Author: steve

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Why are my muscles sore?

I am sore today. Really sore. I am in week 9 of a P90X run, but I decided to mix it up a bit and so some workouts from Tony Horton’s One-On-One series.

(I don’t have all these — there are two full sets of 12 DVDs each and the third set is going on now, one DVD per month. I only own some from the first two sets that looked useful, plus I have all of the third set to date, because I subscribe to it.)

Anyway, on Monday I did the 30/15 workout, which is a series of 30 pushups followed by 15 pullups. Tony does different varieties for a total of 24 sets. For me this is not 30/15, nor is it pullups. I have found that pullups are a major factor in my tendinitis problems, so I use an exercise band in place of the pullups.

So my 30/15 is actually 24/15, and the 15 are band back exercises, trying to mimic the actual motion of pullups with a isometric hold for each rep. It’s effective, lemme tell ya.

Also, btw, let me tell  you, if you don’t have the DVD, Tony backs down to 25/12 about halfway through, so 30/15 is a bit of a misnomer. But let me also tell you, this is one helluva workout.

Anyway, the point is that I had not done this particular workout in about two and a half months. I’d been doing other chest and back workouts, but not this one.

And I am so sore from it.

The next day, Tuesday, I did One-On-One Plyo Legs. Again, I have been doing other lower body workouts, but not this particular workout in about two and a half months.

And I am sore from it. All the muscles in my legs hurt to move them.

I don’t know what causes muscle soreness. I’ve read several explanations, from lactic acid to minute tears in the muscles, but, according to Mark Sisson, who is a pretty informed guy, we don’t know what causes it. (You can read what he has to say about it at his website, Mark’s Daily Apple.)

So what’s to like about muscle soreness? Well, when my muscles are sore, I know I’ve exercised them in a way that I haven’t done in a while.

General fitness can only come from working all our muscles. Tony Horton attributes much of his success to what he calls “muscle confusion”. He likes to mix it up, keep the body guessing.

Use your experience as an example. Have you ever started a running program? If you have, you probably remember how sore you were the day after your first run. Eventually, as you continued your running program, you were less and less sore, until you could run quite a distance without experiencing soreness. Your muscles had become used to the strain you were putting on them. But is that a good thing? I guess so, if your primary fitness goal is to become really good at running.

But that is not my goal, to have my body be good at only pushups or pullups or bicep curls or tricep kickbacks or squats. I want to be good at them all and then some.

With that in mind, I welcome muscle soreness as a sign that I am doing something right, working my muscles in ways they are not used to. And that’s got to lead to my being more fit, right?

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What’s your motivation for working out and eating right?

My brother posted on one of those social networks today something about how he needs to get into shape for a reunion this summer. I have a friend who started a diet in January, because she’s getting married in the fall.

That’s great. I mean, whatever motivates you to get into better shape is good, right?

Sort of, but let’s examine the phenomenon of getting into shape for a specific event. What happens after the event? Well, you can either find another event right away to force you to continue your good health habits, you can feel so good from your new lifestyle that you continue your healthy ways, or you can go back to your old habits once the event has passed. Guess which route most people take?

This is why your fitness motivation must come from within yourself. You need to want to be fit more than you want to eat that cake. You need to want to be fit more than you want to sit in your easy chair pounding beers. You need to want to be fit more than you want to smoke that cigarette.

How do you get to that point where you want fitness that much?

I have to admit: I dunno.

I remember when I quit smoking for the last time. I had quit previously, once even for about 18 months, but I always went back. The last time I quit, I never had any doubt that I would not go back — I knew it was over between me and cigarettes. They were not only killing me, but they also made my clothes smell really bad, and with more and more buildings going smokeless, it had become an inconvenient habit. I had the cravings, the nicotine withdrawal, but I was never tempted to smoke, because I was done with it.

General fitness is tougher, I think, because I’d tried many times to lose weight. I needed results to stay motivated.

When I weighed 235 and was on two blood pressure meds and had pains in my gut, I was motivated to lose weight, but the only thing I knew worked was calorie restriction, and that is really hard to stick to. But once I started and saw the pounds dropping off, I stayed motivated to continue. When my weight went under 200 for the first time in years, I was elated, but I didn’t quit. I ended up losing 50 pounds.

But then I plateaued. And I lost my motivation. I gained back 10 pounds.

Then I found Tony Horton’s P90X, and I realized that losing fat is not all there is to fitness. I needed to put on muscle as well.

I have since plateaued a few times, but have stayed motivated throughout, because I feel like I’ve found a good solution to my fitness problem. Plus, Tony keeps it mixed up with his One-On-One series, so that helps.

How about you? What’s your motivation? Hopefully it is a general quest for fitness, because that will last a lifetime. But if you really feel that you need to get your body looking good for some event, that’s cool. Any port in a storm and you might, you just might, get motivated enough by your results that you internalize the motivation and stick with it for the rest of your life.

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Sometimes the truth is rude

I saw a friend of mine last night. Hadn’t seen him for about ten years. Long story short … he got huge.

We were walking around an open air mall, and it was a bit chilly. He had no jacket, whereas I’d brought mine. I commented that he must be cold, and he said, “Nah, I got enough body fat to keep me warm.” (Note, I did not bring up his excess fatness first. I may have, had he not mentioned it, but as it happens, I did not initiate the discussion.) He went on to tell me that his doctor had just checked his body fat percentage and it had come out to 33%.

“Wow,” I remarked, “you’ re morbidly obese.”

“What?” he asked, sounding shocked.

I admitted that I did not really know if 33% body fat made him morbidly obese, but he was definitely obese.

