New Concepts in Fitness

Dr. Morter on Exercise as a Stressor

Thank you Dr. Morter and your B.E.S.T. Health System!

Exercise is one element of living that affects health. However, while our bodies need exercise to be healthy, exercise can’t make us healthy. Exercise can enhance health if the body isn’t overburdened just trying to survive.

A regular exercise program can help you to look better, be more energetic, more flexible, stronger, and more upbeat. Yet, even if you exercise strenuously and regularly — work out, run, walk, play tennis or golf — you may not be healthy. Your body may be working overtime to handle the health-inhibiting effects of improper diet, polluted air, restless sleep, or persistent emotional upheaval.

When you exercise, rest, or breathe, your whole body responds. Your heart rate speeds or slows, blood pressure goes up or down, oxygen delivery to the blood stream increases or decreases, muscles contract or relax, alertness heightens or falls and energy production accelerates or subsides. Literally thousands of internal physiological responses are excited or suppressed. You live in a body that functions through a finely-tuned, well-orchestrated, integrated system of chemical and electrical responses.

Exercise temporarily adds acid to the “atmosphere” of your internal environment. If your internal environment is “toxic” from excess acid when you begin to exercise, your body may not be able to withstand the additional stress. Those people who need to “clean up their internal environment” should limit their exercise program to walking. Those whose internal environments are in reasonably good shape may need to change their diets, and perhaps their attitudes, as they continue to exercise strenuously.

What is “being fit”?

Fitness is more than being slim, trim, and muscular. It’s a physiological state that is generally judged by how well a body functions in four categories:

1. Cardiorespiratory endurance — how well the heart and blood vessels can deliver oxygen to the cells.
2. Muscular fitness — strength and endurance.
3. Flexibility — joints that move freely through their full range of motion without discomfort or pain.
4. Body composition — the amount of muscle, bone, and fat.

So, does that mean if you score well in those four categories you are healthy? Not necessarily. It means you are “fit.” You can be fit without being healthy. We tend to think of fitness as being the yardstick for health. Being fit certainly looks healthy — leaning toward lean, agile, sculptured muscles, and strength. Yet, if being fit means being healthy, why do we so often read that a top-notch, fit, well-conditioned young athlete has dropped dead or had a heart attack?

Exercise isn’t enough

You simply can’t exercise your way to health. Your health depends on two criteria: 1) the condition of your internal environment, and 2) how, or how long, your body must adapt to handle long-term stress. The condition of your internal environment depends on the choices you make in what you eat, drink, and breathe, how you exercise and rest, and how and what you think. Your long-term health depends on how long you consistently make appropriate or inappropriate choices in each of these areas, not just how you exercise.

For example, a diet of excess protein may leave your internal environment struggling to retain its natural slight alkalinity. Cells produce acid as they work. The harder they work, the more acid they produce.

While exercise also has an acidifying effect on your body, the type of acid produced by cells is easily eliminated. But if your internal environment is already acid from too much protein food, even easily eliminated acid could push your acid factor into the danger zone. If you regularly eat a lot of high-protein foods such as meat, poultry, and dairy products, give your body a generous supply of foods that provide alkalizing minerals before you launch an exercise campaign. Begin by adding more servings of vegetables and fruits to your meals for a couple of weeks.

Exercise is one of the essentials for whole-body health. Your body needs exercise to keep it in the best shape possible for survival by keeping all the muscles flexible, strong, and responsive so they can do their assigned jobs effectively. And, whole-body exercise refuels your cells with oxygen. Still, health involves more than being fit. It is a by-product of making appropriate choices in all of the six essential areas of life. The bottom line is, fitness is fine — if you’re healthy! Learn to pursue health first, and then go after fitness.

--Dr. Morter

Are You Over-Exercising?

Too much exercise can be worse than a waste of your time. I see it in my patients daily. Muscle strain, torn cartilage, sprained ankles… all because they overdo it.

When it comes to exercise, there’s a common misperception that more is better. But your body wasn’t designed for long-duration exercises like aerobics or cardio - especially jogging and marathons. Aside from common overuse injuries, going overboard with your exercise routine creates more oxidative stress. That means you create a flood of free radicals that cause DNA and cell damage - wear and tear that can lead to chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease.

Too much cardio also shrinks your heart and lungs. It happens when your body adapts to long-duration exercise by downsizing your cardiovascular system. This "streamlining" helps your body cope with the stress of long workouts.

Here’s the good news: You can prevent disease and get into the best shape of your life by exercising less. All you need is 10 minutes three times a week. By focusing on intensity instead of duration, you can burn fat and strengthen your heart and lungs with minimal effort.

