Motion Health & Fitness

Category: StayInMotion

Know Your Health; Know Your Biomarkers

America is not a healthy nation. The US spends more on health care than any other high-income country but still has the lowest life expectancy at birth and the highest rate of people with multiple chronic diseases, according to a 2023 report from The Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group. In fact, America is ranked No. 35 out of 169 countries in terms of overall citizen health, according to the Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index. This means that 34 countries are ahead of us.

It’s easy to see why. Nearly 60% adults in the United States have at least one chronic disease, with the most common being heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and obesity, according to the CDC. Consequently, biomarkers — objective measures of normal or abnormal processes or conditions or diseases —really matter. These might include blood pressure, resting heart rate, blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, and body fat percentage, for example.

Essentially half (47%) of American adults have high blood pressure (hypertension), according to the American Heart Association. That amounts to a whopping 122.4 million people. A normal blood pressure is less than 120/80 mmHg. A blood pressure of 140/90 mmHg or more is too high. People with levels from 120/80 mmHg to 139/89 mmHg have a condition called pre-hypertension, which means they are at high risk for high blood pressure.

Having high blood pressure puts you at risk for heart disease and stroke, which are leading causes of death in the United States. However, most people who have hypertension do not experience any symptoms. People usually discover that they have hypertension following a routine blood pressure check.

Another all-too-common disease in the US is diabetes, which is diagnosed when a person’s A1C levels are 6.5% or higher.

According to the CDC, 11.3% of the US population has diabetes, and 23% of adults are undiagnosed. This means that more 34% of the adult population likely has diabetes. Yet, about 90-95% of people with diabetes have type-2, which is preventable. Additionally, about 98 million American adults (more than 1 in 3) have pre-diabetes. If you get the sense that diabetes is a crisis in the US, you’re right. Having diabetes also raises the risks for other chronic conditions.

For example, if you have diabetes, you are twice as likely to have high blood pressure. Chronic diseases are often linked.
Diabetes is the top cause of kidney failure, causing nearly half (47%) of new cases. About 1 in 3 adults with diabetes may have kidney disease. High blood pressure is the second most common cause of kidney failure, causing 27% of new cases. In fact, 1 in 5 adults with high blood pressure may have kidney disease. Are you getting the sense that many of the most common chronic diseases are linked?

Quite astonishingly, as many as 37 million Americans have kidney disease, meaning it affects 14% of American adults. In fact, kidney disease is the fastest-growing noncommunicable disease in the US, and it’s one of the top 10 causes of death.

The kicker is that all of the above are preventable; it’s within our hands to heal or prevent them. But there’s more.

High LDL (bad) cholesterol levels in the bloodstream may increase the risk of heart disease and cardiovascular events like stroke. Normal cholesterol in adults is less than 200 mg/dL; borderline high is 200 to 239 mg/dL. Yet, about 86 million US adults age 20 or older have total cholesterol levels above 200 mg/dL, according to the CDC. And nearly 25 million adults in the US have total cholesterol levels above 240 mg/dL.

The latest data indicate that 39.6% of US adults are obese, and another 31.6% are overweight. Taken together, 71.2%, or nearly three-quarters, of American adults are either overweight or obese. This comes at a tremendous cost to our national wellbeing. Overweight and obesity may increase your risk for developing health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Excess body fat is associated with high levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as low levels of HDL (good) cholesterol. It also impairs the body’s responsiveness to insulin, raising blood sugar and insulin levels. Excess body fat contributes to major causes of death and disability, including heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, osteoarthritis, fatty liver, and depression. Yet, when it comes to health, the issue is not how much you weigh but how much abdominal fat you have. Research shows that abdominal fat is the worst of the worst because it is a major contributor to cardiovascular disease.

Waist circumference is an indicator of the health risks associated with excess fat around the waist. A waist circumference of 40 inches or more in men, or 35 inches or more in women, is associated with health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Ideally, everyone should aim to keep their waist measurement less than half that of their height, according to scientists. That means a 6ft (72 inch) tall man should aim to keep his waist less than 36 inches, while a 5ft 4in (64 inch) woman should keep hers under 32 inches.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Metabolic syndrome includes obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, and irregular cholesterol levels. The risk of metabolic syndrome increases with age, and about 1 in 3 adults have metabolic syndrome.

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the US, as it has been for the past 100 years. Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death. Together, they claimed more lives in 2021 in the U.S. than all forms of cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease combined. High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and smoking are key risk factors for heart disease. Yet, diabetes, overweight and obesity can also put people at a higher risk for heart disease.

The links between all of these chronic diseases is striking. Having high blood pressure puts you at risk for heart disease and stroke. If you have diabetes, you are twice as likely to have high blood pressure. Yet, people with high blood pressure usually have insulin resistance and have an increased risk of developing diabetes compared to those with normal blood pressure. So the relationship between diabetes and high blood pressure is a two-way street. Diabetes is the top cause of kidney failure. High blood pressure is the second most common cause of kidney failure. High LDL (bad) cholesterol levels in the bloodstream may increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. Overweight and obesity may increase your risk for developing a wide array health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers.

Link after link after link. The connection between chronic conditions is stark.

Yet, being thin doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re healthy. Thin people might still have cancer, diabetes or heart disease, for example.

Health is comprehensive and encompasses a number of factors including nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress levels, lifestyle choices, and more. Weight is just one small piece of the puzzle and should never be used as the sole indicator of overall health.

Wellness requires us to think holistically and address all indicators of health. Obsessing and stressing over one factor, such as weight status, can stunt progress and lead to decreased mental wellbeing.

It’s important to recognize that medical interventions contribute less than 10% to overall health. Meanwhile, nutritional status accounts for a remarkable 80%. Nutrition addresses the root causes of diseases, whereas drugs often only alleviate symptoms. What we eat really matters… a lot.

We know that exercise certainly improves health and wellness. Yet, a staggering 80% of US adults and adolescents are insufficiently active, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. What’s more, those leading sedentary lifestyles face a 20-30% higher risk of mortality compared to those who participate in at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week, according to the World Health Organization.

