Jogging: The Body Killer

This article is for the joggers, the recreational runner, the marathon runners, and even for those that are thinking about training for a marathon or picking up “jogging.”  Let me give you some advice…..STOP!  For some, this may be confusing, or even a bit offensive for the avid, overly obsessed runner (and I do intend to hear some negative feedback for this article).But whether your goals are to stay fit or just lose weight, there are better, more efficient ways to go about this.  Now I am not totally against recreational jogging or long distance running, in fact, I applaud you for at least doing something, but I want to break it down for you so you know exactly what you are doing to yourself when you go out for that daily jog over an extended length of time.  I have broken this down to a Good, Bad, and Ugly version and then give you what you should be doing to meet that cardio need of yours!  Let’s get started!

The Good

LISS cardio, or Low Intensity Steady State cardio, is exactly what the acronym stands for; long, slow and steady cardio (jogging/walking).  The benefit to LISS is that it IS good for the heart.  LISS can reduce blood pressure, increase work capacity, and help with weight loss, which is why many people start a jogging or running routine in the first place.  LISS even increases a person’s metabolism which burns more calories up to a couple hours after running is done.  LISS is much safer than HIIT cardio, High Intensity Interval Training cardio, which can lead to more injury and overtraining if not done properly.  Many times LISS is also the only cardio option available for some who may have physical, or even psychological reasons to avoid a higher intensity training technique.  Now if you are using LISS type techniques by walking, you avoid even more stress being put on the body and reduce the amount of wear and tear, but you do not burn near as many calories.  It is clear that there is a time and place for LISS activities like jogging, and everyone doing this type of training should see some sort of benefit (in the short term).  I cannot stress enough that ANY kind of exercise is better than no exercise at all!

I am glad I we got that out of the way.  Now let’s move on….

The Bad

First ask yourself one thing.  Have you ever met a runner that hasn’t complained about their ankles, knees, low back or hips?  I haven’t.  Why is that?  Let me explain.

The average height of a woman in the United States is 5’5” and the average height of an American male is 5’9.”  To give us a rough estimate of stride length for a typical male and woman, we would have to find a happy medium between a sprint and walk.  In order to do this we must take our height in inches and multiply .883 (the factor for finding stride length between walking and sprinting).  When we do this we come up with an average stride of just over 5 feet for men and just under 5 feet for woman.  For arguments sake well keep it at 5 feet.

If you were to run a mile, a mile is 5,280 feet, that means that on average the normal person is taking atleast 1,050 strides ( This does not take into account any dysfunction or imbalances that may be present that shorten the stride length).  According to Saucony Shoe Company, a runner can experience force up to 7x a person’s bodyweight. Using the average weight of a typical American at 180 pounds (if you weigh under this consider yourself lucky), that is upwards of 1000 pounds of force per stride!  When we multiply that over a mile it is close to 1 million pounds of force applied to your body!  For you marathon runners out there, multiply that by 26.2 and you have…A REALLY, BIG NUMBER (26.2 million pounds of force experienced).

Now knowing that each structure and tissue of the body is only able to take so much load, or stress, before it becomes dysfunctional and starts to break down (see my earlier posts on load/capacity), it is literally only a matter of time before a recreational runner begins to literally break down!  With forces like this being experienced, many times on a daily basis, it is no wonder why so many runners break down over time, especially in the ankles, knees, and hips where the load is being transmitted.

Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to problems with jogging and recreational running.

The Ugly

What is worse than chronic wear and tear on your body?  Altered hormones!  Yes! You heard correctly, running alters your bodies normal, healthy hormones!

If you watch the Olympics in the coming days (and I sure hope you do) compare the body structure of a sprinter and a long distance runner.  What you should notice is a considerable difference in muscle mass AND body fat percentage!  Here is a comparison.

Both individuals are world class athletes.  One is the picture of what a human should look like while the other looks like a Holocaust survivor.  The difference, besides the obvious body composition, lies in the hormone levels.  If you take a look at some of the most important hormones in your body for health and fitness (Glucagon, Insulin, HGH, Leptin, and Cortisol) you will see that the sprinter and the “jogger” are on completely different ends of the spectrum.

