Exercise could be bad for you......Really?

I recently watched channel 4’s programme the Food Hospital which, I am a big fan of. However, I was disappointed when watching the recent episode which covered an experiment on how exercise can have adverse effects on the body. My obvious reaction to this being a personal trainer was “what a load of rubbish”. But as there was scientific credibility behind this, my curious mind forced me to look at a number of scientific papers that covered these shocking but “scientifically proven” claims.

My search did not take long, I went straight to PubMed to see what papers and studies had been published. For those of you that are not aware of PubMed, it is a database which holds thousands of medical literature and analysis papers, which, is a highly credible resource for medics, personal trainers and members of the public to access. I then found a recent paper which covered six different studies on 1687 individuals. The name of the paper is “Adverse Metabolic Response to Regular Exercise”. I won’t bore you with all the details of the paper so I will give you a brief synopsis.

The paper looked at the effects of exercise on the following; blood pressure, HDL levels (cholesterol), triglycerides and insulin was quantified. This study shown 10% of the people within the experiment had an adverse reaction to regular exercise over a number of weeks. So according to this research the scientist are right to say Exercise can be bad for you......or are they?

If you read the whole paper and the six studies, you may or may not notice 2 big holes in this research. Firstly, there is no consideration on what each individual is eating and drinking during this period and they categorise a healthy individual as someone who is not taking any medication. So does this mean that every person who is not taking any medication is healthy.....I think not! Secondly, there is no evidence to show if the individual’s are affected by medical drugs. In 4 of the 6 studies a great number of individuals were taking medical drugs for high blood pressure, hyperglycemia, or dyslipoproteinemia (abnormal lipoprotein).

The problem here is a tunnel vision approach on trying to prove how one element can have a negative impact. In this isolated capacity they may be right however there are so many factors that affect the human body that it is actually very difficult to prove that one single component can cause certain problems for certain people and this undoubtedly gives the wrong message to the general public, not to mention making every personal trainer across the land justify their existence. 

The fact still remains that regular exercise is good for you! The people trying to disprove this are scientists looking for a promotion or scientists wanting to promote the latest medical drugs. Regarding the 10% with the negative outcome, what do they suggest these people do - sit on the couch all day and eat crisps and chocolate?? Seriously, what are they thinking? The one thing scientists cannot deny is the human body, by design, is made to move. So is exercise really the problem?? Or could it be the way some individuals live their lives? 

Rather than get bogged down with all these confusing and often misleading studies and TV programmes, just try keeping an open mind. The topic of living a healthy lifestyle is not rocket science and if you can answer the common sense questionnaire below you know how to live healthily:

Q1. Is eating McDonald's and other fast foods good for you?
Q2. Is drinking Alcohol and smoking good for you?
Q3. Is regular exercise good for you?
Q4 Is eating a Chicken Salad good for you?

If you have answered these questions correctly you have the ability to look after yourself and greatly reduce the risk of many life threatening diseases (should you follow up on the answers).
We in the personal training world are big advocates on not just exercise but also, nutrition and lifestyle. A multi-layered approach is needed when improving your health and changing your body shape. Should you need any help with a healthy lifestyle then see a personal trainer within your area or download our free healthy living e-book.

Should you require any advice relating this article or anything regarding health & fitness then please do not hesitate to contact me on lewis@elitefitnessconsultants.co.uk I would be delighted to help you.

Keep healthy

Keep doing the Distance..

Just recently I gave advice to my personal training client on how to train for the Liverpool half marathon. The response I got was a look of confusion followed by “don’t be so stupid, as if I could do the whole distance straight away, I have never run a half marathon in my life!” After explaining my approach she still looked at me with a face full of scepticism and then told her friend (who is also a friend of mine), who then called to tell me how ridiculous my plan was and that she had not heard of anything so stupid!

Although I explained my reasons I should not have been surprised by both their reactions as they, like you, will only know of the traditional approach to training for a running event which is normally to start with a small distance and gradually build up until you have almost completed the required length one or two weeks prior to the event.

