NSCA Performance Training Journal - Nutrition

The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) puts out an excellent on-line magazine entitled NSCA's Performance Training Journal 6 times a year. Perfectly on schedule the December 2007 issue arrived in my inbox on the afternoon of this last day in November. This particular edition is given over to Nutrition.

Not surprisingly an NSCA journal has a sports bias, but none the worse for that. Most of us are interested in what athletes do because it offers pointers for us ordinary mortals.

Some of the topics covered in this December issue:

• Iron deficiency in endurance athletes: Tips for prevention and recognition
• Every day nutrition v. Game day nutrition
• Protein update: How much protein is enough
• The Glycemic Index and recovery
• Does consuming whey protein before and after resistance training alter net protein synthesis ?
• HMB supplementation improves aerobic performance and body composition.

Some topics here which are of interest to anyone interested in health and fitness.

Top 100 Health and Wellness Blogs

Think about this as your Christmas reading list (serious reading).
The top 100 health and wellness blogs according to the Nursing Online Education Database.
Days and days of internet scuba and all of it good.

Exercise with Resistance Bands

Kim Strother has made a number of really nice, easy to understand videos on YouTube.
This one showing the use of resistance bands for simple, safe home exercise is right on the mark.

Exercise Video - butt and back

Easy to see and understand butt and back exercises.

10,000 steps a day

Use a pedometer to motivate yourself to walk just a little farther each day.

That small extra effort has a big payback according to Dr Dena Brevata's study published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). She reviewed 26 different studies (and in the process read more than 2,00 articles) about the use and effectiveness of pedometers.

The results ? Use of a pedpometer encouraged users to increase the number of steps they take every day by more than 2,100. Enough to take a little weight off and to reduce blood pressure.

In the research, it showed that pedometer users, increased their stamina by about 27 percent and it showed that on average, the volunteers loss pounds and their blood pressure dropped, which is enough to lower the risk of heart disease and stroke, Bravata said. She added, "Every night, you write down how many steps you walked that day. By flipping back through your diary, you're able to see patterns: 'On the two days a week I took the stairs, I increased my steps.'"

This is not a total solution to all your weight and health issues but is a good "step forward".

There are a vast range of pedometers but researchers tend to recommend not too cheap and not too expensive. Say around $20 to $30 for good product which will count steps accurately.

Aging and Exercise

26 useful thoughts about exercise as you age from a remarkably sensible site.

Lots of advertising at lifetips but not objectionable.

Tip 9 (out of 26):

Balance Training: Falling can be dangerous for older people, and fear of falling can cause people to restrict their activities. Strength training can help prevent falls. Tai chi and some yoga can improve balance, and there are also specific balance exercises, some using exercise balls. Exercise training is specific so you have to do balance training on your feet. Chair exercises won´t do it.

Naked Yoga

You've got to love New York, Everywhere else in America men are over-weight but in Manhattan men are willing to show all at Naked Yoga.

“What I’m trying to get back to in these classes is more of our connection to the Earth,” says my teacher Isis Phoenix, the sensual, yoga-certified “shaman and healer” who launched Naked Yoga NYC with two other yoga instructor partners in May. “I’m uncovering the divine. It’s not like, 'One and two and three and four—breathe in and out!’ It’s about all shapes and sizes, all warrior ones as opposed to the right warrior ones.”

Vibration Training for Respiratory Muscles

Dr Paul Sumners posts a regular blog about the use of a vibration device to help strengthen the chest muscles. His device is called youbreathe. The device rapidly blocks and unblocks the airways to create a percussion effect which is theorized helps display mucous from the airways into the lungs. The operation of youbreathe is quite different to the operation of another device PowerLung which tries to directly strengthen the chest muscles used in breathing.

The bad news is that as yet it's only available in England. It's priced at about 80 pound (which is just over $160).

Read the blog and look at the website.

Until now there have been several devices to try to strengthen the chest muscles involved with breathing but previously none had been able to prove their worth. This time it could be different and that Paul Sumners has a winner. This device should help anyone with severe lung issues such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease COPD but at the other end of the spectrum might improve the performance of elite athletes.

