Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Reasarch Round Up, Coconut Oil, Optimal Foods?


Research Round Up time for January. Here are just a few studies I found interesting.
Enjoy!

Gastric Banding Surgery May Help Promote Remission of Type 2 Diabetes in Obese Patients
According to the study, "of the 60 patients enrolled, 55 (92%) completed the 2-year follow-up. Remission of type 2 diabetes was achieved by 22 (73%) in the surgical group and 4 (13%) in the conventional-therapy group."
Pretty amazing difference and appears to be related to weight loss. Most likely there are more feedback loops going on than we realize! It used to be thought that fat cells sat on their collective fat asses all day and did nothing, but now we know they are involved in all sorts of regulation.
Link here

Caffeine Increases Ambulatory Glucose and Postprandial Responses in Coffee Drinkers With Type 2 Diabetes

This debate has been going on for some time now. There is evidence on both sides and diabetics are different from healthy people and there are probably differences depending if they used coffee or just caffeine. See this link for a roundtable with Dr. John Beradi, Dr. Kalman and Dr. Lonnie Lowery from 2002. Link here


Concentration of Vitamin E Linked to Physical Decline in Older Persons
The study stated, "In a logistic regression analysis that was adjusted for potential confounders, only a low concentration of vitamin E (<1.1> significantly associated with subsequent decline in physical function"
What? It means that it a study of a group of free living people, Vit E concentration was associated (does not mean that it is causative) with less issues as people aged. Score another one for Vit E (although not all studies have been positive). It appears they only looked at one type of Vit E (alpha tocpherol).
Link here

Brief, Intensive Therapy for OCD Altered Brain Activity, Improved Symptoms
Yet another study showing how incredible neuroplasticity is in the brain, especailly in this case to a cognitive form of therapy. Neuroplasticity is a fancy term that means the brain can adapt to many changes and quite quickly. It was not long ago that researchers believe the brain would not change much, especially as you age. Newer researcher is showing that this is not true.
Link here

Muscle Vibration May Retrain Abnormal Sensorimotor Organization in Focal Hand Dystonia
Score another one for the amazing ability of the body to adapt!
Link here


Question and Answer Time

Q: Should there be more attention paid to an individual's unique fuel needs to better help them stay in a healthy weight range/ avoid Syndrome X, etc..?

Maybe we should should look at appropriate food mixes (fats/proteins/carbs) pertaining to the individual (assuming you get the right amount of exercise). Thoughts?

Your question about fuel needs is a good one. I think in a healthy body, you can use some protein (generally not a lot for energy needs since it is caloric intensive) and either carbs or fats. This can be measured in the lab by looking at the RER (respiratory exchange ratio). For info on RER click here

A RER ratio of 0.7 is 100% fat, 0.85 is 50/50 carbs/fat and 1 is 100% carbs (glycogen, etc).

You are probably familiar with the crossover over theory that as the intensity of the exercise increases, the body shifts more to carb usage. What many forget is that after high intensity work, the REPAYMENT of the disturbance from homeostasis (EPOC, afterburn, etc) is almost all fat metabolism. This is the main reasons that many recommend interval work for fat loss.

Of course everyone is different and your body can change quite well from one fuel to the next over time, shown by athletes on low carb diets even doing quite well still .

I personally like the idea of Metabolic Flexibility since it may be a way to customize fuel source or show that it doesn't make any difference. We know as someone gets closer to a diabetic condition, they have a much harder time using different fuel sources and get closer to "locking into" one--they lose their flexibility. Click here for more info than you ever cared about on it!

Q: What are your thoughts on coconut oil? Should I be using it? Some say it is great and others cry that there is too much saturated fat?

Coconut Oil is mostly saturated, of that it is about 44.6% lauric acid, 16.8% myristic acid a 8.2% palmitic acid and 8% Caprilic Acid. Different types of saturated fat may have different effects on blood cholesterol levels, as is there individual differences. Click here for a reference

Jeff Volek and friends has shown that in a low carbohydrate environment, the type of fat may have less or even no effect on blood cholesterol.