Numerous studies show that consistent exercise decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, many cancers, cognitive decline and mental illness. Meanwhile, a sedentary life is associated with an increase in cardiometabolic disease and shortened lifespans.

While there are many reasons that people exercise, in my view it shouldn’t be about having the best butt or bigger biceps; it’s about being a happier, more fulfilled, more self-satisfied person. Everyone recognizes that exercise can change your body, but it can also change your mood, your attitude, and even your mind.

Wellbeing is not just the absence of disease or illness. It’s a complex combination of a person’s physical, mental, emotional, and social health factors. Wellbeing is strongly linked to happiness and life satisfaction. In short, wellbeing could be described as how you feel about yourself and your life.

Researchers agree that health-related quality of life is multi-dimensional and includes domains that are related to physical, mental, emotional and social functioning, and the social context in which people live. That said, loneliness and social disconnectedness are two of the greatest challenges of the modern era. Social isolation and loneliness are now considered demonstrated risk factors for depression and cancer. Our social connections, or lack thereof, really affect our health.

Loneliness takes a toll on our health. It can lead to high blood pressure, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Loneliness has been linked to the progression of Alzheimer’s, raising the likelihood of dementia by 40%. And it can also double the risk of Type-2 diabetes. One study found that loneliness can be as much of a long-term risk factor as smoking. As a consequence, chronically lonely people tend to have an 83% higher mortality risk than those who feel less isolated.

Brigham Young University researchers have revealed that loneliness is deadlier than obesity and should now be considered a major public health hazard. They discovered that lonely people had a 50% increased risk of early death, compared to those with good social connections. In contrast, obesity raises the chance of dying before the age of 70 by around 30%. Humans are social animals. We need community, we need friends. While solitude may be nice sometimes, loneliness isn’t.

Research also shows that mindset really matters when it comes to health, and it can even extend your life. A classic study found that people who were optimistic about aging lived seven and a half years longer than those who had negative perceptions of it.

The takeaway is that our health is mostly in our own hands. We can be proactive and we can largely control our own destiny. We are not fated to ill health, even if our parents or grandparents had specific diseases. Most of the diseases that modern Americans suffer from are lifestyle disease, meaning they’re the result of the way we live and the choices we make.

We can make better choices to improve our health, the quality of our life, and even our life expectancy. We also need to remember that stress reduction and social connection play a big role in our wellbeing. We can do better, and we must do better. Our very lives depend on it.

It’s preferable that your doctor tells you that you look better on the inside than on the outside. Your biomarkers really matter, and you should know them.

August 6, 2024
Don’t Quit Working Out; Don’t Let Your Efforts Go To Waste

An exercise program is viewed by many as akin to climbing a mountain; once you’ve reached the summit or goal, you walk back down to tell everyone about your accomplishment and celebrate.

In reality, exercise is more like walking up a downward escalator; if you stop moving, you start losing ground and moving backward.

For example, athletes can start to lose their muscle strength in about three weeks if they’re not working out, according to a 2013 study. Athletes typically lose less overall muscle strength during a break than non-athletes. Newbies and less frequent gym-goers will see declines more quickly and evidently.

Strength and power will decrease before muscle size actually decreases, which occurs after 4-6 weeks of inactivity. This means your physique isn’t the first or best sign of the decline that results from an exercise layoff. Strength losses are deceptive.

Your aerobic capacity (endurance) will also begin to decline after about a two-week layoff. In fact, detraining typically occurs faster with aerobic capacity than it does for muscular strength. A couple of days off can be good for recovery, especially if you’ve been working out really hard. It’s the longer breaks that should be avoided.

So, if you’ve spent months working hard at the gym and getting yourself into shape, you can lose all your hard-earned gains after just a one-month layoff.

I always tell people that it’s easier to stay in shape than it is to get in shape.

The key is not to give up. You’ve worked too hard and spent too much time to let it all slip away.

The reality is that there is no fitness savings account to bank on after you stop working out. Your fitness level accrues only as long as you maintain it. Once you stop, your ‘balance’ starts to fall. Fitness is an active and ongoing process.

The simple message is: Don’t quit! Exercise is really good for you, physically and mentally. Letting all those hard-earned gains just slip away is a bad idea and, ultimately, a recipe for disappointment and regret.

Stay the course. Stay in Motion!

September 19, 2022
The Risks of Excessive Screen Time and ‘Sitting Disease’

Always listen to your body. Never ignore the things it’s telling you; it has important information that you need to know and acknowledge. Pay attention to its cues.

As a 21st Century society, we sit far too much. Beware of so-called “sitting disease,” also known as the “desk sentence.”

Constant sitting decreases your metabolism and is associated with increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

Sitting disease:

• Impairs your circulation

• Compresses vital fluids (such as lymphatic fluid) and impacts cell growth

• Leads to joint stiffness, low back pain, sciatica, hip pain, neck pain, and shoulder pain

Over-eating and obesity are distress signals from your body; don’t ignore them. The health risks from over-eating and obesity are numerous and widely reported. Mindless over-eating is often associated with excessive screen time.

Depriving yourself of sleep leads to cognitive impairment, a less efficient brain, over-eating, higher emotionality, increased anxiety, and delayed production of melatonin (the sleep hormone). Many people are sleep deprived due to an inability to limit screen time.

As of 2020, it is estimated that one-third of the world’s population (2.6 billion) has myopia and that by 2050 it will affect half the global population. This short-sightedness is typically associated with excessive screen time and, in the worst cases, leads to blindness. Think I’m overstating the problem? Well, by 2050 myopia is projected to become the leading cause of permanent blindness worldwide.

Our inability to unplug and disengage from our digital devices is causing widespread stress, anxiety and self-reported depression. At this point, many people are all too familiar with “Zoom fatigue” and the associated energy loss. Many people feel they have no autonomy to determine when to disconnect. They even wake up at night to check work emails and/or text messages.

This inability to disconnect has led to a lack of work/life balance, and longer work days that are uncompensated. This, in turn, has led to a long term loss of motivation.

The overuse of social media has also led to more radical emotions, such as fear and outrage. It’s even led to lower self-esteem and body image.

