3 ways to prepare for your best race - East Idaho News
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3 ways to prepare for your best race

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This story is brought to you by Summit Spine and Sport Chiropractic. Dr. Kimball Arritt and his staff are highly skilled in chiropractic care, sports medicine, pediatric care, pregnancy, surgical rehabilitation and more.

Although January may seem like a strange time to talk about running, sign ups and training for this year’s races usually happen around this time.

If you are hoping to run a race or get your best time yet this year, here are three painless ways to pick up the pace.

Hit the sack

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If someone told you they had something that could naturally increase human growth hormone, reduce chemicals associated with stress, enhance recovery rate and improve your performance, would you do it?

Go to bed!

The National Sleep Foundation says during sleep, tissue growth and repair happen, energy is restored, and hormones, like growth hormone, are released which help with growth and development, including muscle development.

Who knew you could do so much while dreaming?

Give your body a tuneup

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The human nervous system sends messages to the brain nonstop each day via the spinal cord. It tells us how to move and respond to the world around us. If the nervous system is slower relaying messages, your body will react slower too.

Dr. Kimbal Arritt with Summit Spine and Sport Chiropractic in Rexburg compares it to a cellphone.

Just like interference causes a call to drop, nerve interference causes poor communication because body parts and organs can’t “hear” what to do as clearly.

Chiropractors’ adjustments aim to move the spine back into proper alignment, removing the “interferences” that cause “calls” from the brain to be dropped.

And research seems to back that analogy up.

According to a study published in The Journal of Chiropractic Research and Clinical Investigation, people who had chiropractic adjustments had a faster average reaction time of 14.8 percent versus an 8 percent reaction time in people who had only a short period of rest.

Hug it out

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A bit unorthodox, but all you need is love, right?

Or at least a good cuddle.

Not a lot of running happens while you are hugging, but hugging has been proven to lessen stress and lower your heart rate and blood pressure.

And if you run with your hugging buddy, there is a proven benefit there too!

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania say training with a friend can help you meet your fitness goals because as you see the progress of your training buddy, it provides mutual reinforcement to keep you both working toward your goals. This encouragement can help motivate you to keep training and improve your performance.

So what are you waiting for? Get running!

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