Category: Adam Milligan - EQUIVITA

Fitness and the Process, Fitness and the Goal

9/2/2022

“Absorption in projects threatens to obscure the beauty of the process.” This quote is from Midlife: A Philosophical Guide by Kieran Setiya. And in this book the author differentiates work that is being performed for a goal separate from the doing of the work itself. He names these as Telic and Atelic where atelic work is done for its own sake. Think of having a hobby that is just for enjoyment and not as a side hustle to supplement income. This, he says, enables a greater focus on the now and enjoyment of the doing.

I, of course, thought about fitness and how if the focus is just on achieving a goal there can be lifestyle altering intensity, but it is not sustainable.

For instance, if you are only focused on losing 50 pounds, what happens to your fitness plan once you have achieved that goal? Statistically we know that you will start gaining weight.

For me, I have always held the belief that if you have a body then you should take care of it. And while the specifics of what is included in taking care of your body will vary, the primary intention of caring for one’s self stays the same.

But this is not the same as finding enjoyment in the activities of taking care of yourself. True, there are certainly some who really enjoy the feeling of exercising, but there are many who don’t. For this group exercise is pain, discomfort, hot, sweaty and, frankly, something to be avoided. So, how to address this issue where even people who hate the feelings of exercise, need to be exercising?

Without doubt this is a challenge. This is not just an individual challenge but also one that challenges the healthcare of our entire nation. If we humans don’t find enjoyment in the doing, then we probably aren’t going to do it, whatever it is, unless we are forced.

And this leads directly back to why people spend so much time, effort and money on activities that are simply for their enjoyment. If we believe Professor Setiya this is how people find happiness and true enjoyment in their lives, and they do this not because they are forced but because they want to. But I don’t think that this is the same as saying that people must enjoy everything about the activity. For instance, a gardener who might hate weeding can accept that it is a necessary role for the bigger picture of what they do enjoy.

Similarly, while it may be hard to find enjoyment when you are in the midst of your cardio exercise, you could adapt your focus to the bigger picture and how great it feels to know that you are taking good care of yourself. And taking good care of yourself, physically, is the basis of the 5 Keys Fitness Process. You may not enjoy each Key equally, but each deserves its attention in your program and by using the system you can feel how great it feels to take good care of you.

As always, let me know how I can help.
Adam

The Least You Can Do

9/2/2022

Fitness over a lifetime will include times where you are focused on goals and achieving new milestones or personal records for your body, as well as, other times when other aspects of your life take primary focus and your fitness goals are centered on maintaining. During these times your program should be based on the minimum to maintain.

You may have heard it recommended that you should go through your closet and get rid of any clothes that you haven’t worn in a year. This is similar to how the body treats skeletal muscle. If it hasn’t been used, then it must not be needed and can be broken down to be used as energy.

This has often been summed up with the simple phrase “use it or lose it.”

So, how often do you need to use the muscle to remind your body that you need to keep it? Well, since we are all different there is a wide range of days between bouts of resistance exercise that will remind the body to keep it around. A good guideline is to do your resistance exercise once every 5 to 21 days, with the frequency increasing with age because as we age the body gets more efficient and better at getting rid of muscle it feels is no longer necessary.

But, before the body starts to break down the muscle it will start with the energy systems within the muscle. This is why coming back to lifting after some time off, even just a week, can feel so much harder. Even if you haven’t been gone long enough for the muscle loss to start, it certainly can feel like it because you have lost the energy to power the muscle at the same level. And, of course, without the energy to power the muscle at the same level, you won’t be able to lift at the same intensity to remind the body to keep the muscle.

The good news is that these energy systems come back quickly and after your first “Welcome Back Workout” you could be back to where you left off.

Remember, it is much easier to maintain muscle than it is to convince the body to build new muscle. So, during those times when exercise is not your top priority, plan to do the least that you can to ensure that you don’t lose too much of what you had worked so hard to gain.

