This week - a fun series with a post each day about triathlons.
A triathlon is usually a race, where each competitor swims, bikes, and runs one continuous effort. The first person to finish all three is considered the course time-winner. The order is often swim first, then bike, then run, although order can change depending on the length and kind of course, and opinions of the officiating body.
Some triathlons are relays. One person enters each part, for example the first person swims, then their teammate continues the run. A race consisting of a run, bike, then run again is considered a duathlon, even though the competitors do three parts. "Run-bike" and other duathlons will be covered in future posts, as will summer and winter biathlons.
The first modern triathlon was possibly a race in 1920 or so, in France, called "Les Trois Sports" (the three sports). Within that decade, several more three-event races of various distances and names followed.
In the 1980s, different big triathlons became more popular - including the several Ironman distance races and comparable races, called full triathlon and long distance, by other organizations. The "Ironman" brand and name is highly protected and can't be used by anyone else, a topic for another post. These are usually 3800 m swim (2.4 miles), 180 km bike (112 mi), and 42.2 km run (26.2 mi). In 2005, the World Triathlon Corporation started the Ironman 70.3, also known as a Half Ironman.
Triathlon became an Olympic event at the Sydney Games in 2000. Olympic Distance is considered a short triathlon - 1500 m swim (0.93 mi), 40 km bike, (24.8 mi), 10 km run (6.2 mi). The Olympic Triathlon is about half the bike and run distance, and a slightly shorter swim, of what is usually called a half-triathlon.
The many other triathlon events can vary in length and level of organization, depending what is available to the organizers. Distances may conform to standardized organizational rules, or vary with whatever length the available course allows. A kids' summer camp may use their pool or lake and a dirt road, track, or field nearby. A town may organize their waterways or harbor and roads. Sometimes the world comes together to host international events.
In some smaller-scale races, participants can show up on race day, sign up, and go. Larger races require registration and briefings before race day. Big triathlons require qualifying times in previous races and large entrance fees.
Read success stories of Fitness Fixer methods and readers, and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. See class schedules, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Photo 1 - Emma Snowsill wins in Beijing, image by Getty Images via Daylife Photo 2 of winner at Southeast Asian Games 2005 via Wikipedia
"I enjoy the all day exercises using squat and lunge for my daily activities. Thank you for sharing your philosophy.
"However, those exercises are mainly for lower body. I would like to ask if there are good all day exercises for upper body parts i.e., shoulder, neck.
"I found some stretches for shoulder and neck that you introduced.
"Thank you and best regards, Vietanh"
This is a great question and understanding that fitness is something that you do during real life. In gyms and health centers, even therapy settings where people are going there for the purpose of fixing and increasing function, they sit waiting in terrible unhealthful positioning - photo at right - waiting for a class or activity for health. I have read fitness books saying the posterior shoulder is "difficult to target." Hold your shoulders straight, rather than letting them slump forward. You will get built in upper body functional exercise. Apply this to exercise, to lifting, sitting, sewing, all you do.
Look at your many hours each day of real life - when you prevent round shoulders with retraction to neutral, you are getting upper back extension exercise. When you sit and bend and lift right instead of rounding forward, you get healthful, functional upper and mid range back extension. When you use neutral spine to walk, run, kick, and jump, by extending at the hip instead of allowing the lower spine to increase in arch passively into hyperlordosis, you get healthful lower back extension and abdominal exercise at the same time. It is the abdominal muscles that will flex you forward to straight, rather than overarched. They only do this when you deliberately use them. Strengthening alone does not create movement to healthful position. Healthful positioning strengthens and gives exercise. Look at the photo above again and see that how you really live, not a gym, is your exercise and health.
Apply upper body muscle use for function in daily life:
Using upper back muscles to prevent rounding forward in round shoulders gives continuous built in exercise. This is not forcing, just mobile, comfortable muscle use. How are you sitting while reading this?
There is more to this excellent question. Will come in future posts.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
For weightlifters who enjoy Olympic lifts, rows, cable cross-overs, curls, and all the other good stuff with endless heavy weight, you may like growing vegetables.
We have been tilling a vegetable garden from a rocky field at my Mom's. Seems her home was built on landfill. We had to sledge-hammer and pry concrete slabs - prodigious squatting, levering, clean-and-jerking, and hundred pound medicine ball throws over the just-built garden fence into a pile. Then lifting and hauling away the pile.
Carrying sand, earth, rocks, weed bales, tree branches as heavy as you can lift, over uneven rocky hilly earth back and forth from the truck, the field, and the new compost pile a hundred feet away for hours is functional weightlifting. Hours of repetition-maximum (RM) hoeing gives a harder abdominal, arm, and gluteal workout than it looks.
Healthline software still isn't uploading my own photos. At left above, a photo of a statue with too much lumbar curve/hyperlordosis to be healthy, but in general doing functional weightlifting. Use your muscles to prevent overarching like this when you swing a sledge, a kettlebell, or other weight. For Fitness Fixer posts on neutral spine and hyperlordosis, click the photo or here.
Over the winter while visiting home in Asia, my husband Paul and I went to a workman's shop. The store-keeps remembered us and smiled. The first time we went there years ago, they were so sure we were lost tourists, they took our shoulder and gestured at a restaurant. In the best Thai I could manage, I explained that Paul is a carpenter, has done forge metal work, and loves old-world tools, strong bamboo handles, and hand-hammered metal. They smile each year we return. In the US, we live in a crowded urban area with minimal bricked exterior in deep shade from surrounding buildings. Vegetable gardens don't grow. Paul wanted to plant my Mother's field - a brambled overgrown area.
