WEIGHING THE EVIDENCE ON EXERCISE

The New York Times just ran an article titled Weighing the Evidence on Exercise in which it discusses the effects that exercise has on bodyweight.  All in all, I thought it was a really good article.  The author presents the latest evidence from the scientific community, but excludes the sensationalism and personal anecdotes that were littered throughout that terrible article from TIME Magazine titled Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin (don’t forget about my blog post about that article HERE).

A couple of my favorite parts:

“Exercise burns calories, no one doubts that, and so it should, in theory, produce weight loss, a fact that has prompted countless people to undertake exercise programs to shed pounds. Without significantly changing their diets, few succeed.”

“…a growing body of science suggests that exercise does have an important role in weight loss. That role, however, is different from what many people expect and probably wish.  The newest science suggests that exercise alone will not make you thin, but it may determine whether you stay thin, if you can achieve that state.” [emphasis mine]

“In a study published late last month in The Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from Harvard University looked at the weight-change histories of more than 34,000 participants in a women’s health study. The women began the study middle-aged (at an average of about 54 years) and were followed for 13 years. During that time, the women gained, on average, six pounds. Some packed on considerably more. But a small subset gained far less, coming close to maintaining the body size with which they started the study. Those were the women who reported exercising almost every day for an hour or so.” [emphasis mine]

“…if you can somehow pry off the pounds, exercise may be the most important element in keeping the weight off.”

I really liked the fact that the author simply presented the evidence as is and lets the reader decide how (if at all) to apply it to their own lifestyle.  Providing a blanket exercise or diet prescription to a large population will never work because those two concepts are highly variable among individuals.

The truth is there are no universal truths.

This article was from the PHYS ED section of the NY Times Health Blogs.  I have only glanced at the article archives, but it appears to be a pretty solid source.  Here are a few others that caught my eye:

Risks for Youths Who Eat What They Watch

How Exercising Keeps Your Cells Young

ACTIVE RELEASE TECHNIQUES

One of my main goals following hip surgery was to restore movement and mobility of my hip, but not just to the level that it was at previously…I wanted to exceed my previous levels!  Proper movement doesn’t just feel better, it actually results in improved training, increased resistance to injury, and improved restoration and recovery from training (not to mention the obvious longevity benefits).

My surgery cleared up the movement limitation related to my bone structure, now I have to deal with the limitation related to my soft tissue structure (muscle, fascia, tendons, etc.).

This is where Active Release Techniques (ART) come into play!

Taken straight from the website, ART is a “soft tissue system of movement based massage technique that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and nerves.”  Muscles and other soft tissues can develop tough, dense scar tissue in areas as a result of acute conditions (pulls, tears, collisions), accumulation of small tears (micro-trauma), and from a lack of oxygen (hypoxia).  This scar tissue restricts tissues that need to be able to move freely and as a result muscles can become shorter and weaker, tension on tendons can cause inflammation, and nerves can become trapped.

So, I found an ART provider right by my office and made an appointment to get checked out.  This guy performed a very thorough battery of tests to assess my movement quality and to determine areas where I may have issues.  Not surprisingly, my hamstrings were tight, my hip flexors and hip rotators were tight, my pelvis was in poor alignment (anterior tilt) and my mobility was pretty bad as a result.  I do sit at a desk all day, which pretty much explains every one of those conditions!  Although I do foam rolling (a form of soft tissue work) and mobility almost every day, that only takes about 15 minutes.  Conversely, I am sitting down at my desk every weekday from about 8:00 am to 6:00 pm (10 hours), plus roughly an hour roundtrip commute…11 hours everyday in the seated position.  This is a big problem!!  I can do all the soft tissue work in the world and this ART practitioner can work his magic on my affected areas, but if I keep up the same behavior that caused the problems in the first place, none of it will matter!

Back to my ART session….  As part of the assessment, I had to lie on my back while he pushed my knee towards my chest (the other leg remained flat).  It didn’t come very close to my chest, and he said it was due to my anterior pelvic tilt (top of my pelvis was tilted forward as a result of excessively tight hip flexors).  With my pelvis in that position, my hip will essentially hit a “road block” before it can be flexed fully.  To treat this, he put manual pressure on my hip flexors while my hip and knee were in the flexed position.  I then performed a series of contract-relax motions (while he resisted my movement so my leg wasn’t actually going anywhere) and after each contract sequence he would push my knee further towards my chest.  After just 3 attempts, my knee was able to move all the way up to my chest with ease!!  I was in uncharted territory!!

