Water Isn’t that Important, Is It?

If you don’t drink enough water, you can die.

Simple stuff?  Yes.

An obvious statement?  Yes.

Doesn’t need to be repeated for the umpteenth time?  Apparently not.

Young hiker dies at South Mountain

Firefighters: 115-degree heat too much for boy, 14

July 21, 2009 5:16 PM

By Doug Murphy

Ahwatukee Foothills News

On Monday morning, a 14-year-old boy from Alaska who was visiting relatives in the East Valley died after becoming dehydrated and suffering heat stroke while on a hike in South Mountain Park the day before.

Firefighters say the family was hiking for several hours when the teen became disoriented. Firefighters were called around 11:30 a.m. and when they found the group, far up a trail off Pima Canyon, the boy was not breathing.

“He’s coming from Alaska (and) he’s never been in the heat like this,” said fire Captain Dorian Jackson, a spokesman for the department.

The temperature was around 115 on Sunday, although the heat radiating off the rocks probably increased the temperature.

The desert can be unforgiving and Jackson said the key is to stick with the basics.

“Make sure you drink plenty of water the day before and carry plenty of water,” Jackson said.

Hikers should also wear a hat and loose clothing to protect from the heat. It’s also important for hikers to apply plenty of sunscreen and set a reasonable pace in hot weather so they won’t overheat and get into trouble.

Obviously this was a horrible situation, but it’s not exactly a rarity out here in the desert.  The trail the boy was on is about seven miles of strenuous hiking.  It takes a little over four hours to complete if you’re in decent shape, longer if you need lots of rest breaks.  If you’re already well hydrated before starting out, you will need to carry a gallon of water with you and be finishing it off by the time you get back to the trail head (drink at a rate of about a quart per hour).

The main points I want you to take away from this are BE AWARE and KNOW YOUR LIMITATIONS.

Being aware simply means understanding the environment you’re in.  If you want to go hiking, biking, or whatever in a new place, don’t be afraid to educate yourself.  Ask around.  Talk to people who are familiar with the area and LISTEN to them.  Walking around the block in extreme temperatures isn’t much of a problem.  Hiking up a mountain certainly can be, so find out from people who have done it if there are any special preparations you need to make.

“Know your limitations” tends to get quick responses of “Oh, don’t be a baby” and “Push through those limitations!”  Quite frankly, that is a foolish mindset.  The boy who died was from Alaska and his body wasn’t ready to handle a high level of exertion in extreme heat.  It had nothing to do with “being a baby” or “sucking it up.”  It had everything to do with his body being unable to thermo-regulate.

I’ll use myself as an example:

I live in Tempe, Arizona.  Today it should top out at around 110 or so which is a nice break from the 116 we had yesterday.  I spend a fair bit of my day outside and my vehicle doesn’t have air conditioning.  The gym I train at has a couple of swamp coolers, but they don’t do much to cool things down when the humidity starts to creep up.  I am fine with all of this.  I am comfortable in the truck and I wear a hat outside.  I drink about a gallon and a half to two gallons of water a day and I sweat very easily.  Bottom line, my body is used to this climate and I find it quite comfortable.

A few years ago, I went with my wife to homecoming at Penn State in October.  We also stayed with her family for about a week in upstate New York.  There was no snow on the ground, but the average temperature was in the 40’s.  All you people from the north can laugh, but I froze my tail off!  My body is fine at higher temperatures, but I’m ready to throw on a sweatshirt if it gets much below 70.  My body literally has no idea what to do with cold temperatures except to shiver uncontrollably.  I’m sure I looked ridiculous all bundled up in everything I packed while everyone else was wearing light jackets, but at least I was almost warm.  If I had tried to dress like a local…hello hypothermia!

Get a clue, people.  I’m tired of reading articles like the one above.

