IOL Strength and Conditioning

We’ve been talking about corrective exercises a lot, and many readers don’t really know what this means and how it might apply to them. Let’s take a closer look at one common habit to demonstrate how a simple twist can expand up and down the body.

Think about how often you stand on one leg. Most of us do it regularly throughout the day, and it’s somewhat likely it’s causing a problem that starts at the hip and reverberates from there.

Get up from your chair. Seriously, stand up. You’ll have to feel this to catch the meaning.

From a standing position, shift your weight to the right leg. Go ahead and rest your weight to the side as you’d normally do. Does your left hip drop down and your right hip jut out?

Re-center yourself and put the palm of your right hand on the front of your right hip. Shift back to the right side, only this time slow it down. Do you feel how your hip actually turns?

What has just happened is your right hip rotated inward, moving the weight of your body off the muscles of your full leg and onto the weaker muscles above the back of the hip and at the outside of the leg. Over time, this common habit is causing both tightness and weaknesses that are not natural.

Next, still with your weight on the right leg, purposefully bring your hip around so it’s facing the front, which is its correct position. Do you see how hard that is to do, and to hold there? Those are the tightness and weakness issues keeping your hip from its natural placement. Interesting, isn’t it?

We’ve seen the problem at the hip and realize we’re reinforcing that bad position numerous times each day. You next question may be, “What’s the big rip?”. What’s the difference if the hip rotates inward?

Go back to the original side stance, the weight resting fully on your right side with the hip jutted to the right. Look down at your knee (you may have to drop your pants for this one; hope you’re not at the office). Is it still facing forward, the healthy way it should be? Nope, probably not – how could it be? You have knee pain? Stop and read this again, slowly; you’re onto something important.

No wait, let’s look a little further: The ankle’s messed up, too, isn’t it? The knee is turned in, so the weight on the ankle is toward the outside. And there’s pressure on your heel instead of having your weight balanced on your entire foot, am I right?

Just for kicks, check out the left side by shifting your weight over there. Is it as bad as the right?

You’ve just seen how our bad standing habits, our postures, have a ripple affect down the body. Over time, this puts strain on the joints, connective tissue and muscles causing the joints to become less mobile in an attempt to protect the body, causing arthritis due to excessive pressure in unnatural positions, causing muscle tightness and vulnerability at crucial points, all leading to a list of easily fixable pain that can last a lifetime.

And that can be prevented if you’re willing to recognize that Dave and his peers were wrong about one thing: There actually is a little more to this than just hitting the iron, and in this case, those science guys really are onto something.

We talk about this and more in the movement patterns section of the forum. This stuff is important, and I’m so thrilled it’s becoming part of the mainstream fitness discussion.

I was talking with my friend, Val, recently, and discovered I’d never told her about foam rolling. She’s a hairdresser, works hard with her hands outstretched at shoulder height hour after hour, day after day. If anyone’s a candidate for foam rolling, a hairdresser would surely be in the first balloting.

First you want to know what the heck is a foam roller. Simple: it’s a dense foam cylinder used (for this discussion; there are other uses) in self-massage of the legs and torso, and even for the front delts, triceps and forearms for the adventurous.

Think of it as a way to get a short massage daily, without driving anywhere or paying anything, where you get to zero in on exactly the spot the responds the most. Perfect! You’ll roll your way from calves to shoulders, staying on each muscle area for about ten short strokes, avoiding the joints and bony spots.

The key to enjoying the process and getting the most benefit is to settle in, relax and enjoy the process. Trying to hurry your way through this is a bit of a waste of time, unlikely to do much, even though it doesn’t take very long to run the body.

With regular foam rolling of the thoracic spine, my back stays loose and unbound, free and mobile with rare need of a chiropractor. Compared with pre-foam rolling, that alone is remarkable.

Those knots of spasming muscle you have, or those nasty, pain-referring adhesions in the fascia that connects the muscles into tendons and bones, those can all be released and relieved with your cheap home foam roller.

Calves, hamstrings, quads, IT band along the outside of the legs, glutes, spine, lats, back of the shoulder, front delts, triceps, top and bottom of the forearm, one tool, no waiting for a mate to feel like giving you a massage. I love this thing, and when you get one, if you have patience and try it daily for a week, you’ll love it, too.
I use a quick run over the foam roller as a pre-workout wake-up call that takes two minutes at most and prepares the mind and body for the warm-up moves to follow. Post-workout, five minutes becomes ten as the worked muscles welcome the gentle massage. A glance at the clock is required to remind me there’s still work to be done, time’s a’wasting.

It’s a wonderful feeling that will help athletes, week-end warriors, aging fitness enthusiasts, desk jockeys, hairdressers and construction workers alike. As those decades-old aches begin to diminish, you’re gonna write back and thank me for this one. In turn, I’ll refer you on to my pal, Dan Martin, who’ll tell you to thank Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson. I pretty much lose the trail there, and cannot tell you who first began rolling or who invented the foam gizmo.

Here’s our forum conversation on foam rolling if you’d like to read more or join in the conversation. Quick pointer: Spend a few extra bucks for the black or blue EVA rollers; the white foam seems to crush too easily for all but the smallest of adults.

One of our common complaints is the trouble we have getting a doc to order the blood tests we want. Or perhaps we’re just curious about something — Vitamin D, for a good example — yet don’t need any other doctoring at the moment. Most of us set our blood chemistry curiosity aside at this point, thinking we’ll remember the question during our next visit to the doctor’s office.

Or not.
Easy solution: Skip the anxiety, arguing or subsequent frustration and order the tests you’re interested in via Life Extension’s Blood Testing Panels.

The only downside I can see is that you don’t know in advance where the labs are. LEF is using LabCorp as their lab, so before you order, make sure there’s a LabCorp location near you. Here’s a link to the LabCorp locations.

