Jun

27

Oh My Poor Back

Filed Under Illness and Injury, Injuries | 4 Comments

Yes, even a healthy life, a good weight and high level of fitness do not make someone injury proof.  Take me as an example, I have no idea what I did, but my back is in horrible pain this morning.  I think I pulled a muscle somewhere in my mid back.  Whatever it is, I had the most miserable night last night with very little sleep and plenty of pain.  At about 2:30am, I stumbled to the nearest gas station in order to pick up a bottle of Advil.  It helped, a little, but I’m back at grad school this morning and not feeling so well.  So rather than talk about fitness today, I’d like to talk about injuries, how to avoid them and what to do if you get them.

How To Avoid Injuries

  • Don’t be stupid! - Yes, it sounds obvious but most injuries are actually easily preventable by not being stupid.  Don’t ride your bike without a helmet, don’t use broken equipment, don’t lift more than you should and so on.  Really, stupidity and carelessness are the number 1 cause of injuries.
  • Use good form - Good form isn’t just for good fitness, it’s also for preventing injuries.  If your body is flailing around each time you lift a weight, you’re going to injure yourself eventually.  You’re trying to lift too much and you’re not doing it in a controlled manner.  That’s just begging for an injury.
  • Don’t overdo it - Overtraining is dangerous.  Overdo the cardio and you’ll get a stress fracture like I did.  Overdo the weights and you’ll strain a muscle, like I did.

Those three items right there are enough to prevent the overwhelming majority of injuries.  Sometimes though, even with proper care, you still hurt yourself.  Which brings me to my next topic.

What To Do When You’re Injured

  • Nothing - No, that doesn’t mean ignoring the injury.  It means rest, as in not doing anything strenuous.  If you’re injured, you need to rest.  Your body can heal most injuries but it needs you to not add more strain on top of the injury.  It doesn’t make you tough to keep training through an injury, it just makes you stupid.
  • Take a pain killer or anti inflammatory - For some injuries, you may need a pain killer like an advil.  Yes, I hate medication as much as the next guy, but my body needs rest and if I’m in too much pain to sleep then I’m not getting that rest.  A tylenol won’t make you a drug addict.
  • See the doctor - If it’s a serious injury, see a doctor.  If you’re not sure if it’s a serious injury, see a doctor.  If it doesn’t seem to be getting better, see a doctor.  Again, I’m not a fan of going to the doctor for every minor scratch or cold but I’m also not stupid.  I know my body and if it’s serious, I have no problem with going to see my physician.

Fitness Does Not Equal Injury Proof

In fact, being fit might lead to more injuries.  You’re doing more, you’re more active.  For example, I go hiking, I work out, I bike.  All of these things have a higher injury rate than my former lifestyle of sitting in front of the computer eating microwaved pizza pockets.  So what?  Injuries are a part of life.  Don’t be afraid of them, just try to prevent them where possible and deal with them when you have to.

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I had a blast during my class field day yesterday.  Yes, I had a miserable night but I don’t regret running around yesterday.  I’m going to rest today and tomorrow and hopefully be back to normal on Sunday.  If I’m still feeling bad on Monday, I’ll go see a doctor.  Now I just need to get through this statistics session!

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Apr

14

Free Weights Vs. Machines, The Gym’s Eternal Argument

Filed Under Building Muscles, Exercise, Gyms, Illness and Injury, Work Out | 4 Comments

It never fails, get three people together in a gym and ask them to discuss their workout and inevitably the conversation will eventually turn to machines vs. free weights. If you’re completely clueless about this argument, it comes from the fact that some people prefer free weights like dumbbells and barbells while others like to workout on specialized machines that offer a narrow range of choices for exercises per machine.

In fact, most gyms are set up to have one area in which people work out on machines and another area in which people use free weights. for beginners, this can be a little confusing. After all, it seems like these two options are identical. I can get on a machine and do some curls or I can use dumbbells. I could use the leg press machine or I could do some squats. What’s the difference?

Form Is Better On Machines

As I’ve said before many times, form is very important when you workout. You want good form in which you slowly and gradually move the weights around. You want to primarily use the muscle group which you intend to workout. That means if you’re doing curls, you shouldn’t be swinging your entire body around trying to lift those weights.

For the purposes of good form, machines are better. Machines force us to have good form by stabilizing our whole body. For example, when I do a curl on a machine, I’m sitting and my upper body is relatively immobile due to the various supports on the machines. That means it’s only my biceps which are doing the work. With free weights, I’m free to swing more body parts around which could contribute to bad form. In fact, you can see that if you click on the free weights curls link here. The person working out is swinging back and forth, which is bad form. By way of comparison, look at these machine curls here. You can see that the whole body is much more stable and only the biceps are working. Do free weights have to mean bad form? Not at all. It’s very possible to achieve good form with free weights, but it’s somewhat easier with machines.

Muscle Recruitment Is Better With Freeweights

What the heck is muscle recruitment? It’s that thing your body does when you lift something and need to maintain your balance. Think of it this way. When you do a squat, you’re lifting a weight up with your legs. Your leg muscles are doing most of the work lifting straight up, but your body also recruit quite a few smaller muscles groups to maintain stability, to keep you upright and to prevent you from falling over. If you did the same exercises with a machine, less of your body would be involved.

Muscle recruitment is a little like form. It means more muscles are involved in the exercise than just the ones you wanted involved. The difference is that bad form means you’re making things too easy for those primary muscles. You’re replacing the work they’re supposed to do by doing it with other muscle groups. Muscle recruitments means you’re adding more work which is being done by other muscle groups.

Take a look at a free weight squat here, vs a machine press here.  Both have very good form and in both, the legs are doing the same amount of work.  However, with the free weight squat, the user is also recruiting other muscle groups to keep himself upright and stable, which the machine press does not do.

Less Injuries With Machines

By their nature, machines limit the potential for injuries.  You’re not going to drop a weight on your foot, you’re not going to move your arm into a weird position and tear a tendon and you’re not going to find yourself pinned to the bench with too much weight on your chest.  Machines are in fact safer to use since they limit the range of things you can do.

More Accurate Progress With Machines

It’s easier to measure progress with machines since the movements and weights are always the same.  For example, if I use the example of the machine press vs. the squat I showed above.  The machine press is easy to adjust for less or more weight, but what about the squat?  My body weight ranges up or down a few lbs every day.  Since I’m also lifting my body weight, that could make things harder or easier.  Also, as you lose weight, exercises with freeweights could feel easier because you’re lifting less weight.  Finally, you could adjust your form or grip to make things harder or easier, something that’s more difficult with machines.  For example, if I’m doing a bench press, a narrow or wide grip on the bar could make things harder or easier.  With a machine press, there are places for you to grip, which means you always grip in the same spot.  All of these things combine to make machine workouts more precise.

Even Workout For Both Side With Free Weights

With machines, you typically workout both sides at the same time.  For example, when you do curls, you’re doing them with both hands at the same time.  This is not always true, but in general, that’s how most machines are set up.  That means one side could be doing more of the work and you might not notice it.  In fact, many people, when doing two handed exercises, will let their dominant hand or leg do most of the work.  With free weights, and specifically with dumbbells, it’s impossible to let one side do more of the work.  So you end up with a more even workout for both sides.

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So have we solved the argument?  Well, not really.  Personally, I’m a free weights fan.  However, I believe that most people who are new to the gym start out with machines before they use free weights.  That will help you learn good form and how to avoid injuries.  In the end, the best workout is the one you feel comfortable with.  The differences between free weights and machines are relatively small and both are far better than not working out at all.

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Nov

1

Secret Food Cures

Filed Under Health, Illness and Injury, Nutrition, Review | 5 Comments

One of my readers brought the following site to my attention: Secret Food Cures. The site is a commercial one, so be ready for lots of advertising and product pitches if you go there. The main subject of the site is a book written by three sisters which details a variety of food based cures for conditions ranging from migraines to asthma. Some examples are:

  • Curing migraines with lemon rinds
  • Cherry Bark tea makes asthma go away
  • Gin soaked raisins to relive the symptoms of arthritis
  • Chicken soup that cures colds

Personal Disclosure

Before I move on to my opinion of all this, allow me to disclose something about myself. I am not a fan of the modern medical system. We’ve become too reliant on pills to the point where we expect a prescription as the cure for every ill. High blood pressure? Get a prescription! Too fat? Get a prescription! Child too distracted to do their homework? Get a prescription! I think this is a horrible way to live life and I personally try to avoid taking pills. At the same time, I do believe in modern science and if I have some medical condition that’s bothering me, I go and talk to my doctor.

I tell her that I’m not just looking for a prescription that will make the problem go away. I want to know how I can live a healthier life to make the problem not recur. I discuss what I can do to remedy the situation and I will take her advice and her prescriptions. I’ve found that my doctor actually appreciates this attitude since she too is tired of most of her patients’ attitude of “This bothers me, give me a pill that will make it go away.” So while I am a believer in the efficiency of modern science and medicine, I do believe many issues can be resolved with healthier living rather than pills.

Home Cures

That said, I have a difficult time with books like this that recommend methods that are completely untried and untested as cures to serious health issues. Yes, a healthy diet can make many things go away, but it’s not a magic cure to everything that ails you. There are a few simple food based treatments that do make sense to me. For example, chicken soup with its legendary curing properties is not that hard to understand. It’s a broth based meal that’s rich in nutrients but still easy to digest. For a body weakened by illness, this kind of soup is welcome relief.

Note that this means any broth based soup has the same benefits. However, the authors of this book seem to insist that it’s chicken soup specifically that has this magical property. This is my issue with most of these home remedies. Yes, some of them do indeed have some basis in fact, but most people never bother to do the research of why some of these remedies are effective and some are not. That in turn leads them to use these remedies when they shouldn’t or in the wrong way.

Ignore Science At Your Peril

Also, a lot of these home remedies lead people to believe that they can forgo the doctor. I think this is a mistake and potentially a lethal one. There’s no substitute for a regular preventative medical appointment with a qualified doctor. I don’t care how many bowls of chicken soup or cups of cherry bark tea you consume, you should still see your doctor on a regular basis.

My wife for many years battled constant migraines. I suppose she could have tried some lemon rind based cure but instead she tried the medical approach. One operation to cure a deviated septum later, plus an anti allergen medication, she’s migraine free. So while I do advocate a healthy lifestyle, I also think you should go see your doctor if you have an issue and not try to cure it yourself.

My Preferred Approach

If you’re trying to avoid pills and such that’s fine. Tell your doctor that. In many cases you’ll find them relieved to hear a patient who’s willing to take responsibility for themselves rather than try to find pills to make the problem go away. They can chat with you about changes in your life and diet that you should make. In many cases, they may even recommend certain remedies like specific foods. However, let your doctor make that recommendation, not a book written to sell copies.

Summary

Pills are not the solution to all your ills. Neither are cherry bark and chicken soup. The best solution is probably a combination of both. Just make sure your doctor is on board with your plan.

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