Stress: Relation to performance, sleep, weight loss, and quality of life.

Thanks to a recommendation from my friend Patrick Ward, I picked up the book Why Zebras Don't get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky. Needless to say, the book really opened up my eyes as to how the human stress response works and how it effects everything. The word stress as we know it is referring to allostatic load. We have all heard the term homeostasis in basic biology. The body will always tend to go back to normal. There are millions of reactions every second that mediate responses not only in the endocrine system, but also the cardiovascular system (heart, lungs, blood vessels), immune system (defense mechanism), cell metabolism etc. All of these systems are connected and play off of each other. A lot of times in science we like to compartmentalize things. There are different doctors for every system and organ that specialize. They know a lot about that system but sometimes may lose sight of how they all play together. I am by no means saying that we should restructure the whole medical field, but as we learn more about how the body works and moves, it is important to take into account a bigger picture. I believe this is where a better understanding comes from.

This post can be viewed as a very brief summary of the book. I took my favorite parts of the book to relate to my field which is human performance.

I am going to give a very brief explanation of what stress is but I encourage everybody to buy the book. First off a couple of key terms:

Homeostasis: The property of a system, either open or closed, that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition.

Allostasis:  The process of achieving stability, or homeostasis, through physiological or behavioral change.


Those terms are very basic (Wikipedia did a fine job), but they really take meaning when we apply them to the most complex system known to us: the human body. They take even more meaning when we see how the two processes interact to keep us living. I will use a quote from Gray Cook, "The body will always sacrifice movement quality for movement quantity." He was talking about movement patterns, but this can be applied to a lot of things in the body. Here is an example from Sapolsky's book of the interplay between homeostasis and allostasis. "Suppose there is a water shortage in California. Homeostatic solution: mandate smaller toilet tanks. Allostatic solutions: smaller toilet tanks, water conservation, buy rice form Southeast Asia instead of doing water-intensive farming in a semi-arid state."

As you can see, allostasis takes a more global approach to a solution. Saplosky states that "Allostasis is about the brain coordinating body-wide changes, often including changes in behavior."

Now that we can acknowledge that the body is a complex system, made of smaller systems performing regulating tasks to keep us going. If the body did not have these systems, we would not be around long. Even drinking 2 cups of coffee would throw the body into a frenzy. Caffeine is a diuretic and it flushes water of of the system through urine. The brain senses this (through many pathways) and releases a hormone, that signals another hormone to tell the kidneys to re uptake water into the system because more water has left the body than usual in the past 2 hours since drinking the caffeine. You will not be thirsty right away but if you do not drink any water for a while, you will get very thirsty much quicker than if the caffeine had not been ingested. If the body did not regulate even this simple act that many of us partake in every day, we would die from dehydration from 2 cups of coffee. That would suck.

A stressor can be defined as anything that throws your body out of allostatic balance, and the stress response is your body's attempt to restore allostasis (Sapolsky). A very important concept emerges: regardless of the stressor-injured, starving, hot, cold, fight with spouse, boss wants to talk with you, upcoming test, cat is getting hair plugs, the body turns on the same stress response. Glucocorticoids (the stress hormones released by the adrenal gland) are released and mobilize glucose, fats, and proteins (varying degrees of each) go to the working muscles to run. In the Zebra running from the Lion's case, this is a good thing. You get to live (maybe). In the lion's case, catching food will save them from starving and coming back to their pack with nothing. See how the general stress response can respond in context? You would think the body would release a different chemical for every different psychological thought or experience right? Isn't the brain so complex that it should be able too? Well yes the brain is extremely complex but the beauty of the system comes in the regulation of these hormones and systems.In this case, the stress response is primitive and general, but how the body handles it is very complex.

The main point of the book is that we can release these glucocorticoids in reaction to a psychological stressor. Have you ever been up worrying about a test you have the next day? Ever been in a near accident at an intersection and your heart was beating for many minutes after the event? These are the same response. They are not bad. In fact, they are in part a primitive protective mechanism. Although we do not encounter many black bears or lions in our suburban cities, if we had to run, we would be able to because of this response.

So how can the stress response turn negative?