When you look at the “jogger” you will see that glucagon, the hormone responsible for helping to raise low blood sugar and help with fat loss during exercise, and HGH (human growth hormone) a hormone responsible for muscle growth and performance are extremely low.  Insulin, the hormone responsible for lowering blood sugar and storing sugars in the bloodstream as fat, leptin, the hormone for hunger, and cortisol, a stress hormone that makes it more difficult to lose weight are all increased dramatically.  So now, not only during your long runs are you adding even more stress to your body, you are actually making it harder to lose the fat and build muscle, all the while making you more hungry!  The complete opposite goals of exercise and fitness!

Looking at our sprinter counterpart you will see that the hormones are reversed.  Glucagon and HGH are high and Insulin, leptin, and cortisol are low, making their bodies efficient fat-busting, muscle-building machines.

The Solution?

The Solution is quite simple really.  Start practicing HIIT (high intensity interval training during your runs.  If you are new to interval training, start easy.  Jog for two minutes for a warm-up (yes I said jog), then go all out for 30 seconds, after the sprint resume your jog, or walk, or even just rest.  Repeat this process for up to 20 minutes.  Or after a light warm-up, sprint 40 yards, walk back to the starting position, and repeat 10 times. It could be just as easy as finding a hill, sprinting up it, walking back down, and repeating this process 5 times. It is just that simple.  When that becomes easy, start reducing the rest periods and/or increase the sprint times, distances, or amount.  Make sure that you are exerting yourself to the max though during your sprints.  This should be harder than your jog!

By following these instructions, not only will you get your running “fix” in, you will be training more effectively and efficiently, saving you time and altering your body!  So stop running now (and thank me later)!

Chiropractor Cedar Rapids

UPDATED!!

The Fire Department Analogy (Modern Medicine vs. Conservative Care)

This is one of the most brilliant analogies that I have heard.  I wish I could take credit for this, but sadly cannot.  I have decided to share this with you, as printed,  in The Wellness and Prevention Paradigm, by Dr. James Chestnut, B.Ed.,  M.Sc..,DC, CCWP.  This passage helps to distinguish when to use the advances in modern medicine and when to use conservative, chiropractic care.

“For this analogy your mind and body are your house, medical doctors are the fire department, and lifestyle practitioners (chiropractors) are the contractors- the house maintenance and renovation experts. 

Now imagine your house is on fire.  It is an emergency.  Who should you call, the fire department or the contractors?

I hope you said the fire department.  Now what will the fire department do when your house is on fire?  Well, what they do will depend on what tools they have to work with.  What tools does the fire department have? The tools that they have developed are congruent with their goal to put out fires (treat disease risk factors and symptoms).  What will they use these for?  They will use the axes to break out all of your windows, chop down your door, and chop open your walls.  They will use the hose to soak all the walls and furnishings on your home.

What is the result?  If you are lucky, if they get there in time and do not make any big mistakes, they will save the life of your house.  For this you should be eternally grateful.  Now what is left after they have put out the fire?  A HUGE mess to clean up.  In fact, your house is now in far worse shape than it was before the fire ever started. Think about it, what would happen if you did not have a fire but decided to use axes and fire hoses on your house?  Would this not do damage to your house?  Of course it would.  Now think about drugs and surgery for a second.  What happens when you give a healthy person drugs or surgery?  Do drugs and surgery not leave a mess, do they not damage the cells of the body and make your house less healthy?  Of course they do.

So now what will you do? Who will you call to restore your house back to health, back to the state it was in before the fire (or perhaps even better shape if your house was not well maintained at the time of the fire)?  Would you think it logical to call back the fire department?  Do you think more axes and hoses could ever restore your house to proper function? Of course not, that is an absurd notion.  Not as absurd as the fire department claiming that they could do this or that anybody else could, but nonetheless still very absurd.

So who should you call? The restoration and maintenance experts, people with the tools and knowledge regarding what materials are needed to restore your house to working order.  What tools would such experts have?  Hammers, nails, paint, wiring, wood, and any other material that the blueprint of the house indicated were required.  The tools they have are congruent with their goal to restore and maintain the function of your house; they are the ingredients your house needs for healthy function.