Coconut oil is a major source of medium chain trigylcerides (MCTs), but I am not sold that they are amazing. If you remember back in the mid 90s, they were touted as an ergogenic aid (increases performance) but tasted like crap and were not all that effective.

Coconut oil is also lacking in high amounts of (essential fatty acids) EFAs. They are essential since your body can NOT make them. Coconut oil is fine to use for cooking since it has a relatively high smoke point, but make sure you get your EFAs first and there is nothing all that magical about it in my opinion (which is open to change at any time-hehhe).

Take away on coconut oil
Get in your EFAs first in fish oil and omega 3s like flax oil.

For all you wanted to know on fats check out this article by Dr. John Berardi The F Word.

That is all for now! Any questions, post them in the comments
Rock on
Mike N

Friday, January 11, 2008

Get Off the Foam Roller

Foam rollers are common these days and can be found in every sports catalogue in various types, styles and colors. Many top coaches and trainers recommend their use by athletes of all types. Some people are even said to SLEEP with them (1) (you know who you are Mr. Kevin Larabee of The Fitcast fame).

Background and the reasons why people foam roll

The standard argument for self-myofascial release (SMR) on a foam roller is possible thanks to the principle known as autogenic inhibition. Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably heard of the Golgi Tendon Organ (GTO) at some point. The GTO is a special mechanoreceptor (remember those from previous articles ) in this case found at the muscle-tendon junction. It’s job in life is to detect changes in tension in the muscle and to work as a safety mechanism by releasing muscle tension when the force becomes too great to potentially cause injury.

The fancy name for this reflexive relaxation is autogenic inhibition. When you apply force to the muscle via a foam roller you add muscle tension, and thus causing the GTO to relax the muscle.
Sounds awesome doesn’t it? Just 10 minutes a day and I should be all set right?

This simpleton argument has been questioned within the past few years (for an overview on reflexes click here ) Plus this argument also leaves out the whole rest of the nervous system! As I’ve said before, physiology is messy and seldom that simple.

A full discussion of the GTO is beyond this article (I hear a sigh of relief), but Fallon, JB et al. (2) stated recently, “The responses of the various muscle receptors to vibration are more complicated than a naive categorization into stretch (muscle spindle primary ending), length (muscle spindle secondary endings), and tension (Golgi tendon organs) receptors”. Cui, J. et al. (3) recently have shown in healthy humans mechanoreceptor(s) stimulation may even evoke significant increases in blood pressure. It is all connected via the nervous system.

Here the 2 main arguments of why I don't think people should foam roll

1) Tissue properties
What are you trying to achieve? What is your goal? Most then cry “I want, better tissue properties”--ok, fair answer, but what does better tissue properties get you? Most are after better muscle function and some to get out of pain and better tissue properties is a step in that direction.

The nervous system is the key (notice a theme yet?) Now before you get all crazy on trigger points and how they effect muscular force (which is a good point), how did the trigger point get there? I’ve done a fair amount of cadaver work and so far I have yet to see one trigger point. Actually non-fixed (fresh) tissue does not hold tension on its own. I have yet to see a slab of muscle get tense! Yes, certain structures are stiffer than others, but I have yet to see any muscle or tendons that resemble piano wires that I see most people’s necks. The nervous system is controlling the level of tension.

Plus the thought of adding high amounts of external tension to your body in order to relieve tension seems odd to me. So I should add the thing I am trying to reduce? I know physiology is messy, but food for thought.

2) Foam rolling can be painful.
Pain will actually inhibit your gains. Now I know some will get up in my grill about how they are making gains in the gym and they are in pain and I agree that this can happen, but my argument is that it is not OPTIMAL.

First, what is pain?

The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain “as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage.”(4)

The take away here is that pain is associated with actual or potential damage. Pain is produced when the brain perceives that danger to body tissues exists and that action is required as a survival response. Imagine early cave man days and Captain Caveman sticks his hand in the fire. What happens next? He yells some unintelligible explicative and promptly removes his hand from the fire! Pain is an ACTION SIGNAL—move your darn hand out of the fire!

Remember that pain does not live in the ankle that you sprained or Captain Caveman’s hand, but it is an interpretation of the brain. The signal from your Captain Caveman’s hand is sent up to his prehistoric brain where his brain then interprets the degree of pain.

