Balanced Health & Fitness

One Hour a Week

2008-03-21T03:51:00.000-07:00

How long would it take to build a house if you only worked on it for 1 hour per week? I know that sounds ridiculous, but it is the best analogy for the "just 10 minutes a day" phrase that so called professionals use when describing the amount of time needed for exercise. Unfortunately, many people grab hold of this and believe that they are living a healthy lifestyle. Sure, if you were to be completely deconditioned, having never done anything more than walked from the couch to the refrigerator and back, 10 minutes would be a lot. However, if you wake up, go to work, take care of your home, go to bed and wake up to do it all over again, then 10 minutes isn't even close to enough.

Many people quote the Surgeon General's report as the catalyst for the ten minutes a day mantra. However, the report merely mentions other reports that claim 10 minutes of activity works. The report goes on to say that ALL American adults need 30 to60 minutes of CONTINUOUS vigorous exercise per day. And the list of health benefits is staggering, yet not surprising.

Here is a link to the report:
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=WZZPc1FmL7QC&dq=surgeon+general%27s+report&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=5UDkU4Tc7k&sig=oipcP5bc9cuXiWQu0IyKv5BsLWQ&prev=http://www.google.com/search?q=surgeon+general%27s+report&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7HPIA&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=2&cad=bottom-3results#PPP1,M1

It's not a quick read, but it is an interesting one.

We won!! We had our first victory last night. OK, so it was a forfeit, the fact is it's a 1 in the "W" column. I asked my teammates after last weeks game "How many of you picked up a basketball between tonight's game and last week's game?" No hands went up. So how could we think we would be competitive with teams that play 3 times per week? So the "one hour per week is not enough" translates into most everything we do. To be successful in anything, it takes time and effort. How many hours do musicians spend practicing? How many hours has Tiger spent hitting golf balls? Make the time for your healthy lifestyle.

Healthfully yours,
BH&F

The Competitive Spirit

2008-02-05T05:21:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has taken so long for me to update this blog. I would like to use the excuse of being sick or too busy, but that's not it. I was embarrassed; I did almost cough up a lung running up and down the court! There I admitted it. And that's the first step in recovery isn't it? I admit that I am not 22 anymore. I can't just wake up one morning and decide that I am going to play a vigorous game of basketball, or ski all day with out warming up (yep, did that too, over the Christmas Holiday...my thighs were screaming!) What I am not embarrassed about is my competitive spirit. And I got a boost today from, of all places, The New York Times. In an article by Gina Kolata; Staying Ahead of Aging. In case you forgot, or you think it won't happen to you, we ALL grow old! But we don't have to go quietly. A study by Dr. Vonda Wright from the University of Pittsburgh found that you can rekindle or even begin to start a competitive lifestyle at the time when most people are slowing down. They found people who started running their first marathons at 63! The statement that "You're never too old..." is true. Obviously the person who starts at 63 is not going to beat the person who is 23, but the 63 year old could very well beat another 60 ish runner. And better yet, they can continue to compete against themselves.

The other interesting finding was the people who were athletes all their lives had to come to grips with the fact that they are indeed slowing down. Even if they maintained an active lifestyle, the body just didn't work as well as it did 20-30 years ago. The authors found that there is a good amount of burnout in these type of people. I like to cal this "i-use-to-itis": "I use to do this...I use to do that...I use to run 20 miles a day and no I only run 10..." It's a natural thing to slow down. It is also natural to stop (aka die), but to a certain extent you can prolong the inevitable. Read the article and let me know what you think.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/health/nutrition/31BEST.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ei=5087&em&en=68860ef425fb2ad3&ex=1202014800&adxnnlx=1202209763-CmNjydS45TV8XqYeK4CZiw

And by the way, our basketball team is in a growth year. We are 0-5. They haven't been close games, but they have been fun. As an example, and this isn't an excuse, the first team we played won the whole kit and kaboodle last year. We showed up with 4 players and needed to barrow one of theirs. Needless to say that didn't give us their ace. We have improved slightly since then, we usually have 6-8 players show up. So just when it feels like razor blades are tearing up your lungs you can get a substitution. What's promising is in this league your record really only counts in the playoffs because we all go to the playoffs. So theoretically we could loose the whole season, but win the tournament! Yes I am a dreamer.

