Archive for Mind-Body
Kettlebells: Good Exercise Tools?
Posted by: | CommentsAre kettlebells good for getting fit and lean?
My belief is that weight loss is 80% diet — about what you eat (or don’t eat). Having said that, exercise (the remaining 20%) helps not just in resetting your metabolic rate but ultimately your mental state. Regular, habitual exercise increases your chance of sticking with a healthy diet. Ironically, physical exercise is extremely effective in helping with the “mental” aspects of weight loss – in terms of managing stress-induced cortisol levels, mood, and generating a heightened sense of psychological well-being.
Back to the topic of kettlebells…
Are kettlebells really effective for strength and conditioning?
What most people don’t know is that there are actually two basic types of “approaches” to KB training. The “hardstyle” approach, promulgated by Pavel Tsatsouline at dragondoor.com, is one. This is taught by RKC instructors (certified by Pavel). It’s characterized by relatively low reps (e.g., 5 sets of 5, or 1-5x ladders). The emphasis is on strength and power. Right now, the hardstyle is the “dominant” school of kb training.
The other approach is the AKC style (lead by Valery Fedorenko), which emphasizes technique, and strength-endurance. In my personal opinion, the AKC approach is much safer and sustainable over the long run, because it focuses on structural alignment and correct lifting technique. The reason is that the AKC uses KB as a competitive sport. People compete on 3 basic lifts (2-arm KB jerks, one-arm snatches, and the 2-arm long cycle clean and jerk). Since it’s a timed-set competition (ten minutes a set, with one hand switch), there is very little margin for error in term of sloppy technique — after one minute of continuous lifting, any deficiency in form/technique is greatly magnified. Because of the demands of kettlebell sport, practitioners develop very efficient (and safe lifting form), versus the hard style where power/strength/brute force can carry you.
This is not to say that hardstyle practitioners have bad form. It’s just that you can afford to be sloppy using hardstyle methodology, since the rep requirement is lower and interspersed with breaks. The injuries come when the growth in muscle strength outstrips the corresponding development in the tendons and ligaments (and bone density). When this happens, one may be able to lift the weight successfully, yet the weak link (the tendon and/or ligament) may not be able to bear the stress of the weight. This results in injury. This happens a lot with rotator cuff issues.
Growth in muscle strength usually outpaces the readiness of the “supporting” structure. This scenario often happens in hardstyle training. It’s less of a problem in the AKC approach because practitioners tend to use lighter weights (comparatively) over time, compared to hardstyle.
In addition AKC uses the same KB shape and configuration and handles, across different weights. Hardstyle KB’s are differently shaped, depending on the weight. The grip positions are very different. In hardstyle the handle is perpendicular to the forearm, while in AKC, it’s about 45 degreees (diagonal across the palm). In AKC, “fixation” is paramount, i.e., there has to a clean stop at the end of the snatch or jerk, for the rep to be counted. In HS, this is not emphasized. Even the Swings are different: in HS, the vector of the swing is directed towards the front (as a result of the strong hip snap); in AKC, the vector of force is upwards (as a preparatory for the clean or snatch, since after all swings are considered as assistance exercises).
A lot of people argue that kb’s can be replaced by dumbells. To a certain extent, there is some logic behind this. For example, get-ups or windmills, or even swings can be done with a dumbell. However, when one considers very high reps sets (as in the AKC’s objective), then this reasoning is weakened. The AKC method and dynamics (i.e., the form) has evolved because the goal of the activity (high reps within a timed interval of 10 minutes or more) demands structural and muscular efficiency.
I’ve practiced hardstyle technique for more than five years, but recently shifted to the AKC methodology. In doing so, I had to relearn everything, unfortunately. And I’m still in the process of perfecting my technique, and I’m nowhere near the poundage that I use to lift using HS.
