10 Ways Your Body Changes When You Start Drinking Enough Water

The research is clear: Staying hydrated is one of the healthiest habits you can adopt. Here are all the ways your body—and brain—get better when you chug, chug, chug.

You'll have more energy

The cells throughout your body need water to function, which is why we can all use tips on getting more water into your diet. "Water is a basic need for cellular health," says Ronald Navarro, MD, orthopedic and sport medicine surgeon at Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center in Harbor City, California. "Cells contain water and are surrounded by water. In dehydration, cell membranes become less permeable, hampering the flow of hormones and nutrients into the cell and preventing waste products that cause cell damage from flowing out." When that's happening throughout your body, your energy is sapped, and fatigue can take over, according to a review of hydration research published in the journal Nutrition Review.

How much water do you need to boost energy? Depending on who you ask, the exact amount varies. Dr. Navarro points to the most agreed-upon recommendation of six to eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily. This could change though, depending on the climate you live in and the type of lifestyle you lead. "Some adults may need more or less, depending on their overall health, including if they have certain illnesses, take specific medications and more. It also depends on how much they exercise and the level of intensity, and how hot and dry the weather is," he explains. If you're interested to know how much water your body is hankering for, talk to your primary care doctor.

Your memory will improve

Your brain is hugely dependent on fluid to work properly. All those synapses and neurons need liquid to fire properly. According to research published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, one of the most reliable predictors of decline in memory and mental performance is dehydration. And yet, according to Dr. Navarro, some polls estimate that upwards of 75 percent of Americans suffer from chronic dehydration. And that number worsens in summer: "We see the rate of dehydration increase in the summer and fall when temperatures are higher and perspiration is more pronounced," he says. If you're concerned you're among the dehydrated masses, here are the signs of dehydration.

Your focus will increase

Ever feel like you have no control over your attention span? Your mind just wanders no matter how hard you try to focus on the task at hand? Drink a big glass of water and watch what happens: According to researchpublished in the journal Nutrients, mild dehydration interferes with brain processing and breaks down the ability to focus. Just like sleep, maintaining a healthy diet, making time to sweat it out in your favorite workout class or log miles on your nearby running path, water is one of the most essential needs of your body. In fact, since we're made up of so much water, it makes sense why we would constantly need it to replenish, cleanse and feed our system.

You'll be stronger and faster

Ever feel sore during a workout, even though you didn't exercise the day before? You can check out these home remedies for sore muscles, but you should also know that those aches and pains or the difficulty you experience when trying to lift a heavier weight or push through that extra mile can be due to dehydration, and not your lack of strength. Research suggests that even a 2 percent drop in hydration can cause significant losses in strength and motivation while increasing feelings of fatigue. Dr. Navarro says that when we take in the right amount of water for our bodies, our muscles become more relaxed, which increases energy and maximizes our performance.

You'll slim down by eliminating mindless snacking

Ever find yourself eying the ice cream in your fridge late at night or taking a sampling of your kid's Goldfish, even though you know better? Instead of thinking you have hunger pains, reconsider that you're simply thirsty. Dr. Navarro says that more often than not, people mistake hunger for thirst, and that if you downed some water instead of those junk foods, you would feel just as full. "Proper hydration can serve as an appetite suppressant and help with weight loss or weight management," he notes.

Your digestion becomes reliable

Though there's no magical number of times you should move your bowels, it's definitely true that your bowel movements can offer real insight to your health. And if you struggle with consistency and often feel bloated or uncomfortable, you probably need to chug that water bottle ASAP. "People who drink enough water usually have regular bowel movements. Hard bowel movements or constipation can be a sign that you aren't getting enough water," Dr. Navarro says.

Your skin is more radiant

Ever go for a spa treatment—like a massage or facial—and your therapist makes a point to remind you to drink some water instead of the champagne you're eyeing? That's because skin can benefit greatly from hydration and for some, clear up your skin or make it look younger. (If you're looking for more ways to beautify your skin, try these tips.) "Our skin, the largest organ in our body, relies on water to produce new cells and give us that glow. Our skin also needs water do its job of regulating the body's temperature," Dr. Navarro says. No question: According to research, our skin contains 30 percent water which adds to plumpness and elasticity—vibrancy, in other words.