People are suffering from digital burnout and it’s little surprise that depression has risen. Researchers in a 2017 study found that adults who watched TV or used a computer for more than 6 hours per day were more likely to experience moderate to severe depression.

The pandemic only made the situation worse.

During the first year of the pandemic, April 2020-April 2021, the prevalence of people with depression or anxiety symptoms in America increased substantially — from about 11 percent of people in 2019 to close to 40 percent.

We leave ourselves little to no time to recover from our digital overload because almost everything in our lives revolves around screen time. Consider all the things that people now do online:

• Shopping

• School

• Mail

• Work

• Meetings

• News

• Arts

• Sex

• Movies

• Bills

• Chatting

• Leisure/social media scrolling

Some of these activities amount to using tech to relax from too much tech, which has led to what is called the “digital fatigue paradox.” More engagement simply leads to more stress. This is digital burnout.

Give yourself a digital detox. Set aside time in the day when you check out and stop all screen time; give your eyes and brain a rest. Set a nighttime digital curfew. Turn off your phone at night and keep it off until the next morning. These aren’t novel ideas; this was normal, everyday life prior to the 21st Century.

Take the initiative to get up and move more. A four-year study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggest that getting up and moving around every 30 minutes could help you avoid some of the health woes that come with sitting all day.

Just set your phone alarm, Apple Watch or Fitbit to alert yourself to get up and move every 30 minutes (a paradox, huh?). It doesn’t need to be for more than a few minutes, but just the simple act of standing up and moving around will do you a lot of good.

Even if you exercise vigorously on multiple days of the week, taking a daily 30-minute walk has enormous health benefits and can prevent chronic disease as you age. Walking is good for us orthopedically; we are meant to move.

Just the simple act of walking also reduces stress, cheers you up (walking releases endorphins, your body’s happy hormones), and increases self-esteem. You’ll feel better about yourself just for doing it. And, if you leave your phone at home, it forces you to disconnect from screen time.

We have more control over our health destiny than we might realize. We just need to take the wheel and steer.

September 10, 2022
The Benefits of Whey Protein, and Why You Should Supplement

According to the Institute of Medicine, we all should consume between 10% to 35% of our daily calories from protein. Athletes and those who engage in regular strength training should aim toward the higher end of that range.

Though proteins are best derived from whole foods, if your diet is solid and you’re simply trying to add a protein supplement between meals, protein powder can be a useful addition to your diet.

Most people eat about 10% of their protein at breakfast, about 20% at lunch and about 70% at dinner. However, protein intake should be spread out more evenly to increase protein synthesis, and protein powder can help you achieve that goal. What type of protein powder, you ask?

Whey is one of the richest sources of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), including leucine, isoleucine and valine. These three gems have been shown to be absolutely critical for muscle growth, and even energy during workouts.

Whey protein also provides antioxidant benefits, boosts immune function, and enhances muscle recovery and growth.

Whey is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. The most common whey protein foods include dairy foods such as yogurt, cottage cheese and ricotta.

When you were a kid and read about Little Miss Muffet “eating her curds and whey,” she was actually eating cottage cheese, a great source of whey protein.

Yet, many athletes and exercisers ingest much of their whey in the form of protein powder. However, not all whey protein powders are created equally. Some are made from concentrates, which are high in lactose.

If you are lactose intolerant or can’t digest lactose properly (i.e., you get stomach cramps, gas and diarrhea), but you want a high-quality protein powder with excellent bioavailability, you might try a 100% whey protein isolate powder.

The amount of lactose in whey protein isolate is quite low. The processing of whey into 100% isolate removes the lactose, lessening your chance of feeling gassy and bloated.

What separates whey protein from other forms of protein is its digestion rate; whey digests very rapidly. In fewer than 30 minutes it can fast-track a good portion of its amino acids to your muscles, and that rapid delivery of aminos to muscle cells has been shown to be important for enhancing muscle growth.

To be considered a great, whey protein the product MUST list whey protein isolate or hydrolyzed whey protein isolate as the very first ingredient. That’s because whey protein isolates are the purest form of protein you can get, with some being more than 90% protein. And “hydrolyzed whey protein isolate” means that high-quality whey has been pre-digested into smaller protein fragments for even faster digestion than regular whey isolate.

Whey protein concentrate, on the other hand, goes through less filtering, which means fewer of the natural carbohydrates found in milk are removed. The result is a whey product that is much lower in protein content. Although most whey protein concentrates are somewhere between 70-80% protein, some can be less than 35% protein. This is why isolates and hydrolysates generally cost more.

In order to know if a whey protein powder is top notch, you’ll need to do some math. Take the grams of protein per serving listed on the supplement facts panel and divide it by the serving size (in grams). This will give you the percentage of protein in each serving. To be considered a great whey protein powder, the percent protein per serving (or scoop) should be 80% or greater.

If you are vegan, you might choose a non-dairy protein powder, preferably the organic variety. Pea protein powder and soy protein isolate are good choices. However, it’s important to recognize that not all plant proteins contain each of the nine essential amino acids (EEAs).

EEAs cannot be made by the body. As a result, they must come from food. Animal-based foods have all nine of the EAAs and they are also higher in bioavailability, which is their ability to be absorbed and used by the body. Plant-based foods have lower bioavailability.

Soy is the only complete plant protein. Soy foods are also rich in vitamins and minerals.

It’s worth noting that plant proteins generally have less leucine, which is an essential amino acid. Leucine can: increase muscle growth and lean body mass, help in healing skin and bones, increase production of human growth hormone (HGH), and may help control blood sugar.

However, the following protein powders are good plant-based sources of leucine:

• Soy protein isolate

• Pea protein powder

• Peanut powder

Nonetheless, because it contains all of the essential amino acids and is easily digested, whey protein (including whey protein powder) is considered the gold standard. Add in the facts that whey protein can aid wound healing, boost immune function, provide antioxidant benefits, moderate blood sugar, and might even lower blood pressure, and whey protein should be your go-to powder.