The stress response can turn negative if it never has a chance to turn off. Have you ever met somebody that complains of always being tired or always sounds "stressed out"? They always complain about lack of sleep and how negative everything seems to be. This person could be chronically stressed and even worse, be depressed. I am going to go over a couple of systems in the body to explain the connection of this stress response to our everyday life. Of course I am not a doctor and this should not be taken as medical advice, but my hope is to educate you about what happens. I also believe that we fear the unknown. I used to always think to myself: how can a change in a totally different system of the body affect another? Everything is connected. If we look at the body through these glasses,  the more knowledge we have about the "parts" will make our puzzle (the body as a system) easier to understand and make us able to draw some conclusions to. Maybe knowing a little more of how the body can respond to our everyday problems will help us deal with these stressors.

That was a basic overview of the stress response. I am going to divide the post up into parts because it might get a little long. I will be posting very soon about sleep. Stay tuned!

Sapolsky, Robert. Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. 3rd ed. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2009. Print.

Ladies: Get off the Stairmaster and do some Deadlifts!

I work at a big-box corporate gym. You know what that means? I see a whole lot of BS going on around me. One thing that always gets to me is why people spend countless hours at the Stairmaster because they think they will tone their backside. But Matt, it was sore last time I did it. First of all, soreness does not necessarily mean that you grew muscle. It is certainly well documented that increasing resistance is a main staple in growing muscle. Second, were you sore after the 10th time you did it? I doubt it. Its called adaptation and when you adapt and don't change anything, you will not adapt any farther. Guess what ladies: YOU WILL NOT bulk up by lifting weights. Doing mostly cardio with a little Bodypump does not allow for barely any adaptation to occur. What does that mean? Your body is not going to change. You would think that the aerobics craze for women should have blown over by now.... but apparently not. It does not mean that you shouldn't do cardio, spin class, kickboxing etc., but they should not be main staples in your body re composition program.

Deadlifts are one of the best and most healthy movements our body can perform. That being said, if you do incorrect deadlifts, they can also be a horrible exercise. You are just asking for hip and back injuries. There are certain progressions and prerequisites to be able to deadlift (being able to touch toes, straight leg raise, single leg hip lift...) and you should learn these before you deadlift.

If you have any questions let me know...

-Matt

How to Improve body composition or running performance: Advice you WILL NOT want to hear

I am going to take a couple paragraphs from Mel Siff's book Supertraining. Siff wrote these two paragraphs after naming 22 different observations on training for hypertrophy (or basically for pure aesthetic reasons). This tiny section of the book is also preceded by 415 pages in 10 pt font about the science of strength and conditioning with like 400 different citations.

Siff:
 "When someone stated that 'People with extreme genetics or those who are using huge amounts of drugs will probably get big no matter what kind of weight training and rep speed they are doing', he is probably far closer to the truth than anyone who religiously propounds simplistic Time under Tension theories. One has to remember that the marketability of a certain fitness figure or group, according to well-established marketing principles, depends on slogans and simply stated formulae.


The public usually feels far more comfortable with cerebrally  undemanding mantras and 'fast food' solutions than with far more accurate, more complex methods. That is a major reason why many fitness figures write as they do and market their catch phrases simplistically as they do - society has been processed by the mass media to behave like that, and they usually do not want to be forced to think too deeply or to have their convenient current beliefs questioned, because that entails a serious threat to their psychological safety. Humankind has always been like that and they receive what they have been processed or educated to want"

These words resonated with me a lot because I always hear about new ways to do this and new ways to do that. When I tell people I am a personal trainer, they usually ask "What is the best exercise for (insert body part)?" When I tell dudes that are bigger than me that I am a personal trainer they just give me a smug look and hit the nearest gym for some invigorating bicep curls.

Truth is that most people are just training for aesthetic reasons and are unwilling to accept their genetics as a key factor in their body re composition. Consciously and subconsciously we all want to look lean like pictures in magazines. Most of those guys are on steroids, and not just the body builders. Somewhere along the way we forgot what the hell it was like to put time into something and get rewarded ten fold with the result. God forbid if that took more than 2 weeks! Tip: think more long term than short term. You do not grow muscle or run longer from 1 training session. It comes from a well thought out program that takes science into account. Our bodies adapt during rest.

It sounds very simple to think more long term than short term but I guarantee some people are already in denial. But FLEX magazine gave me a whole program to increase my bench press and chest size! If they gave any consideration as to how to perform bench press, they wouldn't do it the hap hazardous way they do.

I like Siff's quote because there is a little sarcasm there. It's as if he was saying, "I just wrote 7 dissertations on strength and conditioning and you just want to know how to get big?"