Exercise is Medicine

This is a worthy effort to persuade doctors to discuss exercise with their patients on a frequent basis.

The Exercise is Medicine has the potential to contain a wealth of information. Right now it is good and over time might become excellent. If Exercise is Medicine has a fault, it is that it contains a long list of files (pretty much all relevant) but you have to dive into each to get just a small snack of information. It looks as if the American College of Sports Medicine and American Medical Association emptied out their library files to start this web site.

Once in a while you might wonder how much your doctor knows about weight problems, obesity and how to lose weight, become fitter and healthier. The answer is contained within the weighty tome - nearly 300 pages - entitled
Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults.

This is not essential reading but it is worth a glance because it shows why
there has been slow progress in dealing with the obesity issue and why
Exercise is Medicine could be a fresh start.

The USDA Food Pyramid - rebuild desperately needed

A pyramid is fat at the base and a point at the top. You can see one layer on top of the next down. The food pyramid use to be like this then in 2005 everything went haywire - no more layers. It looks as if the 2005 change to the food pyramid was a triumph of lobbying rather than a step forward in nutrition and health. So how might the food pyramid get back to being a pyramid that helps. There are lots of ideas for rebuilding the pyramid and below are just a few. Click on each pyramid image to get a larger version showing details.

Rebuild the pyramid like this ?

Or like this ?

Definitely NOT where we are now with the 2005 version:



The Food Pyramid promoted by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is encouraging Americans to eat more, eat the wrong things and become unhealthier in the process. At every step along the food pyramid has been wrong:

• In the 1992 version the advice was to minimize fat and eat lots of carbs
• the 2005 version has a different graphic but is just as bad. There's emphasis on whole grain and exercise but at bottom it's the same.

What do the health and nutrition experts say ?

• Tufts advice can be summed up as "Don't rock the boat, work within the system." It's hoping that the next update of government dietary guidelines due out in 2010 will fix the problems. In 2008 USDA is releasing MyPyramid Menu Planner which will give very detailed advice on how to eat more than you need to. If your objective is to improve your health, get leaner, build some strength and muscle then MyPyramid Menu Planner is going to take you in the opposite direction.
• Mayo Clinic has brought back the layered pyramid but this time fruits and vegetables are at the bottom as your basic food. If you really want to lose weight the Mayo Clinic has some solid advice - "eat less." Now this advice is wrapped up just a little. The Mayo idea is to look at your present weight and give a calories per day to lose weight:

Weight in pounds: 250 or less then calories per day 1200 (women), 1400 (men)
Weight in pounds: 251 to 300 then calories per day 1400 (women), 1600 (men)
Weight in pounds: 301 or more then calories per day 1600 (women), 1800 (men).

• Walter Willett and Meir Stampfer are forthright that having USDA look after nutritional guidelines for the USA is craziness. In their words "The food pyramid should be rebuilt in a setting that is well insulated from political and economic interests." They lay out a better food pyramid as shown at the top of this blog.
  

How to eat more whole grains

King Arthur Flour of Vermont has come up with these 9 suggestions for getting more whole grain into your daily nutrition.

1. Buy some whole-wheat flour and put it into your freezer. You can't bake with it if you don't have it.
2. Make your own granola and use it for breakfast or as a trail mix.
3. Commit to eating and using more oats. Grind them up like flour.
4. Cook a cup of hulled barley, refrigerate it and use a tablespoon or two in your bread recipes and in your soups, stews, chilis.
5. Substitute 1/3 cup whole-wheat flour for 1/3 cup all purpose flour in all your recipes.
6. Mix up your morning routine with whole-grain muffins.
7. Give up store bought white bread.
8. Bake from scratch.
9. Don't fret. Change your diet gradually. If something doesn't taste good, forget about it. Life is too short to eat food that doesn't taste good.

I'm a King Arthur customer as I'm a keen bread maker (albeit using a bread machine).

My recipe (as usual starting with someone else's and then over time adding my own touches):

• 1 3/4 cups of warm water
  
• 3 cups of King Arthur whole wheat flour
• 1 cup of white unbleached flour (this gives the loaf a little more bounce)
• 1/3 cup of flaxseed meal (usually from Bob's Red Mill)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt (usually low sodium)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried yeast.

