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Dealing with arthritic knee pain

Today for the first time in a long time I woke up with no pain in my left knee.

Now, I am not foolish enough to think my knee is miraculously healed. I am, however, encouraged. After all, waking up with arthritis pain in my left knee is just a way of life for me.

Supposedly exercise helps with arthritis. Here’s an article about it from The Arthritis Foundation. I have found this to be true. After a workout, especially a yoga session, my knee always feels much better. The pain returns after a while, but getting the blood and joints moving does seem to help.

From that fact, you may assume that the stillness of sleeping would cause the knee to tighten up, and I have definitely found that my knee hurts worst right when I wake up and start moving around. So, then, what have I been doing differently that may have led to today’s pain-free knee?

A few weeks ago, after a recovery week, I noticed that my knee felt pretty good. Not great, but better than it had been. I thought about the exercises I do that may injure the knee, and Plyo came to mind. And parts of Kenpo. Jumping around may not be the best idea, if you are trying to protect your knees.

I decided to stop those activities.

My knee has been feeling much better and today, two and a half weeks later, I woke up with no pain in my left knee.

I fully expect to wake up with a painful knee tomorrow, but this is encouraging.

I am, btw, continuing with all other aspects of my training. I even added an extra legs day to make up for the lack of Plyo training.

We’ll see how it goes.

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“Just Do It” or Transition Dieting – Which is right for you?

I am a “just do it” kinda guy. I have a hard time doing anything in moderation, but I have trained myself to be moderate by completely eliminating the behavior I want to change for a period of time.

For example, I used to drink way too much. WAY too much. So I quit completely for 18 months. During that time, I did not even try a drink from a great bottle of wine my brother bought at a reunion we had (much to his dismay). I do drink again now, but I have control of it.

Same with grains. I used to be Mr. Grain. I had sandwiches, pasta, pizza, cereal, you name it, at every meal. So I quit eating grains completely for 6 months. I eat grains again now, but I have control of my consumption.

When I started Tony Horton’s P90X, I followed the diet plan supplied with the program. It was quite a bit different than what I had been eating, but I was easily able to change my mind about that and focus on my new style of eating. Just do it.

I know, though, that many people have a hard time, and I only recently read an article that might help those people. It’s about The Transition Diet.

The Transition Diet is a way to move yourself from one way of eating to another. It’s designed to get you to alter your diet in certain ways on a weekly basis over an 8-week period, so you can ease yourself into a healthier diet. There are cheat days involved, too, which, I think, all good diets have — you gotta be allowed to indulge yourself every so often.

You should read the whole article, but the essence of it is:

  • Week 1 – Eliminate junk food
  • Week 2 – Eat small and often
  • Week 3 – Eat some colorful, low-density food (like vegetables) at every meal
  • Week 4 – Cook at home
  • Week 5 – Reduce starchy carbohydrates (like rice, potatoes, bread)
  • Week 6 – If man makes it, don’t eat it – no processed foods!
  • Week 7 – Eat healthy, but without any rules — do it by feel, what you think is healthy
  • Week 8 – Eat a perfect diet — and it’s up to you to figure out what that is

Weeks 1 through 5 are cumulative, so you continue them all the way through. For example, week 1 you eliminate junk food and you continue to eliminate it through the rest of the transition.

Week 6 is more of a cleanse week, so really try not to eat any processed foods. Then add them back in, although hopefully in much lower quantities, after that week.

As I said before, all the weeks have cheat or reward days, so you have that outlet for your old habits.

I’m more of a “just do it” kinda guy, but you may not be like that, so if you really want to eat healthier, but have a hard time forcing yourself into a drastic diet change, you may want to try transitioning into it.

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You’re going to walk off that McRib? Really?

I think we often fool ourselves about our rate of calorie burn. There are many times I hear friends talk about eating something like a McRib with fries and finishing with “I guess I’ll have to get in a few extra steps on the treadmill to make up for this.”

