Two months of working out.

Wow. It's been about two months since I made my last entry. When I made that entry, I was just getting back into the swing of things after some [somewhat] minor abdominal surgery. Well, everything has been going well - so well, in fact I haven't had time to blog! Well, I'm back to a full 100%, and I'll let you know how my workouts have been going.

First, I eased into my workouts exceedingly slowly. I didn't want to mess anything up with the surgery. I had a small umbilical hernia [which I had before I started lifting - but it only got worse over the past year and a half]. A hernia is a defect in the abdominal wall. Mine was small, but caused an prominent "outie" bellybutton which I could push back in, or reduce, if it ever extended out a little. It was becoming more bothersome and would occasionally push out and cause me pain, so I had it corrected. This consisted of making a small incision over the belly button and suturing closed the defective abdominal wall. It was a day surgery, which I did on a Friday, so I recovered over the weekend and only missed one day of work [though the monday after was harsh!].

I went to the gym for the first time 13 days after my surgery, and did very minimal [very slow] stairs. I stuck with exercises that did not increase my intra-abdominal pressure, and never did anything that caused considerable pain. I very very slowly began going to the gym more regularly, only doing cardio, and by 8weeks, I was working a weight routine back into the mix. Between 8-10 weeks, I worked ab exercises back into the mix too, again exceedingly slowly.

Well, my slow but steady pace paid off, and now, as I said at the beginning of this blog entry, I'm am back to 100%. Cardio and health wise, I'm probably in the best shape of my life. Strength wise, I'm not as strong as I have been in the past, but I have focused more on cardiac workouts and toning. I have slimmed down for the summer and am now at ~170#'s.

Perhaps the thing I am most proud of over the past two months is my diet. It has really been good - I'm making much of my food, and nearly always eating very healthy, in great control of my dietary intake, even when I eat out. If it is any inspiration for anyone out there trying to adhere to a diet, the diet part of my routine is possibly the hardest for me. I LOVE food! But I have been successful at eating good foods, that are good for me, and occasionally allowing myself small portions of foods that I love, but do not fall in line with the healthy nature of my dietary routine [like my absolute fav - pizza].

So my workout routine has been disciplined. I have really focused on cardio workouts with multiple days of 30min-1hour cardio workouts. Sometimes even longer. But I haven't neglected weights. To the contrary I have adhered to a very rigorous one muscle group per day each week. I cycled through chest, back, shoulders, arms, and legs each week, often with a day of circuit [one exercise for each of the muscle groups mentioned], and a day of cardio. Some weeks I would take a day of rest, or simply do light cardio. I would exercise abs twice weekly, and focus on calves at least once weekly.

When it comes to weights this has been my routine for sometime. This week I begin something anew. In my continual effort to change things up and keep my body guessing, I will start a routine that will look something like this: Chest/Tri's/Abs on day 1, Back/bi's/calves day 2, legs/abs day 3, and shoulders/arms/calves day 4. Day 5, oddly will be focused on the left side of my body, which is weaker than my right, to improve symmetry, and perhaps more legs, which I would like to focus on for this next month [I may split my legs workout into two days in this way]. Day 6 will focus on cardio exclusively, and day 7 will be for fun - mostly basketball.

I have also been incorporating swimming into my routine - but I am really not a good swimmer. All the more reason to improve and challenge myself! Likewise, while the weather where I live is nice [though hot] this time of year, I have been jogging outdoors more too.

As far as diet, I am going to continue with what I've been doing. I am planning on incorporating more complex carbs [I'm on a brown rice kick right now], and monitoring my meal times more carefully to look at when I'm putting food in my body.

So that's the update and the plan. The plan with this blog is to write when I can, and continue to bring fresh information and inspiration to anyone interested. Thanks for reading! -cb

When you know you're back.

Sometimes when things start clicking, you know you're back. Well this evening was one of those times when I felt like I was back into it. Everything fell into place efficiently, and my diet and workout were coordinated perfectly. This is how I did it - and I made a really delicious meal while at it:

I came home from work and grabbed a pork tenderloin out of the fridge. It was a pretty lean cut, but I pared away any extra fat. Then I cut the pork into cubes, poked them with a fork, threw them in a ziploc, and added about 1/8 cup Iron Chef General Tso's sauce. I threw them back in the fridge and went to the gym where I had my 8th day in a row of light to medium cardio.

I burned ~400kcal in a little over 30min, then did 3 sets each of 3 range of motion exercises on machines, using ~50% of the amount of weight I normally would. Then I did some light stretching of my abdomen and went home.

I grabbed the pork out of the fridge, threw it in a bowl, sprinkled it with tenderizer and massaged it a little. Then I threw the meat on a hot skillet sprayed with fat free Pam and simultaneously started cooking some rice. While everything was cooking, I made a vanilla protein shake with a 1/2 banana, a little fiber and teaspoon or two of flax seed oil, blending it all into 1.5cups of skim milk. About the time everything was done cooking, I opened a can of chick peas.

I put a scoop of rice, a 1/2 can of chick peas, and 1/2 the pork on my plate and enjoyed it with my tasty protein shake. I saved the rest for lunch tomorrow and cleaned up. Everything fell into place, and I thought to myself that this is how every day should go. Today, I was back.

Fat quails and omega-3 fatty acids.

Here's a fascinating article in a recent issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology:

http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/abstract/212/8/1106

A pretty good explanation can be found here:

http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/212/8/i

Basically, these researchers hypothesized that high endurance birds rely considerably on their diet to meet their goals and needs. One such bird, a sandpiper, eats lots of shrimp that have high omega-3 fatty acid content. So the researches decided to feed sedentary quails diets high in the omega-3 fatty acids and compare various parameters to quails not on that diet. It's pretty astonishing that simply changing their diet to include high levels of DHA and/or EPA led to an increase/stimulation in the capacity for aerobic metabolism as measured by the activity of oxidative enzymes in the Kreb's cycle. In simpler terms, the diet led to birds that were more fit to undergo aerobic exercise. They write: 

"As they prepare for long migrations, semipalmated sandpipers improve their physical fitness by eating! Choosing n-3 fatty acid doping over endurance training strikes us as a better strategy to boost aerobic capacity when rapid storage of energy is critical."

The study is interesting on several accounts. Clearly diet and supplements can have an effect on performance, endurance, and athleticism. It is surprising, though, that omega-3 fatty acids might have such a profound and specific effect in this one regard. It will be interesting to see how and whether and the extent to which it can be applied to people. I will have to read more about the effects of omega-3 fatty acids on people - most of what I am aware of revolves around the cholesterol lowering effects. The researchers did not nail down a molecular mechanism for the effect, but it will be interesting to see how these birds actually become more "fit."

I'm back to my workouts, after I took a week's rest - again because I wanted to let my abdomen heal more. I am going slowly - only about 30min of cardio a day. I also started stretching my core and tensing my abdominal muscles [as if to do a sit up] when stretching, but without inducing any pain. I have lost ~10lbs since my surgery [I am 176-178lbs currently]. Some of this is decreased caloric intake, and some is decreased muscle mass since I have not been lifting weights. While sticking to cardio, I have been trying to decrease my body fat. I've been cooking lots, and this weekend I might just have to go out and buy some omega-3 fatty acids. I will report whether I notice any difference over time in my cardio endurance. :)

I am considering taking my blog more public soon, for more friends and family. We will see how that progresses. Until next time - stay fit and stay free... -cb

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.