Part 3: The Vital Importance of Water

Like me, you're probably wondering what has happened to our summer weather. Unlike the picture on the left, it hasn't exactly felt hot enough to be yearning for a bottle of water to quench a needed thirst. What you should be aware of is that you should never allow your body to ever reach that state in the first place. Allow me to explain.

For starters, our body is compromised of about 75% water (relative articles will give differentiating numbers). That is still an astronomical amount when you think about the complex machine that is our body with all of its systems working together to help us function. That being said, water is a vital element in functioning such as regulating digestion, transportation of nutrients, elimination of waste products, circulation of blood, lubrication of joints and internal organs as well as regulating body temperature to name a few. It should come as no surprise then that research has shown that the average body needs half its body weight in ounces of pure water daily as a minimum to maintain adequate hydration.

Dr. Batmanghelidj reports in his study "Your Body's Many Cries for Water" that "this amount may shock some of you [and] it's not difficult to comprehend how at least half of the American population has been estimated to operate in a chronically dehydrated state for the majority of their lives."

To further put things into perspective, refer to this list of symptoms of dehydration which have a high rate of success by simply drinking more water:

• Hypertension/High blood pressure
• Heart burn/Indigestion
• Peptic ulcers
• Asthma
• Allergies
• Type II Diabetes
• Fatigue
• Loss of Mental Clarity and Focus
• Inability to Perform

These symptoms are simply the various signs of the body's water rationing system during periods of dehydration and thus have often been mistaken for disease! Rather than providing the body with water, medical practitioners have resorted to treating these easily reversible symptoms with drugs rather than simply instructing their patients to hydrate and re-hydrate appropriately to avoid dehydration!

If you've ever felt "dry mouth", not only are you needing some water immediately but it is a sign that your body has gone well beyond moderate dehydration and is actually is a very serious dehydrated state! Remember that pure water is the key (not coffee, juice, soda, tea, milk etc.) The other liquids mentioned actually need much more water than they actually contain to pass them out of the system, acting actually as agents of dehydration (your mind has been programmed to process the opposite...time to reprogram!)

How to avoid this: Invest in a solid aluminum water bottle, one that can keep your water cold and one that serves as a visual reminder that you need to keep replenishing yourself, even when you are not thirsty. Drinking half your body weight in ounces each day can steadily improve your well-being...and you do not have to pay a visit to the doctor! Did I mention that it will keep you feeling full and thus, lead to weight loss??

The bottom line is, water is free and accessible to everyone. Take advantage of this beneficial opportunity!

Part 2: Zzzzzzz......

If you take anything out of these blogs, remember this: it is what you do outside of the gym that will ultimately benefit you the greatest inside the gym. Three of the most overlooked and ironically most important aspects of optimal health, vitality and disease prevention are sleep, water and food. While I have previously talked about food in my Metabolic Typing article, the focus of this article will be on sleep.

For starters, lets remember that any gains (or losses) that we see as a result of doing cardio and working with weights happens when we are at rest, and not when we are actually partaking in the activity. Essentially, we are breaking our bodies down during exercise and it is during our period of rest that our bodies are recuperating. The paramount importance of nutrition has already been mentioned in a previous article, so we turn our attention to sleep.

As reported by Dr. T.S. Wiley and Dr. Bent Formby, believe it or not, we are often sick, diabetic and suffering from heart disease and cancer due to a lack of sleep. "Mammals are hard wired to store fat, become insulin resistant and get high cholesterol during the long days of summer and then to sleep (hibernate) or at least starve for a while, become insulin sensitive again and drop cholesterol levels when the days are shorter (winter)...Electricity and the light bulb brought endless light, which the body interprets as endless summer. Now, we don't sleep (hibernate) and we don't starve (for carbohydrates). We are fat and getting fatter."

Literally, the later we stay up at night, the more our brains force us to seek energy for storage by eating sugar (carbohydrates). In addition, Wiley and Formby report that this leads to "light toxicity" which is a direct cause of excessive paranoid, aggressive, hysterical and urgent behaviour also known as stress (anyone see Al Pacino in "Insomnia"?) In this state, blood sugar is elevated, taxing the insulin response, increasing cortisol levels in your blood stream which has powerful blood sugar mobilizing effects. In other words, stressing yourself out too much, whether it be work, personal life or a lack of sleep will actually lead to exercise making you fatter and keeping you fat!