In the Thai tool store, I explained with the words I knew that Paul was looking for a specific Thai tool, shaped like a backward shovel, that you use in overhead action, like a mattock (flat bladed pick).
Quickly, excitedly, word went from the store-keep, to her friend in the next shop, to the next, and next:
"Man who good to Mother of wife!"
The coconut telegraph was happy. We bought two heavy tools, called "job" in Thai. Both had thick lovely bamboo handles. One was giant sized for Paul, the other for me. Fun getting them through flights and US customs.
Mom had asked a local man what it would take to clear her field, and he told her a blowtorch, a machine plow, three men, and a week. Paul and I cleared it in one day in early April with a digging stick and the Thai hoe-shovels. The ground was half frozen. Six, or so hours massive exertion - first clearing brush and tall grasses, then hours of half-squats to seize handfuls of stalks, standing back up to pull them with grip strength. Then excavating slabs of concrete and discarded materials with a pry bar, the Thai digging tools, and bare armed weight lifting.
The packs of seeds we had scattered in assorted flowerpots, pans, shoeboxes, and containers sprouted over just a week into tiny plants - broccoli, cabbage, pea, hot and sweet peppers, strawberries, eggplants, and assorted spices. We have been learning about complementary planting - plants, just like people, who are better and healthier with specific other kinds of plants so that chemical fertilizer isn't needed. We are learning about plants that repel pests, instead of using insecticides.
We got a rain barrel to reduce water bills. We attached an old broken hose. The holes made it a natural soaker hose. We poked more holes and arranged it around the garden for drip irrigation. We don't know the water quality of either the rain or from the tap. We will send six dollars and a soil sample to an agricultural university for testing. Maybe other toxic things are in that landfill that we don't want the vegetables absorbing. Maybe commercial food factories have the same problem. Many things to learn.
Weeks pass squatting and sitting well to plant seedlings, still hitting buried rubble. More lifting and hauling. Each night we are too tired to worry or think anything bad. We are barely were able to lift hands and feet. I consider what people for thousands of years have been doing just for subsistence farming, day after day, year after year. I thought of Fitness Fixer success story Ivy and her story - Farm Work, Lifestyle Exercise, and Preventing Overuse Pain.
We thought we planted everything, then found a half pack of pea seeds left. Paul mentioned we didn't have one more container for them. I laughed, "we didn't have a pot to pea in."
Ideas:
If you're a tough vital strong person, or want to be, dig a garden.
If you don't have anywhere to dig one, hook up with some nice elder who wants one, a community group, Habitat for Humanity, or someone who doesn't want to exercise like this but still wants a garden.
Contact your community to see about organizing parents and children out in sunshine for functional exercise doing good for all.
If you only want one hour a day of hard total body fat burning muscle building exercise, only plant a small vegetable garden.
No need to buy fancy tools, use what's handy.
If you don't want to exercise so hard, try a single pack of seeds in some potting soil in almost any container on a sunny windowsill. A chance to get the vegetables you like.
Fancy individual peat pots and seed starters aren't essential; a simple pack of seeds can get you a pan full of fragrant oregano, said to be very healthful. It gives a gasp of wonder (to me) when seedlings actually sprout.
Before the 2008 election, a video appeared by Roger Doiron (I don't know him, just liked the video). He asked the next President to grow a garden. It did come true. Here is his viewpoint of getting your own garden started, showing various bending, occasionally good:
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Fast Fitness - Add Balance, Stability, and Portability to Military Press - Handstand Pushups
Friday, April 17, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - If you like lifting weight overhead for upper body strength, you don't need to wait to go to a gym, or to get weights or equipment.
Get more exercise, practice balance, and shoulder and arm stability, with handstand dips:
Do a handstand against a wall. An easy way is to stand with your back about a foot or so from a wall, crouch down and put one foot, then the other, high on the wall.
With good judgment, do upside down pushups (dips).
Vary the depth of each dip, speed of each, speed you can do a number of dips, and distance of your hands from the wall to vary the exercise.
Robert Davis sent in his video of how to do handstand pushups. Blogger is still having trouble uploading visuals. Click this link to watch it:
he writes, "I replaced the military press with this. It is portable for one! Ever notice how pronounced male gymnasts shoulders and arms are? They do things like this:) "
Robert was a weightlifter who hurt his back with conventional lifting (bad bending and overarching the lower spine). He rehabbed quickly with Fitness Fixer techniques and has been sending in his success stories one after the next. He writes:
"This was not a very problematic exercise as I had been used to destroying my shoulders with mega high weight LOL. But this is different because of the engagement of muscle groups that control stabilization.
"But yeah, I have been doing that in place of military press and see how it is more beneficial as the stabilizers have to kick in more then being benched or using a machine.
"Once again thank you and I think people should really listen to you. I am glad I did because I have no need to go in to get scanned or be told I need surgery or something silly ;)
"Like I said I am not into pro body building, I just did it to stay "fit" and look fit as I thought it was. But after going thru this, it is not all that functional to pound out reps of heavy weight and not be able to do a plank or walk/sit straight. I lifted enough just to have "lean muscle" but not to be huge. But I realize now this is easily done safely with your methods and I do not need a gym."
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.See Dr. Bookspan's Books. ---
Fast Fitness - Straighten and Stretch Hip While Strengthening Core, Arms, Legs, and Balance
Friday, March 27, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Increase strength and muscular endurance of your body working as a whole, and learn to keep neutral spine and good hip position against resistance.
From a pushup position, turn to the side, raising one arm overhead, holding legs and body straight.
Raise your top leg. Notice if you increase the inward curve of your lower back (overarch to hyperlordosis) and if you bring the leg forward - demonstrated in the upper photo.