Healthfully Yours,
Greg

What IS your goal?

2007-11-21T11:51:00.000-08:00

WHAT’S YOUR GOAL?
No, really, what is your goal? Why do you exercise? I guess another term for “goal” could be “motivation”. I think they are interchangeable. What is your motivation? What brought you to the front door of our club (or any club) in the first place? Why did you buy that home exercise machine (and by the way, there is not a “one machine for the whole body”. But that’s another blog.)

We are all motivated by something different, yet incredibly similar. I, for instance, am motivated by competition. I love to compete. Win or lose, as long as I gave it my best shot, I will usually have a great time. Of course winning makes it even nicer. So I exercise as a means to an end; the end being a sport of some sort. A year and a half ago I crossed a pretty big threshold- I turned 40. It opened up a new opportunity for me, the “Over 40 Men’s Basketball League”. WOW!! A whole new reason to keep exercising. I thought to myself “There is no way I am going to look like one of those pot bellied old men running down the court. I may absolutely stink at basketball, but by golly I will look good, and I won’t want to cough up a lung before half time.” I’ll keep you posted on our team.

Research indicates that only about 2-5% of the human population exercises for the sake of exercising, or merely because they like it (sickos). The rest of us do it as a means to an end. So what is your end? Did you just see the Dr. and he told you to shed a few dozen pounds or you will be dead in less than 2 years? That’s motivating. Is your cholesterol high? Is your blood pressure reaching astronomical heights? Do you want to improve your golf game? Are you recovering from a knee or hip surgery? Or are you, as the cliché goes, sick and tired of being sick and tired? What is your desired end result?

There is one caveat, do not choose weight loss. You are guaranteed to become frustrated and stop exercising. Weight loss is a by-product of exercise and leading a healthy lifestyle. Think of it this way: let’s say your goal is to run a marathon. Don’t say I can’t because I’m too fat. Rather say to yourself “I’ll start with ¼ mile run/walk” and go from there. Then as you increase your mileage, your pounds will start to come off. And then you go farther and more weight comes off. You will probably change your eating habits so you can lose even more weight. See the cycle? If you just said “I want to lose weight” you would still be on the couch.

So let’s get a conversation going. Let me know what your goal/motivation/end is. Give me your story. How is the battle going? What triumphs have you had? What has been the most successful type of exercise for you? Believe it or not, what you say could and will help several people. It may also help you to understand that many people are having the same struggles as you.

And lastly, we will have information, critiques and opinions about what is being said about health and fitness and nutrition in the media. So if you see an interesting story, please forward it to me and we will discuss it.

Healthfully Yours,
Greg

What To Do About Abdominal Fat

2007-11-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

So when did it turn from "baby fat" to “middle age spread” and should I be concerned?

As women go through their middle years, their proportion of fat to body weight tends to increase - more than it does in men. At menopause, extra pounds tend to park themselves around the midsection, as the ratio of fat to lean tissue shifts even women who don’t actually gain weight may still gain inches at the waist. Be aware that as our waistline grows, so do our health risks. Lucky us!

Abdominal, or visceral, fat is of particular concern because it’s a key player in a variety of health problems - much more than subcutaneous fat, the kind you can grasp with your hand. Visceral fat lies deep within the abdominal cavity, where it pads the spaces between our abdominal organs. Visceral fat has been linked to certain metabolic disturbances and increased risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. In women it is also associated with breast cancer and in some the need for gallbladder surgery.