By Al Sears, MD - ETR Newsletter

Just Another Case of Innocent Deception?!

Here is a hilarious and at the same time, sobering, short video clip regarding the practice some meat processors practice to sell more meat to the unsuspecting consumer.

Finally, many unethical and often illegal practices are coming to light for public scrutiny.

6 Reasons (Besides Great Looks) to Strengthen Your Abdominals, and 5 Exercises to do it Properly

A flat stomach and well-defined six pack will certainly get you some attention on the beach, but having strong abdominal muscles goes way beyond physical appearance. Abdominal muscles are part of your body's core -- a group of 29 muscles around your trunk and pelvis that make up your center of gravity -- and they're necessary to support your back, control your movement and even help you breathe.

Strong abs are much more than skin deep: they support and protect your back, help prevent injuries, and improve your posture.

Strengthening your abdominal muscles will, indeed, make a trim stomach more defined, but it's also one of the most important muscle groups to keep strong, and here's why.

1. Protect your back and reduce back pain. Strong abs are necessary for a strong back because they make up part of the muscular network that keeps your body upright, supports the spine and allows you to move. When these muscles are weak, the spine gets more of the burden of supporting the body, making you more susceptible to back injury and pain.

2. Improve your posture. Your abs are composed of six individual muscles, each of which affects your posture. Strengthen your abs, and you'll find you naturally and comfortably sit straighter and stand taller.

3. Feel less fatigued. You use your stomach muscles constantly throughout the day. A person with weak abs will have to put in a lot more effort to do the same tasks as someone with strong abs, hence feeling more fatigued at the end of the day.

4. Lift things (like your infant) easier. Remember that your abdominal muscles provide much support for your back. So the stronger your abs, the easier it will be for you to twist and turn, pick up heavy grocery bags, lift your infant into a car seat and do countless other tasks throughout the day.

5. Protect yourself from injury. Your abs help make up your center of gravity, and having strong abs will make you more stable and balanced. So aside from protecting your back from injury, strong stomach muscles can help prevent falls and other lack-of-coordination injuries.

6. Perform sports better. Whether you love to golf, go bowling or play softball, strengthening your abs will give you a more stable core, allowing you to swing your club or bat, catch fly balls, and perform a wide array of other sports movements with greater control and stability. Plus, you'll be better protected from sports-related injuries.

How to Work Out With Trainers

The rising popularity of yoga, particularly among baby boomers, has apparently resulted in a minor epidemic of injuries. How people could injure themselves in such a gentle activity is beyond my comprehension. But the facts speak for themselves.

In Message #1699, Jon Herring explained that most of these injuries are the result of stretching too hard. He suggested that before starting a yoga program, ETR readers should look into the experience and training of their instructors.

That's good advice. But in case (1) you don't have a choice of qualified instructors in your area or (2) you don't have the patience to interview instructors or (3) you get someone qualified who's pushing you too hard, here's my advice:

The best way to avoid injury in any sport is to (1) pay attention to your body and (2) let your body, not a trainer or instructor, be in charge of how hard you push yourself.

The advice I'm giving here runs contrary to what I was taught. "Trust your coach," was the training mantra I grew up with. "He knows what's best for you."

For most of my life, I did whatever my coaches and trainers asked me to do. In high school football, I was famous for spearheading opponents (ramming them at full speed with my head), because my freshman football coach told me that was "the right way" to tackle someone. In college sports and afterward, I'd do whatever I was told to do - and (I'm embarrassed to say) continued to do so even when I was getting injured because of bad advice.

I never stopped to ask myself if these people really knew what was best for me. If they pushed me harder than I felt I should go, I figured it must be good.

About 10 years ago, at age 45, I hired a young guy to train me. He had all the right credentials - academic and practical - and he was himself in great physical shape. His approach to weightlifting was intense: Pile on the weights and push yourself to the limit. And you got results by doing that. Two kinds of results. You got stronger and then you got injured.

It happened to me and to several friends my age who were being trained by him. We had followed his program faithfully and believed we were making progress - but the reality was that we were all limping around in pain. At the end of a year's worth of this guy's expert training, I was so laden with injuries I could barely walk.

As I crawled out of bed one morning, I remembered something a college friend who practiced yoga said to me after we completed our respective workouts. (I had been squatting with 400 pounds on my back. He had been doing Sun Salutations.) "The thing I don't understand about the way you exercise," he said as I was hobbling along beside him, "is this: After you are finished, you are always exhausted. Shouldn't exercise make you feel better?"

He was half-kidding, but I understood his point. Unless you are trying to win a gold medal, the purpose of any exercise program should be better health, not sprains and tears and suffering.

