Getting back to workouts with some new music.

My workouts have been progressing. I worked out 7 days of light cardio last week. I did 20-30 min each day of stairs mostly, increasing the intensity slightly each day. I don't think I overdid it, but I could definitely feel it in my abdomen. So I took Sunday off, and am about to go to the gym today. It's been 4 weeks and three days since my surgery, which was for an umbilical hernia. I will discuss it in more detail in a future post. On Saturday, I actually got on three machines and pulled and pushed some weight - not anything heavy at all. I only did about 25% of the weight I would normally have done, and I did it mostly to stretch my arms and go through the motions. 

To me, one of the most important aspects of my workouts revolves around music. I workout better and can accomplish more, with the right music. The music I listen to when I workout changes frequently, but I intend to keep a record of the stuff I listen to. Often when I start a new routine, or when I re-motivate myself, I will change my workout music. So when I started back into last week, I changed up the songs I was listening to a bit. I started the week listening to DJ Clue, The Professional, and by the end of the week, I was listening to GnR, Use Your Illusions II. I'm going to start this week with the same, as well as Train, Drops of Jupiter, which is an album I don't know well, but when I heard it a few weeks ago I thought it might be good to workout to. I will see how it is. 

Resistance training and cancer.

There are a lot of people that ask why strength training is important. I've heard others say that people do it to simply to look better or just to get stronger, even when they really don't need it. Well, certainly people go to the gym to look better and get stronger, but I bet that most people who strength train would also say that it makes them feel better. [The same is true of cardiovascular exercise, by the way.] There's no feeling in the world like getting in a good, solid pump out of a workout.

So I've always wondered if that good-feeling translates into something more meaningful. As a budding oncologist [I'm studying to be a cancer doctor], I was a little surprised when I read today that stronger men tend to be less likely to die from cancer. It caught my eye. I wanted to check the facts, so I went to the literature and did a little sleuthing to find the source.

Here's the article in the British Medical Journal:

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/337/jul01_2/a439.pdf

It's definitely worth checking out. At a glance the study looks decent. It is titled: Association between muscular strength and mortality in men: prospective cohort study. I did not do a full critical review of the research, but basically the authors surveyed, tested, and followed a relatively large number of men, and examined results taking into account several potentially confounding variables. The results were pretty cool. It turns out that the stronger a guy is, the lower his all-cause mortality, and the lower his risk of dying from cancer.

They write: "Muscular strength was significantly and inversely associated with risk of death from all causes and cancer after controlling for potential confounders, including cardiorespiratory fitness." And they state at the end: "It might be possible to reduce all cause mortality among men by promoting regular resistance training involving the major muscle groups of the upper and lower body two or three days a week. Resistance training should be a complement to rather than a replacement for aerobic exercise."

So the next time someone tells you that you are working out just to look good, remind them that your weight training is most likely lowering your risk of dying from cancer too.

The beginning.

Three and a half weeks ago I had abdominal surgery. Since then, I've only been to the gym 5 times. It has been strange to spend less time at the gym, and so I thought that I might figure out a constructive way to still stay somewhat active. That's how this blog was born. I've thought about doing a fitness blog for a while, but I would much rather substitute actually doing something fitness related as opposed to writing about it, so it never got off the ground. Maybe my pseudo-hiatus away from the grind is a good thing, and will allow me to get this thing going, and keep in the habit of making entries. It's a journal, of sorts, really for myself. But if in the process, someone else finds it useful in some way, for some reason, I would be pretty stoked.

Although I do enjoy talking about work, politics, religion, business, sports, etc. I am going to refrain from doing that for my blog. I suppose there are plenty of other blogs out there that are dedicated to those things, and as many people as there are that exist, you can find that many opinions. No offense, but I don't really want to tell you much about my life or beliefs. I'm dedicating my blog to only one particular thing I love - working out, getting fit, staying fit. As a doc, just about every patient I see wants to be in better shape, or lose weight. I talk with them about it all the time. The fitness industry is a multi-billion dollar a year industry. There are TV shows and products and all kinds of equipment and supplements and books. There are gyms and diets and personal trainers. There are theories and and scientific data and opinions. This blog is just one person's view of fitness - a first-person account of my fitness walk. I hope to incorporate some information about my workouts, my diet, and even my philosophies, both evidence-based and non-evidence based, about fitness. I'm open to suggestions, criticisms, questions, and feedback. I am approaching and writing this blog with an honest and open mind. Although I enjoy talking about other stuff too, in the end, I'm gonna try really hard to keep it focused on one thing - fitness.

My 5 workouts since my surgery were minimalist. I have only done very light cardio. Less than 2 weeks after my surgery I did *slow* stairs for about 20 min, and then again 15 min the next day. Sensing I may be moving a little fast, I waited another week or so before stepping back into the gym. The last three days I have done 30min of cardio, mostly stairs and walking on the treadmill at an incline every day. The workouts burn about 200-250 kcal. I'd like to keep it up daily for now, but I also want to take it very slowly, and let my body heal. I will discuss my surgery in a future post.

Staying away from the gym has been productive on a few levels. One, it's given me time to refocus. Prior to my surgery, I was most definitely losing a bit of discipline. Second, it has given me a chance to rethink some of my fitness goals. When I am back at 100% I will most definitely have some different aims in mind. Third, it's given me a chance to start this little weblog project. Writing, planning, thinking, blogging. I really do think it will assist me in my fitness goals.