In case you need a refresher, this is a list of recommended tests for the status of your heart. And here’s a link to a great deal of cholesterol information, three years of cholesterol posts pulled together to keep you reading for the next couple of hours.

In this link, Life Extension provides an in-depth discussion of blood testing protocols, and the value of bringing our blood chemistry to optimal levels.

Do you have time for some price shopping? Compare the Life Extension costs with those of HealthCheckUSA, where they also use Labcorp facilities for the blood draw. A couple test prices I checked were identical, but not all. It may be worth the trouble to check both places for your needs.

I’m a big fan of regular blood testing. Try the Vitamin D test, what a trip that will be if you discover your Vitamin D is low, which it very well might be. This one’s a biggie, and until recently very few of us knew it. Check out that Vitamin D link if this is a new one on you, then make a plan to get your bloodwork done.

The astute will have noticed a certain level of weirdness gaining steam in my training the past couple of months. It’s been all over the map as I jump to a problem area, make some progress and move along to another. The upside of training weaknesses is that progress comes fast; the downside is there sure are a lot of them to work on once you get to noticing, and hey, add to that the training sometimes looks ridiculous.

It’s a mess of small and large issues to write about, but since it’s a sure thing most who read this have one or two pain problems that are a result of weakness in another area, I wrote a long forum post describing all the exercises I’ve used over the past couple of months. Some are still in the rotation; others provided the needed results and have been dropped for the time being, if not forever.

My purpose was to try out a variety of movements to find out which felt most effective for me, what I personally needed the most. Those that were easy got dumped after the first try; the hard ones are the exercises that made it into the rotation. Remember, we’re looking for problems and fixes, not easy exercises.

That was my thought in making the long list for others to try. If it feels too random for you, pick the exercises you think you need and create your own workout/s.

I do think most people who’ve been training for a long time will be surprised at how feeble they feel on some of these easy-peasy exercises. Most of us have weak spots that need attention, and that’s why I hope you’ll continue on and give the post the time needed to simmer into your brain.

You’ll be surprised to discover the workouts each took only about 20 minutes to do a single set in the order listed. The first couple of times through will probably take about twice that until you get the hang of the exercises.

I’d do one set of each exercise the first week, two the second and up to three the third if you can spare the time. By that point, you’ll know which are hard, which are easy. The easy ones get set aside in favor of those that are difficult for you… those are the ones you need.

Off you go then: Bodyweight Rehab Introductory Workouts.

I’ve been sorting out a long list of structural problems over the past few years, one spot after another resulting in various levels of pain or annoyance from neck to feet. Some of the trouble spots are now completely fixed, and remain moving easily with a few simple exercises, stretches and some easy soft tissue work.

Once in a while the relief happened so quickly it felt like magic. Other problems are taking more time, especially after guessing wrong a few times and compensating or over-compensating with incorrect movements.

Many of you suffer some of the same problems, or will when the length of time your body is moving wrong catches up with its ability to mask them. It seems we can do things really badly for a whole long time before things start breaking down, but once the structure starts faltering, look out.

A remarkable aspect of weight training is it strengthens our musculature enough to keep us going through pain that would knock down our non-training neighbors; the bad part is we’re strong enough to compensate for weakness. This is done automatically, without awareness, so the problem gets deeper ingrained than it would have been otherwise… which is to say, hard to find and even harder to fix.

Now, after several years, books, dvds, paid site subscriptions and a variety of goofy-looking rehab tools, what things boil down to for me is a few minutes a day of pre-hab and a couple minutes of pre-workout activation. This is an amazingly complicated process, this structure and movement rehabilitation, made simple by a few easy exercises and stretches done consistently and forever.

Many of the mobility and functional movement experts, their books, dvds and workshops, are truly outstanding, and I highly recommend them. The thing is, most of us get a little lost in the volume of material, much of it using language we don’t understand. The writer or presenter expects us to know where the ever-spasming piriformis is, and before he gets to the vital part of how to fix it, we’ve tuned out.

In this thread on mobility, rehab and functional movement prep, we’ll discuss some of the products of the best thinkers, and where to spend your attention and money when you’re ready to focus in on your troublespots. Before you branch out, though, I suggest you spend a month on the following remedial tips.

Everyone who lives upright should do the following most days of the week.

Soft tissue work:
Tennis ball rolling under the foot
Foam rolling of the glutes and legs (front, back and sides)
Tennis ball rolling of the piriformis (deep in the glute, rolling leg bent at the knee to access)
Tennis ball rolling of the psoas (front of the torso, inside and above the hip)
Foam rolling the upper back

Deep core work:
Plank
Side plank
Hip bridge
Birddog

Mobility:
Ankle bending (forward and to the inside and outside)
Hip circles (leg to the front, back and sides, circling in both directions)
Cross-over lunge (one leg lunges back, crossing behind, hips rotating)
Step-overs (lift leg high enough to step over a hurdle from the side and front)
Thoracic spine (upper/mid-back backwards, then chest up, scapula back)

Stretching:
Pectoral stretch (arm from elbow to wrist against wall, lean into the stretch)
Hip flexor stretch (lunge one leg forward, body upright, spine long, arms overhead)
Hamstrings (body flat on floor, one leg up, against doorway, other leg flat)

Before we move on, perhaps a bit of clarification would be useful. We see a lot of “mobility this” and “stability that,” but what’s it all mean?

In this context mobility means joint movement, encompassing both the ability of the joint to move through its widest safe range of motion and the ability of the nearby muscles to cause that motion.

Flexibility is referring to the muscle lengthening, whether it can move to its full expected range, or if it’s instead shortened to a less than optimum length.

Stability can be both joint stability, such as the knee, low back, neck and elbow that have a short range of motion and need to be stable, and muscular stability, as when talking about the deep abdominal muscles that stabilize the spine.

