Treatment of BPH: the Role of Physical Activity, Harmful Loads
Statement that for the most part physical exercise is useful doesn’t need any proof. Few people know that physical exercise can become a strong health-improving factor. After years of exercises I learned one basic rule: everything should be done by the rules. Certainly, you need to study principle s first (it is much better to learn from other person’s experience, than from one’s own mistakes).
Now I’m going to tell you how motion creates treatment, more specifically I’m offering you to understand motion. Some recommendations are common for everyone. Most important recommendations will be substantiated. The method contains the main information. Please read this to the end. There is no unnecessary information below.
Health begins with harmless controlled improvement of blood circulation. This is the essence of remedial gymnastics.
You don’t need to invent anything. Gymnastics, walking, running, swimming. That’s it. Rational application of such range of activities is enough to begin with. And in combination with diet it is enough to get rid of BPH and many other diseases. You may skip swimming (I understand that some people don’t have the opportunity to do it), but in such case your path to recovery will be longer. You don’t need much money. If you don’t have a special outfit, you may wear whatever you want. The main point is that it should be comfortable. It shouldn’t be that difficult to find a place for exercises where the air is more or less clean. However, water is problematic. Clean rivers or lakes are rare and you can’t swim at any temperature. Swimming pool is the optimum solution. Even if you need money to go to swimming pool, do not exclude swimming from your list of activities.
Alternating various activities brings the best treatment effect. For example, you may swim on Monday and walk or run on Tuesday at the same time. Such variety will rarely stress you physiologically (your body and mind will not want a rest) and involves various groups of muscles. This ensures the speed of recovery and quality of blood circulation, i.e. exactly what you need from physical activities.
Duration of exercises should be moderate. Recovery, not muscle gain, is the essence of such activities. Excessive training will cause disturbances in body systems and spasms in tissues. In such a case there will be no treatment.
When I exercise, the total daily duration of exercises in first couple of months amounts to 2-2,5 hours. If necessary, I take a day off once a week or less often.
I think this is a reasonable price for independence from useless medications and a fitting reply to those who think that BPH is incurable. When I improved my condition I learned when I can ease my efforts and when I need to work better. My schedule became less tight.
Saying “from hardships to the stars” does not fit this article. Exercises should not lead to subsequent weariness, let alone weakness or further discomfort. If such thing happens, you need to analyze combination of breathing with motion. If any kind of muscle activity causes discomfort, this is a reason to check your health condition and submit to thorough medical diagnostics.
Quality of breathing is essential during motion.
Gymnastics itself and breathing during gymnastics have their peculiarities. The method covers this in detail, so I will not tell you anything here.
During swimming comfort pause after deep inspiration is useful. If you follow the technique, you won’t be able to breathe in a different way. At first it will be difficult to exhale into the water, but your muscles will quickly get used to it. You always need air. For this reason pause after expiration should be short, but not uncomfortable.
Usually you may breathe deeply with breath hold during walking. Pause after expiration should be longer. It should last a second only to establish the fact of full expiration. I know from my experience that many people overdo in pauses after expiration making them longer. This is a serious mistake. Excess effort is not always beneficial. In general, do not be overzealous.
It is never too late to learn, as well as to improve your health. However, treatment with motion is a peculiar thing and it requires certain physiological condition. If you haven’t been exercising for the last 25 – 30 years and you have bad habits, you should first get rid of them and then gradually improve tone of your muscles and cardiovascular system. Blood vessels and heart should benefit from motion. Such preparation will require much time, believe me.
Exercise only after warming-up. My recommendation is that duration of warm-up should amount to half of total duration of the exercise. You can sprain your ankle because of ignorance. But your heart is also a muscle. Such constant mistakes at the beginning of exercise may lead to irreversible consequences for your heart.
You should swim, run or walk on an empty stomach (or an empty urinary bladder).
There is a rule which is probably a thousand years old and I use it for my benefit. This rule involves regulation of heat. From scientific point of view this rule involves alternating of aerobic and anaerobic activities (in simple terms: change in speed of motion). Slow pace is succeeded by short-term rapid pace and vice versa. I call it “slower – faster” rule.
