Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments arising from the blog...phil@philipsweeney.co.uk

May 2010

How much exercise should you be doing?

The recommendations of the American College of Sports Medecine and the American Heart Association, which are generally accepted as the standard, state:

Do moderately intense cardio 30 minutes a day, five days a week
Or
Do vigorously intense cardio 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week
And
Do eight to 10 strength-training exercises, eight to 12 repetitions of each exercise twice a week.

Moderate-intensity physical activity means working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat, yet still being able to carry on a conversation. It should be noted that to lose weight or maintain weight loss, 60 to 90 minutes of physical activity may be necessary.

Did you notice the third part of the recommendation? To include regular strength(resistance) training exercises? This is the bit that most often gets neglected, especially amongst women. This may be through a missaprehension that lifting weights will make you develop huge muscles - ladies that just wont happen. Your bodies dont produce enough testosterone to gain muscle that easily ...nor do most mens! What training hard with resistance will do is produce a moderate increase in muscle. Remember that muscle is active tissue, it burns calories, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, whatever you are doing. Muscle is denser than fat, so fits into a smaller space - work on the weights, and rather than getting bigger, you will become more toned and drop a size (or more!). Now that has to be good news! Resistance training can be especially beneficial as we get older. Generally we become less active, and certainly less strenuous in our activity as we age. As a result, we tend to lose muscle, and this can increase the likelihood of falls in later life. The good news is this muscle loss is reversible - just start making the muscles work harder with appropriate resistance exercises, and they will get stronger.

So come on everybody, make sure that your fitness plan includes appropriate resistance training along with your cardio, and reap the benefits of a leaner, stronger body!

April 2010

Bad news for chocaholics

This was reported on the BBC website this month.

"People who regularly eat chocolate are more depressive, experts have found.

Research in Archives of Internal Medicine shows those who eat at least a bar every week are more glum than those who only eat chocolate now and again.

Many believe chocolate has the power to lift mood, and the US team say this may be true, although scientific proof for this is lacking.

But they say they cannot rule out that chocolate may be a cause rather than the cure for being depressed.

In the study, which included nearly 1,000 adults, the more chocolate the men and women consumed the lower their mood.

Those who ate the most - more than six regular 28g size bars a month - scored the highest on depression, using a recognised scale.

None of the men and women were on antidepressants or had been diagnosed as clinically depressed by a doctor."

So if you do have that sweet tooth craving, why not replace chocolate with fruit, or dried fruit? Just as sweet, vitamins and fibre, and according to the research, you could be happier as well as healthier if you do!

March 2010

March already, spring hopefully soon about to be sprung, and easter on its way. New beginnings. Hopefully for many, starting a healthier, happier way of living and enjoying life! For me, the excitement of meeting new clients and spreading the gospel of healthy, happy living to my home town of Stafford. And the chance to show people how they can succeed in attaining their goals, whether thats to be a bit fitter, a little slimmer, feel more energetic or to improve their physique or their sporting performance. So if you find yourself overindulging in Easter delights, and need to get back on track...who you going to call???

Feb 2010

2010...wow! For any Sci-Fi fans this is the title of the sequel to the classic 2001. And I remember when 2001 was way in the future. How time flies. And how the world has changed. The Internet, broadband, computers, space travel, I-phones, I pods.. Machinery has become much more efficient, and takes much of the labour out of our lives. The downside of this is that we tend to do less. Physically we are less active than 40 years ago, weigh more, carry more body fat. We live longer thanks to the improvements in medical care, but we are less fit and healthy as a nation. Its easy to come up with excuses. "I dont have the time to go to the gym". Fine! Don't go! Train at home, or (in those dimly remembered days when the sun shines) in your garden. You can achieve great results, theres no queing, no waiting, no feeling awkward in front of those people who look as if they must live in the gym. Training at home is available every day of the year, any time! You can train in the time it might have taken you just to go to a gym. So come on, make this the year you really start to look after yourself. You know you should, you know you can - so lets do it!

9/9/09 Things that really annoy me!

As a more mature member of the gym-going public I feel it is incumbent upon me to to rail against the failings of modern gym going youth. Well some of them - and not just youths!

One of the things that really annoys me in the gym is the sheer laziness, discourtesy and lack of consideration some folk have for there fellow gym members. I know you work hard in the gym, and work up sweat. Thats why we provide tissue to wipe yourself and the equipment down. We also provide bins. So why oh why do so many of you find it physically impossible to put your used tissues into the bin? Why do you think its ok to leave them piled up in a heap on the floor, or stuffed into the cup holders on the cardio equipment? Are you so out of condition that you cant make the 5 metre trek to the bin? Is that pile of tissue so heavy you cant lift it?? Or do you think other gym users will be thrilled and delighted to encounter your used rags?