When we talk about activation, we’re talking about waking up a muscle group that’s not firing well, such as the glutes after a day sitting at the desk. Glute activation movements are a perfect example of a two-minute pre-workout program that will provide an enormous payoff.

Most of us have a problem in one or more of these areas, and those problems trigger other compensation problems that eventually knock us off the gym floor until we figure out how to fix them. That, or we get our own Costco membership card so we don’t have to sneak in with a friend for wholesale, mondo-size bottles of Aleve.

There’s a lot more to it that this, and once we get the flexibility started, the core strengthening and the activation going, there are other exercises we can use individually to fine-tune our hip mobility and to make outstanding progress.

The coolest part? After a few weeks of this introductory stuff, we can keep things humming along nicely with a few minutes a day on the pre-hab stuff and a couple minutes of pre-workout activation.

Hey, you could potentially stay pain-free for the duration, however long that happens to be.

In a couple of blog posts earlier this fall, I listed the results of our server log reports showing the top 20 pages of our health and fitness database, and the most notable forum threads this past summer. That search uncovered some really fine forum discussions long since forgotten, and as I thought about how often I use some of the guidance and recommendations, I knew we’d have to find a way to bring them to the forefront. Hence, our new Must Reads Topic Archive, 20 of our Very Best.

What I did in many cases was dig out a selection of our best conversations on a topic, and merge the strings together into one long archive. In this way, you’ll be able to see how our learning developed as the science developed, or as we tried and tested the philosophies and training techniques.

By the time you get to the end of the topic, you’ll have a broad base of knowledge along with all the links we used to compile it. Looking for a quick way to learn what you need to know about a topic you saw mentioned in an article or forum? We gotcha covered.

Check this:

• Foam roller rehab work

• Trigger Points & ART (Active Release Therapy)

• Omega 3s, EFAs: Fish oil and flax

• All about Cholesterol: LDL, HDL, testing and lowering

• Leistner: Sensible Training by Dr. Ken

• Building a Home Gym

• Homemade Gym Equipment Ideas

• Intermittent fasting

Amazing stuff, huh? And you know what? There’s a whole lot more where that came from.

It came from right here: Must Reads Topic Archive.

Once you’re done there (this is going to be awhile), try this one for your Sunday afternoon hangout: Links to other must-read archived topics. Actually, that should be our IOL forum first stop for most new visitors. Great, great stuff.

Joints begin to ache as we get a little older, or not so older in the case of aggressive athletes, who often hurt as much as someone three or four times their age. Nagging pain day after day coupled with decreasing range of motion equals just plain old bad juju that’ll ruin your life.

It may amaze you to discover those daily pains can be fixed, and pretty darn quick, too. Since your choices are getting a new job once you can no longer do the old, go on pain pills, like, forever, or even submit to surgery that may or may not work, you owe it to yourself to dedicate a few weeks to joint mobility to see if you can fix the aches that ail you.

Sick of regular, low-grade pain, the mobility program I picked is Scott Sonnon’s Ageless Mobility, a one-on-one workshop DVD that takes 75 minutes. The dvd arrived three weeks ago, has been through our player a grand total of six times, and already the difference is remarkable. I’m hooked, as well as committed, because I can tell this effort will pay off for the forever years.

Scott writes, “The best way to oil the rusty “tin man” joints is with the body’s natural lubrication. Our connective tissue doesn’t get any nutrition from blood flow after puberty except through movement (the exception is the jaw - which we tend to flap the most anyway.)

Add to that the compressive nature of weight lifting and you see the ’squeezing out’ of this natural lubrication and nutrition.

Ten to fifteen minutes of dynamic joint mobility exercise will transport the nutrients of the food you’re ingesting to the places where it’s needed — your joints. It will also wash the joint capsule with lubrication, smooth off the bony profiles of any build-up of joint salts and calcification to abate arthritis and offset osteoporosis, as well as release adhesions and restrictions to movement.

It will also decrease your recovery time between your workouts to give you pain-free mobility, lessen and prevent delayed onset of muscle soreness, so that you can more enjoy the fruits of your muscular labor.”

Watch a few minutes of his presentation at the Active Aging Festival for a taste of what’s in store for your joints. (The full dvd class takes 75 minutes and moves from the neck down to the ankles.) Even this small segment of the live demonstration — just the neck work — has proven beneficial in three short weeks: I can see over my shoulder better when driving.

To keep you busy while you’re waiting for your new dvd to arrive, here’s more from Scott on back pain relief, and his commentary on the difference between joint mobility and overall flexibility, often confused but are not the same.

Let me add a tiny caveat: If you’re not committed to regular sessions in front of the tv, this isn’t the program for you. While this is educational, the point is the effort a few times a week. Watching it once and never again is like paying $24.95 for a trip to the theater, without the expensive popcorn.

If you have a sensitive gut (Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Acid Reflux, allergies or things more serious), you know that it’s difficult if not impossible to train when you are in the middle of an episode or outbreak or suffering symptoms. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation can really take the heat out of your fire.

Here are some things that I’ve learned over the past two or three years as I’ve struggled to get a handle on my IBS. Your mileage may vary.

Talk to your doctor. This probably should be the first item on the list. If your doctor’s approach isn’t working, if you are still experiencing symptoms regardless of the doctor’s approach, request (demand) a referral to a gastroenterologist. I was very ill for several months (sick every single day and at the end I was subsisting on saltine crackers and a little cheese), before I finally got in to see my gastro. He immediately put me on several meds that controlled my symptoms and I began to see some relief. Then he ran me through tests, none of which was enjoyable or pretty, but they were necessary to eliminate other more serious conditions. Do the tests.

Get on a gut-healing protocol including daily glutamine supplementation and a probiotic like Primadophilus.