Half way through baking I add: 1/2 cup of walnuts.



A loaf lasts about a week. It goes well with my own home-made humous but that recipe is for a future post.

"The improvements we found might seem small, . . . . "

My blog from October 7th reported on better control of blood sugar, and hence reducing the impact of diabetes, by the lead researcher Dr Ron Segal. Since that blog Dr Ron has issued a couple of quotes which are worth repeating.

"The improvement might seem small, but they are clinically significant. A 1% drop in Hemoglobin A1c reduces the risk of a major cardiovascular event such as stroke or heart attack by 15% to 20% and blindness, kidney failure, or amputations by 25% to 40%."

The other Dr Ron quote: "Our study demonstrates that people with Type 2 diabetes who want to maximise their glucose control and reduce their risk of long-term complications, should consider a combination of both aerobic and resistance training like weight lifting."

Details on the aerobic and resistance training used by Dr Ron in the research into alleviating Type 2 Diabetes.

Exercise and the well insulated

I liked this piece in the New York Times about the problems of exercising if your are carrying a lot of fat.

For many overweight exercisers, every step of a workout comes with an unintended cascade of motion — breasts bounce, belly fat shakes and thighs rub. The added jiggle and friction of moving body fat is more than just bothersome. It can alter people’s gait and make them more prone to injuries and joint problems. The discomfort prevents many overweight people from exercising altogether.

One of those great upfront questions “What sports bra do you use?”

The article references Dr Joanna Scurr and she is doing research one would love to know more about. Lots of breast research and in passing, mention of research on an anti-cellulite and core stability device.
What is that all about ?

Omega-3 - the least you need to know

Making sure you get enough Omega-3 in your diet is generally a good idea.

However you need to know more than looking for the amount of Omega-3 on the nutrition label. 

This post is not meant to explain everything about this complicated area. Post a comment if you need to know more. The one thing to know is that there are 3 important Omega-3's known as DHA, EPA and ALA. The letters stand for really long complicated scientific names.

DHA is used to build the "grey matter" of the brain and in particular is used to make neurons and synapses in the cerebral cortex. Alzheimer' s sufferers seem to be low in DHA in key areas of the brain.

EPA suppresses a wide variety of inflammations and hence is vital to good health, including heart health.

ALA is the third of the trio and is found in abundance in flaxseed but is nothing like as valuable as DHA and EPA. 

Our bodies can convert the 18 carbon molecule of ALA to the 20 carbon molecule of EPA and even to the 22 carbon DHA. However this body process is not at all efficient. While flaxseed and walnuts have their health benefits they are nothing like as big as the benefits coming from products, like fish oils, containing DHA and EPA.

Over the last year at least 1,000 new products labelled as containing Omega-3 have appeared. You need to know how to read the labels to separate the good from the indifferent.

Specifically look for how much DHA and EPA is in the product and ignore any statement on total Omega-3 because the Omega-3 number will also include ALA. 

How much DHA and EPA ? Aim for at least 1 gram a day (you'll get about this amount from a tablespoon of cod liver oil) but many studies indicate more. For instance to alleviate exercise-induced asthma 5 grams a day are recommended. There have been some worries about bleeding too easily if you take more than 3 grams a day of DHA and EPA combined but for most people this is not an issue.

What do the letters stand for ?

DHA = docosahexaeonoic aci

EPA = eicosapentaenoic acid

ALA = alpha linoleic acid

Good advice on Omega-3 fatty acids. Technical reading but honest.

Pregnant Mums running to the limit

This week Gina Kolata in the New York Times had a great piece about women pushing the exercise limits. 

Last Sunday Paula Radcliffe won the New York marathon. Paula wins most of her marathons but winning in the same year as giving birth is remarkable.

If you are just a little more ordinary that this superstar, exercise while pregnant is generally a good idea but this check-list gives you some sensible advice.

Pregnant Mums running to the limit

This week Gina Kolata in the New York Times had this story about women pushing the exercise limits. 

Last Sunday Paula Radcliffe won the New York marathon. Paula wins most of her marathons but winning in the same year as giving birth is remarkable.