Genetics play a large role in why we look the way we do. Nutrition plays a much bigger role in hypertrophy and performance than training does. Yes, at a certain point there is a time when we need to alter the training variables, but fundamentals are always first. That applies to almost anything in life.

We define ourselves by our injuries

You hear it all the time...

I have a bad back! I have a bum knee! My neck feels tight and I need a massage!

It seems that we have become a culture that strives to be more active. Supplementing our sedentary lifestyles with more exercise is the right choice, right? Kinda.

We like to run marathons. We like to do heavy volume arm, chest, and leg workouts without giving any thought to the long term. I want to be bigger and run longer, and I want it now. We take advice from fitness magazines that give us crazy "bodybuilding" style workouts for guys, and exercises for women that include  pink 5-10 lb. dumbbells because they are afraid of "bulking up". Seriously, are any of those workout prescriptions really any different except in the order they are performed in? Not really!

So how does all this insanity and B.S. in the fitness industry relate to our chronic injuries?

Because they only perpetuate them, and not fix them.

And what do some Physical Therapists and M.D.'s prescribe for these injuries?

Knee braces and Motrin. Some never fix the cause of the problem. Most of the time it can be fixed with some simple "movement quality" work. Sometimes it might require the expertise of a soft-tissue therapist, or sometimes just the toolbox of a trainer. It might take 30 minutes or 30 days to fix the problem, but it all comes down to how the human body was meant to function. Motor control, joint mobility, joint range of motion, and dynamic/postural stability are key factors in fixing these problems. Some people do actually have structural problems that our tissues are working around. That needs to be diagnosed and many other options that PT's or trainers should have already been exhausted.

My own previous injuries led me to what I know and continue to study today. It seems the more I learn on the human body, the simpler it gets. We don't need crazy exercise equipment like stability balls and hip abductor machines to get in shape and/or fix ourselves.

C'MON MAN... are you serious?

 It all comes down to human movement. A lot of what we call intelligent training comes from basic movements that we learned as children. Based on these fundamental patterns like creeping, crawling, rolling, and squatting did we learn all the requisite motor control to perform. So why can't we squat anymore? Well actually we SHOULD be able to, but based on our current job descriptions and horrible workout routines and programs, we are only making it worse.

Look at it this way: You are either improving your body's movement function or you are not. Those who are not, are on the road to plateau and most likely injury. Getting injured running or lifting should be unacceptable and one should look at that as a sign that we are doing it wrong.

But what if I just want to run a marathon or have a good looking body?
That's perfectly fine, but one obviously can't train if they are in so much pain. I don't know about you, but that would equal less calories burned and less of a long term chance you will exercise. Just because running is good for you does not mean that you are ready for it. Most successful long distance runners are skinny for a reason. It's not because they ran themselves skinny, but because that is their body type. Not everybody has a thin frame built for running, and you don't see them on the football field either. Maybe that is a case for evolution. The ones who got hurt were weeded out and tried something else.

As Gray Cook says, "You can't put fitness on top of dysfunction". Remember, you are either improving the quality of your body's movement or not. Most people are breaking their joints and connective tissues down until they convince themselves that it was because they worked so hard. Why would you work hard for a broken down body? It is great to be active and want to improve your body or athletic ability, but please do some further reading in progressions for exercises. A lot of people as the question, "why pay money for a trainer?" Now, there are a lot of sub par trainers out their who think that increased work and motivation is all that is needed to sustain a healthy fat loss and muscle gain goal. There is much more to the healthy body than weight loss. Think of all of the people you have met that are injured and cannot work out. Too many. You pay money to a trainer to learn how to move. Once you can move correctly, then add some weights, reps, and intensity!  Don't go out there and try some crazy exercise just because another trainer or magazine was doing it. A good trainer will progress their client to that. If it means that we need to make mobility and stability corrective exercise our priority for 2 weeks then fine. I would rather have somebody know how to address their basic dysfunctions than to learn a couple of new exercises. It is the end result that matters.

Next time you complain to yourself or others about your "nagging injury", always ask was I born this way? If not (and most aren't or else their basic motor functions would be altered forever at a very young age) then you need to seek out the help of someone in the know. There's knowledge, and people out there with the knowledge, you just have to find them.

Intelligent Strength Training: Is running bad for you and why did it become a sig...

Is running bad for you and why did it become a sign of fitness in our culture?

Is running bad for you and why did it become a sign of fitness in our culture?