I take Prevacid twice a day for my acid reflux. I train after work but before dinner. On normal days, I take the evening Prevacid right after the workout so that a full 30 minutes pass before dinner. But if I’m suffering pains, indigestion, or burping during the afternoon, I’ll pop that Prevacid 30 minutes before my workout. Symptoms clear, workout is good, and I’m still good for dinner later.

Keep a written list on the refrigerator of things that bother you. If it’s something you really like, stop eating it for 30 days and then slowly start adding back a small amount and watch for symptoms. Only add back one bothersome food at a time. If it still bothers you, try dropping it for 60 or 90 days. You might just have to drop it entirely.

Preservatives are evil. I’ve talked to other IBS sufferers and this seems to be a commonality. Preservatives in canned and bottled foods can cause severe digestive stress. Canned soup is a huge no-no for me.

You might not be able to adhere to the latest, greatest diet or nutrition mandates. Personally, after two painful experiments, I had to admit that I cannot do very low carb. My gut requires the soft, yielding density of bread, rice, and pasta in order to do what it’s supposed to do without me spending hours every day in the toilet or bent double with cramps. I try to make good choices with my carbs, however, by choosing fresh baked bakery whole wheat bread without preservatives, and brown rice. I limit pasta to once every couple of weeks.

Only you know your body.

If you are having an outbreak or episode, be gentle to yourself.

Check out HelpforIBS.com. Heather has a wonderful site, full of information that will help you figure out what foods to avoid as well as what foods to eat during a flare-up to soothe your gut and get you back in the gym.

Food allergies and sensitivities can wreak havoc with your body. The symptoms can run the gamut from nausea, hives, diarrhea, bloating, weight gain, and mood swings up to and including death. If you are allergic to shellfish or peanuts, you already know about it and know how serious exposure can be. But what if your allergy or sensitivity isn’t that obvious? What if you’ve never had a problem before and now you do?

You might begin to suspect a food sensitivity if you notice that after eating a certain food, you have indigestion, belch more often, have diarrhea or just don’t feel quite right. Fatigue, irritability and congestion can also be symptoms of food sensitivity.

If this happens, the best course of action is to remove the offending food from your diet for 30 days. Monitor yourself to see if you have those symptoms once you remove the food. Then try adding the food back to your diet, in a small amount, after 30 days. Do the symptoms re-appear? If so, you’ll need to eliminate the food again. If it’s something you’d like to be able to eat again, extend the removal period to 90 days and try again. If it’s something you don’t care that much about, drop it permanently.

For example, if you’ve been eating eggs every morning and suddenly you start noticing gastro distress or other symptoms every morning after breakfast, you should eliminate eggs from your diet. If you no longer have symptoms after dropping the eggs, you’ve likely pinpointed the problem. You might be able to add them back to your diet after 30 days, but only if you rotate them with other morning protein. Of course, if after a few days of eliminating eggs from your diet you still have the same symptoms, you should investigate further as there might be another offending food.

It is possible to develop a food sensitivity due to over-exposure. Chicken breasts day in and day out can cause a sensitivity to all things chicken including eggs and soup. I personally have to watch my powdered protein exposure as I will develop a sensitivity. If I continue to drink the protein shakes in spite of the symptoms, I can possibly push that protein powder into the never again column.

As with most things in life, not all people will develop sensitivities and some will develop them to such an extent that going on a rotation diet is the only alternative. A rotation diet is one where you divide foods into families and only eat from each family once every four or seven days.

The websites below go into great detail about rotation diets including offering a sample four-day rotation.

Description of Rotation Diet

4-Day Rotation Diet Example

Principles of a Rotation Diet
Food Allergy Rotation Diet

In the late ‘80s, chromium picolinate was touted as an exciting new fat burning product, sure to melt away bodyfat like magic. When it didn’t work out that way, the product faded into the background, yet there’s still something of value here and we should probably take another look.

Many know of its use in regulating insulin and maintaining optimal blood sugar levels, making it a useful supplement for overweight folks who hoped it would help them shed fat, but instead might keep diabetes at bay if the weight doesn’t come off another way.

Chromium is found in cinnamon, and breakfasters who add a half-teaspoon of cinnamon to their daily oatmeal may get a double dose of cholesterol-lowering goodness. Triglyceride levels have also been shown to decrease by about 20% in overweight people who supplement with 200-400 micrograms on a regular basis.

• Frontier Co-op fancy bulk cinnamon
  Note the variety descriptions on the left; these aren’t your common kitchen spices
  .
• Fascinating IOL cinnamon discussion

According to Jim Komorowski, head of the R&D unit at Nutrition 21 (makers of chromium picolinate) and a reader of Dave’s columns,

“Our research has shown that chromium picolinate not only enhances glucose uptake by muscle, but also amino acid uptake. The initial increase in muscle update occurs 30 to 90 minutes after taking CrPic. Getting that extra boost of glucose can lead to increases in muscle glycogen, leading to muscle recovery and growth. The extra amino acids uptake will also help muscle growth and recovery.”

Jerry Brainum, IronMan magazine’s science writer, believes chromium is a valuable nutrient to athletes and fitness trainees, because the body can only store 4-6 micrograms of chromium per day.

“Considering that both exercise and increased carbohydrate intake lead to chromium being excreted from the body, it’s difficult to imagine any active person who wouldn’t need some extra chromium. That’s particularly true for dieting athletes. A study of dieting female bodybuilders found the average chromium intake was only 21 micrograms a day. Another study, this one involving male bodybuilders, found that the average chromium intake was 143 micrograms.”

More on point for weight trainers is the insulin resistance factor that occurs shortly post-workout.

Komorowski again,

“By taking chromium picolinate you can enhance muscle insulin sensitivity while keeping circulating insulin levels low. This may provide the added benefit of keeping the window for glucose and amino acid uptake open longer, and reduce peak insulin levels.”

