Sometimes working out at the gym can have its downside.
A thirty-nine-year-old man presented with fatigue, headaches, and brain fog. Since he looked like the picture of health with bulging muscles and a tan, I was confused.
He had a history of being a twin, a seizure at three, a collapsed lung with surgery, and Lyme disease in the fifth grade. Nothing definitively causative registered in my mind.
I asked him if he lifted weights. He replied that, over the years, he loved to work out with the machines at the gym.
After he had some therapy eight months ago, he said his brain cycle was at 40 seconds. Without any clear trauma since then, his brain cycle was now at zero seconds. What happened?
Continuous straining while working out can explain why he had no overt trauma but still had fatigue, brain fog, and headaches, a common triad for a zero-second brain cycle presentation. All trauma is cumulative, as seen in football, since hundreds of minor blows over the course of the season can be more damaging than a single concussion.
I started therapy in his pelvis, got into a trunk twist, then a lung scar, and finally deep neck strain. His brain cycle opened to a fantastic ninety seconds, and I expect him to do well with continued therapy.
Histologically, every muscle cell or fiber is surrounded by a fascial covering. Thus, the billions of muscle cells in the body are all connected and an integral part of the craniosacral fascial system.
If a patient is trying to build muscle, working out excessively can easily add strain into this system. Eventually, the meninges around the brain can tighten, leading to the scenario above.
Even though our therapy may help to take strain out of the body, some activities can put strain right back into the body. In his case, common sense suggested a less-strenuous routine that just maintained body tone.
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