Yet, what likely matters most to athletes and weight trainers is that whey is a complete, high-quality protein that promotes muscle growth. To that end, some studies show that whey protein may be slightly better than other types of protein, such as casein or soy.

When choosing a hydrolyzed whey protein isolate, make sure to select one with no additives, preservatives or artificial sweeteners. You might want a natural vanilla or chocolate flavor, for example, but you don’t need any of the other junk that may be added. If the only ingredient is whey protein isolate or hydrolyzed whey protein, you’re getting purity, without any other fillers or low-quality garbage.

May 27, 2022
Sleep Is Vital to Good Health, Yet Many of Us Aren’t Getting Enough

One-third of U.S. adults are struggling to get a good night’s rest, according to a jointly conducted web survey by Gallup and mattress retailer Casper. This suggests that nearly 84 million Americans are not getting adequate sleep.

Moreover, 65% said they were unable to get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep a night.

This sleep deficit has negative health consequences. Research confirms that not getting the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep per night, or getting poor quality sleep, increases risks for high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and atherosclerosis, which happens when fatty deposits build up in arteries. Not getting enough sleep is linked to weight gain, diabetes and inflammation, all of which can worsen cardiovascular disease.

The survey of more than 3,000 adults indicated that stress is a major factor in this epidemic of sleepless. If the word epidemic sounds hyperbolic, that’s exactly how the CDC describes it.

Two years of the coronavirus pandemic drove stress levels to extraordinary levels and even as that now begins to wane, new stressors seem to have supplanted it. An American Psychological Association study recently found that Americans are feeling more anxious about inflation, global uncertainty, and the war in Ukraine.

Our emotional and mental states are major contributing factors to how easily we fall asleep and whether we stay asleep all night.

There are strategies you can utilize to help improve your sleep. For example, 30 minutes of daily exercise improves your odds of a great night’s sleep by 30%. That’s because exercise helps work off stress and anxiety. Moving your body and raising your heart rate help ensure a better night’s sleep.

Creating some form of ambient white noise, such as with a fan or noise machine that creates nature sounds, can also be calming, soothing and sleep inducing.

Healthy nutrition, meditation and/or breathing exercises can also be quite helpful. For example, you can count your in-breaths or out-breaths from one to 10. You can then count them backwards from 10 to one. If your mind wanders, bring your attention back to your breathing and start counting from one again. Focused breathing is relaxing in and of itself, but it can also help stop the mind from wandering. If you practice while lying in bed, eventually you’ll fall asleep while counting your breaths.

Another useful strategy is to have a specific bedtime routine that you follow every night. Varying bedtimes and wake times put your body’s internal clock, the circadian clock, out of cycle. Going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, even on weekends, prevents this disruption. Changes in your sleep schedule thwart a natural sleep pattern, which throws off your circadian cycle.

A regular bed time is critical for your health and wellness, as is a regular waking time. Additionally, sleeping too long can affect your ability to fall asleep that night. After a good night’s sleep, most people need to be awake around 16 hours before they feel sleepy again.

Going to sleep between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm is associated with a lower risk of developing heart disease compared to earlier or later bedtimes, according to a new study by the European Society of Cardiology. Early or late bedtimes may be more likely to disrupt the body’s circadian clock, with adverse consequences for cardiovascular health, according to the study’s authors.

The incidence of cardiovascular disease was highest in those with sleep times at midnight or later (25% higher risk) and lowest in those with sleep onset from 10:00 to 10:59 pm. There was a 24% higher risk for falling asleep before 10:00 pm.

When it gets dark, your brain ramps up its production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates your sleep-wake cycle. Essentially, melatonin helps you fall asleep — and stay asleep. On the other hand, light signals your brain to stop making melatonin, which helps you wake up and feel alert in the morning.

Too much light just before bedtime, especially the blue light from electronic devices, can also disrupt our internal clocks. The brain’s nighttime surge of melatonin is known as melatonin onset. This naturally occurs as the sun sets and your environment literally starts to dim.

However, modern humans no longer live by the sun’s daily cycle. We now have the ability to artificially keep our home environments bright at night. All that light signals to your body that it’s still daytime, which definitely doesn’t help you fall asleep. For this reason, it’s best to turn off screens and other intense lights a half-hour or so before bedtime. Reading by a dim light just before bed is a great way to ready the brain and induce sleep.

Eliminating light in your bedroom is also a key requisite to a good night’s sleep. Even small sources of light, such as from your alarm clock or smoke detector can be disruptive, according to sleep research. There are tiny receptor cells in your retina that look for light intensity. Sleeping in a pitch-black environment helps ensure that those retinal receptors don’t find any light — until you’re ready to wake up in the morning.

However, totally blacking out your room, such as with blackout curtains, in order to create a perfect sleep chamber may not be realistic for you. Yet, most of us can wear a sleep mask.

Wearing a sleep mask could actually benefit your health. A small study at Northwestern University found that participants who slept in a dimly lit room had a continuously elevated heart rate. And in the morning, they also had more trouble getting their blood sugar into a normal range, a condition known as insulin resistance.

These physiological changes happened even though their actual sleep wasn’t really disturbed. In fact, the participants generally said they slept fine. Yet, their brains and hearts knew that the lights were on, even though these people were sleeping. Even a relatively small amount of light was enough to shift their nervous systems into a more alert and activated state. The study provides evidence that sleeping with even relatively dim light exposure can be disruptive to our sleep-wake cycle.

The resulting risk of chronic diseases like insulin resistance, diabetes, other cardio-metabolic problems is real. One five-year observational study of more than 40,000 women found that having a light or TV on while sleeping was associated with an increased risk of gaining more than 10 pounds.

Furthermore, research shows that a lack of sleep can:

• Affect cognition, decreasing focus and work productivity

• Sap your energy and desire to work out

• Elevate appetite and food cravings

• Lead to more impulsive decisions, impacting food choices

• Boost irritability, straining relationships

• Increase stress levels (which makes sleep more difficult)

In summation, for all these reasons, it’s best to:

• Exercise daily, even if it’s just a walk

• Create a cool, dark bedroom environment that’s conducive to sleep

• Prepare for sleep by dimming lights and not using blue-light emitting devices 30 minutes before bed

• Stop watching news or other distressing content before bed

• Use breathing exercises when you’re having trouble sleeping

• Keep specific bed and wake times

• Wear a sleep mask

Follow these tips, and you’ll enjoy a continually better night’s rest and, ultimately, a better quality of life.