Ok it's the new year and I need to lose weight.... I think I'm gonna go get that gym membership finally. Yeah I have that nagging back pain but I won't let it get in the way of training and I will just work it away...I think once I lose the weight my back wont have to support so much and I will feel better. I'm gonna go get that membership and start a running regimen and use a couple machines....

Unfortunately I think this is the thought process of the average gym goer who wants to lose weight. I can already hear it: is Matt going to tell me I shouldn't even run anymore? Is he going to start a new cult? What a weirdo.

On the contrary I would love for everybody to be able to have a nice healthy run. Humans were born to move. Running (or jogging) makes us feel good. When I say running in this post, it can mean any steady, and long distance cardio. It is not an accident that we feel great after a workout. We pushed our bodies to new limits, burned some calories, and decreased our resting heart rate all at the same time. These are good things.

In his book Supertraining, Dr. Mel Siff explains the "divergence of training philosophies". He states that, "the development of different scientific and educational cultures in the West and the East had a profound impact on the growth of the different aspects of strength and general fitness training." Yes that Rocky IV montage of Ivan Drago getting injected and having his neck being twisted in that cool machine while running laps in a dimly lit gym are true. Just kidding... kinda.

The Cold War

Siff goes on to explain that, "the increasing idealogical isolation of nations and well-protected prestige of sporting success meant that research in all fields, including sport, took different directions." He then explains that the "West" veered sharply towards the direction of cardiovascular fitness, and "assuming great impetus with the running for health and 'aerobics' crazes, associated closely with Swedish endurance exercise and popular fitness books such as Kenneth Cooper's Aerobics."


Cooper's book came out in 1968 and in 1969 Jacki Sorensen came out with her Aerobics dance class aimed at Air Force wives who were stationed in Puerto Rico (that information doesn't need a reference because it is not important). I had to take an aerobics class for my major last semester (yeah we are that far behind) and it was brutal and pointless. Unfortunately women cling to the idea that aerobics is the greatest thing ever. Trust me, it is not. They should be correlating athletics into what they want their body to look like. Athletes are generally skinny and look "in shape". Do they do aerobic dance moves all day? HELL NO. They train with high intensity sprint and agility drills. They train with progressively heavier weights. Having said that, I am definitely not advocating going out to the local football field, setting up some cones, and running suicides. You might not be ready for that.

Running seems like it would be a holistic exercise. It is just a series of single-leg bounds over and over and over. Running is not only determined by your cardiovascular level (heart strength, HR, VO2max etc...) but your movement. Ah yes, Matt's favorite buzzword, movement. Running is just like lifting weights in that it is a stress to one's body. Lets take a common movement dysfunction: knee valgus.

Girl landing from a jump off a box. Hurts just looking at it.

Her problem is pretty common, especially in female teenage athletes. It is NOT that her jumping mechanics are jacked up. She might be able to fix that just by a coach's verbal cue. Her femur is rotated inward from her hip. Her glute muscles have not been used in 15 years. Her low back probably arches in. Next time her coach tells her to go run, she will always default to that movement, especially after fatigue sets in. Looks like she needs some strength training. Oh wait, she has to be game ready so she needs to run more to build up her heart. Dumb.

After screening so many of the general public, I have yet to find one with great movement. The average person has some sort of dysfunction. Just telling clients what they should do and look like while they move is not enough. They must feel it. They must change the quality of the tissue. They must gain mobility in their joints and use that new found mobility. They must reinforce that new mobility with stability. We don't just stretch anymore, we also mobilize. Sometimes people need to see a therapist to release tissues surrounding common "locked" areas such as the hamstring, back, or neck.Simply cueing good running stance does not work. Our body needs to be reset and feel what is correct.

I am not here to talk trash about running. Like I said before, it has many positives. The problems come when people do not supplement their running habit or sport with strength training, stretching, and some tissue work. Running does NOTHING to reinforce good movement. Strength training certainly does and my clients have felt it. It is a common misconception that weights will add bulk to the body and make you slower. That is just not true. Another common misconception is that weight training is hard on the joints. Wait a minute, that is actually true! That sounds like a stress to the body! What ever would your body do to accommodate strength training..... lets see....Oh yeah it reinforces joints and tissues to make them stronger! Do you think that only muscles grow bigger and stronger? Many things in the body do. We adapt, and it is pretty damn cool.

Running is inherently different than strength training because we have many different types of muscle fibers. Some respond to endurance (slow twitch type I), and some respond to increased resistance (fast twitch type II).