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More on Lifting Belts

Since we posted the “Lifting Belts 101″ video, we’ve had a couple of questions come through from people looking for more information on when to start using lifting belts.  While there really isn’t a hard and fast rule on when you should use a belt, I generally don’t recommend that beginning lifters use one.  No, this isn’t an elitist thing, it’s a strength and safety thing.  Wearing a belt too early will delay the development of a strong lower back.  If you train without one, your body has no choice but to support itself and it will get stronger (I promise!).  As far as safety goes, a belt can give you a false sense of security.  It is not uncommon for trainees to put on much more weight than they really should because of the belief that the belt will protect the spine.  It does give you a degree of protection, but that isn’t the belt’s primary purpose if you’re using it correctly.  I know that might sound a little strange, but I’ll cover that in a minute.

First, let’s talk about what the belt really does.  As I mentioned in the video, all the stuff in your abdomen is generally referred to os the “fluid ball.”  The human body has a lot of water…roughly 60% of your total weight is water weight!  Different parts of your body have varying levels of water.  Your organs (the “stuff” in your abdomen) are comprised of about 70% water.  I know it seems like I’ve veered way off topic, but stay with me here.  The fact that our organs are made up of so much water is important because water cannot be compressed like a gas can be.  If you squeeze a bag of gas, the pressure rises and the gas takes up less volume.  If you compress water, the volume stays the same.  Quick experiment: take a deep breath and push your belly out.  Really bear down and push!  Go ahead, I’ll wait.  Ok, now what happened?  Your belly pushed out and you looked like you had a pot-belly, right?  Now if you were wearing a good lifting belt and you had it wrapped over your belly button, you wouldn’t get the pot-belly effect.  The fluid ball in your abdomen wants to push your abdominal wall out, but the belt is in the way.  Where can it go?  Nowhere, actually.  It pushes against the abdominal wall and the spine, thereby increasing your inner-abdominal pressure and bracing the anterior surface of the spine.  The posterior surface of the spine is braced by the belt, so the vertebrae really don’t have anywhere to go.  You’re essentially using the belt to stabilize a very flexible structure (your spine).

Ok, now that we know what happens when we bear down while wearing a belt, why do we do it?  Well, if you’re using it correctly, the belt is giving you something to push against.  Imagine you’re going to move a refrigerator by pushing it across the floor.  Is it easier to push the refrigerator if you just stand there and push or is it easier if you brace yourself against a wall?  Exactly.  While the belt isn’t a wall, it sure does help!  The additional internal pressure provides a feeling of tightness and stability which is essential for lifting very heavy weights.  Yes, it does give you a measure of protection, but it really doesn’t cover that much surface area.  If you go too heavy, a few vertebrae in your lumbar spine might be somewhat protected, but what about your thoracic spine?  If your backs rounds over, you may very well experience a significant injury whether your lumbar spine is protected or not.

If you’re just starting off, I’d wait on the belt for a while.  Concentrate on building back strength first so your body can hold itself together without the aid of the belt.  How do you do this?  Easy!  For starters, it’s time to make back extensions part of your religion.  Check out the video on extensions and start doing ‘em!  Additionally, keep doing lots of squats and lots of dead lifts.  Remember to use proper form and keep the weights moderate.  This is not the time to beat a world record!  Now is the time to build your foundation.  Think of it this way: your body is a three-story house.  The first floor is made of bricks and the third floor is also made out of bricks, but the second floor is made out of tooth picks and string.  What do you think is going to happen to that house?  Right.  It isn’t as much fun, but you really need to take the time to make your second floor out of the same material as your first and third floor!

Hopefully this answered a few questions. As always, feel free to email me at phil@shapeofsuccessfitness.com if you want more information.

Getting Back on the Horse.

I had a conversation with one of my clients yesterday that I think is worthwhile to relate here.  I have this conversation a lot, sometimes with clients and sometimes with people who are just talking to me about exercise and fitness, and it often surprises me how seriously people take “The Plan.”