April 4, 2022
Is Your Weight Training Intensity Adequate?

Through many years at the gym, I’ve often seen women using the same 5-pound dumbbells for a variety of exercises: chess presses, shoulder presses, rows, bicep curls, lateral raises, front raises and more. Since weights should be thought of as tools, this is tantamount to using a screwdriver for every task, when sometimes you need a hammer or a wrench.

For example, the weight you use for a chest press should be heavier than the weight you use for a shoulder press, which should he heavier than the weight you use for a lateral raise.

As you work out consistently, you should grow stronger over time, necessitating the use of heavier weights for each exercise. This is especially true in the early stages of a workout program, when strength gains are most pronounced.

It’s not just women either. I’ve often seen men using the same 25-pound dumbbells for an exercise that they’ve been performing for years. They make no progress because their program is not built on progression.

Your body is a demand-based system. That is, the more you demand of it, the more it will produce. If you don’t steadily, but incrementally, increase the demand, your workouts and your results will stagnate.

Aside from the fact that you shouldn’t be lifting the same exact weight for a variety of exercises, you shouldn’t be lifting the same exact weight for the same exercise, week after week, month after month.

In short, weight training is meant to be progressive. You shouldn’t be lifting the same amount of weight today that you did one year ago. You should have gotten stronger; you should have progressed.

However, sometimes your body needs a break from heavy lifting. Take it easy once a week and work on muscular endurance instead of just strength. Give your muscles a break, while still remaining active in the gym.

How do you know if you are (or are not) using a high enough weight, aka, working out at the proper intensity?

First, let’s define intensity, which is based on the maximum number of repetitions that can be performed with a given weight. The one-repetition maximum (1RM) is an ideal baseline:

• High Intensity = 80–100% of your 1-rep max (1RM); typically 1-5 reps

• Medium Intensity = 60–80% of your 1-rep max (1RM); 6-12 reps

• Low Intensity = 10–40% of your 1-rep max (1RM); 15 or more reps

The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) provides the following guidelines:

• Hypertrophy (muscle growth) = 6-12 RM

• Strength = 6, or fewer, RM

• Power = 1-2 RM

In order for your muscles to undergo an adaptation from training (i.e., to grow stronger or bigger), they must be stressed by working against a weight/load/stimulus that is greater than what they are accustomed.

Don’t stop an exercise simply because you have reached 10 or 12 reps. Perform each exercise to the point of momentary muscular failure, whether that’s 12, 10, eight or six reps.

Increasing weight means a reduction of reps. If, for example, you can chest press 40-pound dumbbells 10 times to failure, that means you shouldn’t be able to press 50-pound dumbbells 10 times (if you can, you should be working out with the 50s, not the 40s). It’s likely that you can only press the 50s six times or eight times, or whatever it might be.

If the current weight you are lifting isn’t challenging, you need to increase that weight. Strength training is meant to be challenging, because the whole point is to “overload” your muscles so they become stronger.

Simply put, if you can do more than 12 repetitions, you should increase the weight. Everyone could stand to be stronger.

If you determine that it’s time to increase your resistance for a particular exercise, do this by adding no more than 10 percent at a time. For example, if you’re currently lifting 50 pounds, you’d increase that by five pounds to 55 pounds. This incremental increase should keep you safe and prevent injury. It’s important to maintain good form with a new, higher weight.

Remember, if you don’t make your muscles work harder than they’re accustomed, they won’t get stronger (which is the whole point). If you train progressively, your muscles will grow stronger in order to meet the increasing demands you are placing on them.

Lastly, recognize that some days you will feel like the Incredible Hulk, while on other days you will feel like a mere mortal. It’s okay; it’s all part of the process. Don’t beat yourself up over a bad training day. We all have them from time to time.

April 17, 2018
For Exercisers, Prepare & Repair

Diet and nutrition are the critical counterpoints to a regular exercise program. Both proteins and carbohydrates are essential for preparing for your workouts, as well as for recovering from them.

To feed the rigorous demands of working out, you need to prepare your body for exercise and then repair it from the associated stresses. Proteins and carbs provide both the fuel that drives you during your workouts, as well as the building blocks that help you recover.

If you don’t eat before exercise, you won’t have adequate fuel to get you through an intense workout. Instead, you’ll feel tired and weak and have limited endurance. That’s because complex carbs provide the energy that fuels muscle contractions.

Carbohydrates are broken down by the body into glucose, which is used as energy. Any glucose not immediately used is stored in the muscles and the liver, in the form of glycogen.

Glycogen is the source of energy most often used for exercise. Because it is immediately accessible, glycogen is used for any short, intense bouts of exercise, from sprinting to weight lifting. Glycogen also supplies energy during the first few minutes of any sport. Though fat helps to fuel activity during long, slow-duration exercise, glycogen is still needed to help break down the fat into something the muscles can use.

Adequate carbohydrate intake also helps prevent protein from being used as energy. If the body doesn’t have enough carbohydrate, protein is broken down to make glucose for energy. That’s undesirable because proteins are the building blocks for muscles, bones and other vital tissues.

Though carbohydrates are the human body’s key source of energy, not all carbs are created equally. Simple carbohydrates, or sugars, can cause a spike in blood sugar, thereby stimulating excess insulin production, which causes a fast drop in blood sugar. This creates a vicious cycle of hunger and eating, followed by more hunger and more eating. Stick with complex carbohydrates of the fibrous variety, such as legumes, brown rice, whole oats, and vegetables. These are digested slowly and do not cause a spike in blood sugar (glucose).

Depending on your ability to break down food, you need at least an hour, perhaps 90 minutes, to properly digest before commencing exercise. You only need a small amount of food (about 200 calories), primarily consisting of carbohydrates. Small portions of food are easily broken down and digested, providing more immediate energy.