Instead, hold straight. To feel position, practice against a wall - demonstrated in the lower photo. Bring the back of the raised leg against the wall. Press your lower back closer toward the wall instead of letting it overarch from the weight of your leg pulling the spine.
The idea is to use the wall as a guide to learn positioning, then use your muscles and sense of positioning to hold straight without the wall from then onward.
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
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Fast Friday - Oblique Core Strength and Balance on the Ball
Friday, March 20, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - develop strong side abdominal and back muscles, and train balance at the same time:
Put both hands on the floor and step one foot up onto an exercise ball of any size
Step the other foot up to the ball and turn sideways. Hold straight (upper photo). Hold and feel all abdominal and back muscles working strongly to hold yourself straight.
Work up to raising one arm.
Don't let body sag (lower photo). The idea is to train your muscles to be able to hold straight against the resistance of your own body weight during daily life when walking and everything you do. If your muscles don't have the strength or endurance to hold you, then you will sag onto your joints.
At first, you may need help to steady the ball. Practice until you can steady it with your own muscles, balance, and stability.
Instead of sitting on an exercise ball, remember that you might already sit much of the day. Get up and use an exercise ball for more functional, active, and healthful things.
Send in your photos of your fun successes using the ball in ways that train function. Exercise ball success story already in progress from Robert Davis. See his first story - Fixed Injuries, Got Strong, With Functional Exercise.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right.
Fast Fitness - Even More Core With No Forward Bending
Friday, March 13, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - build on a previous Fast Fitness for increased strength of body and core. Strengthen almost everything with this fun move.
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Read inspiring success stories of these methods and send your own.For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. For personal evaluation take a Class. For top students, certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.
Grace didn't have a lifetime of track and field experience. She lived a life of real movement, called functional exercise, raising 11 children and doing chores. She decided to run a race. One month later, she ran the race and broke a world record.
A video should appear below of Grace Foster. Click the small, right-pointing arrow at bottom-left of the video box to watch her straight body positioning, the race, and her happy family.
Grace exercises daily, stretches, eats healthful food. Other racing record holders over age 90 will be featured in future articles.
Get moving, stay moving, be happy. It keeps you vital, more with each year.
Click the labels, aging, running, and spirit under this post. Labels give all Fitness Fixer posts about that topic. The label video-movie shows all Fitness Fixer posts containing a video to watch and enjoy learning how to be happy and fit.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. SeeDr. Bookspan's books.
Hold a straight pushup position. Extend one leg 90 degrees out to the side. Your foot and knee point straight to the front.
Keep that leg and foot parallel to ground, not sagging downward to the floor.
Do pushups keeping the leg held straight out to the side and off the floor.
Keep your back straight (demonstrated center) in neutral spine. Don't allow lower spine or neck to droop under your weight, to prevent compressive spine sagging (gray t-shirt right foreground). See how in Fast Fitness - Strengthen by Changing Your Plank.
Readers - send in your mpeg movies of doing this and all your other successes.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. LimitedClass spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply for certification -DrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more with Dr. Bookspan's Books,
When I was in the military, we ran. A lot. Every day. I love to run fast. When we ran, we sang. What did we sing? What they told us to sing - How much we loved to run. How much we loved everything about the military. Why? It kept us from saying what we were thinking. Military cadences have long been used for physical training. These are the Jody Calls.
The origin of the Jody Calls is usually given around World War II, but chanting, sea shanties, group mantras and hymns, and others have been known for centuries. It is generally thought that group unison music reduces perceived exertion, allowing greater effort toward the common goal.
I am a career physiology researcher in extreme environments. That means I spend much time directly testing humans to see what they can do, then how to make them better at it. Doing experimental and research work personally, makes it easier to know if what you hear about fitness is true, or just another of countless repeated myths. Even doctors learn from books that are often not primary sources, just repeated by someone else who learned it in school, repeated from a non-primary source.
In the military, and since then, the Jody Calls interested me. I wanted to know if chanting and singing really make the work of running easier, or just make it seem easier, or perhaps even use more oxygen and is actually more work than running without singing. I did many laboratory experiments on Jody calls.
Some of the experiments I conducted involved running troops on treadmills at different speeds, with specially fitted masks, so that they could chant into the mask, or just breathe regularly for control tests. I collected their expired air (what they breathed out) and analyzed it for oxygen usage and carbon dioxide production, a measure of the work of running. I compared oxygen usage with chanting and without.
Why are U.S. military chants called Jody Calls? There are many stories, usually involving a civilian character named Jody or Jodie, who stayed home when you left… you left… you left… right… left….
Below, hopefully sound file will appear. Turn your computer sound on, and click the arrow to listen to one stereotype call of the U.S. Marine Corps:
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Partner 1 (white uniform) does biceps curls and other lifts using partner 2's weight.
Partner 2 uses core and whole body strength and endurance to hold straight positioning. Partner 2 can face up, down or sideways, in each case using appropriate muscles to maintain straight position. Breathe normally.
This Fast Fitness can be done with willing friends, children, pets, and furniture.
Partner 1 uses core and abdominal muscles to stand with neutral spine rather than leaning backward, and whole body strength to support weight of partner 2.
It is a myth that you must lean back to offset a carried load. You get intense and functional abdominal muscle workout by using them to pull you forward to neutral standing position.
I once used this exercise of holding straight horizontal position (partner 2's part) while helping out a friend who is a stage magician. I filled in for his absent assistant for the floating lady illusion. I was too tall for the apparatus. It usually holds your body out flat using struts reaching from head to thigh. It reached only to my midback. I wound up holding my weight myself, from hips to feet - high above the stage - while trying to look hypnotized. More on this, someday, in another post.