And, as always, let me know how I can help.
Adam

Go Faster

8/3/2022

Often my focus on biomechanics is centered around performing activity with maximum stress on the muscles and I would contend that this is exactly where focus should first be placed, especially with any structured exercise. Putting the stress on the muscles is not only how you ensure you are getting the benefits of the exercise, which is the reason you are doing the exercise, as well as how you decrease the potential for injury or progressive wear-and-tear to the body from the exercise.

However, biomechanics is also how you can focus your exercise for aesthetic gains like developing a peak to your biceps or raising the height of your glutes. And biomechanics is also how you can modify performance like changing the speed you run.

Running speed is a simple equation:
Length of stride x Frequency of stride = speed

Both of these factors are pretty simple and it seems fairly straightforward. The amount of distance you cover with each stride and the faster each leg covers that distance, the greater your speed. But, as your foot extends in front of your body the ground strike force pushes against your foot and against the momentum of forward movement and the further in front of your body the more directly this force pushes against the direction you are moving.

One way to counter this slowing force is to reduce the amount your leg is extended, but this obviously reduces your stride length. Some of this loss, but only some, can be regained by focusing on pushing the rear leg behind you more. Another way to change this equal-and-opposite force that is hindering your forward movement is by changing the position that your leg is in when you strike the ground. Having your knee more bent when your foot strikes the ground directs the force of impact in a more vertical direction and less against the forward movement. The extreme of this gait is the position that is used by sprinters and is the way to generate maximum speed for short periods of time.

So, those are three different gait patterns that each have their own stress forces to the body, positive aspects and limitations: extension in front, extend behind and with greater knee bend. If you are running for distance, I recommend that you use all of them and change your gait as you are running. This will change the way your muscles are working and disrupt repetitive forces to your body.

And while walking has its own gait patterns, and usually less force, there are some similarities not the least of which is that your body is actively trying to find an easier way and using consciously different gaits will decrease your body’s ability to leverage on joints and increase your benefits.

As always, let me know how I can help.
Adam

But What About the Finish LIne?

7/2/2022

Recently my wife joined me on a nature walk and we saw a woman who was running, working hard and clearly challenging herself. While my wife’s reaction was one of how great this woman was out there pushing herself, my thoughts were more along the lines of "at what cost?"

As fitness clients of EQUIVITA know, once you start to learn about biomechanics you start to see movement dysfunctions everywhere. The drive of the body to find the easiest way doesn’t go away during exercise; in fact, exercise can often bring out this efficiency-focus of the body even more.

If you set a goal to bench press your bodyweight, the shortest path to that goal is to shift your position so that the bar is more in line with your shoulders and not across your chest. This shift places greater stress on the shoulders and doesn’t rely on as much muscle to move the weight. Of course, joints don’t tell you they are wearing out until they have and they don’t heal as well as muscle, not to mention the fact that you aren’t developing the muscle to move the weight. So, not as much benefit with the addition of wear and tear to the body.

Similar “cheats” happen with every exercise. Running is about alignment to keep the stress on the muscle, which is so hard to do especially if you are focused on maintaining a desired min/mile pace or achieving a goal distance. Prioritizing goals of achievement, or what you did, over how you did it, is easy to do and often encouraged. I can even agree that there are certain times when the performance is a higher priority, but consistently choosing what over how, is not aligned with longevity.

To maintain an active lifestyle requires conscious focus on how you are using your body, because your body is designed to consistently find easier ways. Some of our bodies are more gifted than others in this pursuit, but it is the nature of the body. So to ensure your body continues to be able to support the lifestyle that you want, keep the "how" high on the priorities.

And, as always, let me know how I can help.
Adam

That's not Cardio

6/9/2022

For blood flow, endurance, fat loss, metabolism shifts, blood sugar reset, mental clarity…this list could just keep going and that’s just a list of what we know thus far. It seems every day there is more research that adds something more to the list of benefits to be gained from cardio exercise. But what is cardio exercise?

I know that seems like a silly question since we all have so much experience with the concept, but if you look at some of the research methods for the “cardio” exercise you'll find that the studies were clearly pushing the subjects into an anaerobic energy production. Without getting too technical, this means that the gains realized in the study were from a higher intensity. An intensity that was beyond aerobic or “cardio”.