However, carbohydrates are also vital in the post-workout period. Eating carbs in your post-training meal will kick-start the muscle-building process. If you lack carbohydrates, you’ll fail to support the growth process. That’s because muscle glycogen not only provides fuel for hard training, but it also supports recovery.

Carbohydrates directly support muscle-building by fueling muscles and helping them to remain anabolic. Energy-starved muscles quickly fall out of an anabolic state and fail to grow. Carbs also create a special hormonal environment that plays a critical role in growth — they initiate the release of insulin, which increases protein uptake by muscles. Insulin also helps muscles take in testosterone, the body’s chief muscle-building hormone.

Carbohydrates aren’t just the most important nutrient for exercising muscles; they are essential for brain and CNS function.

Consume at least 50 grams of carbohydrates (in addition to protein) in the meal following your workout to kick-start the rebuilding process. If you don’t gain body fat from eating that much, boost it to 70-80 grams.

Also, be sure to eat an adequate portion of protein in your post-training meal; anywhere from 70-100 grams should be sufficient for muscle repair.and growth.

Protein ingestion also helps athletes recover from exercise. After all, proteins are the building blocks of muscle tissue. They aid in the repair of exercise-induced damage to muscle fibers. Unless a protein-containing meal is consumed during the recovery period, muscle breakdown will exceed muscle synthesis, resulting in the loss of muscle mass.

Some proteins digest faster than others. Whey protein, egg whites and some fish rapidly reach the bloodstream, while casein protein, red meat, poultry and whole eggs are slower. Faster-digesting proteins are best in the morning to reverse the overnight fast when the body sometimes falls out of a growth state. They’re also best before and after training, when the body needs immediate sources of protein to help prevent muscle breakdown. At other times of day, slower-digesting proteins do just fine.

Proteins and carbohydrates are best eaten together because they work synergistically, upgrading the ability to drive amino acids into muscles and resulting in growth.

Adults should get 45 percent to 65 percent of their calories from carbohydrates, 20 percent to 35 percent from fat, and 10 to 35 percent from protein, according to the National Academy of Science.

A triathlete, marathoner of other endurance athlete might get 60 percent of their daily calories from carbohydrates and 20 percent each from fats and proteins. But a dedicated weight trainer or body builder may lower the percentage of carbs and increase the percentage of protein, finding a balance more along the lines of 50 percent carbohydrates, 20 percent fat and 30 protein.

Some people might have a hard time breaking their daily macronutrient intake into percentages. For these people, keeping track of their total protein ingestion might be easier.

The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for protein for persons over 18 years of age, irrespective of physical activity status, is 0.8 gram per kilogram of body weight per day (1 kilogram equals 2.2 pounds).

However, many sports nutrition experts (American College of Sports Medicine, American Dietetic Association) have concluded that protein requirements are higher for athletes.

The protein recommendations for endurance athletes are 1.2 to 1.4 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, whereas those for resistance and strength-trained athletes may be as high as 1.6 to 1.7 grams per kilogram of body weight per day.

Remember, you’ll get the most out of your training if you prepare for and repair from your workouts. Pushing your body hard to improve health and fitness requires you to nourish it. By giving your body everything it needs, you’ll get the most out of it.

August 7, 2017
Why Cardiovascular / Aerobic Exercise Is So Vital to Everyone

Cardiovascular endurance is considered one of the 5 parameters of fitness (the others being muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and body composition).

As you might imagine, this makes cardiovascular exercise — which most people simply call “cardio” — vital to everyone’s exercise program.

So, how much cardio do you need?

According to the Physical Activity Guidelines, released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, adults need at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity, aerobic, physical activity each week; or 75 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity, aerobic, physical activity; or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) concurs. The ACSM recommends that adults accumulate at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least five days per week for basic fitness. If you up the ante to vigorous exercise intensity, 30 minutes three days per week it will also get the job done.

While that’s enough to keep your heart healthy, it may not be enough to promote weight loss. The Institute of Medicine advises Americans to get an hour of physical activity a day to control their weight.

Due to the prevalence of obesity and overweight in the US — a whopping 70 percent of Americans are overweight or obese — many people think of cardiovascular exercise merely as a means to lose weight. However, even those with an ideal, healthy body weight need to regularly perform cardio to maintain good health and prevent disease.

The cardiovascular system, in particular, needs to be exercised regularly to maintain optimum health. It’s about being healthy from the inside out, not just looking good on the outside.

Exercises, such as walking, running, cycling, swimming or some other form of aerobic exercise, will all stimulate the cardiovascular system, but intensity matters. Obviously, the heart isn’t strengthened as much, and doesn’t make as much adaptation, by walking at 3.5 mph as it does when running at 7 mph.

Ultimately, there is a difference between being fit and being healthy. Being fit is a much stricter standard.

Choose activities that you enjoy. The results will be essentially the same. Studies show that a 10-15 week program of cycling, swimming or running, done 5 days per week, 30 minutes per session, at 70% heart-rate reserve (HRR), will result in comparable improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness.

Let’s look at the benefits of regular aerobic exercise:

– Weight loss or maintenance (healthy body composition)

MEN:

Healthy = 18-24% body fat

Fit = 14-17% body fat

Essential = 2-5% body fat

WOMEN:

Healthy = 25-31% body fat

Fit = 21-24% body fat

Essential = 10-13% body fat

An exercise program conducted 3 times per week, burning 300-400 cals per session, could result in a 16-pound weight loss in one year.

– Decreased appetite in some people

– Reduces the risks of coronary artery disease

A six-year study released in September, 2002 showed that for middle-aged or older women, walking, or an equal amount of more strenuous exercise, for 2 1/2 hours per week (5 days x 30 mins.) can cut heart disease and stroke risk by just over one third.

– Increases levels of HDLs (healthy cholesterol) and decreases levels of LDLs (unhealthy cholesterol)

– Decreases triglycerides (blood fats)

– Lower resting heart rate:

• Men average about 70 beats per minute

• Women average about 75 beats per minute

– Decreases blood pressure:

<120/80 = normal

120-129/<80 = elevated

130-139/80-89 = Stage 1 hypertension

140 or above/90 or above = Stage 2 hypertension

– Increases the sensitivity of cells to insulin and reduces blood glucose levels. This is a critical part of the treatment program for diabetics.