Now imagine if the fire department convinced everyone, including themselves, to judge the worth of the restoration and maintenance experts according to the ability to put out fires or their legal ability to use axes and fire hoses.  Obviously, the restoration and maintenance experts would look pretty incompetent trying to put out a fire with paint brushes and hammers.  The fire department could, with scientific accuracy, tell everyone how incompetent the restoration and maintenance experts are at putting out fires.  In fact, the fire department could demand scientific evidence from the restoration and maintenance experts to show that they could put out fires and no matter how hard they tried, the restoration experts would never be able to show they were competent at putting out fires.

But wait a minute, I hope you are thinking.  What if the worth of the fire department was assessed by how well they could restore and maintain a house?  They would look as incompetent at this as the restoration experts would at putting out a fire.  Could you imagine the fire department showing up with axes and hoses and claiming they could improve the health and function of house?  How absurd.  Science would then show that no matter how often the fire department used axes and hoses, no matter how much technology they had to make new axes and hoses, they would be totally incompetent in terms of improving the health and function of houses. 

What about preventing fires? Do you think showing up at a fire with axes and hoses could ever prevent a fire?  Of course not.  But what if they got amazing technology to detect a fire earlier and earlier so that they could break down the doors and spray the house earlier and earlier, would this ever prevent a fire?

So who is the better expert, who is more valid, who are ‘real’ doctors and who are the ‘quack doctor?’  Both are valid and real doctors and neither are quacks if you are to assess them in you own paradigm, within their own areas of expertise.  The trick is to use these experts and their intervention at the appropriate times.  The fire department should be a last resort and only used when there is a fire. The goal should be to NEVER need the fire department.  The restoration and maintenance experts should be the last resort for a fire and the first and only resort for getting and keeping your house well.  The goal should be to ALWAYS utilize them regularly, or, even better, to get them to teach you how to take care of your own house!

But what about all the fire department studies showing that they prevent fires?  Well think about it for a second.  If you randomly assigned 50,000 houses to each group in a randomized controlled trial  and one group you sprayed down once a week with water and the other you sprayed down once a week with placebo water(air) what would the results be?

Well it depends on the questions you ask doesn’t it?  The fire department would ask fire(symptom) related questions.  In this case the fire department scientists would ask if spraying down the houses resulted in a statistically significant reduction in fires or fire symptoms (smoke, heat, fire, etc.).  Good news – regularly spraying down houses with water results in significantly less fires and symptoms of fires.  The fire department could then recommend regularly spraying down houses and claim that it prevents fires or symptoms of fires.

Are you thinking what I am thinking?  Wouldn’t regularly spraying down houses with water cause them to rot?  Yes it would, this is called the side effect.  This does not however, erase the fact that these houses were saved from the ravages of fire.  Luckily, the fire department studies do not as whether or not regularly spraying down the houses is healthy; they only ask if it can reduce fires and symptoms of fires.  They also do not ask if the houses that did not get sprayed down and do not burn down live longer, happier lives.  Why would they? They don’t even ask if the houses that do get sprayed down live longer, happier lives.  These are not the fire-related questions.  Most importantly the fire department never compares regular intervention from the renovation and maintenance experts to the regular water spraying with respect to house longevity or house health and function.”

The Big Three

If you come from a powerlifting background, or have ever seriously trained, you know the “Big Three” as the Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift, but that is not the “Big Three” that I am talking about here.  The “Big Three” that I want to talk about today are supplements!

Unfortunately for us, our food is no longer as nutritious as it once was.  The typical American diet is void of so many nutrients that it is downright scary!  By supplementing we can give our bodies what it requires on a daily basis to improve our health and our life!

Today I have compiled a list of the top three supplements you SHOULD be using whether you are healthy or not:

1.)    Multivitamin.  Why a multivitamin?  For the previous reason mentioned. Studies are showing now that multivitamins can even prevent or slow the progression of many diseases.  Although you can find cheap vitamins anywhere, this is a supplement you should spend the extra cash on.  Vitamins like Centrum use cheap materials that are not easily absorbed.  Look for the label USP after each vitamin and mineral.  If it is not there, it is not worth the money!