I have known countless people who “fall off the horse” and then throw in the towel completely.  They miss a couple of days of scheduled workouts and they’re DONE.  Now people miss workouts for a variety of reasons.  I miss workouts, too!  I certainly try not to, but I have a busy work schedule, a 2 1/2 year old son, and a pregnant wife (the “pregnant wife” excuse goes out the window in November, but I’m milking it now for all I can).  Add in yard work, home projects, and the occasional hour or two of sleep and that equals a missed workout here and there.

Remember, it’s not important how or why you fell off the horse, but how you’re going to get back on.

The first thing to do is take a deep breath and say to yourself “It’s no big deal.”  Really, it isn’t.  Yes, we aim for perfection, but sometimes we have to deal with reality.  Don’t get depressed.  Don’t get down on yourself.  Here’s the way the “failure spiral” typically goes:

1. Missed a workout.  You feel lousy about it, but tomorrow will be better!
2. Oops.  Missed another.  Well, this week is pretty much shot.  Start over next week.
3. You feel horribly guilty about missing the last week, but you’re committed to going strong in the future!
4. Dang!  The car needed to go to the shop, your son had a science fair project he didn’t tell you about until 7pm the night before it was due, and one of your gym shoes has gone to live with Jesus.
5. The missing shoe was actually behind the sofa.  Back to the gym!
6. Realize you’ve only made it to the gym three times in the last two weeks.  GUILT!
7. This exercise thing doesn’t seem to be working.  You’ve tried to make it to the gym, but the world seems to be conspiring to keep you away from it.  Now you feel guilty all the time and you think you’re the world’s biggest slacker.
8. Another installment of the fitness plan is sitting in your email.  This is just too much pressure.  It’s not fun anymore, you feel guilty all the time, and you’ve lost your motivation.  Quitting time!

Sound familiar?

A while back I posted an article where I wrote about lifestyle change.  If you’re in the nasty little failure spiral you are experiencing a very common reaction to lifestyle change.  You’re doing something very different from your normal routine and it is going to take a while for this to stick.  Some people are good at making changes and can make the necessary adjustments quickly and easily.  If that describes you, keep it to yourself because the rest of us want to hit you with a shovel.  If you’re like most people, recognize that this is all part of the process.  Do everything you can to make your workouts and don’t make excuses.  A miss is a miss, but it’s only a miss.

Step number two is making it to your next workout.  The past is done and you can’t un-miss your last session.  There are only two options: miss the next workout or don’t miss the next workout.  If you make the next workout, great!  Make it to the next one.  Put up a sheet of paper and make a little mark for every consecutive workout.  If you miss, put up a new sheet of paper and start again.  Trust me!  There will come a time when you’ll get your exercises done and you will forget to mark it down! That’s when you know it’s “just what you do.”

No, this isn’t easy.  It can be very frustrating and it isn’t always fun.  When you feel like quitting, remind yourself of why you started doing this.  One of these days it will just be “what you do.”  And I won’t even say “I told you so.”

Consistency is King

I recently had a conversation via email with one of my clients regarding consistency.  Posting the entire email wouldn’t be appropriate or really all that useful, so I decided to edit one of my responses and toss it up here as a short article.

One of the biggest concerns many people have with a new exercise program is their ability to stick with it.  They know they’ll start out all gung-ho, but what happens when things get uncomfortable or boring?  If you have large buckets of cash, you can hand them over to me and I’ll hang out with you 24/7 and keep you on track.  If you have to ask how large the bucket of cash needs to be, well, you get the picture.  No, even with a trainer, you will have to jump the consistency hurdle all on your own.

The thing to keep in mind is the power of habit.  To varying degrees, people tend to resist change.  This is a major factor for people who need to lose a significant amount of weight.  They have spent many years getting to the place they’re at and it takes a huge lifestyle change to drop the weight and keep it off.

POP QUIZ!

Q: What percentage of people who have lost over 100 pounds keep it off?

A: Less than 20 percent!