It was rumored that civil war soldiers that lost entire limbs were initially NOT in pain since they were so grateful to be alive that the thought of even loosing a limb was nothing compared to be pushing up daisies.

It is true that if the damage sustained is severe enough, the pain and resultant shock can become the highest threat and require a survival response (5).

The brain and the nervous system control ALL muscle movements. When pain occurs it inhibits the nervous system as a protective mechanism.

Remember that the body only cares about survival and does not give a hairy rat’s butt about performance. If I injure my elbow, my nervous system will start to shut down the muscles around that joint as a protective mechanism to try to prevent further damage (ala arthrokinetic reflex).

So the windy road back to our friend the foam roller. If you are on the ole foam roller before a training session and it is painful, you are turning on the "neurologic brakes” and thus decreasing your performance.

Confession time

I used have athletes foam roll over there ITB/TFL (lateral quad) and if they yelped in pain I would promptly declare “You there-- you have some ITB/ TFLs that are so tight you can bounce quarter off them” and would promptly have them do multiple foam roller sessions each day. Most times in a few weeks the pain would become less and I would then declare “Good thing I fixed that issue,” but did I? Why were they still foam rolling (albeit in less pain). Wait, I thought this was the solution? Why did I not see a huge change in their movement? Are they doomed to the foam roller the rest of their life?

What do you think is causing those "tight" muscles you are foam rolling?

Hmmmmm. I have an idea!

The joints (along with the nervous system) are causing those "tight" muscles, and this is one of the main tenets of the Z Health system. If the joints are sending noxious stimuli to the brain (which may or may NOT be painful, remember that interpretation of the signal in the brain), the brain will try to protect the joints by decreasing strength done by the muscles around it (and other muscles also). If you have tight hamstrings, foam rolling your hamstrings will probably not solve the issue LONG TERM. Working on the foot/ankle and some times elbow circles may help hamstring issues, but that is another topic.

Anyone want to buy a foam roller?

The current trend in some areas seems to be going to more and more aggressive pain inducing massicistic massage. If I had no scruples, I would file IP on a foam roller with spikes on it! Seriously, I think that could have been my retreat to Fiji idea. If someone reads this and does do it, please drop me an invite to your private dessert island.

Foam roller work must also follow the SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand) principal meaning that your body will ALWAYS adapt to EXACTLY what you do. So we know that doing foam roller work will make you better at doing foam roller work. Last I checked, there was not a foam roller competition, but maybe they have one now. I doubt there is much positive transfer from foam rolling to many other activities, but I will leave that for you to test out.

Does this mean that all soft tissue work is bad?

Of course not! A foam roller even by most of its biggest advocates admits that it is rather limited and works well primarily for the lower extremities. Massage has a neat feature where the hands working on you are attached to someone else’s brain that can intrepid what the heck is going on and adjust accordingly. Last time I checked, foam rollers were pretty dumb (another free IP idea is a “smart foam” roller that increases density in response to force). Even some ART practitioners are experimenting with lighter pressure with good results. I do think there still is a tendency to only treat the site of pain (although this is changing) and many times the relief is short lived.

So what do I do? Help!

I am a realist and know that very few are going to have a foam roller burning party based off of one article on my blog, but one can dream right. Wait, check that, Al Gore just called and said that the burning of foam rollers is bad for green house gases so please recycle them instead. No green credits for you, bad dog. Instead, you could use it in place of board presses at your local gym.

To quote Jim Wendler “You don't have to smuggle the foam into a commercial gym like you would the boards. You can simply state that it is a rehab tool. And when you say "tool" you can smile and make sure the Jabroni at the front desk knows that you are actually talking about him.” (6)

1) At minimum, don't do any foam roller work before a training session and maybe only some light work afterwards

2) Make sure it is NOT painful, especially if you are doing it before a lifting session. Remember pain decreases performance.

3) Try replacing some foam roller work with some precise joint mobility like the Z Health Neuro Warm Up

4) Find a trainer/therapist that uses non painful hands on work combined with active mobility work. A Z Health Level 4 (hey, that is me—shameless I know) is a great place to start. Even many of the R Phase movements can have profound results on soft tissue due to the involvement of the nervous system.

