Tag Archive for: exercise

The Best Stressor

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Stressors aren’t all the same; they can be positive and they can be negative. I’m going to begin with the single most powerful positive stressor: exercise. It’s not just one type, such as aerobic exercise or strength training. It’s all of them, and there are specific negative stressors that specific types of exercise can address. But no matter what body system or organ you examine, exercise has a beneficial effect.

Can too much exercise cause problems? Yes, but overdoing most positive things can yield negative results. With only 10% to 15% of the U.S. population exercising enough to do themselves any good, we have a long way to go before we have to worry about the majority of our fellow citizens.

I can’t remember who said it, but this quote sums it up quite well: If you’re not exercising regularly, you’re dying prematurely. There are hundreds of types of exercises to address many specific issues, but start with a walk. Right now. That most important muscle, your heart, will love you for it. Saturday, on to the most negative stressor.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

The Stress Response

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Anyone who studies the stress response will be familiar with the general adaptation syndrome (GAS) that’s depicted in the graphic. The response was developed by the Canadian scientist Dr. Hans Selye over years of experiments; his research focus was the hormonal response to chronic stress. To promote his adaptation concept, Dr. Selye was just as good a marketer as he was scientist. Although we know a lot more today about the hormonal and neural responses to stress, the GAS still applies to chronic stress for the most part.

Stress, both acute and chronic, is going to happen—it’s inevitable. What matters is how we respond to stress. After 35 years as an exercise physiologist, I know there are two ways to prepare for stress of all kinds: exercise and mental preparation.

Exercise

Like the concept of fighting fire with fire, you can fight stress with exercise, which is a stressor. If you examine the hormonal and neural response to exercise, it’s the classic response. (If you want to read more about the particulars of the stress response, please go to reference 1.) What makes exercise different is that we can increase our resistance because we control the amount and intensity of that stress; or in terms of the GAS graphic, we can gradually move that white line up higher.

The side benefit is that it can help when we are exposed to other types of stress as well. For example, while we may still be disrupted by the hustle and bustle of the holidays, it will not have the same impact on our immune or cardiovascular system. There’s no better way to be prepared to deal with stress than regular exercise, and it helps to prepare your mind as well.

Mental Preparation

There are dozens of ways to prepare your mind for how you respond to the stress of life; there are courses to take, books to read, positive affirmations to say, and other techniques such as prayer and meditation. But here’s the thing: you never really know how you’ll respond to stress until you’re exposed to it. There’s a big difference between someone taking your parking space and getting a cancer diagnosis. One is over in a few seconds while the other may alter your life in many ways.

The way your mind responds will also be impacted by prior experiences, both positive and negative. You have to call upon how you responded in the past to know the best way to respond when you face the same or similar stressors. It would certainly help if you had some warning when the stressors would show up.

Aging Causes Stress

Aging is one of the major stressors we face. To get an idea, read the material in the second reference. Near the end of the article, you can read the impact of aging on every organ and system in the body. We can’t stop aging, but we can prepare for it. Remember what I said about when stressors would show up? We have a pretty good idea when that will happen with aging, so we can work to reduce the impact on our bodies. That’s what Aging with a Vengeance is all about. In the next few Memos, I’m going to tell you those areas I think we can impact the most as we age.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

References:
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK541120/
2. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/004012.htm

Soreness and Specificity of Training

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The first Super Bowl Webinar I ever did was about specificity of training. A running buddy years ago summarized how to run faster this way: “If you want to run faster, you gotta run faster.” In other words, even short bursts of running very fast would eventually help build speed more than slow, long runs.

The key element of specificity of training is that you can’t run faster by swimming or cycling or weight training; you have to do that by running. The same concept applies to just about any physical endeavor. Chefs can’t improve their knife skills by running or weight training: they have to spend hours chopping and slicing.

If you use an elliptical trainer or recumbent bike or you ride a bicycle, you’re training specific muscles to fire in specific patterns. When you change to another mode of exercise such as walking or running, you’re going to use the same muscles but in different ways; some muscles maintain balance and others maintain posture in addition to those that are doing the bulk of the work moving your body. And they’re different in different modes of exercise; even with all my education and experience, I was surprised at how sore I was when I had to switch from running to walking. Until you’ve trained those muscles for the particular activity, you’re going to be sore. And the sad news is that it gets worse as you get older.

Dealing with Discomfort

The important thing to understand is that this discomfort is temporary; the exception is if you had an orthopedic issue that never has been resolved. For me it was my knee, and now that’s resolved. If you’ve avoided getting something repaired, it’s your call but the longer you wait, the more you risk not getting back the mobility you had.