At 25, I wasn't willing to give up my Western take on training: No pain, no gain. But at 45, I was.

I fired my trainer - qualified as he was - and designed my own program, a combination of yoga, Pilates, and calisthenics. Almost immediately, I started to feel better. After about six weeks, I was pain-free.

Since then, I've completely changed the way I work with trainers - whether it's in yoga, Jiu Jitsu, or strength training. I no longer put myself under their direction. I no longer do whatever they say.

I tell them what I want to accomplish, and I ask them to give me their best suggestions about how to do it. What I want, I explain in no uncertain terms, is for them to help me become stronger, more flexible, and more energetic. And I want them to help me do that without risk of injury or excessive pain.

If they don't understand what I'm saying, I don't hire them. If they say they understand me but then train me stupidly, I fire them. My attitude is tough but it's practical - and it's based on economics even an idiot can understand: If I'm paying you $60 to $90 an hour, you'd better make me happy ... or I'll find someone else who will.

In working with trainers and coaches, whether individually or in a group, you should figure out exactly what you want from your exercise program - how far you want to push and how fast you want to go. Explain these objectives to your trainer before starting. And if he's not willing to support you, look elsewhere.

LK, my strength and speed coach, is a very qualified trainer. He has several degrees in physical education, including a license to practice physical therapy, and he has tons of experience training people (including Navy Seals). His approach to physical fitness is very intense. If I allowed him to, he'd probably put me in the hospital.

"I'm not your science experiment," I sometimes remind him. "I am the guy who's paying for these lessons."

By being in charge of LK's program, I've reaped the benefits of his knowledge and experience within the parameters of my objectives. I am happy to have him push me to do that extra pull-up or dip, but I won't do anything that risks injury or entirely depletes me.

My goal in everything I do - in yoga, Pilates, Jiu Jitsu, speed and strength training - is to look forward to every workout. The only way I can do that (I've discovered after so many years of training the wrong way) is to obey my body, not my trainer.

In Messages #1735 and #1739, I described my current training regimen. Try it out, if you like. It's a great program that has helped me get fitter and grow healthier.

But whatever exercise program you follow, if you use a trainer, make sure he agrees to the following rules:

1. You are the ultimate boss of your body. If, at any point in the training process, you feel you are on the verge of injuring yourself, stop immediately and say, "That's enough." Tell your trainer that when you say "That's enough," he should not try to encourage you to do a single extra rep. Tell him you won't say it unless you've really had enough.

2. Stretching is just as important as exercising. Make sure your trainer works you through at least 10 minutes of stretching after each workout. Expect your trainer to be focused and attentive during that time. He should assist you in stretching just as he does when you exercise.

3. If it's not fun, you're not likely to continue to do it. Make sure your trainer understands this fundamental rule of coaching. Remind him that it's for his good as well as yours (meaning, if he doesn't keep his clients happy his business will dwindle). Making it fun means paying attention to how hard you are working. He should get you to work harder than you would if you were alone, but he should not work you like a drill sergeant.

4. If it's not interesting, it will become boring. It's your trainer's job to make every workout a little new and exciting. To do that, he is going to have to come up with different ways of working the same muscles. Some repetition is good, but too much of it will dampen your enthusiasm.

You are paying your trainer not because he knows more about exercise than you but because you need someone reasonably intelligent and attentive to encourage you to do the work you already know you have to do. Don't let your trainer boss or bully you. Make him work hard to please you. Expect results. If you don't get them, find a new trainer.

By Michael Masterson - ETR Newsletter

Coconut Oil Isn't Just for Suntan Lotion

I use extra virgin olive oil just about every day. But there's one thing I don't use it for, and that's cooking. For good reason. When most edible oils (including olive oil) are heated, the oil is damaged and the fats are oxidized. This changes the chemical structure of the oil and can contribute to the development of disease.

Cooking with vegetable oils is even worse. These oils - soy, corn, safflower, sunflower, and canola - are particularly susceptible to heat damage. They're also loaded with omega-6 fatty acids, which have been shown to promote heart disease, inflammation, and cancer.

So what should you cook with? Go for an oil that's stable when heated, especially if you're cooking at high temperatures (as when frying). I'm talking about coconut oil. Not only is it the healthiest oil to cook with but, over the last 75 years, researchers have found that people who naturally eat a lot of coconut oil (including Polynesians and other island cultures) have low body fat and a low incidence of heart disease.

It's not hard to find. Get it at your local health food store or on the Internet.

