In my other life, I run a small wellness clinic, working with several natural Powerlifters and Body Builders. As they get bigger, certain anomolies start to happen that I help them with. i would like to list a few, in the hopes that readers can avoid these rather common nutritional mistakes and get better long term results.
1. Minerialization - After a while, many of my athletic clients begin to find a couple of problems occuring, but cause of a lack of calcium in their tissues. Cramping in the calves and back seem to happen alot, as a result of inadequate calcium. Distance runners, tend to get stress fractures. So, they start to add it to their diets and find that they are not absorbing it due to a lack of idiodine in their systems. Typically, I hear that they they are taking calcium, but it isn't working. Iodine, opens the pathways to absorb the calcium. Once they start on a little Iodine supplementation the calcuim uptake is better and the symptoms go away.
2. Thoracic Outlet, Carpal Tunnel, Tendonitis and Plantar Facialis are all common problems. What is happening here is that the muscle bellies are contracting due the brain's muscle memory system. The contracted muscle bellies reduce the contraction length and therefore the overall strength is diminshed and inflammation can occur. I use Muscle Release and Active Release, to relengthen the muscle belly, stop the nerve and vascular entrapment and the symptoms go away fairly quickly.
3. Erythrocyte Aggregation - Many times, when a lifter eats such a large amount of food, a protein matrix builds up around red blood cells and they will tend to aggregate. When this occurs, O2 and CO2 exchange becomes limited due to it having to gas through this matrix and the aggregation "may" minorly inhibited the free flow of Red Blood Cells through the capilaries, where the exchange needs to happen. many times, I can see this aggregation using a good Darkfield or Phase Contrast Microscope. I general give the person a bottle of pure Protease and have them take the stuff on an empty stomach a few times a day, on an empty stomach. Since the stomach is empty, there is no Protein to breakdown, it gets into the blood stream and eats away the matrix build up. When food is present, it helps to break it down for utilization. When you eat, your pancreas makes a certain amount of the stuff. But, when the matrix in built up, it is because there is more consumed than the system can handle.
Hope this helps.
Rob