I make posts from fun mail. Before asking more questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
Fast Friday - Functional Oblique Abdominal Muscle Practice - Holding Straight
Friday, February 06, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - use your oblique abdominal muscles functionally - to hold yourself straight against resistance:
Stretch out on the floor. Turn to the side, standing on one hand and one foot
Hold straight as long as you can. Don't sag. Feel how to hold yourself straight and relaxed.
For more, raise the top leg. Keep body straight, instead of bending forward at the hip. Don't increase the inward curve at the lower spine when you raise the leg. Keep neutral spine.
Photo is of one of my students, Dr. Hanley Owen, a physician from Fairbanks Alaska, who took a workshop with me at the Wilderness Medical Society meeting 2008. Check my web site CLASS page for workshops this summer - DrBookspan.com/classes.
Instead of curling forward and sideways to exercise abdominal muscles, this drill retrains oblique abdominal the way you need them in real life - to keep you straight instead of slouching to the front or side when carrying shoulder bags and other loads, including yourself.
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Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links and archives. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
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Fast Fitness - High Core Strength For The New Year
Friday, January 02, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - a quick fun one to fulfill New Year's Resolutions for increased strength of body and core. Strengthen almost everything with this fun move that my students affectionately call "peeing dog" -
Hold a straight pushup position. Keep elbows slightly bent, not locked.
Lift one leg straight out to the side, as if over a bicycle. Hold as long as you can. Jump to switch other leg out to the other side.
Hold neutral spine throughout (pictured at center). Don't let lower spine or neck droop under your weight (gray shirt second from right). This post shows how - Fast Fitness - Strengthen by Changing Your Plank.
Send your photos or short movies of your successes doing this. Coming soon - an even more fun and challenging maneuver once you can do this one.
Photo is from my workshop at the 2007 International Black Belt Hall of Fame.
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Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links and archives. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer -Click "updates via e-mail" - (trumpet icon) upper right.
The Shinobi no Mono, or the Ninja of old Japan, were renowned for their running speed and endurance.
Running drills called "ashi" (foot or feet) were an important part of Ninjutsu physical training. Try this basic Ninja ashi, or running drill:
Put a straw hat on your chest.
Run without holding the hat with your hands or other fastening.
Run so fast that the hat does not fall - this requires keeping a minimum speed for the duration of the ashi drill.
Where is the photo? He (or she - there were female Ninjas) must have run by so fast you didn't see. We are still working on the problem of photos not uploading. Healthline staffer Jerry has been helping to upload several photos for posts to come. Thankyou Jerry.
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Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links and archives, and labels under posts. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Have The Fitness Fixer e-mailed to you, free. Click "updates via e-mail" - Health Expert Updates (trumpet icon) upper right column.
Tour De France 2008 and Increasing Aerobic Capacity
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
The Tour de France is a 23-day bicycle race. This year it runs from July 5 to 27, 2008. It is a stage race, broken into individual races, from one town to another. The number of stages has varied over years since the tour began in 1903. Course distance runs approximately 3,000 km (1,864 mi) through most of France and often through one or more adjoining countries.
Some of the essence of "le Tour" was incorporated in the synthpop song "Tour de France," a 1983 hit single by the German group Kraftwerk. They put the motto of France in krautrock (krautrock is considered a fun and positive term by enthusiasts): Liberté, égalité, fraternité, French for liberty, equality, good company - which is the point of much of the race.
The Tour de France is a difficult event. Even with light bicycles designed for each stage, it is still grueling. Athletes must train for exceptional aerobic ability.
Cardiovascular endurance, also called aerobic capacity, determines how long you can continue activity at your chosen pace. When you exercise, your body needs more oxygen, so your cells extract more of the oxygen your blood provides. Aerobically fit people can extract more oxygen when exercising, and so, can do more exercise. Average exercise needs about 10 times more oxygen supplied to your active tissues, than at rest. Heavy exercise can increase need to around twenty times. If you do not have high enough capacity from training, you will be too out of breath to continue. World-class athletes have been recorded to reach over 30 times their resting rate.
With regular endurance activities, such as biking, running, swimming, your body makes many changes that improve function. You increase blood volume, the number of oxygen-carrying blood cells, expand the network of blood vessels, reduce incidence of vessels clogged with fatty deposits, increase number of cellular organelles and enzymes your body uses to process oxygen into energy, and other physical improvements, to be covered in future posts.
Breathing in more oxygen won't increase your ability to extract more oxygen. For that you need training. When your body senses it needs more oxygen than it is getting - during hard aerobic exercise or exposure to altitude - the kidneys secretes a natural human hormone called erythropoietin (EPO). EPO stimulates the bone marrow to make more red blood cells. Everyone can do this on their own through regular aerobic training. When some people want more EPO, they may try blood transfusions, called Transfusion Doping, an illegal procedure to increase maximum oxygen carrying ability. They may also inject various kinds of synthetic human erythropoietin. Whether having the money and access to these substances is fair play is topic of many debates in sports ethics. More important is that they are not healthy. Blood can thicken and cell count increases to a dangerous level leading to cardiac problems. Deaths have occurred in young athletes from blood doping practices. There have been experiments with artificial oxygen carriers based on recombinant, bovine (cow), and human hemoglobin or perfluorocarbons. These substances have potentially lethal side effects including renal toxicity, increased blood pressure, and immune depression. Champions don't need them. You don't need them.
Posts to come will cover more on performance enhancement, drugs, supplements, Le Tour and other bike races, The Olympics and other events. Posts on supplements and performance enhancing drugs:
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Train children's balance and grip strength, use your legs, and have family fun.
Have young children sit on your feet, and hang on (sensibly, parent's permission, and all that). Babies are born with a grasping reflex and are stronger than you may expect.