My acid test question was: Can I personally continue to do this regularly until I’m 108 years old, without the risk of injury? I’d have to answer that for hardstyle, probably not. For AKC, I think it’s highly likely. I respect both approaches, and they have their own purposes and merits depending on one’s fitness goals. I just wanted people to know that kb training is not a monolitic, homogeneous approach that the general public is made to believe. Older folks like me (I’m 56) have to be more careful. I happen to think that the AKC approach is more useful and sustainable for health purposes. But then again this is just my personal opinion…
Exercise and inflammation
Posted by: | CommentsThe relationship between exercise and coronary heart disease has been the subject of continued medical research. CHD as an inflammatory manifestation is also an accepted connection. A study has now made the connection between exercise and inflammation, although I don’t think that there is a cause and effect relationship between the two variables. Researchers from the University of Illinois examined parasympathetic and sympathetic activity on C-reactive protein (which is an indicator of inflammation) — by investigating heart-rate recovery after exercise. The sympathetic nervous system gets activated during exercise, while the parasympathetic system slows the body down when the exercise is finished.
So here’s how exercise could be helpful in managing inflammation:
“(When) you’re exercising, your sympathetic nervous system will be on, increasing your heart rate, your respiration, etc. Once you stop … the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in to get everything back down to baseline levels. The quicker the individuals were able to get back to their resting heart rate after a strenuous exercise test was inversely related to their CRP. (Individuals) who had better parasympathetic tone had lower levels of inflammation.” said Victoria Vieira, the study’s primary author and designer.
As we all know, the parasympathetic response is activated/trained by such mind-body pursuits as yoga (either in asana or pranayama practice), chi gung, meditation, and heart rate variability training.
What this study shows is that “traditional” exercise (assuming it’s not excessive) can help modulate inflammation by training the “relaxation response.”
In the ideal world, when you are trying to achieve optimal healthy weight, I would argue that combining both types of physical activity would be the best option. This means doing strength training, cardio, and yoga.
Ancient principles for a healthy diet
Posted by: | CommentsFrom the Charaka Samhita, which is thought to be the oldest of the treatises of Ayurvedic medicine (1000BCE):
1. Food needs to be hot (usually cooked).
2. Food needs to be tasty and easy to digest.
3. Food needs to be eaten in the proper amounts, not too much or too little.
4. Foods needs to be eaten on an empty stomach, after your last meal has been digested, and not before.
5. Foods need to work together and not contradict one another in their actions.
6. Foods need to be eaten in pleasant surroundings with the proper equipment for their enjoyment.
7. Eating should not be rushed.
8. Eating should not be a horrendously drawn out affair either.
9. It is best to focus on your food while eating.
10. Only eat food which is nourishing to your particular constitution and which suits your mental and emotional temperament.
Yoga and back health
Posted by: | CommentsHow yoga can help and prevent chronic and occasional back pain (from Loren Fishman MD, Cure Back Pain with Yoga):
1. Yoga stretches muscles to reduce spasm and increase flexibility
2. It strengthens muscles and bones (both isotonically [i.e., with movement of a joint, and through the use of one's own body weight] and isometrically [i.e., without movement of the joints]).
3. Increases range of motion, by: (a) enlarging the joint capsule and promoting joint lubrication, (b) gently stretching the ligaments, and (c) lengthening shortened and tense muscles.
4. Sharpening focus.
5. Heightening self awareness. A better understanding of the way your own body works – what it can or cannot do – is the first line of defense against back pain. One of the most important lessons I learned from my first yoga teacher (Denise Thibault) is that yoga acts as a gauge of one’s physical and mental condition.
6. Producing calm. The regular practice of physical process of yoga (both the postures [asanas] and breathing [pranayama] results in creating a mind that is calm and steady.
Yoga is both a preventive and healing practice that uses the body to manage the mind, simultaneously using the mind to restore the body back into a state of strength, balance and symmetry.