WRONG!

A McRib with medium fries is 880 calories.

According to the Mayo Clinics estimates for a 200-pound person (less calories are burned for people who weigh less, more for people who weigh more), burning 880 calories would require you to

  • walk very briskly for over two hours
  • jog for about one and a quarter hours
  • run fast for about an hour

You can get the numbers here.

I really hope you aren’t saying to yourself right now, “Well, I don’t eat at McDonald’s.” The McRib was just an example. Most of us have poor eating habits that we justify. Acknowledge yours.

I am not saying here that you should not indulge yourself from time to time. In fact, I think you should do that. Do you enjoy a Sonic Bacon Cheeseburger with a Chocolate Shake? Have it!

All I’m asking is that you don’t kid yourself that you are going to burn off the 1200 calories from that meal (and that’s without fries!) with a walk around the block in your neighborhood. Not gonna happen.

 

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Do you get enough fruit?

If you’re like me, you’re not really a fruit eater. I like a good apple, but it’s hard to find a good apple. I love a good pear … but it’s hard to find a good pear. And so on. So I really don’t eat a lot of fruit.

I probably don’t need to explain to you the health benefits of fruit, from their anti-oxidants to their added soft fiber to their lower glycemic sugars. I really felt that I should eat more fruit, but, whenever I bought apples and bit into a mushy one … blech!

Then my life changed.

When I started doing Tony Horton’s P90X, I also changed my diet. The dietary suggestions in the P90X program did not necessarily include more fruit, but they did include allowances for a lot more protein than I was used to eating. To get enough protein, I turned to prepackaged protein drinks.

Then I read Mark Sisson’s The Primal Blueprint and it made a lot of sense to me, so I stopped eating all grains. All of them. No pasta. No bread. No oatmeal. No tortillas.

(I eat grains again now, but in far smaller quantities that I used to. That is my usual approach to reducing a dietary item: Quit it for three to six months — sometimes longer — to break the habit, then add a little back in.)

I had already stopped eating almost all sugars with the exception of some honey after workouts.

Given those circumstances, how could I get the 250 grams of carbohydrate I needed for my new diet if I did not eat those things? I had to add more fruit to my diet.

I switched to a protein powder, so I could prepare my own protein shakes, and, yup, I added frozen fruit to those protein shakes.

I mostly use blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. I don’t use bananas — too much sugar in those, and I’ve also always thought that drinking bananas is kinda gross.

Recently Costco also started stocking frozen organic peaches, so I use those in my protein shakes as well.

I mention “organic” because that’s important for me, if affordable. The organic berries and fruits that I’ve been buying have far less sugar in them than the fruits I was used to, and I find that much more enjoyable. When I eat those organic peaches, I feel as if I am eating food, not just sugar.

I don’t use the USDA Dietary Guidelines or the Food Pyramid as any kind of logical guidance for eating. You can read Good Calories, Bad Calories to find out why. (HINT: What shows up on those lists is way too influenced by politics, instead of being totally driven by actual nutrition science.)

But I do think that eating more fruit is a good idea, and I’m happy that I’ve found a way to incorporate fruit into my current eating habits.

How about you? Do you get enough fruit?

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Chest & Back Workout

“Chest & Back” is the first routine in Tony Horton’s P90X, probably because every guy wants to work his chest and every guy needs to work his back, so it’s a good way to get things rolling.

(Sure, women need P90X too, but I’m a guy, so I really have to speak from a guy’s perspective.)

There is a great chest and back routine in Tony’s One-On-One series, too. It’s called 30/15 and consists of Tony attempting to do alternating sets of 30 pushups followed by 15 pullups, for a total of 24 sets. He only makes it partway through before he has to switch to 25/15, then 25/12, but you get the idea. That routine will pump you up.

Because I am a P90X disciple, I tend to do chest and back on Mondays, which is the first day of my weekly workout schedule. But, as you may by now know, I also like to mix it up, so I made up my own routine called, quite unimaginatively, Steve’s Chest & Back.