If you’ve changed your mode of exercise, here are some ways to deal with it:

  1. Start with heat followed by easy stretching. We think that our muscles and connective tissue are like rubber bands while stretching. Not exactly accurate, but warm muscles are more pliable so doing some kind of warm up will help you avoid injury. Easy does it; stretching too far too fast is a recipe for even more pain.
  2. Increase fluid intake to “flush” out some of the breakdown products of muscle and other connective tissue.
  3. Use glucosamine and vitamin C to help the connective tissue repair process. The purpose of breakdown is to build back better, but to do that, you need the nutrients that repair the microtears in the connective tissue.
  4. Ice specific areas, especially the front of the shins; shin splints is the common name for pain in this area. The connective tissue compartment that holds the tibialis anterior muscle (the one that pulls up your toes) isn’t very pliable, so reducing inflammation in that muscle can really help.
  5. Most of the soreness you’re feeling is from inflammation. If you feel you need to, and have no medical reason you can’t, use a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug such as ibuprofen; it relieves pain, but reducing inflammation is key to your recovery and continued progress.

The Bottom Line

It can literally be a pain to start to exercise or change your mode of exercise. There’s a price to pay but in comparison to the benefits you’ll get, the cost is minimal. Be sure to start slow: if you push too far too fast, you’re going to set back your progress while you recover. In the long run, you’ll get farther by taking small steps so you can keep going without a pause for injuries.

We’re not done talking about walking yet, but if you have any stories about finding the right shoe for you, let me know. I’m doing background research on that, so I won’t write about it next week—you have time to send me your stories.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Walking for Exercise Again

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How did you do with the Summer Kickoff Challenge? Let’s start with exercise. Did you get at least a 15-minute walk or some other activity done—especially if you’ve been sedentary? As I said last week, this was my first attempt at walking with a purpose since my knee replacement surgery. Of course I’ve been walking around the house and doing spring yardwork, but walking to exercise is different: heel through toe, step after step, keeping some form of pace.

I have a half-mile loop across the street from my house. The first day, I finished two laps in 19:12. I didn’t really notice anything unusual in terms of pain or discomfort the rest of the day. I walked the reverse route the next morning; I was a little stiff but finished in 18:34. The rest of the day was miserable—every muscle in my lower body was stiff and sore. All of that and I was never even breathing hard during the walk! I took the next day off to stretch and let the muscles recover.

How did you do? Let me know, especially if you changed your mode of exercise. Why would walking have such a dramatic effect when we’ve been exercising with other modes for so long? That was the topic of the very first Super Bowl webinar I ever did, and I’ll tell you that on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Summer Kickoff Challenge

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This weekend kicks off the summer holiday season: cook-outs, concerts, backyard cornhole tournaments, the beach. And of course, the food: barbeque, hot dogs and hamburgers, potato salad, ice cream sundaes and pies—more foods than I can name.

Here’s my challenge to you: how about making a couple of small changes? First, get a little exercise if you aren’t exercising now. Go for a 15-minute walk every morning during the weekend (or in the evening if you’re not a morning person); I’m starting mine this weekend as well. That’s enough time to help you start to lower your blood sugar if you’re pre-diabetic. Enlist a friend or your kids and grandkids to make it more fun.

And second, prepare your summer foods in a healthier way. Impossible? I think it’s possible, and I’ll give you some examples along with the possible outcomes.

  • Whole grain buns: maybe the extra fiber in the whole grain feeds the correct probiotic, which will then destroy the salmonella bacteria you ate in the potato salad—no food poisoning.
  • Ketchup: maybe using ketchup instead of mayo on the burger provides the phytonutrients that prevents the extra dense LDL-cholesterol from being produced, and you don’t get the damage to your arteries that causes a stroke in two years.
  • Watermelon: maybe eating watermelon instead of ice cream provides additional electrolytes that help lower your blood pressure. No downside here. And it’s good for your dog as well.
  • Apples: maybe the apple provides the quercetin that helps reduce your allergic response while you spend the entire weekend outside.
  • Dry-rub ribs: sweet or hot paprika, cumin, chili powder, garlic and onion powder, and on and on. Skip the sugary sauces and use a Carolina vinegar sauce. The number of phytonutrients you’ll get together with the reduction of fat from the slow cooking is a better way to go.

There’s no better time to experiment with changing habits for the better than right now. We do what we’ve come to expect during the summer based on past experiences. Let’s kick off with some small changes so we end up having our best summer even as we get healthier.

And once you prove to yourself that you can make those healthy changes, go all in and buy the Optimal Performance download. You can train your body for targeted energy, plus losing weight and burning fat.

I’ll be back next week with the next Memo. Enjoy the experiment. And don’t forget the sunscreen!