And Guys. Presumably most of you at our gym never learned to read. So the big signs asking you to kindly put weights and equipment back after use are lost on you. You dont seem to have any problem carrying the equipment to your favourite spot in front of the mirror. bUt are you then to weak to return it? Or do you have a memory problem that makes you forget where it came from in the first place? And i know you want everyone to see what an awesome training monster you are, so presumably thats why when you finish your bench presses or squats or deadlifts you walk off and leave the bar with all the weights on for everyone else to admire - and for everyone else to have to unload for you!

So come on, make the gym a pleasanter environment for everyone. Put all your rubbish in the bin, put your equipment away, unload the bars ready for the next user. It isnt that difficult!

NOTE: Phil is currently auditioning for a spot on the TV show "Grumpy Old men"

15/7/09 - Goals

Well, training continues to go well, and I successfully achieved the aim of deadlifting 140kgs for reps at the end of last month.

Summer is truly here, with all the brits knocked out of Wimbledon (next time Andy!), England struggling to get a draw in the Ashes first test and the return of rain! Good time to take a holiday - and if you are less than happy with your beach body this year, why not resolve to start now to get in shape for next years holidays? No leaving it til the last minute. The longer you give it, the better the end result will be.

3/6/09 Trainers training - update!

Well, after the last few days of sunshine it feels like summer ( and previous experience suggests that a few days of sunshine might be all we get for sumer!). In Fitness First we are celebrating the summer with our wonderful new PT uniforms - worth the price of admission just to see us in our new finery :-)

Despite the heat, training is going well. I checked my stats at the start of the month, and had gained an extra pound of lean mass, so right on schedule. I have also started keeping my own food diary to keep track of my eating habits and calorie intake, and will post some examples of this so you can see how i've been eating (and that you don't have to be eating a super special diet to make progress - just one matched to your goals!). I have added deadlifting, a favourite exercise that i haven't done for some months, to my routine, and am making good progress with this. Building it up slowly and steadily with proper exercise form. Aiming to lift 140kg for reps early next month (you see - more goal setting!).

31/3/09 Brain Training

No doubt you've seen the adverts for the "brain trainers" you can get for the Nintendo (considerably better than those computer games that teach you how to kill, maim and effectively eviscerate anyone who gets in your way...). But do they work? According to a Which report, they probably dont do any more than doing a crosword or Sudoku puzzle. But did you know that regular exercise improves the brains ability to focus on the job at hand, ignoring distractions - the so called "executive functions?" By stimulating the production of proteins in the brain it can help increase the number of neuronal connections, and the formation of the region of the brain associated with memory. Perhaps thats why people who exercise regularly in middle age are only one third as likely to have Alzheimers in their 70's as those who dont!

2/3/09 250 calories =...

To gain:
1 Bagel (216 calories)
1 40g bag Walkers crisps (210 calories)
1 glazed chocolate doughnut (250 calories)
1 pint Stella (210 calories)

To lose:
30 mins aerobics
35 mins on exercise bike
60 mins brisk walk
90 mins housework

22/12/08 Waistline and health

Having trouble slipping into those jeans? That expanding belly could as much as double your risk of premature death, even if your weight is considered healthy.
While obesity is a well-known predictor of diabetes, heart disease and some kinds of cancer, a major new study shows that a paunch poses its own particular risks, independently of fat stored elsewhere in the body. This suggests that the size of someone's waistline as well as their body mass index should be taken into account in assessing their health.
The team behind the study, including researchers from Imperial College London and the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbrücke, followed the health of 359,387 people from nine European countries over roughly 10 years. They wanted to examine a link between waistline and health that had been found in earlier smaller-scale studies. Previous animal studies had also suggested that visceral fat around the belly has more negative effects on health than fat in the thighs of the hind legs.
After controlling for factors such as overall obesity, the team found that the risk of premature death among subjects with a waist exceeding 120cm (47.2in) for men and 100cm (39.4in) for women was twice that for those whose waists were under 80cm (31.5in) for men and 65cm (25.6in) for women. For a given BMI, a 5cm increase in waistline increased the risk of premature death by 17% in men and 13% in women.
A simple predictor of risk
"There aren't many simple individual characteristics that can increase a person's risk of premature death to this extent, independently from smoking and drinking," says Elio Riboli from Imperial College London, who was part of the team.
The ratio of waist size to hip measurement also appears to be an important predictor of the risk of premature death. Most waist-to-hip ratios for men ranged from 0.78 and 1.10 for men, and for a given ratio, an increase by 0.1 increased the chance of premature death by a whopping 34%. Most female waist-to-hip ratios were in the 0.66-0.98 range, and (again for a given ratio) an increase of 0.1 resulted in a 24% jump in risk.
The team speculate that fatty deposits around the waist could secrete elevated levels of hormones and other signalling proteins called cytokines that lead to chronic illnesses like heart disease and cancer.
"Abdominal fat is not a mere energy depot, but it also releases messenger substances that can contribute to the development of chronic diseases. This may be the reason for the link," says Tobias Pischon of the German Institute of Human Nutrition.
Journal reference: New England Journal of Medicine, vol 359, p 2105