You will hear of this traditional approach in running magazines, sports / running clubs and pretty much any running coach out there will tell you to gradually build up to the distance just before the event. However, I am going to show you a new and a far superior way to prepare for a long distance event. This is not a subjective view on what I think is right but is a scientific and objective perspective on muscular function and human movement.

Just bear with me for a moment while I explain in as basic term as possible, a little on muscle function so you can grasp my thought process for this unconventional approach. Every muscle and tendon in the human body has a small sensory system called a proprioceptor which basically provides information to the brain on what is happening to the muscle when we move. It is essentially the body’s own awareness in a space and time. To give you an example of how proprioception works, think about when a baby tries to walk for the first time. The baby will need to hold on to a stable surface or use the support of the parent. The baby will be shaking and concentrating on trying to place one foot in front of the other. After a few months of practising the baby no longer needs support or even has to think about walking, they just do it. When the baby first starts to walk and is shaking and falling over the proprioceptors barely recognise this new movement of the muscles hence the falling over but, in time, once the muscles are repeatedly moving in the directions to support walking, the baby can walk automatically without thought or concentration. 

Now the muscles have done this movement over and over the proprioceptors understand these motions and movement takes place without thinking. If you want to find out more on proprioception look in a good anatomy book or you will find some information on Google.

To bring this into the world of exercise, have a think about when you did an exercise for the very first time. Did you shake or lose balance? You will have, unless you have done that same movement pattern before. What happened when you continually repeated the exercise, did you stop shaking or manage to move without losing balance? 

You get better when your muscles have moved in the same way over and over again, if they encounter a new pattern or the same pattern but surpassing a great deal more times than previously encountered, the muscles/proprioceptors enter into new territory. Think about the shaking baby. 

So how does this relate to running? Well, if we could assume that a half marathon took an individual 20,000 running strides and the old approach was to only complete up to 17,000 strides (11 miles) the individual’s body will be entering the unknown after 17,000 strides. So for 3000 strides the body and mind will be going through a painful experience. Even if the person had completed 20,000 paces but only once before, they will still encounter an unpleasant period as they have only done it once before.

So remember how the muscles get better the more and more you do something... well, this is exactly the same principle. Now I’m not saying run the whole 13 miles when you have never covered that kind of distance before but why not walk it?? Once you have walked that distance, rest and stretch all week then repeat but this time walk 10 miles and jog for 3 miles. Then repeat the same sequence but the following week increase the jogging to 6 miles and gradually increase the miles of jogging each week until you jog all the way. Once you have done the distance 3 or 4 times the whole experience becomes a lot easier and it does not take long for you to significantly increase the miles you run. 

With this approach you can take a complete novice who has barely run before to complete a half marathon, comfortably, within 3 months. For those that are obese, I would not recommend a long distance event however, I would still advocate this approach but for a much shorter distance (3-5k). For those that take long distance running more seriously you can utilise this method to great effect. You can do the distance but now start focusing on time, so start off slow and gradually increase.

For all of the sceptical minds out there I want to leave you with a final thought – Why is it that Kenyon’s and Ethiopians who have the poorest training facilities in the world, the most inhospitable climate, dirty drinking water and the poorest food yet still they have continually produced athletes that have dominated long distance events since modern track & field athletics and cross country events began? Do you think it might have something to do with the fact they do not have transport and are forced to run for miles upon miles to drink water, go to school or find food??

So to conclude.... keep doing the distance!

If you are serious about running then contact Lewis on 07771 533 408 or email him on lewis@elitefitnessconsultants.co.uk

Horse meat is the least of your problems!

With all the recent controversy surrounding the horse meat scandal I thought it was the ideal time to write a short piece around this topic. My own personal reaction to the contaminated food scandal was one of no surprise and I am writing this blog to highlight a little truth as to what is happening with the food most people buy. After reading this I think you will find that a little horse meat is the least of your problems regarding the food on supermarket shelves today.
I have been a personal trainer for over 12 years now in Liverpool and during this time I have made it my responsibility to research heavily in the field of nutrition and human physiology. Without knowing these things I cannot help my clients other than telling them to do “3 more reps”. As I have never been a fan of just counting reps I am highly passionate about helping people hence my journey of education over the years. Once I discovered what was going on in the world regarding food and the impact it has on the body, it not only changed my own personal outlook on eating but also allowed me to help so many more people in my local community.
The information that I disclose is not one of personal opinion, it is one of fact. We now live in an information free world where there are no longer any secrets hence, the horse meat discovery, so you can find this information from any credible research source. A quick note on research, if you are looking at scientific papers then please make sure it comes from a non biased source as many companies and big organisations like to protect their profits by paying scientists to publish the safety of their products. Be warned! Read my previous blog - which has a reference to credible research sources.