Aerobic exercise is not defined by the activity, but the intensity of that activity. Pedaling a bike at a resistance (indoor bike) and speed that you can sustain for at least 8 minutes can be considered aerobic. Pedaling that same bike at a resistance and speed that you can only sustain for 1 minute, is not aerobic, it is anaerobic, even if you repeat that minute multiple times with rest in between. But what if, instead of resting between bouts of the high intensity, you continued to pedal but at the lower resistance and speed? This is, of course, the idea of interval training and it has many benefits. It is a stretch, though, to call it cardio exercise.

This matters because of how the public uses the information from the fitness industry. In 1996 the Surgeon General’s report on physical activity gave recommendations for the minimum amount of exercise necessary to decrease risk of disease. One of these recommendations was that exercise could be broken into shorter bouts, as low as 8 minutes long, and that quickly became counting all movement toward exercise goal regardless of how brief. Another recommendation was that exercise should be most days of the week, which somehow translated into 3 days a week. And remember, the recommendations were the minimum to have any benefit. So, when they were lessened even more it is no wonder that the benefits also failed to be realized.

So, what we know is that exercise can make a huge difference in many areas of life and there is a clear dose-response relationship with greater benefits to be gained with higher intensity and greater frequency. Using this as your guide will be far more effective than some classification label that can lead you to believe that all of those listed benefits of cardio can be gained by walking.

As always, let me know how I can help.
Adam

Give Yourself a Break

6/1/2022

What exactly is overtraining? Very simply, it is when your body doesn’t have enough recovery from the stressors. In fitness we can see this in how muscle growth is hindered, fat loss is lessened and performance degrades. And a simple way to assess it is by recording your resting heart rate and body temperature every day. Ideally, at the same time of day for consistency.

In the too much stress and not enough recovery state of overtraining, your resting heart rate will increase and your resting body temperature will decrease. This is the exact opposite of what happens in the optimal training zone. And I think even if you haven’t considered this before, it makes some intuitive sense. Not giving yourself the space to recover means that you can’t effectively adapt. Your body’s ability to respond to the stressor and become stronger, faster or have increased endurance is hindered because of the lack of rest needed for recovery to happen.

Now, let’s take this simple understanding of overtraining the body and consider if something similar can happen to other areas. Deep thinking is a fairly easy one to compare, because it is similarly exhausting to spend time in focused deep thought. Less obvious is the background thinking. Those thoughts that can be running all the time and provide no sense of rest are exhausting, yet, because they aren’t as obvious they are harder to address. Similarly, emotional overtraining is sometimes obvious and overwhelming, and other times those heightened emotions are likely to be overlooked and unaddressed.

We live in a time when we are inundated with stories that are specifically designed to elicit an emotional reaction. And as hard as we may try to not allow ourselves to be pulled into the reaction, our brains can work against us as it pursues its goal of knowing. When presented with a gap of knowledge the brain will actively try to fill the void rather than find comfort in not knowing. In fact, this drive is so powerful that the brain will sometimes fill the void with fabrications, because that is more comfortable than allowing a gap to remain.

I find that understanding these things about our nature is very helpful in creating a bigger understanding of our society, and I also believe that if people could realize how their lack of allowing space for recovery has impacted their ability to adapt then they might choose differently. Much like overtraining of the body hinders one’s ability to achieve optimal results, overtraining of your mental and emotional self will hinder you. It is maybe not as obvious, but it is every bit as important.

Unfortunately, I don’t know of a simple tool to assess whether you are overtraining your brain, but you might be able to pick up on indicators by reflecting on how irascible or reactive you are. Reflecting, however, requires taking time to gain some objectivity and the respite that can be found in that time is also where you will find the benefits.

I encourage you to design a plan that provides you with daily opportunity to turn off the incessant stream, find some calm and maximize your adaptability.

And, as always, let me know how I can help.
Adam

When is a Muscle Not a Muscle?

