We Are Sponsoring The Bay Run! Here Are A Few Tips For Better Performance
This year we’re a proud sponsor of the Bay Run, an annual 7km run around Sydney’s beautiful Iron Cove. Come down on Sunday August 5th, join the race and see us there (registrations at www.bayrun.com.au). The Village Remedies team will be around from 6:45am till the end (usually around 10am) to offer complimentary short consultations and mini acupressure demonstrations to relieve aches and pains pre and post run. Come down and say hi.
Since we’re coming up close to race day, we wanted to share a few insights that Chinese medicine has to offer to help you run at your best on the day.
A Holistic Approach
Whenever someone comes in to see us at the clinic, no matter what they come in for, we’re always interested to hear about the quality of their sleep and their digestion. You might not immediately think of these things as problems, but when either of these are out of whack, they can contribute to chronic pain and tension, impair injury recovery, negatively affect mood and ability to deal with stress, and lower immune function.
So coming up to race day, make sure that on top of your training, you’re also sleeping well and eating right...
Sleep Well, Recover Faster and Run Longer
Do you ever have trouble switching off your mind to fall asleep, or wake regularly at night, or get up in the morning feeling tired, stiff and groggy? These can be signals that your nervous system isn’t entering a deep rest state.
When you’re not getting deep restorative sleep, your body does not get the chance it needs to fully recover and regenerate after training sessions and long days at work. This means you may be more prone to injuries, chronic pain, low energy and longer recovery periods.
Improve your energy for running, recover from training faster and feel healthier by focusing on improving your sleep. Simple things like aiming for 8 hours of sleep, avoiding caffeine after 4pm, limiting screen time at night, and aiming to go to bed and wake around similar times can help get you back in a healthy sleeping rhythm.
If you’ve had troubles with insomnia, poor sleep quality or low energy for a while, you might need something more than just the few tips above. That’s where acupuncture and Chinese medicine can step in to help get you back on track.
Eat Right and Run Well
From a Chinese Medicine point of view, when you eat too much cold or raw food, or drink cold drinks, your digestive system must use extra unnecessary energy to heat things up for digestion. This not only uses up valuable energy but can also slow down digestion and decrease the amount of nutrients you absorb, leading to cramping, bloating, low energy and/or muscle tension.
To make sure you’ve got good energy to stay active, keep healthy and for running the Bayrun, make sure you’re avoiding icy drinks and eating mostly warm, cooked foods. Being winter this is especially important.
If you have any troubles with digestion like pain, bloating, constipation, diarrhoea or IBS, consider trying acupuncture and Chinese medicine.
To see us at our clinic in Balmain for a treatment, book online.
See you at the Bay Run!