There were several other tests that I initially failed and then magically passed after just a few minutes of soft tissue manipulation.  Now don’t get me wrong, the changes he was able to make are not permanent.  In fact, if I don’t work hard to maintain this soft tissue quality and movement it will all have been for naught.  After all, I will create soft tissue “damage” every time I train, but now it will be up to me to manage this damage as well as I possibly can.

There was also one of those “it’s a small world” moments at my first appointment.  As soon as I walked in, he introduced himself to me and said “you look familiar.”  I figured he was just trying to be personable, so I responded “well maybe, but this is my first time in this gym.”  He then asked me if I train in jiu jitsu over at Carlos Machado’s, and I said F*CK YEAH I DO!  This guy is actually a purple belt under Carlos Machado!!

As if this situation couldn’t get any better, this guy offices in the Telos Fitness Center, which is a bad-ass gym, and they just happen to have 2,500 sf of jiu jitsu mats down in the basement of the facility!  I had two appointments with this guy last week for ART, and after the second appointment we went downstairs and rolled (that’s jiu jitsu for “practiced”) for an hour.  Since he’s a purple belt, he could toss me around quite a bit (he’s also pretty big…about my height but about 225 lbs compared to my 195 lbs), but he also taught me quite a few things.  We’re going to try to get some weekly rolling in!

JAMIE OLIVER'S FOOD REVOLUTION - EPISODE 2

Check out my RECAP of Episode 1 of ABC’s new show called Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

For all episodes and other short clips, go to Hulu’s “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” Channel.

Episode 2

RECAP

EPISODE 2

Jamie invited some of the kids from the elementary school to his kitchen (just some retail space in the town that they built out for him) to run a little experiment.  All of the kids know what chicken nuggets are, but none of them wanted to eat the real chicken that he prepared for them yesterday (see my previous post about Episode 1 HERE).  So, he ran what he calls a “fool proof” experiment to see if these kids would still like chicken nuggets if they knew how they were made.

He proceeded to take a whole chicken and cut off the breasts, thighs, legs, and wings.  He chopped up the remainder of the carcass and threw it in a food processor to make a chicken “sludge” that looked absolutely disgusting.  He ran it through a strainer to remove the bones, but all of the rest of the non-meat (e.g. connective tissue) was still in there.  He then formed little patties, breaded them, and fried them up in a skillet.  All of the kids were thoroughly disgusted.  However, when he actually offered the finished nuggets for them to eat, they all accepted!!

In the next part, he returns to the elementary school for a shot at redemption.  The catch this time is that the kids will only have one option…Jamie’s meal!  This time he prepares a tuna pasta with seven veggies, a mixed salad, and homemade focaccia bread.

My favorite part about this segment:

• The lady from the school board tells him that he doesn’t have enough vegetables in his dish!  Despite the fact that it contains seven different veggies, the volume just wasn’t enough.  SOLUTION:  add French fries!!  That’s right, French fries technically count as a vegetable.

Jamie then checks back in with the family that I mentioned from Episode 1 to see how they were doing.  After each person said they loved the recipes and were surprised how easy they were to make, he decided to check in the fridge.  Sure enough, all of the food he bought was still in there and they hadn’t eaten any of it!  The daughter revealed that they had been eating pizza all week since they didn’t have their deep fryer anymore.

Interesting piece:

• The teenage boy from this family was taken to the doctor to evaluate his health.  The doctor, before performing any tests, tells him that he likely has diabetes based on the discoloration of the skin on his neck.  Fortunately for the kid, the test came back negative, but the doctor told him it would only be a matter of time if he didn’t make drastic changes.

Jamie offers the kid one-on-one cooking lessons so that he won't be dependent on his parents for meals (which hasn't seemed to work out very well), but more importantly because it will help him with the ladies!

Back at the cafeteria, the kids actually enjoyed his meal (amazing what happens when you take away an option like pizza)!  The one problem, his meal came in over budget.  The woman from the school district allows him to continue his project after Jamie's assures her that he can get the costs down.  He is even allowed to extend the program to the local high school to see how his ideas will work with a different demographic.

Episode 3 Recap following soon...

