Why You Should Exercise Like The Hunter-Gatherers
I take it as a given that many of us believe in key aspects of the so-called “hunter-gatherer” (HG) lifestyle: regular daily activity; simple, unprocessed foods; consuming water as our main fluid; hanging out in social pods; and so on. On the other hand, few of us are eager to give up our glasses, hearing aids, certain meds, central HVAC, toilets, cars, cell phones, and much more.
So it becomes a matter of balance. What modern conveniences do you want to keep? What modern habits--long periods of sitting, plastic-wrapped and
processed foods, etc--are you willing to forego?
In this article, two cardiologist-fans of the HG lifestyle argue that modern humans should pay more attention to the exercise components of daily living. They write little about diet, but point out that HG peoples had few chronic diseases.
As usual, I think they overstate the case that “excessive exercise” is dangerous. This conclusion is tenuous in my view, with little hard data, and many opposing views. For example, this new study with free full text found no evidence of cardiac fibrosis in male endurance athletes.
But I won’t argue with the notion that it’s smart to take at least one rest day per week. That is smart.
And I agree with much that the authors write. For example, they propose that hunter gatherers averaged about 10,000 steps per day at a low intensity, but also practiced high intensity training (HIT).This happened when they had to sprint at times to conclude a successful hunt. Definitely, a little sprinting is good.
The authors also believe in the power of play in the natural environment. Who doesn’t? But they don’t consider running a form of play--preferring tennis, badminton, soccer, dancing, and … golf!!?? I find this a weak point. No one can define what play means in our individual lives.
Also, a quick thought: Some consider solo running a form of meditation and stress relief, which are big health benefits. Whereas . . . tennis and soccer? I don’t think anyone counts them as meditation.
The paper notes that at least one HG tribe--the Ache, of Paraguay--apparently sing as they walk and hunt. I know runners who do the same while listening to their very modern streaming devices. Particularly if they are following Taylor Swift.
Most importantly, the paper points out that exercise is “one stone that can kill many birds.” (Gosh, what a horrid expression, but you know what it means.) The American Heart Association advises that we follow “Life’s Simple 7” health practices. Regular exercise is one of these, and has a direct impact on 4 others: weight, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and glucose regulation. Thus it essentially scores 5 out of 7 all by itself. (The other two: no tobacco, healthy diet.)
The big, important conclusion: “Our ancestral hunter-gatherers are thought to have been virtually free of obesity and chronic non-communicable disease in large part due to daily energy expenditures of 800–1200 kcal—3–5 times the total energy expenditure of the average American.” Exercise is medicine. More at J of Science in Sports & Exercise with free full text.
Stride Right: How Quick Steps Help You Run Faster & Smoother
Many studies have shown that a shorter ground contact time is linked to faster running speed. In other words, the less time you spend on the ground (and the more you are airborne), the better and more economical your running pace.
Top running coach and writer Matt Fitzgerald is a believer in teaching runners to lower their ground contact time. That’s what he does in this article.
His biggest tips: 1) Make sure you’re doing some faster running. Fitzgerald likes short uphill sprints of about 60 meters. The steeper the hill, the less likely the chances that you’ll pull a hamstring.
2) Add some plyometrics. “A little goes a long way,” Fitzgerald notes. He suggests an easy way to begin doing plyometrics: Insert them into the middle of your regular runs. Stop every mile or 2 to perform 20 hops on one leg at a time, for example. “If you don’t like being laughed at, be sure no one’s around when you do this drill.”
3) Pay attention to your stride, so you know the “ground zero” point where your foot is hitting the road. Then try to move this point slightly forward--away from your heels, and toward your midfoot. Also, try “tilting your whole body very slightly forward from the ankles (not the waist!).”
The goal--to make sure your “ground zero” point is not out ahead of your center of mass. If that happens, you’re applying “brakes” to your running--the very opposite of efficiency. More at Training Peaks.
Maximize Your Fitness Fun: 10 Ways To Love Your Workouts
It’s important not to be too rigid in your approach to exercise. You really shouldn’t run, no matter what your training plan says, on those days when you feel unusually high stress or perhaps an incipient injury.