The average intake of supplemental chromium picolinate is 200 micrograms, although some recommendations for high level athletes and aging or overweight adults go as high as 400 micrograms. The US “Adequate Intake” level was lowered after a test tube study indicated cancer in hamster cells.

Brainum comments,

“That study involved hamster ovarian cells and used amounts of chromium that were 3,000 times the suggested dose. Further, subsequent studies found no such effect.”

We’ll close with Komorowki as he discusses the ongoing research,

“More current research with chromium picolinate has been conducted in people with diabetes since they tend to have long-term muscle insulin resistance (instead of just post-exercise). Though there are fewer studies coming out on chromium and body composition these days, there are many more coming out about glucose metabolism.”

Interested readers will find more information on chromium and how it enhances insulin sensitivity at the Chromax.com web site, where you can also launch a nice animation on chromium’s mechanism of action.

Finally, two official reports to keep you busy:

• National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements: Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Chromium
  
• USDA 27-page Chromium report in pdf format

Tendons take forever to heal, and after waiting patiently with intolerance all summer for an Achilles tendon to normalize (shoe inserts, regular icing, attention to Joint Connection and fish oil supplements), by accident I stumbled upon what feels like a miracle.

Pulling out Clair Davies’ Triggerpoint Therapy Workbook to look up referred pain sites for thumb soreness for a friend, I stumbled over a triggerpoint for Achilles tendinitis located deep in the middle of the calf. Gouging away at it — hurt like the dickens! — the pain lessened over a period of a few minutes as the triggerpoint eased.

The next day, my long-suffering Achilles tendon was healed.

Now I know that sounds ridiculous and that only the triggerpoint faithful will believe it.

And to the scoffers, let me dig a bit: You *have* triggerpoints. This isn’t some hocus pocus voodoo. They may not be causing you any trouble… or maybe they are. That tendinitis you’ve been anxiously waiting out could possibly be cured today. I’m really not kidding.

Quoting Clair Davies, author of the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, “The defining symptom of a trigger point is referred pain; that is, trigger points usually send their pain to some other site. This is an extremely misleading phenomenon and is the reason conventional treatments for pain so often fail. It’s a mistake to assume that the problem is at the place that hurts!”

And from the painful conditions list on the triggerpointbook.com website, it’s no joke; from tendinitis, ankle sprains and back pain, to carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, rotator cuff, runner’s knee and sciatica, the list of potential favorable treatments by triggerpoint therapy is long.

Aside from how quick and miraculous this is, the second-best thing? You can perform this on yourself. There’s no need to find a therapist, wait for an appointment and hope the attendant knows his or her stuff, then line up to pay the big bucks. Using your ingenuity and a tool or two, you can hit every part of your body. I’m not saying a visit to a practitioner for an initial treatment wouldn’t be a good idea, quite the opposite. But in many areas, you simply won’t find a knowledgeable therapist, and heck, for the cost of a couple visits, you can stock up on all those choice therapy tools.

In fact, I broke down and sprung for the full triggerpoint therapy kit, and am using it faithfully, daily. This is one outstanding toolkit, highly recommended, and at least until they run out, you can get a set from Elite Fitness for $119. Or you can pick up individual parts of the set at the manufacturer’s site, TPTherapy.com.

Surprise! Rolling my foot over the smaller unit fixed the dropped metatarsal problem I was griping about all summer. Bodyparts aren’t working fully optimally yet, but things are a whole lot better. If you’re aching all over, check this stuff out. And if you aren’t — you lucky dog — check it out anyway and save yourself some future trauma.

The list of bodily functions regulated by the thyroid hormones is long, really long. And it includes more than the well-known thyroid symptoms such as weight gain, fatigue and sensitivity to cold. The rest of the symptom list is equally common, yet not usually recognized as low-thyroid symptoms. Let’s look at the list:

Fatigue, Headaches and migraines, PMS, Irritability, Fluid retention, Anxiety and panic attacks, Hair loss, Depression, Decreased memory and concentration, Heat and/or cold intolerance, Abnormal swallowing sensations, Insomnia, Constipation and irritable bowel syndrome, Easy weight gain, Low motivation and ambition, Muscle and joint aches, Dry skin and hair, Hives, Asthma, Allergies, Brittle nails, Slow healing, Sweating abnormalities, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Raynaud’s Disease, Itchiness, Irregular periods, Acne, Low sex drive, Easy bruising, Ringing of the ears, Flushing, Bad breath, Elevated cholesterol, Dry eyes or blurred vision, and the rest of the symptom list

There are dozens of causes for those ailments, but not too many things will cause multiple problems, and that’s exactly what low thyroid does. Many of us can see ourselves woven throughout that ugly list, so what do we do next?

Traditional medicine treats low thyroid first based on a blood test to measure Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH). This is a measurement to see if the pituitary gland is releasing TSH to trigger the hormone process. The Thyroxine (T4) is often included in the introductory panel.

Pretty often the tests will come back “normal” and no further action is pursued.

Alternative medicine finds two major flaws with traditional treatment. Thyroid hormones don’t work in the bloodstream, they work at the cellular level. What’s happening in the blood, where it can be measured, may not be representative of what’s happening in the cells. Whether TSH is high or low does not reflect if the thyroid hormone T4 is converting well to the working hormone, T3. Perhaps it’s not converting at all, or it may be converting to the inactive form of thyroid hormone, Reverse T3 (RT3).

A breakdown can occur at several points during the process from the glands of the thyroid system to the cellular level where the action happens. That’s why docs who have stepped out from under the umbrella of med school teaching are often treating thyroid based on a combination of symptoms and the patient’s temperature.

When the temperature is consistently below normal and the symptoms point to thyroid — even if the thyroid blood tests look normal — there’s a high likelihood of a poorly functioning thyroid system.