By Jon Herring - ETR Newsletter

Let What You Eat Control How Much You Eat

Last week, I explained that a good way to make sure you don't overeat is to plan your meals ahead of time. Today, I have another tip: Eat more protein.

After 20 years of helping people get lean, the most common cause of overeating I encounter is this: Not enough protein and too much carbohydrate.

For most people, how much they eat depends on how full they feel. Protein boosts your sensitivity to a hormone called leptin. And this hormone tells your brain that you're full. So when you get enough protein in your diet, overeating usually subsides.

Health "experts" usually recommend 50 to 60 grams of protein a day - the amount your body needs to replace what is normally lost on a daily basis. But this is far too little for optimal health. To reduce your appetite - and lose weight - try one gram of protein for every pound of lean muscle.

For example, if you weigh 180 pounds and have 20 percent body fat, you have 144 pounds of lean muscle mass. So shoot for 144 grams of protein a day. If you don't know your exact body fat percentage, figure that it's 20 percent if you're a man and 25 percent if you're a woman. That should be close enough for this purpose.

By Al Sears, MD - ETR Newsletter

[Ed. Note: For more tips on weight loss, check out Dr. Sears' book The Doctor's Heart Cure.]

The Dark Side of Statin Drugs

Millions of men and women around the world take statin drugs to help control their cholesterol. But these medications have a dark side. And new evidence shows their benefits are questionable.

A recent study followed 10,000 people with high LDL ("bad") cholesterol for four years, and compared those who took statin drugs to those who exercised regularly. Both groups experienced the same rates of death, heart attack, and heart disease.

Even if statin drugs were harmless, it would be hard to justify their expense, since the study found no health benefit in taking them instead of following a simple, relatively untutored program of any kind of exercise. But that's not the case. Statins have serious and common side effects, including muscle pain and weakness, congestive heart failure, depression, and memory problems. Worst of all, statins deplete your body's supply of CoQ10, the high-energy power source inside your cells that's critical for heart and brain health.

If you're currently taking statins, consider supplementing with at least 200 mg of CoQ10 per day. And find a sympathetic doctor to measure your CoQ10 levels and help you get off the drug.

By Al Sears, MD - ETR Newsletter

[Ed. Note: You'll find many strategies for getting off statin drugs while building a healthy heart in Dr. Sears' book, The Doctor's Heart Cure.]

Ditch the Soy Burgers

If you think soy burgers are a healthy alternative to the real thing, think again. Not only does soy contain compounds that mimic the hormone estrogen, a recent study also shows a link between soy and heart disease.

When researchers at the University of Colorado fed soy-based foods to mice that had a genetic heart condition (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), the animals developed heart failure, and many died. The results of this study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, contribute to our understanding that soy is not a "heart healthy" food after all. In fact, soy increases levels of homocysteine, an important risk factor for heart disease. (Interestingly, when the sick mice were fed raw milk protein, their condition improved remarkably.)

The only soy products that are truly healthy are those that are fermented. These include tempeh, soy sauce, and Japanese natto or miso. Aside from those products, it's best to avoid soy altogether. For a real heart-healthy burger, sink your teeth into grass-fed beef. It's full of omega-3 fatty acids and heart-healthy nutrients like CoQ10.

By Jon Herring - ETR Newsletter

A Simple Cure for Bad Eating Habits

Yesterday, I shared my observation that many overweight people believe they have healthy eating habits. But when I look at my overweight patients' food diaries, it is obvious that their eating is far from healthy ... or even sensible. Today, I want to tell you about a simple solution to this common problem.

When it comes to making meal choices, many overweight people don't plan ahead. They improvise at the last minute, and go for whatever is convenient. Doughnuts for breakfast (because somebody brought them into the office ...). A Big Mac and fries for lunch (because that's all you have time for ...). A bucket of buttered popcorn and a sugary soda for dinner (because you decide to see a movie with some friends after work ...). Before long, it becomes a habit

My solution: Plan your meals in advance. This takes some commitment, but it's really not tough to do. Each night, you sit down and decide what you're going to have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the next day. You also decide where you're going to eat. You might, for example, plan to eat breakfast at home, pack a lunch to eat at your desk, and eat dinner at a restaurant.

You won't always stick to it, but at least you'll be starting with a plan for healthy eating. And there's a fringe benefit. You'll not only eat better, you'll also enjoy your meals more when you're not simply grabbing something to put in your mouth. Plus ... you'll probably lose weight.

By Al Sears, MD - ETR Newsletter

[Ed. Note: Dr. Sears, a practicing physician and the author of The Doctor's Heart Cure and 12 Secrets to Virility, is a leading authority on longevity, physical fitness, and heart health.]