Don’t you love encouraging bits of trivia like that?  Well, don’t let it get you down.  Use that information as a reminder to yourself not to slip back into your old ways!  Now you may not be in that exact situation, but if you’re trying to make even a small change you should remember that you have been doing things a certain way for quite a while and it will take time to build new habits.  A good rule of thumb is it takes 30 days of consistent success to make a new behavior a habit.  Every one’s time frame is different, but if you stay consistent you will eventually find that the new behavior isn’t “new” anymore.  It’s just what you do.

So how do you get those 30 days of success in the bag?  There are several different approaches to this and the one that works best for you depends a lot on your personality.  If you tend to have a competitive nature, try making every exercise session a little contest with yourself.  Tinker with the number of reps, the weight, the distance, and the speed.  If you can beat your last performance, chalk up a win! If you are easily bored, try changing your activities regularly.  Sure, you may end up as a “jack of all trades, master of none,” but so what?  This isn’t your job, it’s just exercise!  There are any number of ways to motivate yourself, so try a few and see what works for you.

What’s the bottom line?  Get going and don’t stop!  When those of us in the fitness world say “lifestyle change,” that’s exactly what we mean.  A change in the way you live your life.  For the rest of your life.  When you’re starting out, don’t think in terms of “for life,” think in terms of today.  Exercise today.  Eat right today.  Stack up a whole pile of successful days and what do you get?  Yep, a successful life.

Motivation

When you are a trainer or coach, you inevitably have to deal with motivation issues.  Countless books have been written on motivation.  Go to any book store or library and you will see multiple shelves jammed with books on the subject.  Why?  Well, quite simply it’s because there is no one motivating factor that works for everyone.  If there was, there would be one book.  Actually, it wouldn’t even be a book!  It would be just one sentance that said “Here is the one concept that will serve as your motivation for all things in life.”  Now that sure would make life easy, but people just ain’t wired that way!  Be it love, money, guilt, or countless other motivating factors, we all have unique feelings that spur us on.

I’m just going to talk about motivation as it relates to exercise, because that is what I deal with on a daily basis, but what I’m laying out for you here can also be applied to other areas of your life.  What spurs you on?  Maybe you know and maybe you don’t.  If you don’t, I’d certainly recommend you take some time and really think about it.

When people come to see me, I invariably ask them “Why are you here?”  Sometimes I get a blank look, but usually I get something to the effect of “well, I need a trainer because I want to get in shape.”  “O.K.,” I’ll say.  “But why?”

Here are a few reasons that don’t cut the mustard:

“I’m tired of being out of shape.”

“My husband (wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc) wants me to lose some weight.”

“My doctor told me I should start exercising.”

Now are these bad reasons?  No, but they are incomplete reasons.  Any of these (and countless others like them) can serve as a starting point, but on their own they aren’t enough to force lasting lifestyle change.  To make these work, you have to make them important to you.  Yes, I’m sure that your spouse’s opinion is important to you, but you need to make it more personal than that!  If your reasons for making a major lifestyle change are not profoundly compelling to YOU, it really doesn’t matter how important they are for anybody else.

To illustrate what I mean, let me tell you a little story about Bill.  Yes, Bill is a real person and no, that’s not his real name.  I didn’t train him, either.  In fact, I knew him several years before I got into the training business.  His story really stuck with me though, so I relate it to all of my clients at one point or another.

When I met Bill, he was a big man.  Actually, he wasn’t big.  He was HUGE.  He wasn’t very tall, maybe 5′ 8″ but he was well over 350 pounds.  Nobody knows how much he weighed at his heaviest because the scale in the doctor’s office only went up to 350.  He had an awfully hard time buying clothes because size 64 waist pants are pretty hard to find.  Now he wasn’t an unhappy fat man, quite the contrary.  He had a good job that he enjoyed, a very nice and attractive wife, and a really cool son who was a couple of years younger than me.  He had a great personality and really enjoyed his life.  He especially enjoyed food and found it very hard to resist.  His doctor had hounded him for years to lose weight, but he never could stick to a diet, let alone an exercise plan.  He knew his family wanted him to lose weight, and he wanted to lose it, too.  Unfortunately, none of this was enough and he resigned himself to being fat.