If you found yourself nodding at more than one or two of the ailments above, here’s what to do next:

1) Get your average temperature. If it’s consistently below the norm of 98.6, you’re a candidate for Step 2.

To get your average, take your temperature three times a day for three days. Take it every three hours beginning three hours after getting up; add the numbers together and divide by three to get the average. Women shouldn’t use the three days prior to starting their monthly periods as these are generally higher temperature days.

Come up with a low number? Take the next step.

2) Grab the free Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome ebook, or spring for the print version if you like to read at the kitchen table.

3) While you’re sorting out your next move, you may be interested in a little test. If your temperature average was low, order up a bottle of Iodoral, a high potency iodine supplement, and take a tablet with breakfast. Check your temperature later in the afternoon and see if it came up a bit. If it did, there’s a chance you’re simply low in iodine, which I was startled to discover is quite common. (Apparently our higher sodium diets don’t translate into high iodine, silly me for jumping to conclusions.) Iodine is needed in the thyroid hormone conversion; if you’re low, the fix is about $25 and a few days away.

4) Find a doc who can guide you, who will perhaps look a little deeper into the bloodwork by ordering free T3, free T4 and thyroid antibodies, which were possibly not ordered in a traditional medical setting, and if needed, prescribe T3, the working hormone.

If you love your doctor, but he or she isn’t familiar with Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome, click on this pdf link, print it out and take it with you. Perhaps more information will get you off to a better start.

Don’t worry, going on T3 is not a life sentence of prescriptions. In fact, it’s often used to re-set the patient’s thyroid over the course of a few months, then weaned off to re-test. But heck, let’s say it *is* a life of T3. Wouldn’t you prefer that over feeling half-lousy, low energy and dully motivated for the rest of your life? Uh… yeah, maybe.

The guy who contributed the most to this low-temperature method of thyroid treatment, Dr. Denis Wilson, bases his theory on enzymes. His book, Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome, a Reversible Low Temperature Problem, explains it thus,

“The function of the entire metabolism depends on the body temperature, because it dictates the shape and therefore the function of the body’s enzymes. The metabolism is the sum of all the chemical reactions in the body, virtually all of which are dependent upon enzymes.

“How an enzyme functions depends on its shape, or conformation. An enzyme’s shape depends on its temperature. When enzymes are too cold, they are too tight. When they are too hot, they are too loose. When they are just the right temperature, they are just the right shape, and function with the most ease.

“When the temperature is too hot, too cold, or unsteady, the enzymes will spend less time in their optimal shape-which simply translates into having a less than optimal metabolism.”

Quoting again from Dr. Wilson:

“The bad news of a low body temperature is also the good news. Although a low temp can cause many debilitating complaints, correcting it can also make them go away. Some people with low temperatures get worse all at once, and some can get better all at once. Others get worse in stages after successive stresses, and they tend to get better in stages also. People whose symptoms appeared gradually, tend to improve more gradually. Getting rid of a lot of severe symptoms may just be a matter of fixing the problem instead of treating the symptoms.”

As a co-sufferer, let me add this: The coolest part is once you get on track, it doesn’t take long to see if this is your answer, like a day or two in many cases, or at least a nudging of success in a couple of weeks. You may have been suffering from something that you didn’t address with a doctor, maybe you felt it was to small to complain about, even though it’s been nagging at you for years.

Or perhaps you instinctively knew the complaint would lead to a dozen medical tests resulting in no solid answer. If that’s you, and the problem is a malfunctioning thyroid system, this is going to feel like magic. No kidding.

Let’s get after this one, ’cause that dull nag’ll drag the life out of ya, you know it.

We’ve got a bit of an anniversary to celebrate this week: Our blog rolled over its one-year calendar. It’s clearly been a lot of fun and has provided an outstanding and wide-ranging collection of material; still, without a specific purpose in mind at the outset, it’s hard to say we met any goals here. Next year we simply promise more of the same un-planned randomness to educate and entertain.

Snooping around the thousands of pages of the forum looking for the highlights to point out in a blog post a couple weeks ago reminded me of the kazillion other pages in this 3,000-page website you’re unlikely to have accidentally stumbled upon. A quick glance at our server logs gives a picture of our wiki health and fitness database, and I thought you might like a look at what pages are drawing the most reader attention, see what you’re missing.

Exercises and Workout Routines

1. Exercise Descriptions
2. Bodypart Exercise Suggestions
3. Workout Routines
4. Overhead Squat Instruction
5. Bench Press Instruction
6. Byron’s 5×5 Workout Guide
   
7. Bentover Barbell Row
8. Abdominals

Training Styles and Home Gyms

1. Powerlifting
2. Cardiovascular Fitness
3. Homemade Gym Equipment Ideas
4. Home Gym Set-up
5. Kettlebells
6. Sandbag Training

Health and Wellness

1. Dealing with Back Pain
2. Male and Female Hormones
3. Menopause
4. Cholesterol

Food and Diet

1. Intermittent Fasting
2. Protein Shake Recipes
3. Weight Gain

I was surprised to discover the weight loss page wasn’t even in the top 20. Who *are* you guys?

I don’t have to tell you my favorite part of the day is a morning cup of Leo’s java and an hour clicking around our forum for a visit with my great friends there. Still, for those who haven’t been around since the beginning and don’t know the players, sometimes it’s a little daunting to jump right in. Who’s who, and do they really know what they’re talking about? Is that guy joking or is this a serious argument? Once in a while it’s hard to tell, especially for newcomers.

So how about a sweet little intro to show you around? These are a few of the notable threads from August.

In the Main Flight Deck:

• Let’s begin with our memory thread of Arthur Jones, who, as you already know, died yesterday. Perhaps you have a memory of your own, something he wrote that triggered your training evolution back in the ’70s? Give us the scoop!

• Do you wake up with a numb arm sometimes? What’s causing that and how do you fix it? Michelle gets us going here in “Nighttime Numbness.”

