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.

- - -
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.

Hill Run

Welcome the new year with a bang guys! Go out and try something new, or retry something that you've left behind with a new outlook.

Personally, I have decided that I will try more endurance sports, like running. Hence this little hill run. It's not a long distance effort yet, but hopefully a good start.

I used to run 5 kilometers every weekend, but I had to stop when my right knee started hurting every time after a run. Looking back, I didn't really know what I was doing, just putting a foot in front of the other quickly and hoping for the best.

Over the past few months, I've been reading about dealing with knee injuries, and I discovered that an adequate amount of lower body strength and proper running form can save people from chronic injuries. A lot of squats, torso conditioning and some research into Pose and Chi running later (2 similar systems of running form), I'm pain free so far. Hopefully now I can increase my running volume without any side effects.

- - -

Warm Up:
- 200m run or 100 jumping jacks
- DROMS (shoulder circles, arm swings, chicken wings, leg swings)
- 20 each: high knee run, cheerleader run, heel to rear run

Strength Training:
5x5 Push ups
- Do 5 sets of the most difficult push up variation that you can do for 5 repetitions.

= 5x5 single arm push ups (feet shoulder width apart)

WOD:
Run 3km.

= 22 minutes 28 seconds (done in Camp John Hay, back and forth between the Mile High Inn and the convention center)

Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays guys!

Warm Up:
- 200m run or 100 jumping jacks
- DROMS (shoulder circles, arm swings, chicken wings, leg swings)
- 8 reps: tuck ups, Good mornings, Push ups, Squats

WOD:
30 reps each, for time:
- squats
- push ups
- reverse crunches
- thrusters (60 or 40 lbs)
- arch rocks
- hollow rocks
- pyramid/regular push ups
- jumping pull ups

* If you are not yet familiar with the thruster exercise, you can do jump squats instead.
* If you are not familiar with reverse crunches, you can substitute with knee up or regular ab crunches
* If you are unable to do pull ups, you can substitute with rows or supermans/back arches

Cooper Test in the Morning

Sometimes you just have to try it.

As I write this, it seems that the first thing in the morning work out is ok, though I did have to take a 40 minute nap come lunchtime. Haha! But I think that has more to do with how I slept for just 5 hours last night. Some days, you need to maybe skip a workout and rest. Some other days, you should just suck it up, skip the snoozing and get a 30 minute workout in.

The 12 minute run seems to be a good test of cardiovascular endurance. Long enough to really test out your lungs, but not too long as to be a significant long distance run that would be too taxing to some people. I'm not sure how Dr. Cooper developed his result standards table, but I guess it can give you a ballpark estimate of how you compare to most of the population. Bottom line, when you do the 12 minute run again sometime in the future, you can see if and how much you've improved.

0500-0530 in the morning
Warm up:
- 3x10 reps each of: High knee run, Cheerleader run, Running in place

WOD: Run the farthest you can in 12 minutes (Cooper Test)
= 2,640 meters

- - -
1740-1850
Warm Up:
- 300 jrj = 2min 12 s
- DROMS
- 10 each: Pyramid push ups, Pull ups, Arch/Hollow Rocks, Samson lunges, Side lunges

Strength Training:

5x5, 3x3 Shoulder Press
- 1x5 @ 50, 60, 70, 80
- 5x5 @ 90 lbs
- 3x3 @ 105 lbs

3x7 Pull Ups
- 3x7 strict ring pull ups

WOD:
21-15-9 for time:
- burpees
- reverse crunches
= 3min 57 sec

Bodyweight Workout

I'm posting this bodyweight workout for the benefit of those of you who don't have dumbbells and/or are unfamiliar with the exercises in yesterday's WOD.

Warm up:
- 300 jump rope jumps
- DROMS: shoulder rotations, archer reaches, scorpions, leg swings
- 10 each: Pyramid/Pike push ups, Situps, Arch rocks, Hollow rocks, Side rocks, Good mornings, Side lunges

Strength Training:
5x5 (Bodyweight) Single Leg Deadlifts
- 1 set 5 reps of regular bodyweight squats
- 1 set 5 reps of backward lunges
- 5 sets of 5 repetitions each, single leg deadlifts
* Use the first two sets of squats/lunges to review the mechanics of stable hip/leg movement (at the least, keep your weight on your heels, knees aligned with toes, don't slouch).

WOD:
Do as many rounds as possible in 10 minutes of:
- 1 Back bridge/Hip thrust
- 1 Situp
- 1 Pair of lunges (Stand up tall before each lunge.)
- 1 Push up
- Lie back down
* Try to do the movements in each round as smooth and seamless as possible, without pause or rest within each round. You can take a breather in between rounds. Also, try to keep proper posture throughout, even when transitioning between the exercises.