You'll need fewer calories

JENIFOTO/SHUTTERSTOCKWe're always looking for simple ways to cut calories, right? A new study involving more than 18,000 adults from the University of Illinois found that when people increased their daily water intake by one to three cups (on top of the four they drank on average), they ate less: Their food intake dropped by as much as 205 calories a day. In other words, drink a couple more glasses of water each day and you could shed two pounds a month—no dieting or extra time at the gym required!

According to Dennis Cardone, DO, chief of primary care sports medicine at NYU Langone Orthopedics, drinking water before—and during—meal fills you up faster, displacing the desire and need for additional calories. "Drinking water before and during a meal can decrease appetite and assist in weight loss," he notes. Choosing foods with a high-water content will also help: Many fruits and vegetables have a high water content, so they can provide additional ounces of water without you having to drink anything. Dr. Cardone recommends watermelon, cucumber, tomatoes, grapes and cherries.

You'll run cooler

When we exercise, our bodies cool off by sweating," says Dr. Navarro. "As we perspire, we lose necessary body fluids. If we do not replace these fluids, we become dehydrated. This makes it difficult to sweat and cool down, which can result in a heat injury," he explains. In hot weather, it's important you know the signs of heat stroke. If you're looking for easy ways to stay hydrated during exercise, check out this trendy solution from SMITH + STARR. Co-founders Chelsea Alexander and Fallyn Smith, were inspired to create a bag that offers a hydration solution, so they wouldn't have to lug around a water bottle while commuting in their home city, San Francisco, or while going hiking or camping. Their bag, The Conway, is the first ever cross-body handbag that doubles as a hydration pack. It looks like a bag you'd take while running errands or while out with your friends, but it contains a removable water pouch that holds 17 ounces and a tube for easy hydration right from the shoulder strap.

You'll be in a better mood

Even dropping 1-2 percent below optimal hydration can start wrecking your mood, according to research from the University of Connecticut. That's barely low enough to feel thirsty, and yet at that level of dehydration the moods of the women in the study soured and they were more likely to experience headaches and fatigue. So drink up, says Dr. Navarro: If you get tired of drinking good 'ole fashioned H20, consider upping your hydration game by making your 'brew' sparkling or flavored. Water with bubbles offers the same benefits of regular water, and added fruit can make the negative, tasteless sensation of water more interesting.

this article originally appeared on rd.com and was written by Lindsay Tigar 

Basic Self-Massage Tips for Myofascial Trigger Points

Learn how to massage your own trigger points (muscle knots)

Massaging yourself might seem as useless as trying to tickle yourself. But if there is a good reason for rubbing your own muscles, it’s probably muscle “knots” or trigger points: small patches of clenched muscle fibres that are sensitive and cause aching and stiffness. They may be a major factor in many common pain problems like low back pain and neck pain. Most minor trigger points are probably self-treatable.

You can often get more relief from this kind of discomfort with self-massage than you can get from a massage therapist. Professional help can be nice — and sometimes essential — but it can also be cost-effective to learn to save yourself from trigger points. It is a safe, cheap, and reasonable approach to self-help for many common pain problems.1

It’s also a controversial one: there is plenty of scientific uncertainty about trigger points. It’s undeniable that mammals suffer from sensitive spots in our soft tissues … but their nature remains unclear, and the popular idea that they are a kind of mini-spasm could be wrong.2

This article just introduces the basic principles of treating trigger points with self-massage. If you’d like to dive deeper into the subject, see my huge trigger points & myofascial pain tutorial.

Why are minor trigger points so easy to deal with?

A lot of trigger point pain can be relieved with a surprisingly small amount of simple self-massage with your own thumbs or cheap tools like a tennis ball. Although trigger points can be amazingly nasty, most are fairly easy to find and get rid of with a just little rubbing.

Dr. Janet Travell3 wrote that “almost any intervention” can relieve a trigger point, and self-massage is usually the simplest, cheapest, safest, and most effective. Which sounds to good to be true, so we should probably be suspicious of it. How can such a trivial treatment work?

The pain may be more of a sensory phantom than something wrong with the tissue.4 It may be relatively easy to change with massage because there’s not much to “fix” — just a sensation to change.

A little self-massage is often the most effective treatment for minor muscle knots. But how can such a trivial treatment work?

Or maybe the rubbing actually helps muscle tissue directly in some way, like stirring a sauce until it’s free of lumps. Maybe massage works because it’s literally pushing and flushing waste metabolites out of a trigger point5 — which, in theory, interrupts a vicious cycle and prevents the trigger point from coming back. But, so far, no one has actually been able to demonstrate how a muscle “knot” can be untied by massage.