Aerobic Exercise Combined With Resistance Training Improves Glucose Control In Diabetics, Study Shows
ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2008) - Patients with diabetes who participate in a program combining aerobic and high-force eccentric resistance exercise demonstrate improvements in glucose control, physical performance, and body fat composition, according to a new study.
________________________________________

"Although aerobic exercise is what is typically recommended for treating people with diabetes, this study shows that adding a high-force strength training component has significant advantages," says APTA spokesperson Robin L Marcus, PT, PhD, OCS, assistant professor at the University's Department of Physical Therapy and the study's lead researcher. Diabetes affects approximately 24 million adults and children in the United States.1 The onset of type 2 diabetes - a chronic illness marked by decreased insulin sensitivity and overall poor glucose control - is fostered by decreased physical activity.
"This study, which comes as the nation marks American Diabetes Month, is especially pertinent in light of new research highlighting the escalating costs and serious side effects of certain diabetes drugs," said Marcus. "Patients with diabetes and their health care providers should be encouraged that physical therapy has been shown to be a cost-effective and safe treatment alternative."
The study evaluated 15 people with type 2 diabetes who participated in a 16-week supervised exercise training program: seven in a combined aerobic and eccentric resistance exercise program, and eight in a program of aerobic exercise only.
Paul LaStayo, PT, PhD, the study's senior author, notes that the eccentric resistance exercise program was specifically designed to increase strength and muscle size, using a recumbent stepper that produced a lengthening contraction, such as when lowering the dumbbell in a bicep curl.
After 3 months, Marcus and LaStayo found that both groups showed improved glucose control and physical performance in a 6-minute walk, as well as a decrease in fat composition within the leg muscles. "This study is particularly interesting because the patients who did both aerobic and resistance exercise had additional improvements, most notably a decreased overall BMI and a gain in leg muscle," Marcus said.
"Although aerobic exercise is still key in treating diabetes, it should not be used in isolation," Marcus observes. "As people age, they lose muscle mass and, subsequently, mobility, resulting in a greater risk of falls. Adding resistance training to the diabetes treatment regimen leads to improved thigh lean tissue which, in turn, may be an important way for patients to increase resting metabolic rate, protein reserve, exercise tolerance, and functional mobility, she notes.
This study is part of PTJ's special issue on diabetes, which illustrates that physical therapy interventions can have a dramatic and positive effect in fighting the complications associated with diabetes. As the movement experts, physical therapists are ideally suited to help this population safely and to effectively address their movement dysfunctions.
A podcast titled "Fat, Muscle, and the Benefits of Exercise for People With Diabetes" is available at: http://www.ptjournal.org/misc/podcasts.dtl. Marcus and other experts discuss new information about the roles of fat in people with diabetes, especially fat in muscle, and about how this fat appears to impair muscle function.
1American Diabetes Association

10/10/08 Photograph your food before eating!


WATCHING what you eat really does help, at least if you do it through a camera lens. That's the conclusion of a study of dieters' eating habits comparing the effect of written food diaries with taking a snapshot of each meal.
Food diaries track food consumption during weight loss programmes, but now taking a snapshot of each meal is replacing the laborious task of writing down everything you eat. To see if photos might also prompt healthier eating, Lydia Zepeda and David Deal at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told 43 people to record what they ate for one week in words and as pictures.
When they quizzed the volunteers, photo diaries seemed to be the most effective. Not only did they provide powerful visual documentation of snack binges, they also triggered critical evaluation at just the right time - before the food was eaten (International Journal of Consumer Studies, DOI: 10.1111/j.1470-6431.2008.00725.x). "I had to think more carefully about what I was going to eat because I had to take a picture of it," was a typical response.
In contrast, written diaries are often completed long after the meal and do not create as powerful a reminder of the quantity and quality of the food that was eaten.
"Nutritionists see diaries as recording tools. Now they should explore the role of photo diaries as intervention tools," says Zepeda.
From issue 2672 of New Scientist magazine, 05 September 2008, page 21

15/9/2008 - Stronger men live longer!