100 BURPEE CHALLENGE

Since my hip surgery, or I should say since the successful completion of my rehab, I've been incorporating quite a bit of conditioning work (anaerobic conditioning...I'm not a huge fan of steady-state cardio).  I decided to set a baseline on Friday (April 9th) from which to gauge my progress.

The baseline workout:  The 100 Burpee Challenge!

It's pretty simple...do 100 burpees as fast as possible.  Rest as needed, drink water as needed, but just get 'em done!

I wasn't sure what to expect from my baseline time since I haven't done the 100 Burpee Challenge since sometime before my surgery (it's been at least 6 months).  But I didn't really care either, because that is the whole point behind setting a baseline.  Just figure out where you are at a given time, then work to improve.

Here's the proof:

The breakdown:

In my opening set I got 30, which I was pretty pleased with.  I tried to keep rest in between sets to about 30 seconds.  The rest of my sets went like this:  20, 15, 15, 10, 10.  So the whole thing was 30, 20, 15, 15, 10, 10 and I shortened the rest before the last set to only 15 seconds since the end was within reach.

Total Time:  7:15 (this was actually a PR by 35 seconds!!)  I am very pleased with the time, and best of all, immediately after I was done I thought of a few places where I can shave off a little bit of time!  I think I'll retest this coming Friday to see if I'm right.

JAMIE OLIVER'S FOOD REVOLUTION

ABC has a new show out called Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.  It airs on Friday nights, but you can always just do what I do and watch it online:

For all episodes and other short clips, go to Hulu’s “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” Channel.

Episode 1

PREMISE

There have been three episodes so far, and I must say I’m hooked!  It’s like a car wreck…you just can’t look away!  The premise is pretty simple, so I’ll just steal it straight from ABC’s website:

“Jamie Oliver is here to start a revolution. The impassioned chef is taking on obesity, heart disease and diabetes in the USA, where our nation's children are the first generation NOT expected to live as long as their parents.

The series is loosely based on Jamie Oliver's U.K. series, Jamie's Ministry of Food and Jamie's School Dinners, which saw his successful grass-roots efforts improve the school lunches in communities there. For the latter show, it resulted in a total overhaul of the school dinner program in the U.K. In America, he's turning his attention to helping people of all ages eat more balanced meals and cook with fresh ingredients, not only at schools, but also homes, and workplaces.”

RECAP

EPISODE 1

Huntington, West Virginia was named the unhealthiest city in America, so Jamie decides to use this town as the starting point of this grass-roots movement.  The local school district gives him one week to take over the kitchen at one of the elementary schools to see if he can provide the kids with healthier options while staying within the current budget.

A couple of interesting points about the current food system:

·       They serve the kids pizza for breakfast

·       There is only 1 thing made fresh in the school kitchen…rolls (but the kids never eat them and they are thrown away).  Everything else comes pre-cooked, packaged, and all the lunch ladies have to do is heat and serve.

Later on in the episode Jamie was introduced to a family of 6…all obese.  He discussed their typical eating habits with them and went through their fridge and pantry to assess the situation and, needless to say, it was pretty grim.  He decided to give them a shopping list and even paid for 1 week’s worth of groceries along with cooking lessons and recipes that they can make for the week.  Their progress will be revisited in a later episode.

An interesting note about the family:

·       Their most-used piece of kitchenware was a deep fryer!  Jamie buried it in the backyard.

Finally, at the end of this episode, we get to see Jamie’s trial run at the elementary school cafeteria.  On the first day, the kids will be given a choice between their usual fare (pizza, bread, and chocolate milk) or Jamie’s special menu (roast chicken, brown rice, salad, yogurt and fruit).  As I’m sure you would guess, virtually all of the kids chose pizza.

A few of my favorite tidbits from this part:

·       Jamie’s meal was deemed nutritionally insufficient by the person in charge of food for the school district!  His meal had protein, fruits, vegetables, and yogurt…but guess what it was lacking…MORE BREAD!  In order to conform to the current guidelines, his meal would have to feature TWO bread items (the rice counted as one).  WTF??

·       To comply with the rules, he just used the fresh made bread from the cafeteria, but the kids didn’t choose his meal and they don’t eat the bread anyway!

·       I’m amazed at the amount of food waste that they showed from this one elementary school.

After the first episode, this show looks promising!  If all it does is raise awareness about the horrendous situation in public school cafeterias then it will be a win!