Until his son graduated from high school.

Shortly after the graduation, he went to his doctor for his semi-annual lecture on losing weight. When his doctor asked how he was doing, he told him all about the graduation and how proud he was of his son.  Bill’s son had earned an academic scholarship at a very prestigious school and his future was looking bright.  Then he showed his doctor a picture of himself at the graduation with his wife and son. I saw the picture later.  Happy normal sized wife, happy normal sized son, and a happy balloon that looked like it had escaped from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  The doctor looked at the picture and said “Wow, that’s great Bill!  It looks like you had a good time at the graduation.”  Bill did have a good time at the graduation.  He had such a good time and he was so proud of his son, he couldn’t wait until his son graduated from college.  Now THAT was going to be a party!  The doctor waited until Bill was done talking, then looked at him and said “Bill, you aren’t going to make it to the next graduation.  At the rate you’re going, you’re going to be dead in less than four years.  If you don’t lose some weight, you aren’t going to see your son graduate from college, you aren’t going to be there when he gets married, and you aren’t going to see your grand children.”

Oof.

As it happened, the doctor had hit Bill’s motivating factor: his love for his son and his desire to share in his son’s success.  After that, there was no turning back for Bill!  He stopped eating sweets, desserts, and huge portions.  He started walking, even though for a man of his size it was very strenuous.

No more soda!  Walkalkwalkwalkwalk.  No more pie!  Walkwalkwalkwalk.  No more french fries!  WalkwalkwalkJOG!  Jogjogjogjogjogjog!

Bill proceeded to shed pounds like a snowman in the sun.  For the first few months, he was losing six to eight pounds per week.  Now normally that kind of weight loss would be considered unhealthy, but Bill was an exceptional case.  Maintaining that kind of weight takes a lot of calories, so when he cut down his intake and started exercising, the fat just melted off.  As Bill progressed, the weight loss came more slowly, but he kept his motivation and stuck with his plan.

It took him just under two years, but Bill attained his goal.  It had been a while since I had seen him last and I almost didn’t recognize him.  He was down to about 220 pounds, and was scheduled to go down to about 190 in a couple of weeks.  No, I didn’t type that wrong. When you lose that much weight, you end up with excess skin that has to be surgically removed.  Bill had about 30 pounds of excess skin.  Yeah, I know, “Eeewwww!”  Bill still exercised for a few hours each week and was eating a normal, sensible diet.  Sure, Bill had a piece of cake once in a while, but it wasn’t an everyday thing anymore.  During his weight loss, Bill discovered something: you don’t have to eat a diet of hay and rocks to be healthy.  You can enjoy food, but you don’t have to enjoy ALL the food ALL the time.

So what’s the point of all this?  Simply put, your motivation has to come from you.  Others may be able to make suggestions, but if you’re going to make a significant, lasting change you have to have a reason that is compelling to you.  And guess what?  There are no “wrong” reasons!  Whatever your motivation turns out to be, it isn’t bad or wrong, it just is.  If a particular motivating thought keeps you going, than that’s the one for you!

Anyway, it’s been several years since I’ve seen Bill.  I moved to a different state and I wasn’t able to stay in touch, so I’m not sure what he’s up to.  Did he gain all the weight back?  Maybe, but I like to think that he didn’t.

Fitness Supplements: Slightly Less Shady than the Porn Industry

To date, the worst fitness supplement advertisement I’ve ever seen made no mention of what was in the product or how it worked in your body, but it did say “Don’t be a P***y” in big yellow letters over a red background.  I’ve read lots of ads that tried to convey that same message in round-about ways, but this was the first time I’d ever seen it spelled out so explicitly.  Hmm.  Think that might sway some potential buyers?  Not you, of course.  You’re too smart to fall for that, but believe me, they wouldn’t run that ad if it didn’t work.  Does the product work?  Who knows?  The stuff isn’t tested by the FDA and I couldn’t find a peer-reviewed study, so I’m not going to say that it works or doesn’t work (mostly because I don’t feeling like being sued today).  Let’s just say that I’m not inclined to buy a fitness product just because it challenges my masculinity.