4/1/2022

The distinguishing feature that makes a muscle is its ability to shorten, sometimes with significant force, and then return to a lengthened position. This ability is what enables our bodies to move because when the muscle shortens it pulls the end points together. We all know this, even if we don’t get into the specifics of where the muscle originates and inserts (its end points) we have a general idea that a muscle is supposed to contract and relax, and that action is how we move. But what happens when a muscle is held in a constant contraction? From internalized stress to postural distortions, there are many reasons why a skeletal muscle might be held in a contracted state. And, as we have written in previous articles, it is important to know the reason for the contraction before releasing the seized muscle to not cause more harm.

In this scenario, let’s imagine that we have identified and addressed the reason that the muscle had been in a constant contracted position. The muscle, however, has not relaxed but remains in a shortened state. To bring that muscle back to a functional muscle, will probably require some manual manipulation (i.e., massage).

Collagen, the building protein of the body, is laying down throughout the body all the time - and seems to do so at a faster pace as we age. If a muscle is held in a short position for an extended period, then the collagen lays down and sticks that tissue in that position. Over time this develops to a point where the essence of the muscle, the contract/relax part, is diminished as it now functions more like connective tissue. One of the easiest examples of this in our society is the posture of many of our senior citizens. The muscles of the back have become so rigid that when upright they are rounded forward and when laying down cannot lay flat on their back because the muscles are too stiff.

Muscles that are this stiff cannot be effectively contracted nor stretched because they no longer have the suppleness that we would like the muscle to have. In this rigid state, they function much more like connective tissue than muscle.

The great news, however, is that this is all living tissue and can be changed. The first step is to identify if you have muscles in this state. Sometimes this can be challenging, especially if the stuck muscles are deep stabilizing muscles. Next, determine if the stuck muscle has been responding to another force pulling it. This can be other muscles and/or the force of gravity as in the rounded forward posture already mentioned. Then you can address the stuck muscles as part of the whole body program with targeted massage. And once the muscle starts to become unstuck over time the muscle will be able to stretch as well as contract.

Sounds like quite a process, and it is, which is one of the reasons why we are big believers in regular massage. Massage therapists can find and address these restrictions before they develop into stuck muscles. But even if regular massage hasn’t been part of your self-care program and you have developed muscles that are functioning not like muscle, you can make a difference. Bringing those muscles back to supple and then strong.

As always, let me know how I can help.
Adam

The alchemy of eating right for yourself can benefit from a mini plan, and a little tracking.

10/8/2021

Nutrition is one of those keys that can seem just too daunting to tackle and certainly that is part of the reason why there are so many “simple” and “easy” or even “magic” dietary plans to follow. Yet, as we all know, the way to accomplish a project that seems overwhelming is to break it into manageable tasks. The added challenge when it comes to nutrition is that the end goal is not obvious. Should you eat a low fat diet? Does it make sense for you to make your meals mostly plant based? Can you count carbonated water as your water intake? And do you really need to be drinking 64 ounces of water a day? Seriously, this list could just go on and on with science supporting and refuting nearly every answer.

One of the reasons that the science isn’t clear is that humans aren’t the same. Starting with the way we digest, there are variances in our ability to break down foods and the mechanisms of motility. Then the variability of the microbiota in our intestines plays such an immense role that research is continuing to find never before imagined connections with our health. And all of that happens before the absorbed nutrients get a chance to make it to our cells where things like the difference in mitochondria (7 types have been found in humans) may provide differences in how we get energy from the food. Check out The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Out Genetic Ancestry if you want to explore more on the topic of mitochondria. To simplify, we are all different and our lifestyle choices create even more differences among us.

Just trying to determine the right nutrition for an individual is complicated, but in our modern society that is also not seen as enough because we are inundated with how our food industry is not doing right by us nor the earth. Really?! Is there no end to the negatives associated with this basic need for our survival? It is almost as if money is to be made confusing and shaming us. And, along those lines, there is research demonstrating that foods which we are designed to crave when stressed actually don’t satiate us but exacerbate the craving- the opposite of other primates- and the researchers speculate that is due to our belief that the “bad” food is causing us harm, and thus, is increasing our stress.