I applaud all of those who are interested in either losing weight or running for leisure and sport. Those are not bad things, but there are safer and better ways to lose weight than just long, steady, slow distance running. But how come all my friends finished the marathon and 5ks and they are OK? I don't know, maybe they train with Matt, maybe they are in denial of their joint pain, maybe they have never sat at a desk for 8 hours, or maybe they were just born to run (I hate Bruce Springsteen). So before you head to the gym and step on the treadmill, put a towel over the digital number of calories and time, strap on your iPod, and start running, always ask yourself: Do I deal with pain, and is running worth feeling that pain? Does running make the pain worse? Would I be better off learning how to squat with one leg for my own health and aesthetic goals?

Next time.... Alternatives to running: the science of fat loss and high intensity interval training!

Predictions for the future of Personal Trainers, Chiropractors, Massage Therapists, and Physical Therapists etc...

I am currently reading a book by Thomas Myers, a massage therapist, called Anatomy Trains: Myofacial Meridian for Manual and Movement Therapists. The book is a great introduction to the commonly forgotten and less taught "fascial net" of tissue that plays a huge role in our development as children and more importantly as the "common pathways for tensile communication."

Myers uses a great example to describe how he treated a woman complaining of neck pain. Including structural anatomy is boring and useless to you so he certainly doesn't dwell on that as he explains:

"A middle aged woman came to my practice years ago, complaining of pains in the right side of her neck. An office worker, she was sure the pain was related to her computer workstation and repetitive strain from her keyboard entry and mouse use. She had run the gamut of healing, having seen a chiropractor, physiotherapist, and a massage therapist. Each of these methods offered temporary relief, but 'as soon as I started working again, it comes back'.

He continues...

"When presented with a situation like this, there are two possible causes: the one offered, that work really is producing the problem, or conversely, that some other area of the client's pattern is not supporting the new position demanded by her workstation. By examining this woman, we found that the rib cage had shifted to the left, dropping support out from under her right shoulder. The rib cage moved to the left to take weight off the right foot. The right foot had not taken its share of the weight since a mild skiing injury to the inner part of the knee three years earlier. The whole pattern was now set into the neuromyofascial webbing."

"By working manually with the tissues of the knee and lower leg, then with the quadratus lumborum, iliocostalis, and other determinants of rib cage position, we were able to support the right shoulder from below, so that it no longer hung from the neck. The woman was able to point and click to her heart's content without any recurence of her 'work related' problem."

This example by Myers demonstartes the mindset we should have in dealing with clients with pain or dysfunction. Instead of treating the neck and it's surrounding structures, he found the cause of effect of the pain. Yes we do have individual muscles, bones, and joints, but they are all woven togther. Compensation occurs over a long period of time. It is shortsighted to only treat the pain.

Most people these days see a manual therapist (massage therapist, chiropractor, or physical therapist) simply because they want to relieve pain. It is that persons job, based on their technique and knowledge, to not only treat the pain, but to find the dysfunction. Unfortunately it takes more time and effort for both parties to do this. This whole pain relief concept fits perfectly with our Western culture of quick fixes. We need to take a more holistic approach. Yeah a massage can feel great after a long day, but if you are in PAIN, there is dysfunction with your body.

Trust me, 98% of people have some sort of dysfunction. Some are in pain and some are not, but it is there somehow. Training over a dysfunction will make it worse. Sitting at your desk over a dysfunction will make it worse. Movement is the precursor to everything we do. Until we take this view piont of fitness and rehabilitation, we will continue to have pain, dysfunction, drugs for every little problem, fat, and the need for quick fixes.

It is our job as trainers and manual therapists to work with these problems. If a trainer (like me) does not have the license  to do manual work on somebody, then I need to refer out to someone who can. This manual therapist should have the same mindset as I do regarding movement. They should know that humans are connected by many different tissues that respond to both short and long term changes.

We are already starting to get more educated about these topics, but we need to keep pushing the knowledge to everybody. We must take responsibility in our profession. I predict that in the next 20 years, every profession having to do with the human body will become closer. We need to. As I have realized through education, that we can make changes to ourselves. It will take time, effort, money, and a MAJOR mindset change. It is not just about going to the gym and running and lifting weight. The gym should be a place where we bring our bodies together, not become more painful and dysfunctional like most of us have.

Can I be called a movement therapist or does that sounds too pretentious?