A study presented at The American College of Sports Medecine annual meeting suggests that men who are stronger live longer - so come on guys (and gals!) get pumping some iron!

Senior investigator Jonatan R. Ruiz, PhD, from the unit for preventive nutrition at the department of biosciences and nutrition at Novum, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden, presented his findings here at the American College of Sports Medicine 55th Annual Meeting. "These findings prove the benefits of having greater muscular strength and thus require further research to confirm the combined effects of strength and CRF."
The study consisted of 8762 men aged 20 to 82 years who were free of known CVD and cancer. All participants underwent a medical examination and completed muscular-strength and CRF testing between 1980 and 1989. Mortality surveillance was completed December 31, 2003. The association between muscular strength and death from all causes in men changed minimally after adjustment for cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), whereas the relation between muscular strength and death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) was confirmed after adjustment for all variables, including CRF. "Men with low muscular strength had a 60% higher risk of CVD and a higher mortality rate," stated Dr. Ruiz.

18/06/2008 - Lifestyle & Cancer

Even more good news for those following a healthy lifestyle...and a reason to start one if not! A recent piece of research carried out at the University of California suggests that appropriate dieting and exercise may slow the progression of cancer by switching crucial genes on and off.

The pilot study looked at 30 men with early-stage prostate cancer. Biopsies taken before and after 3 months of moderate exercise, healthy eating and stress management showed significant changes in the expression of hundreds of genes. Two of the genes which were suppressed by the lifestyle changes are found in other types of tumours, including breast and colon cancer.

Because the prostate cancer was at such an early stage and the tumours therefore very small, much of the tissue tested was healthy, suggesting that the results may also be significant for cancer prevention.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0803080105)

Of course its never too late to start exercising, but a recent piece of research gives a good reason for women to start exercising at a young age. So all you young women and parents with daughters...take note!

The research, carried out at Washington University School of Medicine and Harvard University, analysed the effect of exercise on pre-menopausal breast cancer among 65,000 women. It found that those women who were physically active had a 23% lower risk of breast cancer before menopause, and the risk reduction was particularly marked in those with high levels of physical activity from age 12 to 22. High levels of exercise in this study equate to approx. 3.25 hours of running a week, or 13 hours of walking. The researchers note that the benefits were not linked to a particular sport, or the intensity of exercise, but rather to the overall total activity. So that could include getting the kids to...do the gardening, take out the trash, tidying their bedrooms...

Well blimey, a bank holiday where the sun shone! Isn't it great when the sun shines...everything looks better, there are far more smiling faces, we tend to feel better. And sunshine has other benefits to. Sunshine triggers the production of vitamin D in the skin. And why, you may ask, should that interest me? Well, Vitamin D is hugely important for strong healthy bones: deficiency is one of the causes of bone diseases such as rickets, osteomalacia and osteoporosis. There is growing evidence that it plays a role in the prevention and treatment of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, hypertension, glucose intolerance and multiple sclerosis. Of course you also get Vitamin D from your diet, providing it is a healthy one, ie one which:

Emphasizes a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products.
Milk is fortified with vitamin D, as are many ready-to-eat cereals and a few brands of yogurt and orange juice. Cheese naturally contains small amounts of vitamin D.

Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts.
Fish such as salmon, tuna, and mackerel are very good sources of vitamin D. Small amounts of vitamin D are also found in beef liver and egg yolks.

Is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars.
Vitamin D is added to some margarine.

Stays within your daily calorie needs.

The latter is important, because people who are obese typically sequester more of the vitamin in their subcutaneous fat (Vit D is fat soluble) and have been shown to have lower levels actively in their blood plasma.

So next time you are out enjoying the sunshine, remember it not only feels good - it's doing you good. But like all things, good in moderation. Remember overexposure to sun is carcinogenic...not to mention giving you that all over lobster look! So follow the guidelines and get all the benefits without the risk

You may have realised looking at my site that i am a firm believer in all aspects of well being, and how all the aspects of our lives impact on each other and our overall wellbeing. Now the New Scientist has run an article that agrees with me! Here is a link to the article..pay particular attention to item 2 and item 7, which highlight how what we eat and how active we are can impact on our brains!http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18625011.900