Do any variety of walking, marching, dancing, and range of motion, while standing, or sitting, while they act as natural strength and endurance trainers and floor dusters.
Teach sharing, enjoyment, physical skills, personal interaction, and all the good you can think of.
Outside of all the debates of whether leg weights are helpful or not, fun activity with your family can develop many strengths.
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - How to know what heart rate will give you a cardiovascular training effect.
Several formulas calculate exact heart ranges and "target heart rates." There are a variety of commercial (expensive) heart rate monitors. Arguments in sports medicine continue on which is the right formula and if heart rates in water or at elevation can be calculated the same way. These issues will be covered in posts to come. For now:
Your body is smart. Heart rate generally follows "perceived exertion." If you feel your running or other exercise pace is moderate, your heart rate is likely to be at a moderate training range. If it feels light, then heart rate will likely be too low to give much training effect.
Find something you enjoy enough to continue more than ten minutes at a time.
Keep a pace that you feel is moderate to hard, depending how you like it.
If your running or other exercise pace feels moderate, it is also moderate for your cardiovascular system. If it feels hard, your heart and body and mostly likely working hard for your current level If it feels light, then it is too light to give much training effect.
--- Read and contribute success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. For personal evaluation take a Class. Top students can apply to become certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
November 1 is World Vegan Day, and all of November is celebrated as Vegan month.
Vegans are vegetarians who don't eat, and often don't wear, any products from animals. The idea is no more unusual than not wanting to hurt, wear, or eat your pets. Vegan living can be healthier, and vegan diet can fuel both endurance and strength athletes.
Vegans and vegetarians have been found to have lower body fat on average than non-vegetarians, and lower risk of diabetes. A new study by The World Cancer Research Fund making big news as "a landmark study" found that keeping slim is one of the best ways of preventing cancer, and that evidence is stronger than previously realized that eating meat, and processed meats such as ham and bacon, increase risk of colorectal cancer. The report makes 10 recommendations including getting exercise every day, drinking water rather than sugary drinks, and eating fruit, vegetables, and fiber. There is no fiber in meat, dairy, or eggs. Vegan meals can provide enough calcium to prevent osteoporosis. See Exercise is More Important Than Calcium Supplements for Bones and Stomach Acid Drugs Increase Osteoporosis and Hip Fractures.
Vegans may promote farm sanctuaries and work for better ways than vivisection (hurtful testing on animals). The argument is not if you would rather that a child not get needed medicine rather than test on an animal, the quest is for neither to suffer, and find smarter, healthier ways for all. Significant examples exist of tests based on animal physiology that were ineffective or injurious when applied to humans in need.
Vegan bodybuilder Kenneth G. Williams is pictured above and at right. His web site is www.VeganMusclePower.org.
In the tradition of fighting monks, Chris Price is a vegan Muay Thai and mixed martial arts fighter. His web site is http://www.veganfighter.com/
Helpful Book: Healthy Martial Arts - Healthier training for all sports, featuring vegetarian and vegan athletes. Chapters on strength, endurance, speed, balance, nutrition, performance enhancement, injuries, building the spirit and the mind.
Diabetes causes such serious health problems that the risk of death is twice as high for someone with diabetes compared to someone of similar age without. More than 20 million people in the US have diabetes (colloquially called "the sugar" disease) with 2 million a year more cases diagnosed every year. Exercise has been found to be a top factor to prevent and treat diabetes.
Three main types of diabetes are type 1, type 2, and gestational.
Type 1 diabetes, where the body does not make enough insulin (in the body organ called the pancreas), is treated with injected or inhaled insulin, although nutrition and exercise changes are a fundamental part of management.
An estimated 90–95% of cases of diabetes in North American are type 2. Type 2 diabetes is also called non insulin-dependent diabetes and obesity-related diabetes. Type 2 was rare until modern sedentary habits combined with mass sales of unhealthful food.
Gestational diabetes is generally a form of type 2 during pregnancy.
In the recent past, type 2 diabetes developed only in adults as they gained weight, reduced activity, and increased packaged, commercial, unhealthful foods. An escalating phenomenon of type 2 diabetes in children is now occurring.
Approximately 85% percent of adults and children diagnosed with type 2 are overweight and less active than they could be. Type 2 is increasingly being found to be best treated with more fun movement and less bad food, a win-win situation.
Several studies have found that exercise and healthier diet are more effective than medicine for people with type 2 diabetes. A recent randomized controlled Canadian study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that people with type 2 diabetes who began exercising developed better blood sugar control, both from aerobic exercise and resistance training. Not exercising yielded no improvements in sugar control. People who combined aerobic exercise and also lifted weights had the biggest improvement. It is not known in this study if results occurred because of the type of exercise mattered, or because the duration of exercise was greater in the combined exercise training group. According to an editorial co-published with the study, "Doctors should prescribe exercise to all type 2 diabetes patients who are healthy enough to work out."
In the past people with diabetes and diabetes-related complications were discouraged from exercise. However, exercise has been known in the past, with recent substantiating studies, to be the top factor to prevent and reverse diabetic problems. According to William Kraus, MD, of Duke University Medical Center, "Failing to prescribe exercise to patients with diabetes is simply unacceptable practice."
Things To Help
You do not need a gym or special clothes or equipment to get aerobic or weight lifting exercise.
Go outdoors for a break every day that you can, for fresh air, sunshine, and fun movement.
For both active and resistance exercise indoors and out, remember that daily healthful movement easily accumulates from your healthy bending, balancing while dressing, taking the stairs, and other daily real life movement.
Have fun - skate, bowl, cycle, walk, go dancing, gardening, shoot hoops, take food to shut-ins and get them moving too, with improvised exercise of moving arms and legs, clapping, singing, and having fun.