Any comments, let me have em’

Rock on
Mike N

REFERENCES
1. Dr. John Berardi: G-Flux Simplified. March 3, 2007. The Fitcast Insider www.thefitcastinsider.com. Accessed June 5, 2007.
2. Fallon J. B., V. G. Macefield. Vibration sensitivity of human muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs. Muscle Nerve. 36(1):21-29, 2007.
3. Cui J., V. Mascarenhas, R. Moradkhan, C. Blaha, L. I. Sinoway. Effects of Muscle Metabolites on Responses of Muscle Sympathetic Nerve Activity to Mechanoreceptor(s) Stimulation in Healthy Humans. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol., 2007.
4. [IASP] International Association for the Study of Pain. 2008, Jan 3. IASP home page. http://www.iasp-pain.org. Accessed Jan 3 2008.

5. Dr. Eric Cobb. Personal communication. December 19, 2007.
6. Foam Pressing, 2007, Jim Wendler http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/default.asp?qid=48812&tid=102 Accessed Jan 7, 2008.




Wednesday, January 9, 2008

2008 Excuses

2008 is here and the gyms are filling up fast for the New Year's Resolution Lifters. If you are one of them, congrats on getting there and putting in the time and effort! Kudos to you!

If not or you just need a little motivation, here are some great clips for you.

Make it a great year!


Thanks to AJ Roberts for sending me this one


I never get tired of watching Bolton pull 1,003 pounds!


Seminar was a success
Thanks to all whole attended the Z Health and KB session that Fawn Friday and I did this past Saturday at the Press Gym here in MN! We had a great group of people and it was tons of fun!

Rippetoe speaks
Texas BBQ part 2
By Craig Rasmussen, CSCS from www.EliteFTS.com

Excellent article and very practical advice from Mark Rippetoe. If you have questions on your squat or deadlift when learning, this is a must read. I can't recomend the books "Starting Strength" and "Practical Programming" enough.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Exclusive Kettlebell and Z Health Seminar in Minnesota!


2008 is here already! Time flies.

So it is time to kick off 2008 in style and we are here to help you reach your fitness goals!
Announcing "Exclusive Kettlebell and Z Health Seminar in Minnesota!"

You owe it to yourself to get off your butt and get in the
best shape of your life in 2008. Even better, in this
workshop will give you all of the tools you need to get there.

Saturday Jan 5th from 11am-1pm at the Press Gym in Little Canada.

You can think and talk about gaining strength and losing fat or you can take ACTION and sign up to learn exclusive world-class techniques to help you gain strength, lose fat and move better!

Here's just a little of what we will be covering:

-Learn kettlebell drills from scratch

-Clean up sloppy kettlebell technique

-Learn more about Z Health--an incredible joint mobility system that will
instantly improve your performance and posture.

-Tune up your nervous system (like re-booting your
internal computer!)

What price tag would you put on your New Year's resolution?

There are a very limited number of spots-- first come first serve.

Your entire 2 hour seminar is only $30 per person!

REGISTER NOW by contacting either Mike T Nelson at michaeltnelson@yahoo.com or Fawn Friday at fawnfriday@yahoo.com or via Fawn's phone at 651.755.591 There are still a few spots open.

Brought to you by Mike T Nelson, MS, CSCS, RKC and Fawn Friday, RKC, CFT

Backgrounds
Mike T. Nelson has a BA in Natural Science, a MS in Mechanical Engineering (Biomechanics) and is currently a PhD student in Kinesiology (Exercise Physiology) at the U of MN. He is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) by the NSCA and holds the RKC (Russian Kettlebell Certification). He is currently one of only 30 Z Health Level 4 trainers in the world. He does fitness consulting in White Bear Lake MN. Check out his blog at www.miketnelson.blogspot.com and on the web at www.miketnelson.com

Fawn Friday is a fitness professional specializing in Kettelbells in Little Canada at The Press Gym and has earned the RKC (Russian Kettlebell Certification). Check her out at
www.fawnfriday.com and a link to her blog on the right.