But you shouldn’t be too flexible in your plan-adherence either. Skip a day here, skip another one there, and soon you’re skipping days that could contribute to your health, fitness, and other goals.
The NYTimes recently listed 9 ways to combat those excuses we all invent from time to time to forego workouts. Several will speak loudly to you and the situations you confront. I can be Type A about certain things like spending my time productively. So I’ve found the “multitasking” approach very helpful.
Many of my workouts now include reading for enjoyment and/or learning new things, or listening to podcasts for the same reasons. (Several of the experts interviewed for this article were out walking while talking to the Times journalist.)
Over at the ACSM Health & Fitness Journal, two experts in exercise psychology list “10 Ways to Enhance Pleasure During Exercise.” Music? Not for me, but it seems to be the ticket for millions of happy users. It’s hard to beat exercising outdoors in green (grassy, tree-lined) or blue (near water) environments. I’m lucky enough to live near the New England coastline, and I can attest to the power of these two.
Shining A Light on Recovery: How Infrared Lamps Speed Up The Process
Infrared lights are showing up in more health/wellness categories. For example, many saunas are now heated by these lights rather than traditional wood or stone sources.
Infrared lights are also being promoted for muscle healing and recovery.
That’s the topic of this infrared study. It measured recovery of 24 elite female soccer players after 90 minutes of intermittent sprinting that simulated a full soccer match.
The subjects weren’t runners in the sense of 10K road runners, but they were high-fit athletes who did a lot of hard running. This effort resulted in muscle damage similar to a race or hard interval training session.
After their 90 minutes of intermittent sprinting, subjects received 4 days of daily light therapy from either an infrared light or a nothing-burger light. They didn’t know which type of light was being used on them.
The subjects also had daily blood tests to measure muscle-damage markers. And they performed knee muscle exercises, and a series of jumping, hopping, and sprinting exercises.
Conclusion: Subjects who received infrared therapy returned to their normal condition in 3 days vs 4 or 5 days for those receiving the sham treatment. This probably happened because far infrared light can “influence cell membrane potentials and mitochondrial metabolism by thermal and non-thermal effects; increase blood circulation and tissue regeneration; upregulate calcium-dependent nitric oxide and calmodulin; and provide positive effects on antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic activities.”
The paper was not funded by any commercial companies or industry groups. More at Scandinavian J of Medicine & Science in Sports with free full text.
How U.S. Mid-Distance Runners Are Getting Better
This article interviews two top U.S. coaches--Ron Warhurst from Michigan and Mark Coogan from Boston--who happen to coach several of the world’s fastest 1500-meter runners. Warhurst coaches Hobbs Kessler, and Coogan, Elle St. Pierre and Emily Mackay. St. Pierre won a gold medal at last winter’s World Indoor Championships, and Kessler and Mackay both grabbed bronzes.
How did they do it? Warhurst and Coogan listed these strong contributors: 1) Coaches and athletes are paying more attention to the science of training, and to the successes of other runners; 2) U.S. runners have more professional teams they can join; 3) Coaches and runners are learning more about recovery, especially how to mix training and recovery; 4) Super shoes might be absorbing tissue damage that previously would have led to injury; 5) Better funding of teams and runners is leading to longer running careers with potentially greater improvements; and 6) Drug testing is getting better, which “levels the playing field.”
Warhurst says: “People have got some good ideas that have come down the pike in the last 10 years or so, and everybody’s doing it, trying it, and everybody’s experimenting with it, and everybody’s kind of putting their own twist to it. It’s basically a lot more strength work, and a lot more volume over a period of time.”
You might not win a World Championships, but you can put your own spin on the new programs and ideas working for the elites. More at Track & Field News.
4 Steps To Preventing & Overcoming Knee Injuries
I like the way this knee-pain article begins. It highlights an important point--Two seemingly contradictory things can both be true at the same time.
For example, as running physio Tom Goom writes, “Though categorically not bad for your knees, running can be the cause of certain knee pain or injuries.” No doubt about it: Both are true.