For fun exercise-as-lifestyle ideas, check through lists of Fitness Fixer posts, linked at the right of each article.
My post Hyperbarics for Diabetic Foot Injury gives more information on preventing amputations from diabetic wounds, and lists some of the ways that exercise reverses the contributors and complications of diabetes.
There is great hope. Have fun making a new healthier life.
A New Zealand swimmer asked for more sports nutrition. Here is Friday Fast Fitness - quick, good tasting sports shakes - cheaper and healthier than store-bought.
My father and grandfather, (and great-grandfather+) were Ice Swimmers. We all swam all year in open water including several over 20 miles (32km). My grandfather's sure-power recipe was an oily mixture (for future posts). When I raced competitively, I swam 5-7 miles a day, 35-40 miles a week (up to 64km/week). The coach pushed the common fad of eating Jello powder. As a vegetarian I skipped it, and watched other vogue sports food assumptions come and go. Best is real food.
Throw in a blender or other mixer:
Clean water
Peeled banana
Peeled orange with the seeds
Some of the well-washed orange peel
Raw walnuts or other favorite
Some cooked brown rice left from a meal
Sweeten with raisins or a prune softened in clean water. Molasses optional. Adds many minerals.
Cinnamon powder to level blood sugar
Tips:
For the day of the event, you can substitute tea for the water.
Experiment with amounts to get preferred consistency
If you want a chocolate shake, add a scoop of unsweetened cocoa powder (unsweetened non-dutched baking cocoa). People with migraine can leave out the cocoa.
Don't junk it up with milk, sugar, artificial sweeteners, commercial sports powders.
If you use a juicer, put the solids and pulp back in, or you will be drinking sugar water and throwing away the point and the nutrition.
Try different fruit - Persimmons, mangosteen, pineapple, melon, berries, your favorite. Raw red beets are an overlooked sweet fitness food good in shakes.
For flavors, add a small slice of unpeeled ginger root, washed mint leaves.
"The water temp now (has risen to) 14 degrees Celsius (57F) and I had a robust swim this afternoon in Wellington Harbour (photo below right). Interestingly enough there was virtually no shivering. I'd swum for about an hour and a half in the pool earlier today.
"I was struck by the difference between pool and ocean swimming... technically I've improved tremendously in the pool over the past few weeks and my times have improved greatly. In the ocean it's much harder -- but I felt faster nonetheless.
"I am not a fast swimmer -- in fact, at this point I am still too slow to pass Phil's test -- but I can feel I'm making progress. I've been able to hold a pace of 2.5 km/hour for a few hours, and this has been an improvement from a measly 2 km/hour not very long ago. And I'll be up to 25 km/week by the end of this month (about 15.5 miles a week - longer and generally more work swimming than running).
"My plan is to increase weekly mileage to 40 km (approx 25 miles) per week by the end of November and then to make a push through to 50 km/week (about 31 miles) by the end of December -- the 'crunch' month. I'll attempt to renter the open waters by mid-November and begin reacclimatization to the cold. With luck and persistence, I'll be granted the privilege of attempting the Cook Strait swim.
"I met with Phil Rush -- the man who has crossed the Strait seven times (including a double-crossing) and who holds the world's record for a triple crossing of the English Channel. He will be piloting the support boat for my attempt, which will hopefully be in February 2008. His advice: swim, swim, swim… then be ready to take a 6-hour test in early January. In the test I will have to demonstrate that I can sustain at least a 3 km/hour pace for the 6 hours. He told me I'd have to figure out the kind of sustenance I'd need on my own, and he recommended that I not try to gain too much weight -- though he cautioned not to lose any from this point on. He also suggested that I procure the skills of a swim coach to refine technique (Fitness Fixer posts in progress on faster healthier stroke mechanics for swimming).
"Any advice on nutrition or cross-training would be appreciated. Because I also have a full-time job, time is tight and hours in the water are limited. I've experimented with a commercial product (name deleted) for multi-hour endurance activities that's easy on the stomach."
I am not a nutrient biochemistry or epidemiology researcher, so I can only report what I have read from others, which can inadvertently repeat and perpetuate wrong information incestuously (we all say so, it must be true). Following is a summary of what I believe and have seen from working with my patients and athletes:
In general, good nutrition all year will give more benefit than eating special foods for an event, race, or hike.
Processed packaged sports supplement foods cost far more than the ingredients, and you can get healthier ingredients, cheaper, and just as easily without commercial sports powders, bars, drinks, and other preparations.
Many nutrients need to work in the original food containing other components that make each part work better. Some do not work, or have even been found to increase health risks when concentrated in vitamin and mineral supplements.
In general, no commercial processed "sports food," no matter how engineered or marketed as effective for training, will give you the health of healthful real food. Whole foods, for example, a simple apple with the skin, contain combinations of nutritional and disease fighting chemicals that are not available in supplements.
"Energy food" technically means it has calories. Extra calories alone will not enable you to build muscle or win a race.
Increasingly, some "energy food" and drinks contain stimulant compounds. This practice is a foolhardy one to become accustomed to, building cycles of inability to focus, exercise, or feel well without them, and varying degrees of agitation with them, sleep difficulties, and various cardiovascular risks.
Products with soy are usually unfermented soy. Unfermented soy contains enzyme inhibitors which block digestion, goitrogens which inhibit thyroid function, phytic acid, which blocks minerals like zinc and calcium, and estrogen-promoting compounds. Anyone with tendency to estrogen-dependent tumors or cancer, fibroids, cystic ovary and breast, or endometriosis will be better to avoid unfermented soy.