Isolated trigger points are probably much easier to manage — neurologically simpler.6 If the problem is limited to one body part, there’s a better chance of dealing with it.

Basic self-massage instructions for trigger points

Just a few moments of gentle rubbing can be enough for an easy case.7 For moderate cases, several larger doses — a minute or two — of rubbing over a couple days will usually do the trick. The toughest self-treatable cases might need an investment of about a half dozen 5–minute treatments per day for a week. But none of this is science-based, and treatment can definitely fail.8

Here are a bunch more basic tips …

Rub with what? Rub the trigger point with your fingertips, thumbs, fist, elbow … whatever feels easiest and most comfortable to you. Simple tools are handy for spots that are harder to reach — various balls and other handy objects. Tennis ball massage is surprisingly good stuff! You can use a foam roller, of course, but the contact area is just too wide for many jobs.

A tool like Pressure Positive’s Backnobber can be great. But for quick and easy self-massage, there’s usually something around the house that works pretty well — like a tennis ball!

Rub in what way? For simplicity, either simply press on the trigger point directly and hold for a while (10–100 seconds), or apply small kneading strokes, either circular or back and forth, and don’t worry about the direction of the muscle fibres. Really, anything goes. But, if you happen to know the direction of the muscle fibres — sometimes it’s obvious — then stroke parallel to the fibres as though you are trying to elongate them, because that might be more effective.

Rub how hard? This matters more! Because massage is mostly about having a conversation with your nervous system, you want it to have the right tone: Friendly and helpful! Not shouty and rude. The intensity of the treatment should be Goldilocks just-right: strong enough to satisfy, but easy to live with. On a scale of 10 — where 1 is painless and 10 is intolerable — please aim for the 4–7 range, and err on the side of gentle at first. Beginners are often much too aggressive. (And the pros too!)

What should it feel like? Pressure on a muscle knot should generally be clear and strong and satisfying; it should have a relieving, welcome quality. This is “good pain.” Massage is a conversation with your nervous system. So you want it to have the right tone. Friendly and helpful! Not shouty and rude.If you are wincing or gritting your teeth, you probably need to be more gentle. You need to be able to relax. See the next section for more information about how trigger point massage should feel.

What if it backfires? It probably won’t, especially if the pressure is reasonable. But if you experience any negative reaction in the hours after treatment, just ease up. In basic therapy, you can count on tissue adapting to stronger pressures over the course of a few days of regular treatment. If they don’t, either the problem isn’t really trigger points, or they are (much) worse trigger points than you thought.

Rub where? For basic self-treatment, you can trust your instincts: rub where it hurts! Do explore for sensitive spots, but you can limit your exploration to a fairly small area of muscle tissue around the “epicentre” of your symptoms. So, for instance, if the top of your shoulder aches, search for trigger points mainly in the top of your shoulder. (You will notnecessarily be able to feel a bump or “knot” in your muscle, so don’t worry too much about that.)

What if the trigger point is not where the pain is? Trigger points may generate symptoms that aren’t where the trigger point is. What’s a beginner to do? Don’t worry about it too much — this is basic trigger point treatment. Bear in mind the possibility of confusing referred pain, but don’t worry about it unless basic therapy is failing.

Rub how much? Massage each suspected trigger point for about 30 seconds, give or take depending on how helpful it feels. This is actually enough for many trigger points — especially if you think that you have several that all need attention! Five minutes is roughly the maximum that any trigger point will need at one time, but there is not really any limit — if rubbing the trigger point continues to feel good, feel free to keep going.

Rub how often? As long as you aren’t experiencing any negative reactions, you should massage any trigger point that seems to need it at least twice per day, and as much as a half dozen times per day. More is probably too tedious and involves too great a risk of just pissing it off.

How do you know it’s working? Getting a trigger point to “release”

The goal of self-massage for trigger points is to achieve a “release.” What is trigger point “release” and what does it feel like? How do you measure success? It mostly refers to an easing of sensitivity of the trigger point, and/or a softening of the tissue texture — the melting of the knot.

But release is a vague term with no specific scientific definition. It’s a label for the unknown, for whatever is going on when the trigger point seems to goes away. Maybe it refers to the literal relaxation (or even the violent disruption!) of the tightly clenched muscle fibres. Or maybe it’s “just” a sensory adaptation, which might be a kind of healing (it just stops hurting), or trivial and temporary (like scratching a mosquito bite).