2.)    Fish Oil.  Fish oil comes in a close second to the multivitamin as the benefits range from reduced inflammation to even muscle building!  Unfortunately our diets are  filled with Omega 6 fatty acids which produce inflammation in our body.  Inflammation is the START TO ALL CHRONIC DISEASE!  Again, not all fish oil is created equal.  Look for fish oil that is free from Mercury, Lead, PCB’s, and Dioxins, all of which are extremely toxic and can be found in cheap fish oil.  If it does not say it on the package, it is toxic!

3.)    Vitamin D.  I had a tough time deciding for my third, but ultimately Vitamin D won out against probiotics.  Although we can get our daily requirements of  Vitamin D from just 20 minutes of sun exposure without sunscreen, most of us are still deficient.  By supplementing with Vitamin D, you boost your immune system and help fend off unwanted illness. Recent studies have shown that supplementing with Vitamin D is more effective of fighting off the flu than the seasonal flu vaccine!

The companies that I use that fall into these categories are OrthoMoleculars Alpha Base(multivitamin http://www.orthomolecularproducts.com ), Nordic Naturals (fish oil http://www.nordicnaturals.com/  ), and Nurti-Dyn Micellized D3 (vitamin D  https://nutri-dyn.com)

These are my “Big Three.”  By supplementing with these three things and eating a healthy diet, you give yourself the very best chance to prevent illness and stay healthy!

Train the Pain!

As much as I do not endorse training with pain of any kind,I do realize that training with pain, for most, is almost inevitable. Whetheryou are a weekend warrior, or a highly skilled and trained athlete, pain haslikely crept into your routine at one point or another.

And if you have not experienced this yet, you deserve to drop a dumbbell on your toe the next time you’re in the gym! (kidding)

The latestresearch suggests that pain is eventually a guarantee!

A study published in the New England Journalof Medicine looked at 98 test subjects.  What they found is that 52%had at least one disc buldge, 27% had a disc protrusion, and 38%had more than one level of disc issues. If you do the math, and relate this to the general population, you cansee that 80 PERCENT OF THE POPULATION HAS A SERIOUS SPINAL CONDITION.

What is even more shocking is that these test subjects had no symptoms of pain! So just because you may not have pain, does not mean your spine is fine!

So here is a list of 3 things that you can do for yourselfto train around pain:

1.)    Strengthen the core! This does not meanjust do a bunch of ab crunches.  The corealso consists of the muscles in your back as well.  To increase the stability of your core try doseveral set and holds of planks, side planks, and supermans.

2.)    Work the posterior chain!  Whats the posterior chain?  The posterior chain consists of thehamstrings, glutes, low back and upper back spinal musculature.  To train this, try incorporating leg curls,Glute-Ham-Raises(my personal favorite), or 45 degree back extensions.

3.)    Walk with ankle weights!  As unusual as this may sound, walking isactually good for the spine.  By addingankle weights to your walk not only are you adding additional resistance to addin some increased difficulty, burning extra calories, but the added weight alsoprovides a slight amount of traction to every step, which reduces pressure onthe discs.

Of course, you could always seek the help of your localchiropractor to help get yourself out of pain, but if you like training with pain,be my guest – but, please, use good judgement!

(C’mon… Did you really think I was going to talk about pain and not plug chiropractic?)

Stop Hiding!

 

We all have the occasional aches and pains from time to time.  For most of us, we go to the cupboard and grab some Tylenol or Ibuprofen, or another one of our favorite pain medicines.  Several minutes later, we are pain free and ready to go about our daily business.

But what are we really doing?

Once again this comes back to the load principal that I discussed in my last post(to read it look below).  The body is signaling that something is wrong, or, “out of whack.”  As we take the pain medication, we are merely tricking the body into thinking that the problem no longer exists.  The problem is that when the medicine wears off, we go right back to where we started. For most people this process will repeat itself over and over and over again, sometimes in the same day.

By hiding from the pain we are essentially allowing our body to overload itself.  This only adds to more problems later on down the road as we create even more dysfunction, and eventually chronic pain and degeneration that may not respond to conservative care.With that being said, instead of “hiding” from the pain, you should recognize the pain, and know that something is wrong.  Be proactive in your care!  The sooner you realize you have pain and decide to get treatment for it (without the use of drugs) the shorter your recovery time will be.  Doing so will all but eliminate the chronic pains that await you! And oftentimes, with a plan that addresses both treating the pain as well as rehabilitating the tissues involved, the body ends up stronger and less likely to have a future injury in the same location.