Even if sugar water will extend endurance, it is still junk food, not healthy for the long term. Science Daily reports "Sports drinks face junk food label"
Protein and carbohydrate together work better for training than sugar alone, however commercial processed powdered mixtures are still not the healthy choice over the long term.
This is all good news. You can eat good tasting food, that is quick to make, and cheaper and better for you than expensive commercial "sports food."
Don't worry that you have to eat engineered products to be able to win. You will win better in the long run without them.
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - for clean, healthy, fresh energy food for hiking, exercise, and sports, and October Vegetarian Month - Easy peanut butter in your own kitchen:
Put fresh, raw peanuts, or other favorite like walnuts, in a bowl and crush them for arm exercise with any kitchen pounding tool. Or use a chopper, grinder, blender, coffee grinder, or other processor.
Crush to powder, depending how chunky you want it.
Mash in apple cubes to make moist, creamy sweet peanut butter. Spice with cinnamon if you want.
Spread on apple, carrot, and other fruit and vegetable slices. Make it portable by stuffing inside raw sweet green and red peppers, in sandwich and wraps (non-grain eaters can make tasty wraps from leafy greens). Use for toppings.
Vary the combination - try almonds mashed with pears. Sunflower seeds or walnut and banana. Sesame seeds and figs. Make with a friend for healthy social fun. Exercise your imagination for healthy sports food.
One of my areas of injury research for both Army and Navy aeromedical systems was preventing back pain from running. Disease Non-Battle Injuries (DNBI) from exercising in the gym and doing PT is a huge military issue - grounding far more personnel than combat casualty.
I ran several studies and found that overarching (hyperlordosis) is a major overlooked cause of lower back pain - some examples are shown in the post Prevent Back Surgery.
I developed a simple method for people with this kind of back pain to understand and reverse the cause of pain themselves, with simple repositioning to neutral spine instead of overarching. It was unexpected news to some groups who have been taught to overarch, and who deliberately tilt the backside far out in back for exercise. But it was welcome relief for my guys who liked to joke that they were my STRACguys - combat slang for 'stupid troops running around in circles.'
I wrote a little training manual that went through several improvements to become the book, The Ab Revolution™ No More Crunches No More Back Pain. The book has two parts. The first shows how to stop back pain during various standing activity in daily life, both non-active and active, including running. The second part gives ways to exercise core muscles in healthier ways.
Reader Ted found the book and put it to immediate use to stop years of disabling back pain and return to running. Ted wrote:
"I am 57 years old and have weighed 175-lbs for the last 10-years (which drives my doctor nuts). I discovered running in 1969, after gaining weight when I entered college. The track at the University was fenced in, so we'd slide under the fence to run it. I jogged for six years, then raced for another ten years. I wasn't a fast runner, but I hit the legendary ''Second Wind'' on many occasions - you feel like you could Run Forever.......No Time....No Distance.....Just You and the Road.........it is a Mystical Experience....
"I tore out my ankle ligaments in 1980, and had to rehab for a year 'til I could start running again. I have run carrying 2 1/2-lb hand weights for the last 22 years. In 1989, I tore my back. It hurt, then the pain subsided, but flared up every so often."
The only way Ted had then to "cure the pain" was to stop running. Ted continued:
"In 2005 I REALLY hurt it, went into spasms (my wife had taken me shopping for eight hours, and I still blame this on being taken shopping), and the pain made me look back fondly on the Ligament Tear of 1980. After that, it was an All the Time Thing. Running dropped to twice a week (if that) and the slightest thing would trigger a back spasm. I accidentally came upon Dr Bookspan's ''Ab Revolution'' and 'mistakenly' bought it as an exercise book. It's more of a Way of Life, just like running.
"I have been pain-free (amazing) for 12-weeks and counting. I have increased my running to 4-5 days a week. Not having my back killing me is more than I could have hoped for. I thought my running days were over, and I would have missed them.......A LOT.
"The funny part was, I had gotten so used to the pain, it took about three DAYS for me to realize it WASN'T hurting. I cannot recommend the techniques in this book enough to other runners, If you can do The Thing You Love, why WOULDN'T you try this?"
What specifically did Ted do to fix the pain? He writes:
"The two techniques (in the book) I got the results from were the Standing Beginning Crunch with the hands facing each other, and the Where is My Belt Pointing? technique."
I will ask Ted what's going on with his knee in the photo he sent for this post, and what we can do to fix that up next. I will cover more on back pain after running, and also hope to post some other interesting work I did on the military running chants called jody calls or jodies, and their effect on perceived exertion during running. Click the label military fitness, below, to see my work on this. Check back often for more.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
A standard recommendation for back pain is to stand with one foot up, or in front of the other. Why? Pubs often have a foot rail to put your foot up. Why? This post shows 1. A major missed cause of the pain, 2. An innovative relief, 3. The missing link of what abdominal muscles actually do.
1. The Cause If you stand with your behind tilted out in back (middle) and/or lean the upper body backward (right), you increase the normal inward arch in the lower spine.
Overarching produces a mystery ache after long standing, walking, running, and lifting overhead. People who do this feel they must bend forward or sit to relieve this pain, or put one foot up. These movements reduce the painful arch. The pain reduces, and may later return when the person returns to injurious bad slouching (standing in hyperlordosis).
Often no injury shows on x-rays or scans. The person may be told nothing is wrong. Or that they have a back "condition." They many be told to strengthen their muscles, or improve endurance, or given pain suppressing medicine. Those do not stop the source of the injury. Over years, the facet joints (joints of the vertebrae) may finally wear out. Sometimes other things show on x-rays and the patient is treated for the scan results, the pain masked with drugs or returning mysteriously because this cause went unaddressed. Injections and surgery are frequently prescribed, but not necessary. Why not?