– Weight bearing exercises (running, brisk walking) strengthen the skeletal system, reducing the chances of osteoporosis, which is characterized by reduced bone mass and increased susceptibility to fractures. This occurs more commonly in women over 45 and affects an estimated 15-20 million Americans.

– Increases joint range of motion. Frequently part of the treatment for those with arthritis. Flexibility is developed primarily up to and between the ages of 7-12 and begins to decline after adolescence, accelerating after the age of 25 (unless otherwise maintained)

Why Aerobic Exercise Works

Regular aerobic exercise can lead to increased cardiovascular endurance due to the following factors:

– Increased lactate threshold (the time when your muscles start to burn and fatigue)

– Increase of ATP (fuel) in mitochondria, the cell’s power plant or engine

– Increase in the number and size of mitochondria

In short, you can become a high-performance, human machine.

Working out in the “fat-burning zone” is not the most efficient way to lose weight. As exercise intensity increases, the body burns less and less fat and more and more carbohydrates. That’s why some people say it’s best to work out at low to moderate intensities, in the so-called “fat-burning zone.” But when it comes to weight loss, what matters most is how many total calories you burn. High-intensity exercise burns the most calories.

That said, even brisk walking is enough to keep your heart healthy. Exercise doesn’t have to be strenuous to be beneficial. Studies show that moderate physical activity – such as a half-hour of brisk walking or swimming – on most days of the week can help fight off heart disease and lower your risk of diabetes and some cancers, among other health benefits.

However, while walking is good for your overall health, it may not burn enough calories to help you lose a substantial amount of weight. Nor will it get you a well-toned, sculpted body.

To get buff, you’ll need to add resistance training to your workout regimen. Yet, even with a good cardio and strength program, you may never look like a swimsuit model (good genes and airbrushing help in that regard), but you can slim down and firm up.

The most important thing is to improve your health, so that your doctor says you look as good from the inside as you do on the outside.

June 21, 2017
Use Interval Training to Supercharge Your Workouts

One of the most trendy workouts these days is interval training, in which participants alternate between higher intensity activities and lower intensity rest or relief periods. Naturally, this requires different rates of speed and degrees of effort.

The appeal of this type of workout is that it allows you to burn more calories without spending more time at the gym. Most interval training sessions are completed in 30 minutes or less.

Interval training has become a popular fitness regime in recent years because it is so effective. Interval training incorporates a lot of short bursts of high-impact cardio — such as jumping jacks, jumping rope and running in place — followed by low-intensity recovery periods. This type of workout is a very efficient way to quickly improve your fitness level.

According to a 2011 study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, just two weeks of high-intensity intervals improves your aerobic capacity as much as six to eight weeks of endurance training.

When performing intervals, participants will often get their heart rates up to at least 80 percent of maximum for short periods of time and then dial back down to a slow or moderate pace of 40-50 percent of maximum.

Many exercise adherents are now engaging in high intensity interval training (HIIT), which is typically performed in 20-minute bouts performed at 85-95 percent of maximal heart rate. The value of these shorter, higher intensity sessions is that they help fight boredom and pack a big punch in a relatively short period of time. Most HIIT workouts are completed in 30 minutes or less.

Those looking for an even more intense workout can try doing supramaximal interval training (SMIT), which involves performing all-out bursts of exercise, interspersed with full rest periods, or no activity.

Beginners might use a 1:2 work to recovery ratio, in which they work really hard for 20-30 seconds, for example, and then recover for 40-60 seconds. In essence, the recovery periods are twice as long as the high-intensity bouts.

As your conditioning improves, you might advance to a 1:1 ratio — 30 seconds of high intensity work, for example, followed by 30 seconds of recovery.

A common formula for more conditioned people involves a 2:1 ratio of work to recovery periods. For example, 20–90 seconds of hard sprinting alternated with 10–45 seconds of jogging or walking.

There are many different work/recovery formulas and you can experiment to find what works best for you. But remember, your body will eventually adapt and you will need to continually change the stimulus in order to accommodate that adaptation.

The beauty of intervals is that they’re not just for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. These routines can also benefit older folks and those with chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.

Mixing in some interval training can produce additional benefits beyond that of steady-paced exercise.

Researchers in Australia have found that sprints as short as 8 seconds can be beneficial. Cycling three times per week, participants alternated between 12 seconds of slow, gentle peddling and 8 seconds of intense sprints, peddling as hard as they could. Despite the fact that they did this for 20-minutes at a time — meaning the actual hard exercise totaled just 8 minutes — the payoff was significant.

Over the course of four months, participants in the study, which was performed at the University of New South Wales, lost an average of six pounds of body fat. By comparison, those who cycled at a steady pace for 40 minutes, without mixing in the interval sprints, lost less than two pounds. Additionally, participants who performed intervals improved both their blood pressure and blood sugar readings.

The same interval techniques can be applied to running, swimming, rowing, stair-climbing or hill-climbing. Again, you don’t necessarily need to keep the high-intensity bursts to 20 seconds. You can also try 30-second blasts or even longer periods — whatever suits you.

The Australian protocol was very similar to Tabata training, which consists of performing an activity all-out for 20 seconds, resting for 10 seconds, and then repeating the on-off sequence for four minutes total.

Keep in mind that the recovery or rest period in your intervals is just as important as the high intensity period since it helps to strengthen your heart. Rapidly raising your heart rate and then dropping it creates ventricular remodeling, which allows greater cardiac output and improved performance.

One of the best measures of fitness is aerobic capacity, or the ability of the heart and lungs to get oxygen to the muscles. As your cardiovascular fitness improves, you’ll be able to exercise longer and/or with more intensity.

Since high-intensity interval training is, well, intense, it shouldn’t be overused. Your body needs adequate time to recover between workouts, so it’s best to limit your HIIT workouts to three days per week. Light to moderate, steady-state aerobic exercise is ideal on your recovery days.