A release may not be obvious. In fact, things could even feel worse before they feel better: tissue might remain “polluted” with waste metabolites even after a successful release. Release might even require some damage to the tissue of the muscle knots — that is one theory. If so, the area would probably still be quite sensitive even if you’ve succeeded.

In my experience — both treating and being treated — it’s a weird mixture of these possibilities: initially there’s a satisfying but profound sense of scratching an itch, but the tissue is actually more sensitive afterwards, not less.

For beginners, don’t worry about the details: just stimulate the trigger point, and trust that you probably achieved a release, or a partial release, and then wait for the trigger point to calm down. If you were successful, you will notice a reduction in symptoms within several hours, often the next morning.

If you were successful, you will notice a reduction in symptoms within several hours, often the next morning.

Good pain? With easy trigger points, successful release is typically associated with “good pain” — that clear, strong, and satisfying sensation that is somehow both painful and relieving. It is positive in the same sense that barfing is positive: it’s not pleasant, and yet your body “knows” that it needs and wants that much pressure. Usually, if you feel “good pain,” a trigger point release is more likely.

On the other hand, if you are wincing or gritting your teeth, you probably need to be more gentle. Comfort is an important component of successful treatment for most people! If you can’t massage the trigger point without wincing, you’re being too brutal on yourself, especially in the early stages. Sometimes a trigger point will feel nasty and hot and burning and still release anyway. But often such a rotten trigger point will need more persistent or advanced treatment. The “pressure question” — how much is too much? — is surprisingly complicated.

This is the tip of the trigger point iceberg

There are many reasons why basic self-massage might fail. The skeptics could be right: maybe there’s really nothing there but an abnormal sensation, nothing in the flesh to fix. Or it could fail for quite technical reasons — due to the neurological phenomenon of “referred pain,” the trigger point may not actually be located in the same place as the pain. This sends people on wild goose chases, rubbing the wrong things, and the only solution is education and experimentation.

this article originally appeared on painscience.com and was written by  Paul Ingraham.

Muscle Adhesions: Getting in the Way of Your Performance

WHAT ARE ADHESIONS?

Our bodies contain special protein structures called connective tissue, also know as Fascia. This substance connects each part to other parts and the whole, very much like a flexible skeleton. When this tissue is healthy it is smooth and slippery, allowing the muscles, nerves, blood vessels or organs to move freely and function properly. Imagine a piece of scotch tape, the smooth side is healthy fascia; the sticky side is scar tissue or unhealthy fascia. Rub the tape along your skin, both sides, to "feel" what an adhesion is like. The drag that you feel, the "pulling" sensation, is what an adhesion is like. These adhesions attach to muscles, nerves and lymph decreasing their ability to work properly. You really know when you have an adhesion on a nerve; you get many abnormal sensations like numbness, tingling or pain.

DOESN'T STRETCHING GET RID OF ADHESIONS?

Stretching plays a very important role in the treatment and prevention of injuries but it will not break down adhesions. Adhesions, or scar tissue, are much stronger than normal healthy tissue. Muscle groups can often adhere/bind to one another preventing the normal sliding necessary for full mobility. When an individual performs a stretch, the tissue that lengthens is not the adhered tissue but the healthy tissue. This can actually cause more damage to healthy tissue resulting in the increase of adhesions. Stretching correctly is still essential, but it will never release the restrictions that are already present.

HOW WILL EXERCISES AND STRETCHING THAT DID NOT WORK BEFORE, WORK AFTER (ART) TREATMENTS?

Stretching and exercises are only effective after the dysfunction within the soft-tissue structures have been correctly released. Stretching and exercising dysfunctional tissues will only lead to a dysfunctional result. The combination of finding the origin of the problem, (ART) treatments, functional training, stretching and behavioral modifications will result in long lasting results...

HOW DO OVERUSE CONDITIONS OCCUR?

Over-used muscles (and other soft tissues) change in three important ways:

• Acute conditions (pulls, tears, collisions, etc),
• Accumulation of small tears (micro-trauma)
• Not getting enough oxygen (hypoxia).

Each of these factors can cause your body to produce tough, dense scar tissue in the affected area. This scar tissue binds up and ties down tissues that need to move freely. As scar tissue builds up, muscles become shorter and weaker, tension on tendons causes tendonitis, and nerves can become trapped. This can cause reduced range of motion, loss of strength, and pain. If a nerve is trapped, you may also feel tingling, numbness, and weakness.