2. The Relief The latest "buzz-phrase" in fitness is that back and abdominal muscle endurance, more than strength, is important in solving back pain. However, that still leaves out the key - improving endurance with conventional core training does not train you to stand without overarching. It is not automatic.
The innovation is not a new pill, device, or footrest, or to improve strength or endurance with crunches (not good for your back anyway), or to work on one particular muscle, for example the overrated multifidus. The innovation is to stop the source of the pain then and there, by reducing the over-arch to normal, small inward curve called neutral spine, with simple spine repositioning.
The left photo shows overarching. It is not the normal curve to the lower spine. The silhouette of the lower back is hidden by the arm, but you can see the beltline tilted downward in front and the hip tilted forward in front and out in back. The length of the abs is roughly marked by distance between the hands.
The right photo shows reducing hyperlordosis to neutral spine. Try it yourself by standing with your hands on the bottom of your ribs and center hipbone. Straighten your torso, as if doing a slight crunch standing up. Hands draw closer. The belt line levels. This is normal, straight, relaxed standing position.
The post Prevent Back Surgery showed overarching in action, and gave another quick method to learn neutral spine.
3. How Abs "Support" The muscles that you happen to use to tuck the hip under until you reach neutral spine are your abdominal muscles, including obliques. That is the innovation. You stop the source of pain and get free built-in abdominal muscle exercise at the same time. No tightening, just functional use as a lifestyle. That is what abdominal muscles do. They prevent overarching - but only when you use them.
To direct treatment to fixing the source of pain, and to replace conventional core training with something that applies better to real life, I developed an innovative technique that specifically trains core muscles functionally - which means maintaining healthy spine during daily use. It is called The Ab Revolution™ and has two parts. The first details how to get comfortable neutral spine to stop pain during daily life, no special or strenuous exercises needed. The second part is for people who want healthier exercise. Exercises range from simple to high. Students using the book asked for more illustrations, so Part I of the newest edition has 49 illustrations. Part II on functional strengthening has 65 illustrations, both with step-by-step instructions. If you use the book, use the newest third edition, expanded. Here is the link to my BOOKS page to see it - www.DrBookspan.com/books.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Respiratory Muscle Training for Swimming, Diving, and Running
Friday, July 06, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
At the diving and hyperbaric conference three weeks ago, I attended sessions on respiratory muscle training for underwater operations. It is a topic of interest for those in charge of combat swimmers, and anyone doing physical training.
In one study, Researchers at the State University of Buffalo at New York found that respiratory muscle training improves swimming and respiratory performance at depth. As you go deeper, the work of breathing can increase, even using high performance breathing devices, because of higher gas density and other factors. They tested the effect of resistance respiratory muscle training on respiratory function and swimming endurance in divers at 55 fsw (~16 m). They found that respiratory muscles were less fatigued following training, breathing rate was lower during the swims, and that the training increased the duration they could swim by about 60%. They concluded that respiratory muscle fatigue limits swimming endurance at depth, and the increase in swimming endurance may result from reduced work of breathing or improved respiratory muscle ability.
The second study by the same group looked at the different benefits of training the endurance and strength of the respiratory muscles. Eighteen SCUBA-certified swimmers were randomly assigned to a placebo group who didn't train their breathing muscles, a respiratory endurance training group, or a respiratory strength training group. Each group used a breathing resistance device five days a week for 30 min over four weeks. The endurance trained group decreased heart rate and ventilation during underwater swims. Both the endurance and strength groups improved fin swimming endurance. The placebo group experienced no changes.
The researchers concluded that respiratory muscle training is effective in improving swimming endurance. They told me they found it is also effective for endurance running, but perhaps not as effective. They are working on finding out why. My friends who do long stints in submarines mentioned they like to use respiratory muscle training to help keep them in shape since they can't go out for a run while on sub duty.
Related:
The previous post on training breathing muscles -Respiratory Muscle Training for Better Health and Exercise - covers how breathing exercises help increase respiratory capacity in people with various diseases, and physical training in athletes.
Respiratory Muscle Training for Better Health and Exercise
Monday, July 02, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
At the American College of Sports Medicine conference last month, I attended an entire session on effects of training respiratory muscle function. Back when I was in school, we learned that the ability to breathe harder, better, faster, could not be trained with exercise or other modality, that it was fixed from person to person, like eye color, except that it got worse with aging, and that it didn't matter much, since ventilation did not do much to limit exercise potential anyway.
Even though the lungs don't have any muscles of their own, it didn't seem right to me, as the diaphragm and muscles that move the rib cage to voluntarily breath in and out are muscles like any other. What if there are people whose respiratory muscles are not trained to work hard enough and add to the metabolic cost of exercise, increasing fatigue and so, limit exercise? It is also true that many people are not in good enough shape to use more oxygen, so breathe most of the oxygen back out with each breath, even when exercising strenuously. What about someone in great athletic shape who could use that oxygen. Why couldn't they be trained to move more air faster if they needed some?
Exercising the muscles that you use to breath in (inspiratory muscle training) is known to improve the endurance of the respiratory muscles in people with spinal cord injury and cystic fibrosis, and is shown to improve exercise capacity in patients with heart failure. What about for people without these conditions or for athletes?
Combat swimmers have long used various breathing training to get in shape for swims and other strenuous work. The diving medicine conference I attended two weeks ago had several studies that showed interesting and promising results with breathing training.
Respiratory muscle training in the above studies did not involve popping corks from your lips, as in the photo. To improve your breathing capacity and do training at home without respiratory training devices, see the Fitness Fixer post Do Breathing Exercises Work? and the book Healthy Martial Arts.
--- I make posts from fun mail and success stories. See if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
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