So what is going on with our food?

Rather than give you all of the boring scientific data that proves XYZ for just one small variable, I want to give you some very simple facts to allow you the reader to draw your own conclusions based on what I share with you. Should you not believe these facts or even have a sense of scepticism, you can simply look up the information for yourself.
Let’s take a look at the problems we have from a global perspective to help stimulate your thoughts.

1. Population – we currently have 7 billion people on the planet. That is a lot of hungry mouths to feed!

2. The western demands – the western society now wants it all, we want more choice of foods regardless of the seasons. If it’s winter and we want strawberries, we simply to go to the supermarkets and buy them. Fast food chain McDonalds sells over 45 million beef based hamburgers per week . That’s a lot of cows for just one fast food company. I wonder what the figure would be if you added all of the fast food chains put together?

3. Transportation of food – As you know a great deal of the food in the UK is important from all over the world. With this comes the preservation of food. It has to be preserved somehow in order to survive the changing conditions and environments of travelling and to stop it decaying before it reaches the shelves in the supermarkets. So what do they do to the food to preserve it?

4. The environment – With mass transportation comes mass pollution, along with the carbon effect within the atmosphere, the waste we discard into the sea’s and those little accidents we have such as spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the oceans.

5. Pesticides for farming – In order to keep up with demand farmers must spray all of their crops to keep off bacteria & parasites by using pesticides. Problem is, pesticides contain up to 30% carcinogens. If you do not know what a carcinogen is, basically an agent directly involved in causing cancer. The argument for its safe use on vegetables is that they are washed taking away the pesticides. However, if you want to nourish a plant you spray water on it and the plant absorbs the water. So are you telling me that vegetables somehow do not absorb the pesticides sprayed on them??

If I’m honest I could go on for a long time regarding our problems with food, too much for this blog. So now you have an insight to the problems we face I hope you can now see that a little horse meat does not even scratch the surface when looking at the bigger picture regarding what we have in our foods. The truth is, food is now mass produced in a way that is unsustainable so therefore man has taken a pragmatic approach to combat this at the cost of our own health. If you think about a cow for example who should not be slaughtered until approx 6 years old after living a healthy life in a field, they no longer live in a field or have a healthy life. Cows are now slaughtered after 6 months of living in an industrialised complex where they cannot exercise and are full of chemically enhanced foods to make them grow quickly. They are also full of antibiotics to stop them falling ill as this is bad for profits. Then after a short an unhealthy life, full of chemicals and toxins the cow is slaughtered and ends up on your plate with those very same chemicals still present – Yum?!

This is just my own personal view point now but, instead of spending so much money on cancer research and how we cure cancer, why don’t we just start looking at the things that are certainly contributing to cancer and maybe there might not be as much research needed to curing it? Just my own personal opinion but I personally think prevention is better than cure!

So what can you do about this?

Well there is nothing you can do to stop this problem however, there are simple things you can do to avoid eating contaminated food......eat organic. If you want to be sure of eating good clean healthy food, then eat organic. Yes I know it’s slightly more expensive but there are ways around this, limit the amount of money you spend on junk and you will find that by eating good organic food you will actually save a couple of pounds.

Take from this what you will but if you look into what I have just mentioned the truth awaits you. So my question to you is this, do you want to eat foods that are highly contaminated and full of harmful toxins or eat foods that are not full of harmful toxins.... the choice is yours, choose wisely.

If you want me to send you more information, tips, videos and podcasts then you can join the Elite Fitness Consultants members club. It is completely free and you will receive top quality health and fitness content. Just simply email me your full name on lewis@elitefitnessconsultants.co.uk If you liked this blog then why not share it on facebook or twitter!

Keep healthy