One of the most important elements of high-intensity interval training is a proper and adequate warmup, which should be at least 5-10 minutes long. This will prepare your body for the high-intensity workout to come.

Beginners shouldn’t rush into strenuous workouts before their body is ready, or else they may injure their muscles, tendons or bones. Instead, start slowly and, as your stamina improves, challenge yourself by increasing the intensity or the duration of your intervals.

The best workout plan combines interval training with a comprehensive strength training plan. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue; your body uses it to burn fat. So, the more lean muscle tissue you have, the more calories/fat you’ll burn throughout the day, even while you sleep. Simply put, more muscle tissue requires more energy.

As always…. Get in Motion. Stay in Motion.

June 2, 2017
How to Get the Abs You Desire

Abs — everybody wants them. The truth is, everybody’s got them. Yes, underneath the varying amount of belly fat that most of us possess, lies a shapely wall of muscle.

The rectus abdominis are two parallel muscles running vertically on each side of the anterior wall of the abdomen. In the abdomens of people with low body fat, these muscles can be easily seen and they are commonly referred to as “six packs.” However, some people have “four packs,” “eight packs” or even “ten packs” that are plainly visible. Simply being thin is usually enough for the ab muscles to be prominent, even without conducting ab exercises.

While many people desire the classic six-pack look purely for aesthetic reasons, the rectus abdominis is an important postural muscle. Strong abdominals can help to reduce lower back pain, improve balance and stability, and also prevent injuries. So, ab exercises are critical for all of those reasons, but not for trimming fat, which they won’t. Don’t fall for the myth that doing abdominal exercises will cut the belly fat hiding your abs and give you a ripped stomach.

The rectus abdominis also assists with breathing and plays an important role in respiration when forcefully exhaling, such as during exercise. It also helps to keep the internal organs intact and in creating intra-abdominal pressure, such as when exercising or lifting heavy weights. Yes, your abs are important for more than just outward appearance.

The abdominal muscles are present in everyone. There is little need for most people to perform ab exercises, such as crunches, to make them “pop.” The reason why most people’s abs aren’t visible has nothing to do with a lack of ab exercises; it’s because they have too much abdominal fat covering the underlying muscles for them to be seen.

Once you strip away the fat, the ab muscles are clearly visible. If men drop their body fat percentage into the range of 10-12 percent and women to 15-17 percent (sorry ladies, but you typically hold more belly fat and have a higher body fat percentage than men), your abs will become noticeable. Then you can really begin focusing on ab exercises, such as planks, hanging leg raises, ab wheel roll outs and jackknives on a stability ball.

In the meantime, your focus should be reducing the amount of visceral and subcutaneous fat in your stomach, which is hiding your abs right now.

What is visceral fat and subcutaneous fat?

Visceral fat surrounds your internal organs. It takes more effort to lose and it is dangerous. Excess visceral fat interferes with liver function and metabolic function. This leads to high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes and even some cancers. Research has shown that the size of your belly is a relatively reliable indicator of the health risks linked to visceral fat.

Subcutaneous fat is stored just underneath the skin. It is the type of fat that you can easily pinch or grab hold of, and it is apparent on the stomachs of most people. However, subcutaneous fat is not necessarily unhealthy. It may not look good to you, but it is not nearly as hazardous to your health as is visceral fat.

Obviously, lifestyle choices affect the amount of body fat you carry. Being too sedentary, not exercising enough and eating an unhealthy, high-calorie diet will cause you to store more, and burn less, fat.

Another culprit is a lack of sleep. While the specific amount of sleep that’s best varies by individual, the National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours a night for most adults. Researchers have found that the number of hours you sleep affects your metabolism. When you’re sleep-deprived, it’s harder to manage blood sugar levels and you may be hungrier for high-carb foods.

Other factors include stress, which causes your body to release certain hormones (such as cortisol, norepinephrine and epinephrine) that cause fat accumulation on the abdomen and make you resistant to weight loss.

Lastly, diet is primary component in fat gain or loss — and it’s fat that’s hiding your “undercover” abs. There’s an old saying: Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym. Start by reducing your intake of sugars, bad fats and processed foods.

Good fats include avocados, olives, olive oil, oily fish (such as salmon, mackerel, trout, herring and sardines) nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, cashews and pistachios) and flax seed/meal, which are full of omega-3 fatty acids.

Processed foods, which are abundant in the modern American diet, include processed meats (deli and lunch meats, salami, hot dogs and sausages) white rice, white and/or refined bread, chips, sodas, sugary cereals and store-bought cookies, crackers, muffins and cakes.

Adults should get 45 percent to 65 percent of their calories from carbohydrates, 20 percent to 35 percent from fat, and 10 to 35 percent from protein, according to the National Academy of Medicine.

Based on this, I recommend aiming for the lower percentage of fats, 20 percent, and the higher percentage of proteins, 35 percent, leaving the remaining 45 percent to carbohydrates.

Clearly, exercise is important if you want to have a flat stomach, much less ripped abs.

Activities such as running, cycling or jumping rope are all excellent calorie burners and are great for the heart, your most important muscle. Minute per minute, cardio burns more calories than weight training, so it is very effective at reducing fat mass and body mass. However, those last two words — body mass — are critical.

Doing lots of cardiovascular exercise will not only cause you to burn fat; it will also cause you to burn vital muscle mass. Yes, weight loss due to cardiovascular exercise can be the result of muscle loss, as well as fat loss. Yet, muscle is vital to your metabolic rate and calorie/fat burning.

Compound, or multi-joint, weight lifting exercises (such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, pull ups and bench presses) are all great fat burners. What’s more, by building additional muscle you will increase your metabolic rate, allowing you to burn more calories even when you aren’t exercising.

Both weight training and cardiovascular training have numerous health benefits, and both will help you trim fat and reveal that six pack hiding underneath your belly fat.

Just remember that how much you eat will have a far greater impact on your weight status than exercise will. That’s because it’s far easier to take in less energy (calories) than it is to burn significant amounts of energy through exercise.

That said, only weight training will give you a truly sculpted body and the shape that so many of us desire.

May 24, 2017