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

P.S. Insiders and Members, the new Straight Talk on Health is posted; Dr. Evan Parks talks with me about how to deal with the increased anxiety we’re all feeling these days.

Distress Is Normal!

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We’ve experienced ever-present stress over the past three years, from pandemics to politics to prices of just about everything. It hasn’t slowed down, and that can take its toll—if you let it. Am I saying that stress is normal? I already said that in the last Memo. The objective is to train the body to adapt to stress.

I’m not going to review the entire general adaptation syndrome, but put simply, you expose yourself to a planned stressor, such as exercise, to train the body to adapt to the hormones released during stress. That way the body is trained to respond to stress hormones when you’re exposed to other types of stress.

The Stress Response

The most extreme yet common example of the stress response I can think of for almost everyone would be this: did you ever almost have a car accident? I mean within seconds, you’d have been severely injured and maybe dead. Remember that first minute afterward? If you had sensors to test yourself, your heart rate and blood pressure would be sky high. You’d be breathing heavily. You’d most likely be shaking. All the hormones that caused those reactions would still be coursing through your body; it would take time for your body to normalize. That’s the extreme, fight-or-flight, type of stress response.

When you exercise regularly, you train your body to deal with that hormone surge, although the results aren’t as extreme as when you’re exposed to life-threatening stress. How you respond is at least partially in your control.

Dealing with Stress

I interviewed psychologist Evan Parks again to ask him how a person can deal with the anxiety caused by today’s stress. Here are his recommendations:

  • Stand outside your body and take a survey of what’s going on. Is there anything you attribute the symptoms to? Are you feeling stress in response to something specific, or is it just a general feeling of anxiety?
  • Does talking about it with a spouse or a friend help clarify things for you?
  • Can you center your thoughts from doom and gloom to a realistic perspective by prayer or meditation?

If these steps help, great. If not, it may be time to seek professional help.

Psychology isn’t my area of expertise. You can hear the interview in Straight Talk on Health on drchet.com if you’re an Insider or Member; it will be posted no later than Monday. Dr. Evan Parks does a great job of explaining all of it in more detail.

The Bottom Line

Distress is normal, so you’d better get used to it. One way to do that is to use a positive stressor such as exercise to help you prepare your body. Yes, eating a better diet and eating less may help as well. Use planned distress to your advantage by preparing your body for the unpredictable stress of today’s life.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Three Ways to Really Reduce Your Cancer Risk

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In the last Memo before Spring Break, I said I’d cover ways to reduce your risk of getting cancer that really work. Every cancer website has lists, ranging from 10 to 15 recommendations. I’m going to give you my top three ways to reduce the risk of cancer of the items you can control. You can’t control your age or your genetic risk factors, but there are many elements of your health you can control if you work at them.

I’m not including smoking cigarettes or other tobacco products. That’s a no-brainer and shouldn’t even be mentioned, because no one should smoke. (I’m not saying that from my perch on Mount Olympus; I smoked when I was young and foolish, and quitting was one of the best decisions I ever made.)

Dr. Chet’s Top Three Ways to Prevent Cancer

  1. Eat more vegetables and fruits every day and the wider the variety, the better. They don’t have to be organically farmed; you just have to eat eight to ten servings per day. That seems like a lot, and I’m not perfect at it, but you get a new chance every day. Here’s a tip: weigh your produce instead of measuring it. Find out what constitutes a serving in grams or ounces. You may find out that a large banana is actually two servings. Do supplements matter? Yes, but the important point is to eat the fruits and veggies first, then add a multivitamin as backup.
  2. Exercise for 30 to 45 minutes per day. The fitter you are, the lower your risk of cancer. It doesn’t all have to be aerobic; yoga and strength training count as well.
  3. Reduce your weight until you achieve as close to a normal BMI (under 25) as you can; you’ll find all the info you need in the Body Mass Index article on the Health Info page at drchet.com, including how to adjust your target for your body type. We talked about caloric restriction in February, and that’s a way to slowly reduce your weight. My theory is that the older you are, the more movement matters, so if you are doing well at Numbers 1 and 2, you’re well on your way to accomplishing Number 3.

Those may sound very familiar: Eat less. Eat better. Move more. The reason these are my top three is that they reduce inflammation in different ways.

On Thursday, I’m going to cover a study on the relationship between a test for inflammation and cancer.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

The Default Is Always Exercise

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Ever have one of those days? For no particular reason at all, you don’t really want to bother watching what you eat or doing any exercise. What do you do?

Get on the floor and do five or ten push-ups or sit-ups, or get on your exercise bike and get your legs going for one minute. Then re-assess: what’s next? Maybe you stick with floor exercise. Maybe you put on some walking shoes and walk around the yard. Then you decide it’s a nice day so you’ll go for a longer walk. Or bike ride.