Fat accumulated in the lower body (pear shaped) is subcutaneous, while fat in the abdominal area (apple shaped) is largely visceral. Where a woman’s fat ends up is influenced by several factors. Heredity is one: genes determine how many fats cells an individual develops and where these cells are stored. Hormones are another: at menopause, estrogen production decreases and the ratio of androgen (male hormones present in small amounts in women) to estrogen increases - a shift that’s been linked in some studies to increased abdominal fat after menopause. Some researchers suspect that the drop in estrogen levels at menopause is also linked to increased levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that promotes the accumulation of abdominal fat. As the evidence against fat mounts, researchers and clinicians are trying to measure it, correlate it with health risks, and monitor changes that occur with age and overall weight gain or loss.

The good news is that visceral fat yields fairly easily to exercise and diet, with benefits ranging from lower blood pressure to more favorable cholesterol levels. Subcutaneous fat located at the waist - the pinch-able stuff can be frustratingly difficult to budge, but in normal-weight people, it’s generally not considered as much of a health threat as visceral fat is.

What’s wrong with a little abdominal fat?
Body fat, or adipose tissue, was once regarded as little more than a storage depot for fat cells waiting to be used for energy. But research shows that fat cells are biologically active. Therefore, it is more accurate to think of fat as an endocrine organ or gland, producing hormones and other substances that can profoundly affect our health. One such hormone is leptin, which is normally released after a meal and dampens appetite. Fat cells also produce the hormone adiponectin, which is thought to influence the response of cells to insulin. With this research it is becoming clear that excess body fat disrupts the normal balance and functioning of these hormones.

One reason excess visceral fat is so harmful could be its location near the portal vein, which carries blood from the intestinal area to the liver. Substances released by visceral fat, including free fatty acids, enter the portal vein and travel to the liver, where they can influence the production of blood lipids. Visceral fat is directly linked with higher total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol, lower HDL (good) cholesterol, and insulin resistance. Insulin resistance means that your body’s muscle and liver cells don’t respond adequately to normal levels of insulin, the pancreatic hormone that carries glucose into the body’s cells. Glucose levels in the blood rise, heightening the risk for diabetes. Together, insulin resistance, high blood glucose, excess abdominal fat, unfavorable cholesterol levels (including high levels of triglycerides), and high blood pressure constitute the metabolic syndrome, a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke.

So what can be done to decrease our fat stores?
The starting point is regular moderate intensity physical activity - at least 30 minutes per day (truthfully we should be saying 60 minutes per day) to control weight. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center found that the non-exerciser experiences a nearly 8% gain in visceral fat after 6 months. So subjects who exercised the equivalent of walking or jogging 12 miles per week put on no visceral fat, and those who exercised the equivalent of jogging 20 miles per week lost both visceral and subcutaneous fat.

Strength training also helps fight or shed abdominal fat. The University of Pennsylvania did a study on women, ages 24-44, for 2 years. Participants that were given an hour of weight training twice a week reduced their proportion of body fat by nearly 4% and were more successful in keeping off visceral fat. Spot or target exercising, such as doing sit-ups, can tighten the abdominal muscles, but it won’t get at visceral fat.

Diet is also important. Pay attention to portion size, and emphasize complex carbohydrates (fruits, whole grains and vegetables) and lean protein over simple carbohydrates such as white bread, refined pasta, and sugary drinks. Cutting calories drastically is not a good diet strategy, because it forces the body into starvation mode, slows metabolism and paradoxically causes it to store fat more efficiently later on. Because levels of the hormone DHEA decline with age, many people believe that DHEA supplement can reverse the age-related gain of abdominal fat. Although DHEA is converted in the body to testosterone and estrogen that help regulate various functions, studies have showed that it has no effect on age markers.

Lifestyle, Diet and Exercise
Experts concur that diet and exercise are the best ways to fight visceral fat. Even the smallest changes in your lifestyle diet and exercise programs can reap big rewards.

Start today. Eat smaller portions, move a little more and breathe a little deeper.
You we feel and look better before you know it.