Lent and eating

(Belated) Happy Easter everyone! Just wanted to share a few thoughts that I had over the Holy Week, regarding religion, spirituality, and physical training.

"Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general."

- Mark Rippetoe

Jesus Christ was a strong person. So strong, that He actually conquered mortality. He was able to break free of worldly limitations. And He offers us the same freedom, if only we follow His example.

This is what I believe that Lent is about. This season is a reminder for us that we don't really need much in order to live good and fulfilling lives. In fact, if we examine Jesus' example, we'd see the value in practicing self control and training ourselves physically as well as mentally in order to endure more. In learning to master our own emotions and preconceptions, we can express ourselves more honestly and clearly to the world. When we temper our hearts and souls to not mind the little things, we will be able to see the larger view. When we complain less, we can help more. When we crave less, we can give more.

Of course, reminders such as this, along with all rituals and symbols, have meaning if and only if the values they represent are truly learned and applied. They remain relevant only as long as we open ourselves up to them and let them make us stronger.

One of the easiest ways we can examine ourselves and how we are able to respond to the lessons of the Lenten season is to look at our food consumption. Abstaining from luxury foods is one of the most popular Lenten practices. We tell ourselves that to be good Catholics, during Lent we will abstain from the delicious desserts that we otherwise would enjoy regularly. Most of us are actually able to go through the motions quite well.

But what happens after? All to often we see ourselves bouncing back to our old ways with a vengeance, just like Lent didn't happen at all. No change, no lessons learned, no growth. Just like all those haphazard jumping into and out of detox and other faddish diets.

Personally, with my quest to clean up my diet (which does not necessarily coincide with Lent) I have realized that we need not much more than cheap, fresh, locally grown produce in order to make our bodies flourish. Most of everything else is indulgent luxury. Moreover, imported, processed food are often too nutritionally imbalanced and cost too much resources to manufacture and transport that a purist would see that consuming these foods regularly can actually be an injustice.

I admit, though, that I haven't been able to totally stay away from these. I still indulge myself from time to time. This usually happens when I'm celebrating an occasion, or out with friends or family. But at the least, I now recognize that I don't need to eat sweets and other luxury foods regularly in order to stay happy, and have been consuming them less and less.

Swallowing the bitter pill

(Ampalaya is bitter gourd. A very horribly bitter gourd. Photo taken from Wikipedia)

How often do you eat ampalaya? How about okra?

Hopefully most of you have a taste, or at least tolerance, for these kinds of foods. For some reason, my parents and grandparents seem to like them- we have pinakbet served at home regularly. But not me. I haven't had the fortune of growing a taste for these nutritious vegetables. Yet.

In the interest of living healthier, I have resolved to clean up my diet and get used to eating these kinds of vegetables. I've told myself that from now on, I will not refuse a serving of vegetables whenever I am at the meal table, no matter what is in it. And even though earlier tonight at dinner my stomach heaved a bit in protest, so far I haven't eaten those words.

I don't have much of a method to my effort, I just man up and scarf down those veggies. I guess it's just like doing a high volume workout: just grind through the motions at a steady pace and don't dilly dally, all else be damned. Then hopefully, sooner or later the body adapts.

Sometimes, food and drink is selected and consumed for pleasuring the pallate, to help calm and clear the mind of stress, to celebrate special occasions, or to lubricate otherwise grating social occasions. But beyond these, we should also see food by their primary function: as our fuel.

Drugs for muscle pains?

I had a pretty grueling workout session this week, leaving me with a pretty funny wobble when I go down stairs. Three days after, my quads are the most painful they've been, though at least I'm just starting to get back my leg strength (I can now walk pretty normally and can do a pistol squat or two).

Anyone who has had a passing interest in fitness and exercise probably would be familiar with the delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). This is pain that manifests around a day or two after a muscle or group of muscles are worked specially hard.

While DOMS is a regular occurrence in strength training, in my experience it is usually just an inconvenience. However, once in a while I'd get an unusually bad case where my mobility and strength are noticeably decreased, such that my workout schedule and sometimes even my daily productivity are affected. These times, I'd talk to my friends and colleagues and look around the internet for published articles and forum discussions regarding the latest best practices for alleviating the soreness and get back to training the soonest.

