phrases, numbers, and so-on. This was discovered by researchers at the Universities of Chicago and Pittsburgh.

It is also one of the most important factors to the prevention of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

My mom suffered with dementia the last ten years of her life. But unlike most dementia patients she was fully functional thanks to exercise. She drove and had a mind that was unbelievably sharp right up until an accident injured her beyond the ability to exercise.

After that, she mentally went downhill rapidly. Thankfully, she passed in peace… and she had ten wonderfully active years thanks to her willingness to take up weight training at the age of 71.

She eventually walked up to 3 miles per day and trained in the gym 3 days per week.

That kept her mind sharp, along with fish oil and N-Acetyl L-Carnitine, a wonderful brain nutrient.

Once again, we see the power of exercise. It increases the QUALITY of your life.

Quantity is no where near as important to me as quality.

The links at the bottom of this newsletter are to my books on exercise. Pick the one that appeals to you most and take action.

Your brain will thank you, as will the rest of your body.

Fit Bits: Rest Between Sets

A lot of my readers ask me how long to rest between sets while exercising. The answer is: It depends on your goals.

If you are training to increase strength, I recommend resting a bit longer - up to two minutes for exercises like squats and heavy dumbbell work. But if you want to burn the most amount of bodyfat and gain lean muscle, I recommend resting for very short periods of time.

“The Iron Guru” Vince Gironda used to recommend leaving your hands on the bar between sets — now THAT is short rest intervals! He would frequently rest only 15-20 seconds between sets.

This is similar to the strategy I use in 7 Minute Muscle — very short rest intervals and very intense training. Smart, short, efficient. That’s the way to go.

A good place to start is simply reducing your rest intervals by 10 seconds. No matter what workout you’re using, decrease your rest by 10 seconds between sets. You may not be as strong on the last few sets (if you are training traditionally… if you use 7 Minute Muscle your rest is “built-in” and not an issue.) Over time you will work your way back up to the same amount of sets and reps but done in far less time.

This means more work output, which means more muscle if your nutrition is good.

This is the best way to train most of the time: Limited rest, intense sets, and short workouts. They are the ones that produce results.

Tags: Hypnosis, Pain Management