During such activities increase in muscle contraction causes sharp increase in oxygen consumption. High level of oxygen in blood facilitates maximum acceleration of blood flow. The benefit cannot be overestimated: improvement of peristalsis, effective metabolism with increase of oxidation reactions that facilitates cleaning of obstacles in vessels (cholesterol plaques). It is impossible (and even dangerous) to maintain maximum activity. For this reason you need to slow down your pace after acceleration. With experience I became convinced that “slower” cycle is as important as “faster” cycle, and if you learn to properly relax during slower phase (decrease the tone of skeletal muscles), such procedures will have maximum positive effect.
Here are some running and walking options to clarify the aforementioned statements. You should choose which options are more suitable for you taking into account your physical condition.
- Slow walking is succeeded by rapid walking. Duration of accelerations after warming-up is short: up to 100 meters (depending on your condition). Acceleration is succeeded by rest and full recovery of breathing during slow walking. Repeat the cycle. Distance 3 – 3,5 km. With experience the distance may be extended.
- Usual walking is succeeded by jogging (or fast running). Then return to walking speed and rest till your breathing recovers. Then fast walking. Repeat the cycle. Distance for accelerations: 50 – 100 meters (depending on your condition). Total distance is the same. If you exercise on a stadium (a better way) and there are other people, you might seem strange from the outside. Don’t bother. Raise your hand, swing it, and start the exercise. I think option 2 is more effective than option 1.
- For most prepared people. Running. Accelerations are succeeded by jogging till full recovery of breath. Distance 2-3,5 km. It would be better, if you make 4-5 accelerations in the second half of the exercise (after working-up).
Each distance of any type of activity should be finished with maximum acceleration.
Monotonous running is good, but not very effective.
First two options cannot be are not interchangeable with the third. If you run, take a walk the same day to complete daily norm (6-7 km). If you only walk, it is better to take two (or 3 or 4) 3-kilometer walks, than to take one 6-7-kilometer walk. The main principle: acceleration should be followed by quality relaxation, and vice versa.
In order to avoid problems first you need to maintain self-control (till measurement values match your sensations and you remember them). Check your heart rate. There is a rule: 220 minus your age; suppose you are 50, then you maximum permissible heart rate is 170 beats per minute. If you want to increase your heart rate after acceleration by 70 – 75 percent of the maximum (for example, 120 bpm), this will be very useful. I do not recommend getting your heart rate higher. Heart rate should recover fully in 25 – 35 minutes (depending on type of activity and its duration).
Check your body temperature after the exercise. This indicator in complex and is still not fully understood. Your body temperature should decrease significantly: by 1-1,5 degrees (this is a good sign). My experience shows that decrease in temperature is the result of oxygenation and improvement of blood circulation.
Everything mentioned above is feasible in middle age as well as in advanced age. So do not say that you are old and weak. No excuses. Excuse is not weakness, it is laziness. Any load can be adjusted. If you start exercising, you will understand that true physical exercise is not some synthetic pill – manufacturers say that pill helps 98% percent of patients to deceive those who did not get any benefit from them (i.e. 98% of patients). Physical exercise is not a doctor who promises to cure you in a month (he will pull you and lead for a month at best). Physical exercise gives 100% effect. Rational motion never slows blood down or constricts blood vessels. Such things are impossible. The main thing is motivation.
About harmful physical activities. Certainly, there are physical activities which are harmful. However, they are actively advertised among youth. When you lift weight (kettle balls, heavy dumbbells, barbell, weight machines) muscle contractions are strong. Small and large vessels that envelop muscles are filled with blood. Improvement of circulation facilitates tissue growth. In some time a peculiar inconsistency takes place: muscles increase in volume and begin compressing blood vessels which supply nutrients to them. Such compression is unhealthy and will cause serious spasms in future.
First hypertension is diagnosed, and then sooner or later with the same probability it will lead to serious problems including problems with prostatic gland. Taking steroids worsen the condition much faster. I talked to many young guys who lost their health to athleticism (one of them was 22 years old). I was surprised by their way of thinking. Sometimes I had to spend a lot of time proving harmful effect of weight lifting. Their typical phrase: “Why me?” I leave this question without an answer. Kettle balls and dumbbells are useless for middle age and advanced age men. Forget about cross bar and parallel bars, if you use them. It will be enough to practice exercises given in “Living without BPH” method. However, it would be wrong to tell you that you should never lift any weight. You can move a reasonable weight for a short-term, for example when you are doing chores or helping your relatives.
Respectfully yours, G. Plotyan, Kryviy Rih, Ukraine.