I decided that I’m going to provide you with the routines I make up myself. That way, if you don’t want to spring for P90X you can still have some guidance from someone who has been through the program.

This routine, which I’ve done for the past two Mondays now, gives me a good pump, wears out my muscles, and lasts about an hour.

It requires a pullup bar — I use the over the doorframe kind — and for the pushups, if you like, pushup bars.

I use a chinup bar I purchased from Beachbody.com, but you can probably find a good one at Dick’s or Wal-mart even. Wherever you get yours, I recommend a pullup bar that allows you to do wide pullups, like the one pictured here. Check, though, to make sure your doorway has enough room on the bar side to allow the wide grips to fit. For example, if you have cabinets really close to the door frame, the thing won’t fit, and you’ll need to get the kind without the wide grips.

Now when it comes to pushup stands, I do highly recommend Tony Horton’s. They are designed with a circular bottom so they won’t rollover during wide pushups.

Why use pushup stands? For me, that many pushups in a short period of time really overworks my wrists, and the pushup stands take a lot of that pressure off them. Also, you can add extra intensity by going lower into the pushup, if you use stands.

One of the things I don’t like about Tony’s workouts is that he uses the term “reverse-grip pullups” and also “chinups”. He surely knows what he’s talking about, but it’s confusing to me, so for the purposes of my routines, I use “chinups” to describe those exercises where your palms are facing you, and “pullups” for those exercises where your palms are facing away from you. Simple.

Here’s my Steve’s Chest & Back routine:

  1. Standard Grip Chinups – Hands slightly wider than shoulders
  2. Standard Width Pushups – Hands slightly wider than shoulders
  3. Wide Grip Pullups – Hands as far out as your pullup bar will allow
  4. Military Pushups – Hands right below shoulders, elbows stay near the body the entire move
  5. Close Grip Pullups – Hands less than shoulder width, maybe six inches apart
  6. Wide Pushups – Hands twice shoulder width
  7. Standard Pullup/Chinup Switch – Hands slightly wider than shoulders, switch between pullups and chinups every two reps
  8. Decline Pushups – Feet up on a chair, hands at standard width
  9. Close Grip Chinups – Hands less than shoulder width, maybe six inches apart
  10. Diamond Pushups – Fingers spread, index fingers and thumbs touching right below chest, elbows out, legs spread wide
  11. Wide Grip Pullups – Hands as far out as your pullup bar will allow
  12. Dive Bombers – Hands standard width, feet spread wide. Start with butt in the air. Move your nose and chest toward the floor, then come up on the other side, as if you are scooching under a fence. Then reverse the move and end up with your butt in the air. Like this guy.
  13. Parallel Pullups – These are with  your palms facing each other, if you have that kind of pullup bar. Otherwise, you can do some other kind of pullup/chinup
  14. Standard Width Pushups – Hands slightly wider than shoulders
  15. Standard Pullup/Chinup Switch – Hands slightly wider than shoulders, switch between pullups and chinups every two reps

Keys to pushups:

  • Do as many reps as you can for each exercise
  • If you feel that you want to do more, take a brief rest at the top and try a few more
  • Keep your core tight, no saggy body
  • Go all the way down
  • Come all the way up
  • Keep your elbows tight, pointed toward your feet, during military pushups

Keys to pullups/chinups:

  • Do as many reps as you can for each exercise
  • Do not hyperextend your arms
  • Only do one set of parallels (I’m pretty sure I got tendinitis a few years ago from doing too many of them)
  • If you are not good at them, and cannot do a lot of reps without stopping, do as many as possible in one minute, taking as many breaks as you need (this is what I do)
  • Keep doing them, you’ll get better
  • Don’t cheat by jumping, although I think a little leg kick is okay

Go ahead and give Steve’s Chest & Back a try and let me know how you like it!