Or maybe you’ll just stop. That’s okay as well. Exercise is always the default to get yourself moving in the right direction. Maybe you’ll find out you can do more sit-ups than you thought.

It’s important that you think about why you didn’t care about your exercise or meal plan. Are you coming down with something? I’m currently battling a Supercold, so I know how that can sap your good intentions. Are you feeling down about something? Is it a small setback? Or is depression slipping up on you? Whatever the reason, being active beats sitting and thinking you’re not worth anything. When it’s one of those days, getting the blood moving is the way to get going.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Getting to the Exercise Sweet Spot

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Do you realize that five minutes is only 0.3% of a day? Can you really say you can’t at least begin to exercise? “Five minutes isn’t the issue—it’s the 45 minutes a day!” Yes, although 45 minutes is only a whopping 3% of your day, I know it can be hard to work it into your schedule. How about if you could cut the time spent in aerobic exercise in half, from 45 minutes to just over 20 minutes? Interested? Just remember there will be a price to pay.

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

HIIT as is currently practiced began about 2008 and has been the focus of a lot of research since 2017. The current version alternates very intense intervals from 30 seconds to four minutes with rest periods of at least four minutes; most common is one minute of high intensity and four minutes of rest. Understand that the intensity is an all-out effort, something most sedentary people cannot and should not do—yet.

Remember the price? It’s getting in good enough aerobic condition to be able to handle the increased intensity. When you’re fit enough, four 20-minute HIIT sessions per week can provide you with the exercise sweet spot. Just remember this is only aerobic fitness. Lifting weights, yoga, stretching—that’s all separate.

Intensity

Here’s the real reason I’m getting a knee replacement done: I can’t work hard enough on the exercise bike to reach my target heart rate. Thigh pain above my bad knee hinders me from getting there. I’ve been on the cycle for at least six months, and I’m tired of not getting the workouts I’m used to getting through running.

Although running is not in my future after the knee is replaced, walking will be as well as using the elliptical again. I can replace running with walking uphill in order to achieve the fitness effect I want. It’s not as good but it will give me some variety. I can handle the pain of high-intensity training once I no longer have this level of knee pain. And that’s why I’m doing the knee replacement now.

The Bottom Line

The exercise sweet spot isn’t as precise as I would like, but it does follow a logical progression. Some exercise is better than none; if you’re not exercising at all, start with five minutes. Aspire to at least 30 minutes per day at least four days a week, then work up to 45 minutes.

When you can handle that and your physician says it’s okay, then you can start HIIT training to increase your fitness in less time and still have time to get stronger and more flexible. Even at 45 minutes a day, that’s just 3% of your day committed to exercise. That commitment of time will reduce your risk of just about every degenerative disease, which will help you really live more days of your life and not just struggle through them. Isn’t that worth the investment?

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Finding the Exercise Sweet Spot

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After last week’s Memos on a sweet spot for food intake, Paula asked if I could do the same thing for exercise. The sweet spot for exercise isn’t so much between not enough movement and too much movement—it’s really between not enough movement and too much time, because most of us never have enough time to do all we need to do. So how can we put in enough time to be healthier but not so much time it becomes unworkable?

If nutrition is complicated, exercise can be more so; that’s why I’m going to stick to just one aspect of exercise: aerobic exercise. While strength, flexibility, and stamina are important, the key to better health is aerobic exercise. How much aerobic exercise is necessary to reduce the risk of all forms of disease, from Alzheimer’s disease to ulcers? There are three answers, depending on your current fitness level.

Riley, our six-year-old grandson, has a motor that doesn’t stop. He would rather be running and jumping, playing tag or battle or anything rather than sitting. Even watching a movie is an aerobic experience for him as he acts out his interpretation of each scene; he does amazing fight scenes! Unfortunately, adults don’t move nearly as much as Riley; most of us no longer have jobs that require moderate or intense physical activity. If you’re sedentary (and even home-schooling three kids is sedentary), then any exercise is better than none. Three minutes is better than two, and 12 is better than 10. Walking, cycling, aerobics—it doesn’t matter. Moving some is better than hardly moving.

Is there a magic number? It’s dependent on exactly how little you move, either due to physical limitations, work, or prior disease. There’s nothing like the precise recommendations similar to nutrition we covered last week.

The ultimate goal? The second answer, based on the current recommendations from every medical and exercise association, is 30 to 45 minutes of aerobic exercise per day most days of the week. There are 1,440 minutes in a day; 45 minutes would represent about 3% of a day. That’s less than the 10% change in diet we talked about last week.

What is the third answer? For those who want to be fitter, I’ll let you know on Saturday. For now, some is better than none. Are you going to begin today?

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet