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To Take Tylenol or Not To Take Tylenol

September 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Dr. Mario TylenolI was miserable last weekend. I was congested, my throat ached, my head hurt and my body felt like a 500lb gorilla had used it as a punching bag. I was feeling and acting pretty pitiful when my wife said “how about you take some Tylenol?” My guess is I was annoying the crap out of her with my whining but that question got me thinking, why don’t I take more medication? I resist taking anything from Tylenol to aspirin. I didn’t take the anti inflammatory medication my doctor prescribed for my elbow and I didn’t take any anti histamines when I developed an allergy to something unknown last summer. Why not?

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Filed Under: Editorial, Illness and Injury Tagged With: , , , , ,

All Clear! Life Is Good :)

July 11, 2011 By 1 Comment

This update is going to be a little short due to a life that has become increasingly busy over the past two weeks but normal posts should resume next week.

The Finger Update

First, that numb finger I told you about?  Turns out it’s most likely a pinched nerve.  Which brings me to a funny story. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Announcement, Diets, Eating Healthy, Illness and Injury, Running, Weight Loss Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Why Is My Finger Numb?

June 27, 2011 By 9 Comments

fearI woke up about a month ago and my finger was numb. Specifically, my left pinky finger felt like it was asleep. I thought nothing of it until I got to the gym that day. On certain exercises, the weight in my left hand kept slipping. It felt like I was gripping it hard enough but no matter how hard I grabbed it I couldn’t seem to keep it in hand. When I looked at how I was gripping the weight, I felt that numbness again. I also noticed that it was my pinky finger that kept slipping and the ring finger next to it wasn’t doing so well either. Once again, it felt like these fingers were asleep, like I had cut off blood flow for a while. Only this time I hadn’t just woken up, this was in the afternoon and there was no reason for any part of my hand to be asleep.

I wrote it off. Maybe it was a pinched nerve, or maybe it was some injury that I hadn’t noticed. Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t serious and it would go away if I just worked through it. Only it didn’t go away. Day after day I wake up and my left pinky finger is numb. Sometimes it’s better and sometimes it’s worse but it never quite goes away. It’s been a month now and I still occasionally wake up with a numb finger. In fact, it’s a bit numb now as I type this post. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Communication, Illness and Injury Tagged With: , , , , ,

How To Improve Your Posture

June 24, 2011 By 1 Comment

Bad Posture WestLB, 2002I’ve spent the last three days having an absolute blast in Las Vegas with a group of my closest friends.  This is my first time here and my first time actually gambling, so I’m having a ton of fun.  I’ve been keeping up with my marathon training but I did decide to take three days off from my 4 hour body diet.  It’s worth it I think and I’ve been getting good enough results so far that I’m perfectly fine taking a few days off.  Anyway, that’s not the point of this post.  The actual topic is the complete lack of back pain I woke up with this morning.

Wait, why is this special?  Afterall, aren’t we supposed to wake up with a lack of back pain every morning?  Well yah, but we don’t, at least I don’t.  I have had low and mid back pain for many years now.  Nothing severe but it’s definitely noticeable.  So it’s interesting that I woke up without pain morning.  I tried to think about the last few days and figure out if I had done anything specific that might account for this change and the only thing I came up with is the lack of sitting with bad posture. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Fitness, Healthy Habits, Illness and Injury Tagged With: , , , ,

How To Prepare For A Marathon, AKA “My Legs Hurt A LOT!”

September 20, 2010 By 1 Comment

marathon sacrificeHere I am, 24 hours after finishing the Maui marathon.  My legs hurt so much that I actually considered crawling to the fridge :)  However, before you dial 911 for me, let me just tell you that I am overjoyed!  I may not have finished like I wanted to (you can read all about that here) but I did finish, and that’s what matters.  I’m happy with my run and wanted to share a few running tips with you.

Don’t carry so much – You don’t need three water bottles, an MP3 player, a camera, a backpack full of Gatorade and replacement shoelaces just in case.  All that weight will just weigh you down.

Carry some pain killers – Two Tylenol will help you keep running / walking post the 20th mile when your legs feel like nothing but pain.  Four Tylenol is even better.  Just don’t over do it.

Use the water stops – Don’t be shy, they’re there for a reason.  Drink a half cup of Gatorade, a bit of water and pour a cup of water on your head.

Stop wasting money on goo – You don’t need whatever is in those packets.  The water and Gatorade are just fine.

Vaseline is your friend – Yep, Vaseline.  Trust me, you’re going to have body parts rubbing against other body parts for a very long time.  If you don’t put something there to “smooth” things out, you’re going to regret it.

Sunscreen is a must – You’re going to be spending a lot of time outdoors, you don’t want to do it without sunscreen.

Protect the nipples – Hah!  You women laugh, but us men rarely think of this.  Well guys, when you’re running for a long time, sometimes things chafe.  Vaselines helps in other places but the best way to protect nipples is bandaids.  So be a man, slap a couple of flintstone bandaids on your nipples and run like the wind!

Train with an uphill – This is for all you treadmill jockeys out there (like me) who rarely run outdoors.  Do yourself a favor and run some hills.  Otherwise, when you do hit a hill, it’s going to hit back, hard!

Run with someone – A running partner makes a huge difference.

Pace yourself – I know you feel really good on the 4th mile, but there are 22 more miles and they’re going to be much harder.

Last but not least, have fun – Unless you’re the guy who finished the marathon in one hour and fifty eight minutes (which I find amazing by the way) then relax and enjoy yourself.  Don’t beat yourself up if you were a little slow.  You’ve still accomplished something amazing.  Enjoy it.

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Don’t worry, next week we’ll get back to our series about supercharging your life.  In fact, have you set out some goals yet?  Have you started adding some activity into your life?  Have you started eating healthy?  As for me, I’m going to go soak my legs in some hot water and send thank you letters to the makers of vaseline.

Filed Under: Exercise, Illness and Injury, Injuries, Running Tagged With: , , ,

Freeweights or Machines, Which Is Better?

April 1, 2009 By 3 Comments

Colin writes in:

I started working out about 6 months ago and I’m feeling great.  I have a question, which is better, freeweights or machines?  Also, is it true that people who use freeweights get injured more?

Hello Colin, congratulations on your 6 months of working out.  You’re past the hardest parts.

I think I answered a similar question a few months ago but since I couldn’t find that article myself, I guess I’ll answer this again.  If any reader manages to find the original post, please link it in the comments.

As for your question.  Let me handle the second question first.  Yes, free weights do pose a greater injury risk.  First of all, it’s easier to injure yourself through simple mishaps such as dropping a weight on your foot or falling down, things that are nearly impossible when using a machine.  In fact, my only gym injury in 6 years happened because I dropped a dumbbell on my head.  Second, because your body isn’t confined to a limited range of motion, there is a greater chance to stress muscles and joints in an inappropriate manner while working out with free weights.  For example, if you try to do dead lifts incorrectly with free weights, you can strain your back or your legs.  Doing back exercises with a machine is much safer since your range of motion is limited.

However, that said, I am still a big proponent of free weights and believe that they are superior to machines in a number of ways.  When you work out with machines, you are limited to a very specific set of motions and muscles.  For example, when you do a back exercise on a machine you are only working out the back muscles, nothing else.  When you do a similar back exercise with free weights (dead lifts for example) you are working out the back but you are also recruiting the leg muscles, shoulders and upper arms in a variety of ways.  Yes, the back muscles are still the ones being worked out, but you’re also seeing benefits all over your body.  In other words, working out with free weights is a more “natural” way of working out.  You’re doing motions that your body does normally, only with weights.  Where as machines limit you to a very narrow motion.

The key is good form.  If you have good form, you will minimize your injury risk and maximize your free weight workout.  Good form means control and isolation of muscles.  It means you lift the weights with the muscles you’re trying to work out, recruiting other muscles only for stability, and you control both the speed and the range of the lifting motion.  If you don’t have good form and you have no desire to learn good form, you should stick to machines.  You’ll get a better workout and you won’t injure yourself.

Filed Under: Injuries, Reader Q&A, Work Out Tagged With: , ,