• Farmer’s Walks — what’s not to like? Who’s doing what, and how; we’ll find out in this thread started by Tim Tyler of tylergrip.com.

• Up next: Quitting Smoking. Time for you to get onboard? Here’s some encouragement you can print out and tape to your carton of cigs. Getcha goin’.

• Kyle invites the Southern California locals to join him in this year’s Volkslauf October 13th. It’s an obstacle loop, either a 10k or a 5k; he knows the course from last year and has a training plan to get you in shape for the event. Ya got 6 weeks, go for it!

• We talked about this last week, still it’s a notable thread going strong. Whether you’re interested in fasting or not, the discussion is intriguing: Intermittent Fasting.

• Boris’ Squat RX instruction videos again topped the charts, and I’d be remiss to slide past this one, even though this, too, was pointed out earlier this month.

In the Bodybuilding Hangar:

• Well, heck, let’s tackle the toughest one first: Is Bodybuilding Healthy? If not, and we’re aging yet in it for the long haul, what can we change to be strong all the way into our longevity?

• Mark would like to know about squat depth, in particular how far past parallel should he go when doing a 20-rep squat program. Once he gets the answer, he then needs to know how exactly to get there.

In the Training Logs Forum:

Now here in the training log section, I couldn’t begin to select a few favored links for you. Some of the logs have been going strong since we brought the email discussion group over to the forum board back in spring of 2004. Other people started a new log each January, or when changing training focus for a variety of reasons. What began as an exercise in accountability became, I think for nearly everyone, a private place for group camaraderie. This is where individual attention is given when times are tough, PRs are abundant — or sparse — and consistency in training is paramount.

Pick a few training logs to read through; you’re sure to find one you can either learn from or contribute to, and perhaps you’ll get the bug to start a report of your own. You’re welcome here.

In the IOL APO/FPO Military Barracks:

• Over in the APO/FPO Barracks forum we’re happy to welcome a couple of Afghanistan-based troops to our military support space. From his plastic tent, Sgt. Clifton expands on his questions of diet and exercise; we welcome your Q&A assistance, our way of supporting these guys and gals (actually, so far it’s just gal, our Army Mom, who’s on her way home to the kids in slightly less than a month).

In the Kettlebell Training Forum:

• In the kettlebell forum, Stella, a veteran gymrat new to kettlebell training, requests our favorite kettlebell workouts in a thread that ranges from a simple swings ladder to a Tabata-style kettlebell snatch workout on video.

In the Vince Gironda Wild Physique Forum:

• Jack triggers a hearty discussion in, “Gironda Bench Press to Neck,” wherein, as you might expect, not too many are in favor of the exercise. The discussion, however, is illuminating, as was the rest of the study of Vince Gironda and his Wild Physique.

And now, I bid you adieu. Dave is finished with his part of the newsletter, so I’m up to bat in the clean-up position. There are countless more terrific threads in the forum, so many in fact, I think I’ll dig you out more treasures next month.

There’s a growing army of people who fast during the day, or part of the day, depending on their goals and personal circumstances. Calorie restriction and fasting are thought to contribute to wellness and longevity, weight loss, beneficial blood lipids, decreased inflammatory markers, diabetes control, arthritis, possibly even lowered incidence of deadly illnesses like cancer. Short-term, intermittent fasting is a simple, almost enjoyable way to achieve this.

I thought fasting was done for spiritual purposes, or, honestly, something the outer wing of wellness seekers did for a sort of beyond-reasonable self-denial. I’m all for self-discipline and its practice, wish I were even better at it, but consideration of muscle wasting or even accidental anorexia caused a nearly automatic mental shutdown when the topic of fasting arose.

Today I’m solidly in the opposite camp: It sounds more radical than it is. From the physical and mental point of view, there’s something to emptying the stomach and the associated blood chemistry changes, and from what we’ve been able to find, muscle wasting simply doesn’t happen under short, intermittent fasts. Just another entry in the “tall gym tales” book, apparently.

While I’m only today finishing week two of a limited version of daytime fasting, beginning by extending the overnight fast from about 10 hours to 15, the report so far is extremely positive. I feel terrific, energetic, clear-thinking and absolutely enjoy the lighter feeling of an empty stomach. The weight loss has slipped into place, even just a little, at about a pound-and-a-half, but it’s notable since the past two months at 1,350 daily calories really made no budge in the scale weight.

Not yet prepared to file a report, but since Dave wrote about it this week left me needing an overview spot to drop you off, I’ll recap a bit from our recent forum thread, and leave you with a link to the wiki page where you’ll find material for your own research.

About the idea dieters will burn off muscle tissue by fasting, Byron Chandler helps us get over some issues:

“If you are ever going to lose any fat, you’re going to have to burn some stored energy! So you have to get over the muscle mag mentality that running off stored energy is a bad thing because you’ll burn muscle. Also, you have to believe that what muscle gets used for energy is rapidly replenished; it is only a very temporary loss. I have spoken to a fair number of people and really there just doesn’t seem to be a problem losing muscle when eating this way. I personally am convinced that burning stored energy sources is a good thing. I think it will lower blood sugar (even on the non-fasting regular-diet days), improve insulin sensitivity, lower triglycerides, lower LDL and improve HDL, and burn bodyfat. This to me says that fasting would improve the use of fat as an energy source, improve insulin sensitivity, and prevent spare protein from gluconeogenisis, which would all be good.”

To the question of improved cholesterol blood lipids, he goes on to explain:

“Crude version of cholesterol metabolism: You make LDL out of excess calories. You make HDL to bring the LDL back to the liver and use it. This is normally a slow process, takes like maybe five DAYS. Probably because if you’re already feeding your face, your body never really needs to get around to burning off LDL — it is never a priority. LDL is associated with feast and rest; HDL is associated with work and fast. If you make yourself hungry, your body will get after that LDL, make some HDL and burn it.”