Meditation and weight loss
Posted by: | CommentsResearchers at the University of Pennsylvania say that practicing daily meditation (even for small amounts) can enhance focus and performance. Mindfulness training can improve the subcomponents of attention, such as the ability to prioritize and manage tasks and goals, the ability to voluntarily focus on specific information and the ability to stay alert to the environment. The results suggest even a half hour of meditation practice can improve attention and focus for those with heavy demands on their time – thereby increasing effectiveness and efficiency throughout the workday. While practicing meditation may itself may not be relaxing or restful, the attention-performance improvements that come with practice can help people to be more relaxed and less stressed. This in turn allows us to be more mindful of what we eat and more tuned in to what our body needs in terms of rest and exercise.
How to manage food cravings
Posted by: | CommentsA study in the June 2007 issue of the Journal of Psychology: Applied, showed that visual and olfactory distractions can be more effective than auditory interventions in reducing food cravings. This means that if you’re craving an unhealthy food, you could try to redirect your attention using a visual stimuli (a favorite vacation spot, a beautiful image) or use your sense of smell (aroma therapy?).
One useful principle in “craving management” is stimulus control — which means keep the temptation out of sight, out of reach, or literally out of the house. I know people who themselves allow occasional indulging but they limit it to specific situations, such as eating desserts only on specific occasions and only at specific places.
Kind of like limiting smokers to designated smoking areas. After a while, it becomes such a hassle to smoke (both the physical limitations and accompanying social pressures) that some smokers naturally lessen their consumption of cigarettes. (I don’t have the research to support this. Its just my theory.) Probably not a good comparision. It’s w-a-y harder to quit sugar than it is to quit cigarettes. Take it from me. I’ve done both. I believe sugar addiction is lot more difficult to kick successfully (and easier to relapse) than cigarettes .
Stress and weight gain
Posted by: | CommentsChronic stresses cause weight gain. The culprit? A hormone called Neuropeptide Y. Stress turns on a switch to this chemical messenger found in body fat. It increases appetite, especially for carbohydrate-rich foods, and causes the body to convert extra calories into dangerous belly fat.
The amount of weight gain increased three-fold when a high fat, high sugar diet was given to lab mice subjected to chronic stress. It also caused metabolic syndrome (glucose intolerance, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and inflammation).
However, when researchers blocked the effects of neuropeptide Y on the animals, it reduced stress-induced visceral fat by 50 percent, at the same amount of activity and food!
In humans, studies have shown that there is a direct relationship between work stress and risk of obesity. More specifically, stress increased abdominal fat.
Anxiety and depression also increase the risk of obesity. Insulin and blood-sugar levels tend to be higher in those who are anxious and depressed.
Neuropeptide Y stimulates growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis), which leads to weight gain and increased cancer risk. The action of this hormone may help to explain the relationship between obesity and increased cancer risk.
Several studies have shown that a diet low in fat and high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, omega?3 fatty acids and soy products inhibits angiogenesis.
Stress affects how we eat, which in turns affects how we feel. In fact, a recent study published in the Journal of Marketing found that people who are feeling unhappy eat larger amounts of foods they consider tasty and unhealthy, compared to happy people.
Stress is a chemical event that makes us fat and sick. When we are fat and sick, we get more stressed. Which makes us fatter, and sicker. How do we get out of this loop then? Perhaps the first step is learning how to handle stress skillfully. That consists of acknowledging the situation, managing our environment, training ourselves (e.g., mindfulness based stress reduction, heart rate variability methods), and perhaps most importantly as a first step, making a commitment to learning how to change for the better.
Easier said than done. I think it really has to be a coordination of many different variables within our control.
The social psychology of eating
Posted by: | CommentsWhile medical approaches emphasize hunger and satiety as the root of obesity, they are usually not the most significant causes of overeating. “Socially informed perceptions of which foods are appropriate to eat, when they should be eaten and how much should be consumed have a greater impact on our food intake than feelings of hunger or fullness,” according to a University of Toronto study published in Physiology & Behavior.
Environmental cues shape eating decisions, in addition to physical or nutritional needs. The choices that our fellow eaters make often determine how much we eat. Norms may become elevated depending on the social context. For example, an individual may refuse second helpings at a formal meal but accept them when eating at an all-you-can-eat buffet or among family and close friends.