If you are just a little more ordinary that this superstar, exercise while pregnant is generally a good idea but this check-list gives you some sensible advice.

Over 65 exercise and supplements

I thought the research I blog'd on November 5 was excellent in that in gave some very useful guidance on both exercise and supplementation. In addition one of the research objectives was to check for safety and the exercise and supplementation plan came out as safe. So far so good.

However, like just about all heath and fitness research, there is always problem I think of as the 3 S's:

• Selective: The participants had to be selected, be reasonably healthy and able to walk OK. The people involved seemed to be in pretty decent condition. The women had BMI (Body Mass Index) in the range 22.2 up to 28.6. The men were a little weightier with BMI's ranging from 23.2 to 29.9. Most of the participants were in the category over-weight (BMI of 25.0 - 29.9) with some in the normal weight category (BMI of 18.5 to 24.9). For a group of people in the age range 65 to 85 this was very good - no one was severely overweight. 
• Short: The time span for the research was 6 months. It has to be short to fit into research budgets. What would happen for say 5 years. Impossible to say and for people of this age a longer time span would see aging effects getting in the way of the basic questions concerning exercise and supplements.
• Sparse: One always has sparse information about the surroundings of the research reported on. We know the participants lived within 30 kilometers of Hamilton, Ontario and that they could get to the gyms under their own power. I was intrigued that the functional tests improved so much over the 6 months yet in the description of the exercises one gained the impression that only the 12 muscle strength exercises were carried out twice a week. I'm willing to bet that many of the participants practised the functional tests repeatedly out of sight of the researchers. 

Is there one last idea you can take out of this research ? 

I'd say it is re-calibrating the 1 Rep maximum every month. By doing this, increasing the % of 1 Rep maximum and gradually increasing the number of sets, the participants had a perfect increase in challenge across the 6 months. This and the two simple, cheap, safe supplements are the ideas to take away from this research and incorporate into one's own exercise plans.

For over 65's do supplements turboboost workouts ?

Resistance and weight exercise improves muscle strength and functional capability in the over 65's (both women and men). The next question is whether there are safe, cheap, simple supplements which increase the effectiveness of muscle strength training.  Research reported on in October 2007 indicates that creatine monohydrate plus CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) does improve the effectiveness of muscle strength training. Moreover by taking creatine and CLA not only is the effectiveness of exercise improved but weight loss is aided and body composition improves. Body composition meaning the ratio of fat to the rest of the body changes so that fat becomes a smaller proportion of the total.

BodyRestored.com   is my website that I use to share my interest in things related to health and fitness. Don't worry, the site will not try to sell you creatine or CLA !

Double Diabetes

You are either Type 1 Diabetic or Type 2 right?

Once you know whether you are Type 1 (needs insulin injections) or Type 2  (and you might be able to control it by diet and exercise) you can get the condition under control. 

Simple ?  Not any more.

Now we have Type 3 Diabetes which is the double wammy of Type 1 and Type 2 at the same time. The whole thing is so new that there is no agreement on naming. Some call it Type 3, others Type 1.5 and some just say Double Diabetes. 

Then there is MODY (Maturity on-set Diabetes of the Young) and it turns out there are at least 7 variants of MODY. Look at this article: 

Single Gene Mutation Diabetes

Last week Diabets UK sent out a warning about the increase in Double Diabetes:

Double Diabetes Rapidly Expanding

Of course it is possible to cause great annoyance even if one has best of intentions. The Diabetes charity Diabetes UK published an article in their magazine that Double Diabetes is at least in part due to children and teenagers being over-weight. Parents in droves wrote in to complain that their children were afflicted by Double Diabetes but were not over-weight. However nowadays our view on correct weight is many pounds heavier than what would have been normal weight 20 years ago. 

The online magazine 
Balance might be of relevance if you are struggling to find a lifestyle which copes with Diabetes in its multiple forms.

On October 8th I posted Physical Activity and Type 2 Diabetes.

Vigorous exercise seems to give some protection to Type 2 Diabetics for 16 to 72 hours. Children and Teenagers who might be getting Type 3 also need to really step up the exercise to control any weight impact on Type 3. Even if a teenager looks OK weight-wise getting the exercise frequency and intensity increased is no bad thing.