This is a short version of the talk I have every spring with the football team.  Since they’re college students, they usually aren’t awash in extra cash, but they are invariably willing to throw their money away on junk supplements that may or may not work.  Do you have unlimited money?  If you do, great.  Disregard this video and go buy one of everything.  If you don’t, spend about five minutes on the video and then go buy some real food.

Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day

Many people don’t exercise because they lead busy lives and don’t want their exercise programs to monopolize their schedules.  While it is true that professional athletes and body builders spend a great deal of time in the gym, the actual amount of exercise needed for good to optimal health is quite small.

If you want to have a healthy body and increased levels of energy, don’t look to the muscle magazines for exercise advice.  Every activity and every sport has different training regimens.  Some of the differences are small and some are quite large.  Putting it simply, if you don’t want to be a body builder, football player, or downhill skier then don’t train like one.

For a basic health and fitness starter program, I recommend 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise three days per week and about 45 minutes of resistance exercise two days per week.  If you haven’t exercised much lately, take it slow!  Over-enthusiasm is one of the biggest killers of exercise plans.  If you overdo it, you’ll be miserable and much less likely to continue.  How do you know if you’re doing too much?  Listen to your body!  If you go for a run and you start gasping for breath, slow down and walk until you feel better.  As you progress, you’ll find that you need fewer breaks and the breaks that you do take will be much shorter.  Start small with the weights!  No lifting with the ego!  The goal is NOT to be curled up in a big ball of pain the next morning.  Experiment until you find a weight that you can perform eight to twelve repetitions with.  If you can’t lift the weight eight times, go lighter.  Once you can do twelve repetitions it’s time to bump the weight up a little.

If you don’t feel you’re getting results quickly enough, don’t worry.  While the human body has an amazing ability to adapt to its environment and the stresses of that environment, the adaptation doesn’t come overnight.  Give it a couple of months.  With a sensible exercise program, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how little your daily schedule is impacted and by how much your body changes for the better!

You’re not a pro athlete? Great. That’s seven fewer people to hire.

Most people don’t think they need a trainer.  Truthfully, they are correct.  Having a personal trainer is a luxury service, not a necessity.  You don’t need a trainer to go for a run or do some basic resistance exercise, but every person can do better with a good trainer.  As an example, let’s look at a pro football player.  The average player has lifted weights for years and certainly knows his body and its capacities.  While you may think that this would be the last person with a trainer, they actually have more than one.  A football player has at least the following people working on him: an off-season trainer, an in-season strength coach, a massage therapist, a chiropractor, a dietician, a physiotherapist, a position coach and the head coach.  That’s eight people dedicated to making sure that this athlete performs at the highest levels.  You’re not a pro athlete?  Great.  That’s seven fewer people to hire.

Convenience is one of the foremost reasons behind the average trainee’s decision to hire a trainer.  The average person knows that they should get some exercise, but they don’t want to spend the time planning their workouts and meal plans.  By using a trainer, structured plans are prepared and the client only has to worry about putting in the physical work.

Using a trainer also makes your workouts safer and more productive.  Many people who are starting out try to do too much and end up very sore and there are some exercises which are dangerous to do alone (especially if the exercise is unfamiliar).  Productivity is increased by training according to proven methods and progressions.  While there is no “one right way to exercise,” there are many wrong ways.  While some of these “wrong ways” will not injure you, they will not get you the results you should expect.  I estimate that the average trainee wastes the first five years of his or her training life.  He or she will certainly make some progress during this time, but nowhere near as much as was possible.
Are trainers for athletes?  Yes, but they’re also for everybody else.  An educated, professional trainer can make your workouts both more enjoyable and much more productive.