The article deals specifically with patellar tendinopathy, which used to be called patellar tendinitis. It causes pain just below the knee, and stiffness and weakness around the knee.
Downhill running and plyometric jumps are frequent causes of patellar tendinopathy. Often, you’ll feel the pain most intensely when walking down stairs.
I like Goom’s simple 4 step recovery and prevention program: 1) Calm it down; 2) Improve strength; 3) Build it back up; 4) Keep it happy.
I also like the helpful photos and charts at the following link, and Goom’s use of isometric leg exercises. He includes an unusual exercise he calls the “single-leg decline squat.” Check out the photo. More at Runner’s World U.K.
Ultra Runners’ Hidden Helpers--The Pills They Rely On
If any runner is going to pop a pill to help her/him go the distance, it will be an ultrarunner, right? Makes sense. The more the miles you plan to endure, the more likely you’ll look for some kind of assistance.
Plenty of past studies have asked ultrarunners what substances they take before and during races. But these questionnaire-based studies are known to be inaccurate, as subjects don’t always answer honestly. This new report went further.
It performed urine testing on 412 male ultrarunners to objectively determine what they were putting into their bodies. It also compared the urine results to results from a questionnaire.
Outcome: Almost 50% of urine samples showed at least one foreign substance. About 16 percent of these were “prohibited substances.” Yet on the questionnaire, no one acknowledged taking a prohibited drug.
Still, there’s good news here. None of the substances were EPO or testosterone-related, and none of the pill-popping was linked to improved performance. The pills didn’t seem to make anyone stronger or faster. They might have relieved some discomfort.
What exactly showed up in the urine samples? NSAIDs appeared in 22.1% of samples, acetaminophen (15.5%), opioids (6.6%), diuretics (4.9%), hypnotics (4.4%), glucocorticoids (2.7%), beta-2 agonists (2.2%), cannabinoids (1.9%), and stimulants (1.2%).
It appears that caffeine was not included in this report, as it is certainly widely-used by ultra runners. More at Medicine & Science In Sports & Exercise.
Jeff Galloway And The Gospel Of Run-Walking
Jeff Galloway is one of the all time heroes of running. Not just because he was my college roommate, and taught me many important running and life lessons. And not because he was an elite distance runner who won the first Peachtree Road Race, and made a U.S. Olympic Team.
No, what sets Jeff apart is the way he pivoted 180 degrees after his elite days to spend the rest of his life helping slower, out-of-shape runners. Jeff recognized that they had more to gain than anyone else, physically and emotionally, by covering that first mile or two. Long before we first heard about “Couch to 5K,” Jeff helped tens of thousands of runners achieve that very goal with his run-walk programs.
And then, like Sly Stone, he took them higher and higher … or at least farther and farther. His followers kept run-walking until they covered half-marathons, marathons, and even ultras. (Actually, in ultras, pretty much everyone has to run-walk, which ought to send a strong message: It’s the most efficient way to cover distance on foot.)
For decades, Galloway gave free lectures at countless road races and running stores. He counseled the most-out-of-shape that “Yes, you can.” You can become a runner--even a marathoner--as long as you start slow, and stay controlled. A run-walk program shows the way.
Most coaches are driven to develop state, national, and even international running stars. Galloway never cared about that. He wasn’t trying to burnish his reputation. He was aiming to improve people’s lives and broaden their horizons.
He succeeded like no other coach before him, or since. A heart attack slowed Galloway’s travel schedule several years ago, but didn’t end it. He’s still showing up here and there, preaching the gospel: You can do it; you’ve just got to follow an appropriate run-walk-run program.
I thought I knew a lot about my former roomie, but somehow I missed “Girls Who Jeff,” a private Facebook group with 32,000 members. The group describes itself as “a women only, international running community for those who use or are interested in the Run Walk Repeat technique.” Nice.
This article does a great job summarizing Jeff’s life, coaching, and influence. More at Geezer Jock.
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GREAT QUOTES Make Great Training Partners
"The ultimate is not to win, but to reach within the depths of your capabilities and to compete against yourself to the greatest extent possible.”
--Billy Mills, 1964 Olympic 10,000-meter winner