In order to combat this stress, you need to take advantage of your rest time. I've had many clients who have not been able to maximize their own sleep time, but with the help of these few tips, many of them have now reduced their total body fat, dropped weight and are on their way to happy and healthy lives. Try these tips:

• Your sleeping environment has a great impact on your ability to fall asleep and to stay asleep. It's not easy for many people to fall asleep because we are surrounded by more lights and more noise than in times past. While it is almost impossible to fall asleep in a perfectly quiet and perfectly dark environment, it is important to try to achieve as close to this ideal situation as possible.
• Sound - noise - also affects your ability to fall and stay asleep, because even though you may fall asleep, your brain can still process sound while you are sleeping, possibly waking you up in the middle of the night in your deepest and most anabolic sleep stage. Therefore, do your best to eliminate light and noise from your immediate sleep environment. Doing so will help you fall asleep faster, and stay asleep until morning.
• Establish a regular sleeping pattern by going to bed at the same time.
• Reduce your physical activity two hours prior to sleeping.
• Avoid alcohol and/or coffee for several hours before going to bed.
• Skip large meals before bed.

Try this for a week. Stay zealous about it. See how you feel.

Check back in a few days where I will complete this three part series by focusing on the importance of water.

The View from Atop Your Plateau

One of the most common things I hear as a personal trainer from people around the gym is that their workouts seemed to have stalled or "plateaued", specifically when speaking about cardiovascular training. The problem is simply that the bodies of those who have plateaued have become accustomed to the same workout routine that they have been participating in for weeks, months...sometimes even years! What these people need to understand is not only do they need to change what they do for their cardiovascular workouts, but also how they do it.

World renowned strength and conditioning coach Charles Poliquin has uncovered six major reasons why aerobic (depending on air, or, steady state cardio training) is counterproductive in the gym. Written by Keith Alpert, a respected strength coach from the Boston area, they are:

• Continuous aerobic work plateaus after 8 weeks of training so anything more is counterproductive. From strength coach Michael Boyle: "A 2006 study from McMaster University in Canada illustrated this beyond a shadow of a doubt. The study compared 20 minutes of interval training (30 sec sprint/4 min rest) with 90 to 120 minutes in the “target heart rate zone.” The results showed the same improvement in oxygen utilization. If you could get the same benefit from one hour a week, why run four and a half to six hours a week?"


• Aerobic training worsens power locally and systemically - in other words, it can make you slower. If you are an athlete or a "weekend warrior" who likes to participate in athletic events or team sports that require speed and jumping ability, this is the last thing you want from a cardiovascular training program. Poliquin: "The more lower body aerobic work you do, the more your vertical jump worsens. The more upper body aerobic work you do, the more your medicine ball throws worsen."


• Aerobic training increases oxidative stress which can accelerate aging. Oxidation is a process that forms free radicals in the body. Normally, free radicals can be neutralized by antioxidants, but when there is an excessive build-up of free radicals, then the body cannot neutralize them. This leads to changes in your metabolism which can speed up aging.


• Aerobic training increases adrenal stress which can make you fatter and produce other undesirable health consequences. Too much adrenal stress leads to adrenal fatigue. Symptoms include: tiredness, fearfulness, allergies, frequent influenza, arthritis, anxiety, depression, reduced memory, and difficulties in concentrating, insomnia, feeling worn out and most importantly - with respect to this article - the inability to lose weight after extensive effort.


• Aerobic training increases body fat in stressed individuals by contributing additional stress. If you are already stressed out in your life, this is just like adding to the pile, which will add more body fat, making it harder for you to reach your weight loss or body fat goal.


• Aerobic training worsens testosterone/cortisol ratio, which impedes your ability to add fat burning lean muscle. This in turn hampers weight loss due to the inability to produce lean muscle in the name of increasing calorie expenditure.
  

Alpert asks you to figure out who has more body fat: a sprinter, or a marathoner? Most times than not, the answer is a marathoner (when in actuality the answer is a sprinter!) How is this possible, if sprinters do almost no aerobic work??

Alpert mentions that the reason is rooted in the intense nature of their training. "The higher the intensity (percentage of maximum heart rate), the more calories per minute burned during the workout. In addition (and more important), caloric expenditure is increased for 24-48 hours post workout."

So where to go from here? The answer lies in the benefits of interval training. This type of training alternates between bouts of high intensity exercise (ie. run, sprint, increase in speed or resistance on machines) with low to moderate intensity exercises (ie. walk, speed walk, decrease speed or resistance). The best part is, this should only take you about 20-30 minutes total, and you only have to do it 2 or 3 times a week.

So for those of you who hate coming in on cardio days, engage yourself in some interval training. You'll not only save time, but you'll really feel the burn and reap the benefits it has to offer.