More links and further information (scroll down a bit for the new stuff; the wiki page was written for those who hadn’t necessarily seen this blog post): Intermittent Fasting

Let’s start with the facts, what’s known to be true about chelation, before we move to the possibilities and the rumors of quackery. Chelation (pronounced “key” rather than “che”) is the process of bonding metal or mineral, and in medical terms can be done either via intravenous (IV) or orally by pill to remove excess metals or toxins from the body.

EDTA chelation is approved by the FDA to treat lead poisoning and for heavy metal removal; different chelation chemicals are used for various purposes. In fact, multiple agents are used in each treatment, such as adding magnesium and potassium, and perhaps bicarbonate to reduce acidity.

Its first documented use in treatment of atherosclerosis was in 1956, but it’s still not approved to treat cardiovascular disease, nor does insurance pay for it in that instance. Still, the anecdotal evidence is accumulating, and that may get more solid next year when the results of an on-going National Institutes of Health (NIH) study are published. This is a 5-year trial that began in 2002 to determine the efficacy and safety of EDTA IV chelation therapy on coronary artery disease, specifically adults who have previously had a heart attack.

At this point, there are only guesses at how this works for reducing blood vessel stress, if it works at all. Researchers don’t yet know if it actually pulls the calcium from the plaques blocking the arteries or whether by reducing the metals in the bloodstream, arterial oxidative stress is decreased along with inflammation. Or something else entirely, no one knows; the majority have never heard of the treatment or those who have doubt it works at all.

But heck, let’s just make the jump from skeptic to curious — it’s easy enough to see how such a process would benefit us all. Arsenic… lead… cadmium… now mercury: metals are known to be toxic to the human body, some of us more susceptible than others, yet all affected somewhat by metal poisoning. Chelation is acknowledged even by the AMA to work for removing metals, and is covered by most insurance companies for treatment of metal poisoning, so why wouldn’t it work to treat people like Dave who may have problems with oxidation causing arterial disease?

Neither of us is convinced this will work. In fact, even Dave’s new doc (Warren Klausner, D.O.), who has seen IV chelation work time and time again in his own patients, tells us the success of chelation is varied. Some of his patients have remarkable results; some have moderate success and others can’t tell much of a difference.

It’s a gamble, really, of time (each of the 20 or 30 treatments takes nearly three hours) and of money (the treatments are $125 each and, in Dave’s case for cardiovascular disease, are not covered by insurance). But it’s not an unreasonable gamble. We paid more than that for our portion of Dave’s by-pass operation, and that was more of a targeted patch than a permanent fix. If chelation works, it’s a systemic solution to clear the circulatory system throughout the body, rather than replacing arteries of the heart that may again get blocked… and all this without major surgery.

While it’s only an experiment of one, we’ll make notes and provide an assessment, pro or con — and truthfully, we have no preconceived notion other than a positive but faint hope — for others who have arterial problems such as heart disease or peripheral arterial disease and are heading for radical medical options.

Most chelation doctors are registered with the American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM) and you can search out a local physician on their site if you find yourself interested in a consultation.

For the rest of us, the average aging adult with no apparent health issues who may be wondering about taking EDTA pills, Dr. Klausner says he hasn’t seen any research showing the effectiveness of oral chelation. However, Dr. Garry Gordon, perhaps the most well-known modern chelation practitioner, says in this article, “In our toxic world, oral EDTA offers potential benefits as diverse as those seen with some of our most powerful essential nutrients. I believe it has become as essential today for optimal health as any essential nutrient.”

There are plenty of skeptics, way lots. For a collection of opposing viewpoint material, spend some time at Dr. Stephen Barrett’s Chelation Watch site, where you’ll find much of the anti-chelation pages organized. At first read, it appears the major gripe is that the studies done to date were inconclusive or not done using the double-blind protocol, and secondly, that there are chelation scam artists at work, no big surprise there.

Between 2,000 and 3,000 medical doctors use IV chelation in their practice here in the US, and it’s even more commonly used in Europe. Literally hundreds of thousands of patients have been “chelated,” perhaps even millions. Problems — side effects — of IV chelation include kidney pain, scary indeed, yet when patients who have kidney damage are pre-screened and dissuaded from treatment, problems are virtually eliminated if the chemical drip is slowed down and if adequate water is consumed by the patient. Conservative chelation doctors tamp down the drip to take at least two hours, even up to four, while monitoring the patient during treatment. Slower intake seems to prevent side effects.

Additionally, not everyone is a candidate. Blood tests should be done prior to beginning treatments, and the doc should review the patient’s prescriptions and supplement intake to determine the safety of the chelation chemicals in combination with the person’s other medicines.

Wild speculation here, coming from complete ignorance: I wonder if ineffectiveness has anything to do with using the wrong chemicals. That is, since it’s *known* that chelation can clear out metals, would chelation have worked on heart patients who felt no benefits had a different solution been used? It’s quite a time and financial commitment. Patients who don’t feel better are unlikely to take another run at it with a different doctor using other agents.

This article by Dr. Ward Dean discusses chelation as an underutilized treatment for heart disease and overall wellness, and is a good place for me to drop you as we wait for Dave’s treatments to begin or good, bad or null results to report.

Finally, we’re both hopeful, and Dave’s willing to invest a couple of months’ trial. Just the same, we’re completely aware that we may be back a month or two from now with a dismal report, and a laugh at ourselves for jumping, however briefly, off the traditional medicine treadmill.

Two things stuck out this week. One an experience; one was a food investigations video clip from the BBC. Both had to do with bodyweight right here at summer’s opening weekend, wouldn’t you know it?

Let’s start with the experience: I took my first hill hike wearing a 12-pound weight vest a f