This article originally appeared on performance-therapy.com

BOOK ONLINE FOR YOUR MASSAGE THERAPY, DRY NEEDLING AND CUPPING MASSAGE NEEDS TO ADDRESS SCAR TISSUE AND MUSCLE ADHESION ISSUES.

Fitness That Feels Good

Our bodies are amazing

They adapt to the needs of our environment. We are dynamic and always changing. Our old cells dying and the new forming every second. Because of our ever changing selves we can never be perfect. That's okay. Our imperfections are what challenge us and make us great. With the help of knowing a little fitness training, manual therapies and proper assessment, we can learn, build and improve on our body. This is important for everyone, to have the knowledge of how to live and maintain a life in their body.

Fitness training is good for us and to understand why we have to know the primary components of fitness we're trying to improve on. Cardiorespiratory capacity (lungs); muscular capacity (endurance, strength, and power); flexibility and body composition.

How are the choices of people in your life and yours being reflected in the way your body expresses motion and emotion? Our choices and environment influence and, in some cases, define us. Its health and ours become an expression in our body. How we choose to participate is our character. Unfortunately--with most goals--there are no shortcuts. The good news: whenever you decide to move your muscles--from small movements to large, you are hitting all the components of fitness simultaneously. Reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, normalizing blood pressure, increasing muscle strength, strengthening your bones, increasing metabolisms, improving your mood, reducing stress levels and making yourself look good all at the same time. It really is amazing how much our health gives us. If we give our bodies a little daily attention they will give us much in return.

As independent as many of us like to seem, the truth is we all need other people. Everybody needs support from time to time. Everybody needs help, including our bodies. The natural healing process of inflammation can be manipulated in our favor using massage and other manual therapies. It can mobilize tissues to increase blood flow to the muscles that need it most, aiding in tissue repair. It can even create stability where there was once instability. Let's say, you rolled your ankle: a massage therapist can stimulate a targeted inflammatory response, encouraging the body to then lay down additional connective tissue fibers, reinforcing the damaged or torn ligament. It can 'unstick' unwanted adhesions from your bones that reduce your range of motion, thereby encouraging fluidity of joint movement. Adhesions 'stick' to healthy tissues and drag when you fire up your muscles, causing them to work harder. So, wider range of motion means wider steps, which means faster, more fluid movement, energy efficient, no pain and overall just better.

A question I could ask all of you is, what is your work out routine, and why? Do you know why you work out the muscles you do and in the way you choose to? Do you sometimes increase you weight, or change your routine in some way and random little aches and pains pop up? Do you ever brush it off as your body isn't used to it, or you're just getting old, or getting over a cold? Maybe it's actually none of those things. Maybe, you're doing something you shouldn't be doing. Maybe you're doing something incorrectly. This is why a proper assessment from a professional is key before and during fitness training.

How do we get you moving in the most pain free and efficient way possible. In order to meet your goals both you and your team of health care team need to uncover what needs more attention, what needs less, and a professional can make recommendations to you during your journey for an easier and efficient approach. This can create faster results and avoid injury by being careful not to over exert certain muscles. For example, a desk jockey might be trying to make a small positive change in their routine by taking the stairs. They have a hard time activating their glutes since the gluteus maximus has a tendency not to activate until other muscles are becoming fatigued and they need to. The gluteus maximus can be lazy that way. This will then cause the quads to take over in a compensating action, possibly pulling the pelvis forward and down. This could create low back pain, or knee pain, and how would the desk jockey know what he's doing wrong? He's trying to take the stairs to be healthy.

            There is so much information out there, and we as health professionals want to help you sift through all of it to find what works for you, what doesn't, and for you to eventually know what it feels like to feel better than you ever thought you could. I used to be so afraid of the gym, and which work outs to choose from, which stretches - I was so overwhelmed. But if I've learned anything from choosing this path, it's that it's better to do something than nothing. The journey to a healthy lifestyle doesn't start the same for anyone. Try one minute of plank a day, or three minutes of jumping jacks, stomp in a rain puddle, pick literally anything. Just pick health. All that matters, is you try, in any way you can. Trust me, your body will.

Written by Miranda Horvath of Reset Wellness, Deep Tissue and Fitness Specialist, RMT.