“I dunno,” he relaxed. “I don’t think I’m that big.”

“Dude,” I said, looking right at him, “you’re huge.”

My wife was with us. She thought my remarks were rude and said as much. Hmmmm…. I was just stating the facts, as I saw them. The guy is 5’8″ and 230. That’s dangerously huge. I should be polite? I should “support” my friend by telling him things are not so bad for him? NO!

Before I had my wake up call, I did not realize I was as huge as I was. I would remark about how huge other people were, without realizing I was that huge myself. It took some well-placed comments by people, as well as some photographs, to get me to see I needed to lose weight.

I aim to provide that same motivation for others.

Despite what many people think, supporting your friends and family is not hiding the truth from them. There is a word for that — it’s “enabling”. If you choose not to point out your friend’s self-destructive behavior, you are enabling that person to continue that behavior.

The problem is that we accept obesity in our society, and that’s probably because so many of us are obese. Of course, we all still make fun of the 400-pound guy taking up two seats at the theater, but being 230 at 5’8″ is just fine. Sorry, but I just don’t buy it.

Sometimes the truth is rude. But sometimes that rudeness can get someone you care about on the track to better health.

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How do I really feel about carbs?

Carbs. Much maligned, often praised. Some claim you don’t need them at all (I’m looking at you, Mark Sisson) and many low-fat proponents have hailed them as the natural alternative to fat.

I’ve done a lot of reading and experimenting on my own body with carbs, and you know what? I think they are necessary for me, but not in the quantities I used to consume.

I did a little experiment on my body a few months ago. During a four-week span, I ate no carbs except those found in vegetables. No fruit, no sugars, no honey, no breads, no anything but meat, veggies, and cheese. Why four weeks? I figured that was long enough to get over any “low-carb flu” or whatever it’s called, that short adjustment period your body is supposed to go through to get used to burning other fuel sources than carbs.

The result. I FELT LIKE HAMMERED SHIT JUST ABOUT THE ENTIRE TIME!

I was tired and sluggish, and my eyes burned. (I use the eye burning sensation as a gauge of overall well-being. Not sure why on that one, but I know when my eyes burn, I don’t feel nearly as well as when they do not burn. Take that for what it’s worth, which is just one guy’s experience.)

If you’ve read some of my other posts, you may know that I am no friend to white carbs like flour and sugar. I try to avoid them, even looking at sugar as a poison.

But other carbs, like those from honey and fruits, well, once I added them back into my diet post-no-carb-experiment, wow, I felt a lot better. More ready to face the world. More alive.

Are carbs right for you? Maybe you feel great not eating any carbs. Fine. Do what makes you feel healthy. Note that I did not say, “Do what makes you feel good.” I said “healthy”.

When people question my eating habits as they shovel the cake into their mouths, with a glib, “Gotta die sometime!” — I would really love to be at those people’s deathbeds, just to see how glib they are then — I simply reply that, while I may not outlive you, it won’t be because I didn’t try.

And that’s the whole point of life to me. I don’t want to live recklessly. I only have one life, so I want to make it as long and healthy as possible. And if I die before you, well, at least I gave it a shot, and that will allow me to die happy.

So, how do I feel about carbs? Refined carbs are poison. Fruits and vegetables are natural. I’m gonna eat ’em, because I need some carbs.

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Blood sugar and me

My grandmother was a type 1 diabetic. My father is type 2. Last time I had bloodwork done my fasting blood sugar was at 110, which is on the cusp of too high.

So, I struggle with high blood sugar.

I became somewhat aware of this during a visit by my parents a couple summers ago. My wife and my father were having a discussion, and my wife said something about being in a “sugar coma”, which is how she playfully described the lethargic feeling one gets after consuming a large amount of carbs.

I had experienced this, but never thought twice about it. I mean, I had felt that state come over me, where I just could not keep my eyes open, had to lie down for twenty minutes. After the lie-down, I was fine.

But only now did I begin to associate that feeling with high blood sugar.

(That’s why I publish this blog, btw. I do a lot of reading about health and fitness, but I never realized this phenomenon was present in me. Even with everything I’ve read, I was ignorant to this very important piece of my personal health. If I can impart any knowledge to you that helps you live longer, I will have succeeded with this blog.)

What to do?

  1. I don’t consumer a lot of sugary items, but I did consume a lot of high-carb items, like breads and pastas. In fact, that was my primary fuel source. I cut back on that, added more fat and protein.
  2. I also took a short nap when I felt the lethargy come over me.

#1 above was a good idea. In fact, I eventually cut out just about all breads and pastas. Completely. Gone from my diet, with rare exceptions.

#2 was a good idea for treating the symptoms, but not for correcting the behavior that led to them. Still, when living on the verge of high blood sugar all the time, it’s difficult to not spike it every once in a while. But a nap? Really?

I stopped napping and started … exercising. Whenever I feel that sugar spike bringing me down, I get up and do a short workout, or even just walk around the house reading a book on my phone (I love my Android-based HTC Incredible!)

This works! The activity uses up the excess sugar (I guess — hey, I’m no doctor), and after a little exercise, I feel good as new. Also, I should note there that I’ve read about studies that suggest if you have a job that keeps you seated much of the day (as I do), it’s a good idea to get up every hour or so and move around for a little bit. This is pretty much “no duh”, but something we just don’t think to do.

Do you feel extremely lethargic after a meal full of carbs? Do you dive into a “sugar coma” soon afterward? Instead of succumbing to that feeling, force yourself to exercise. Do some jumping jacks, run in place, or just walk around the house. See if it doesn’t make you feel better.