Rather than hide your head in the sand only coming up for fast food, I encourage you to set some small steps. Start tracking the foods you eat and how they make you feel, decide that you will increase your water intake, or maybe watch the documentary Kiss the Ground (https://kisstheground.com/). There are so many small actionable steps that you can take that will give you more control, and while the ideal magic miracle foods are appealing, they are not the path of you using your ownership to take the best care of yourself.

As always, let me know how I can help.
Adam

Why diet tracking gives you the best diet for you.

5/3/2021

I first started working in the fitness industry during the time when it seemed like the entire nutrition industry believed that dietary fat was evil, and the cause of obesity as well as many diseases. Of course, many now look back on that and think how wrong we were and question how we could possibly have believed such a thing and how, thankfully, we now know the “right” way for humans to eat. Yet, interestingly, body fat is often used as the sign of the diet’s effectiveness on our health.

The understanding that body fat was unhealthy was presented with the history of how in the mid 1900s we learned how to produce food at such a scale that it was cheap and developed tools that reduced our daily physical activity, creating a social status indicator that was the opposite of how it was previously. With the belief that before this time people who physically worked were thinner from laboring and not able to eat as much due to cost, while those who were higher on the socio-economic scale didn’t have to labor and could eat more. Thus, carrying more fat was desirable until it was easy to do and then carrying less was the ideal.

While this explanation doesn’t at all address the health implications that body fat is supposed to have, it does give a solid story about how we as a society developed our issues with body fat. It cannot, however, be a true story because it doesn’t explain how the most popular books in the United States in the 1800s were diet books. In the book A Short History of the American Stomach, Frederick Kaufman writes about how many of the new diets of today are actually diets from the 19th century. The modern day versions certainly have new names and the options our food industry has been able to create are remarkable, but the essence is the same. Which I would think could make one question the trust that they have placed in the current dietary plan.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of diet books and they may all work but they are too contradictory to think that they will work for everyone. But they don’t have to work for everyone, they just have to work for you. And that, I believe, should be the guiding focus for whatever dietary plan you have.

How do you know if your diet is working for you? You pay attention and you track. Tracking means writing down when you eat, what you eat and how much you eat. Paying attention is not only writing down how you feel in your diet tracker, but also watching your body metrics (blood sugar, cholesterols, body weight, etc.) which over time can provide insights into how your body is responding to your diet. The tricky part is to not overvalue the measurements. It can be far too easy to have a number on the scale override your efforts and seem like a much more real indicator of how your diet is working for you than the fact that you aren’t as exhausted at the end of a day. If this sounds familiar, please consider not using the scale. There are so many great reasons to pay attention to what you are eating and while numbers can seem real and objective, placing too much importance on them can cause harm to the far more important goal of optimizing health.

I know it can be tedious, but the simple fact is that the more you consistently track when, what and how much you eat, as well as how it makes you feel, the better you will understand your body and how to provide the best nutrition for it.

As always, let me know how I can help.
Adam

Simple goals set long term success.

5/3/2021

Take a small step. Achieve it and give yourself a gold star sticker. Then plan the next step and repeat. This is the way of success. The research is pretty clear that for most of us this progressive accomplishment is not only how we achieve great goals but it is also how we realize the joy of feeling good. Unfortunately, it does not fit with our typical approach to lifestyle changes like diet and exercise.

For those goals we tend to fall into the mythological thinking of making a significant shift that begins on the New Year, or maybe the start of a new week, and then it’s a planned overhaul of our entire life. Throw out all the food in our cupboards that don’t fit the new plan and set the alarm to wake us an hour earlier. Yet, we know that this model is the path of failure. In fact, this is so common that it doesn’t even need to be explained.

There is wisdom in the saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And I would say that you can get started without knowing the exact destination. Create a simple rule to follow for two weeks. A simple rule could be limits on the time of day that you eat, eating no white flour, only eating local animal products or not eating while involved in any other activity (driving, watching tv, reading, etc.). The simple rule goal is to disrupt the pattern and provide an opportunity to think about eating.

Regardless of the rule you create, follow it and then reward yourself. Remember that while our goal is the big picture, that destination is only achieved through many little steps. And each of those steps is an opportunity for you to take a moment and appreciate you and celebrate how great you are doing.

Adam