“People are often rudderless in eating situations and they look to the activity of others, their own previous behavior or other social cues to guide them and thereby consume more than they need. Frequently, eating occurs within what we have termed a zone of biological indifference, in which the individual is neither genuinely hungry nor genuinely sated. Without any particular biological reason to start, continue or stop eating, we are particularly vulnerable to socially based influences.”
“Norms of appropriateness have yet to achieve mainstream status in current medical research into obesity and overeating and in public policy concerned with curbing the obesity epidemic. No one seems to be aware of the power that social influence has on eating, but if such considerations are integrated more deeply into this area, we may see some more practical results.”
I think that the concept of the “zone of biological indifference” is important in weight management, because it underlines the power of the social context surrounding eating. Most people eat not because they are hungry, but because other people just happen to be eating as well. It all goes back to developing awareness, and the skill of making consistent conscious choices about food. Not an easy task, obviously.
Sweet cravings, calories, and weight loss
Posted by: | CommentsDid you know that the brain can respond to the calorie content of food, even in the absence of taste?
Scientists have known that when people taste sweet foods, dopamine levels increase in the ventral striatum, a brain region related to reward and reinforcement. Our neural pathways have been established for palatability (the power of a food to make one eat it spontaneously and with gusto) as food is being eaten.
Research about the brain’s dopamine-reward system can explain why people who drink diet sodas still gain weight. A mismatch between artificially sweet taste and zero calorie content can lead to rebound eating because our brain is wired to respond to both calorie content and sweetness.
The researchers from Duke University also found significant differences in dopamine levels during eating, regardless of the ability to taste food. Normal mice showed a rise in dopamine when they gobbled the artificial sweetener solution, indicating palatability even without calories present. Mice without sweet taste released dopamine only during sucrose intake, even though they could not distinguish between the taste of water and sucrose. This confirmed that dopamine can be released by either sweet taste or caloric content.
It may mean that the role of dopamine transmission (the pleasure principle) in overeating and obesity might not be restricted to taste alone – dopamine signaling also can influence behavior by indicating a food’s caloric value.
How do you apply this to your weight loss goal? Wean yourself from sodas, and try to eliminate processed sugar from your diet as much as possible. The second idea is to practice “stimulus control” — which means keep junk food out of the house. Out of sight out of mind. Remember your brain is a calorie seeking missile.
Weight loss mindset
Posted by: | CommentsMost people will agree that 80% of the solution to being overweight is in the lifestyle/diet choice that is adopted, and 20% of the success is through exercise.
The key issue is whether a person can successfully envision his/her new “healthy self” as a creative goal (and here I’m borrowing from Robert Fritz’s The Path of Least Resistance) that then serves as the “driving force” (aka “structural tension”) to a new lifestyle. Most people simply are reacting to the physical, social, and emotional discomfort of being overweight or obese, and hence take steps to relieve this tension (i.e., by “going on a diet”). When this tension is relieved (by losing pounds) the “hunger/tension” to go back to eating the old way comes back, until such time as the “tension of obesity” surfaces again. It’s the vicious cycle instigated by a “reactive-responsive” mindset that keeps us in this loop — an approach fueled by a quick fix mentality.
I think that most successful “weight loss masters” are able to create a new vision/idea of themselves as healthy, slim, and energetic beings who do not have to constantly deprive themselves in their eating behavior. Rather than deprivation, they adopt a new path of sustainable behaviors and correct nutritional choices.
However, the latter is the key: without proper chemistry to help us (i.e., achieved by an optimal high nutritional/low caloric density) the “behavior” of eating will be compromised and will always be hard to sustain. The better the food, the easier it is to sustain eating the right foods and in the right amounts. I maintain that there is such a thing a the “right” diet — what I call the “nutritionally excellent” diet , and not all diets are created equal.
The closer to this “ideal” one eats, the easier I think it is to maintain over the long haul. A good example of a positive spiral.