This time, I was quite tempted to use non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs like ibuprofen, naproxen, or aspirin) as opposed to before when I would just not mind the pain and discomfort. However, reading through some online stopped me from doing so.

Apparently, studies determining the efficacy of NSAIDs in treating DOMS are conflicting in their findings, varying from those showing possible positive effects, to those showing no effect at all (Connolly et al., 2003).

This next quote sums up the arguments against using anti-inflammatory drugs for exercise recovery quite well:

"NSAID use, however, carries with it the risk of overuse and misuse, which could result in potential side effects such as stomach ulcers, liver damage, and kidney failure. In addition, inflammation itself is a necessary part of muscle remodeling and regeneration after muscle injury. Interfering with this natural healing process could conceivably be detrimental to long-term muscle health and recovery." (Sayers, 2008)

It is true that some studies support the effectiveness of NSAIDs and maybe even some readers would stand as testaments in support of this. But in the light of the conflicting studies and inherent risks, I would advice caution when considering use of any medicine (even over the counter ones) without a prescription.

My opinion, which comes from basic common knowledge, is this: drugs like ibuprofen are medications, used for the treatment of illnesses. Muscle soreness due to exercise is not an illness. Unless you have a fever, gout, arthritis or any other medical condition, I think it would be best if you stick to proper nutrition, rest, and maybe the occasional supplement.

One other thing, is that pain usually is a sign of an issue you have to address. You don't just pop a pain killer while keeping your hand on a steaming kettle, right? Maybe you should swallow your pride and take it easy for a bit, and increase your training load more gradually.

Part of exercising at high intensities and volumes is the task of grinding through the pain, both during and after. It makes us better.

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REFERENCES

Sayers, Stephen P. 2008.
Treatment of delayed onset muscle soreness: Is preventon the answer? Gatorade Sports Science Institute 11 Mar, 2011
GSSI Sports Science Library
http://www.gssiweb.com/Article_Detail.aspx?articleid=725&level=3&topic=10

Connolly, D.A.J., Sayers, S.P., & McHugh, M.P. 2003.
Treatment and prevention of delayed-onset muscle soreness. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 17, 197-208.

Why we need to take notes

As we all know, 1/12 of the year just passed us. I think we all need to ask ourselves this question: where are we with regards to our new year resolutions? With our performance this past month, will we really be able to reach the goals, fitness related or not, that we've set for this year?

If you said no, or are reading up till here without being able to decidedly answer a "yes", then you are probably among those who need to reasess the measures you have in place to help you be able to reach your goals.

For this purpose I'd like to share to you a helpful tool that I have used effectively for more than a year now: a notebook. At school and work, we read textbooks, manuals, presentations, take down (or photocopy someone else's) notes. Without these things, it will be almost impossible to

track, analyze, and improve on previous work. Why not have the same for our personal

activities? Documentation is essential for clarity.

For fitness and athletic training, recording your workouts and performance is a great aid to ensuring that your are able to stick to your programs, and see if your training is effective for you. You will be able to compare your performance today with that from a few weeks, months, or years ago. You will be able to record your personal bests. These personal bests and past performances, now become targets that you have to surpass. You become more accountable to yourself.

A page from my workout log from 2009. Smudged and barely legible, but did it's job well.

Incidentally, this is also a big reason why the conditioning workouts that I post here on the blog have at least 1 performance-dependent variable, mostly either volume (sets x reps) or time. This way, even with bodyweight exercises you are still able to measure your performance and compare with other times you did those same workouts.

As you fill in your notebook with more workdays and gather more information on your performance, you'll also be more able to control the elements of your training to suit your needs. You'll be able to clearly see your rate of improvement, analyze if you're starting to plateau or overtrain, then make adjustments to improve at your optimum rate and minimize injury.

I'd suggest even putting there your food intake and the amount of rest you had prior to your workouts or training sessions, so that you can correlate those with your performance as well.

You can be as detailed as you want, as long as you don't get lost in it. You also can do it as concisely as just jotting down "ran 3km in 26 minutes this morning, took it easy because I had a late night". As long as you are able to keep track of your performance, it will still help you stay honest and realistic with your training.