Davis's Law - The body needs stress, however, too much or too little, and the body breaks down. Part 2

So we know from the previous post how the fascial system works, and that too little stress to the body isn’t good, however too much stress to the body is not good either. Injury and inflammation increase your white blood cell count and activate collagenase, an enzyme that breaks down collagen. In an acute injury this process is adaptive, because it gets rid of the old damage and makes room for newer, stronger collagen. With chronic bodily stress, when you’re doing “two-a-days,” or working out excessively, you’re essentially over-activating this natural process, and decreasing the stability, quality and structure of the collagen, and your body. —-
So, what can we do? Start by making an effort to vary your workouts and activities. If we only do the things we’re good at, we’re just stressing the same patterns in the body and setting ourselves up for possible injury. This is one of the reasons more children and adolescents are getting injured in athletics. They’re playing the same sport or activity year-round and not allowing their body to rest from repetitive stressors. Their bodies need to grow, develop and become more resilient by adding new stressors from other sports and activities. —-
By all means do what you love but change it up when you can. Keep your fascial system healthy – move more and with variability, eat fresh foods, drink water, and consider some foam rolling and soft tissue mobilization. More on foam rolling in the next post!