Do yourself a favor and ….Stop Hiding!

Take A Load Off!

Do you have a “Loading” Issue?

My guess is yes!

How do I know?

Because I see it every day!

What do you mean by a loading issue?

What I mean to say, is that each tissue of the body, whether that be muscle, tendon, ligament, bone, cartilage, or nerve has only so much it can handle, or a ‘load’ that it can handle.  If the capacity of the tissue is greater than the load being placed on that tissue, you have no problems or dysfunction. The tissue is in HEALTH.  On the other hand if the load being placed on the tissue is greater than what the tissue can handle there has to be, by definition, DYSFUNCTION of that tissue.  Then, after some time, SYMPTOMS and PAIN occur.  Only then do most of us even think about doing something about it.

Fortunately, being that the human body is highly efficient and intelligent by design we are fully capable of adapting to the dysfunction without ever knowing about that dysfunction or even feeling any pain.  Much like anything else, once that adaptation tissue becomes overloaded it too becomes dysfunctional.  Only when the body is no longer able to adapt to the dysfunctions are we left in pain.  Unfortunately, by then, we have had so much dysfunction built up, that it is hard to tell what the main problem is or when it even started!

How many times have you just woke up with pain?  It has become so routine for many of us to wake up with a new pain and play it off as sleeping wrong, when in reality, a poor or abnormal posture during that specific night was the final “straw that broke the camels back.”  All it took was that little change and voila! ….pain!

So how are you supposed to know that there is dysfunction if you can’t feel it?  This is very tough, but not as tough as you may think.  Whether you are active or sedentary, maybe you have noticed some slight changes.  Maybe your legs get tired more quickly or your stride isn’t as long.  Or maybe if you have a desk job, you’ve noticed that your posture has changed or you have issues sitting upright for a shorter period of time.

What can you do to fix this?

Take the load off!  Maybe taking the load off is resting more between workouts, or getting up to stand and stretch at work, or receiving treatments for the dysfunction.  The result of any good treatment increases the tissue capacity and reduces the load on the system, bringing you back to health.  Look to a chiropractor for treatment as they have specialized training in dealing with most musculoskeletal issues.

When choosing a chiropractor, don’t be afraid to call the office and ask questions.  You have a right to know what services and techniques are provided in the office.  Look for a chiropractor that has additional training and certifications in soft tissue techniques, like Graston or Active Release Technique.  Ask your friends what chiropractor they go to.  If your friends like the chiropractor you are more likely to like them as well.

So if you have a loading issue, see your local chiropractor and take a load off! It may be all you need!

One Small Step For Man……One Giant,…Difficult Leap For This Guy!

If you are reading this, welcome to my blog!

As a local chiropractor in Iowa City, Iowa, it is a goal of mine to not only spread the word of chiropractic, but to inform people about treatment options that they may have when it comes to their health.  As part of this blog, I will discuss any local health related topics including, proper diet and nutrition, recently peer reviewed articles of interest, occassional product and supplement reviews, and even workout routines and exercise guidelines.  Another goal is to keep this blog as fresh and entertaining as possible.  Nobody likes to read about boring peer reviewed journals, so why would anybody want to come to a boring blog?

This actually comes as a shock to me that I am actually writing!  In school, I hated almost everything about English class.  I would have much rather taken some biology, or even a math course!  In fact, I won the “Lab Rat” award at my high school for most science classes taken during high school with another one of my friends (I dont know if I should brag about that or be ashamed).  To me learning how to write was rediculous.  I knew I wanted to be in some health care field and I didnt see the need to know where a coma needed to be inserted into a paragraph.  Now, I find myself double guessing myself on proper punctuation, even, as I write this sentence (hope that was right)!

So now my high school years are coming back to haunt me.  My tool of helping to educate my patients, friends, and community is the exact tool I thought I would never, EVER use!  So as you follow along, please take it easy on me and forgive me for missed punctuation, the occasional poor grammar, and maybe a missed spelled word or too! (Yes I know its two!)

Thanks for stopping and enjoy the blog!