Older Bolder Life

Stronger | Leaner | Sharper | Longer - From Older Bolder Fitness

Exercise

In Praise of Sunrise Workouts

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While I get it that not everyone is at their very best in the early morning, I do suggest to most clients (and anyone else in my circle who’ll listen) that they try a cycle of early morning workouts (if their schedules allow it) at some point during the year.

Here in North Texas during the long, toasty summer rising early to get a workout in before the heat of the day really gets cooking is a no-brainer. We’ve just come through a stretch of days where the highs were running from 100 to 105 or better with the heat index on the worst days north of 110. On those hottest days the morning temps in the low 80s feel pretty damned good.

There’s a city park with a decent network of trails not far from home that’s been my early walking target for much of the summer; the little community in which we live is expanding the park, so there’s been construction ongoing all spring and summer, making the early outings even more enjoyable before the dust and diesel exhaust start flying.

As construction has changed the landscape of the park lately, there’s a parking lot I’ve been looping through right about the time the sun cracks the horizon the past few weeks, and the sun peeking over the horizon has been a great distraction, and timing tool, on these late summer mornings.

Shake up the routine and include some sunrise time before the cooler temps of fall sneak up on us in the next few months.

A Timely Warning from the ACSM: Now is NOT the Time to Overtrain

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I don’t often post links to a single article here on the OBL blog, thought this recent Call to Action Statement from the American College of Sports Medicine deserves note today.

From the data that I’ve been able to read and observe directly with clients, family, and friends, I absolutely concur with their recommendation to continue reasonable volumes of MVPA (moderate to vigorous physical activity), which for most of us falls into the 30-60 minutes of MVPA most days of the week (150-300 minutes per week for most) during these COVID-19 impacted days.

More critically, the authors remind in the article that “In contrast, participating in unusually high exercise workloads with the associated physiological stress is linked to transient immune dysfunction and an elevated ARI risk (7).” Their advice to avoid exhaustive exercise, overreaching, and overtraining should be taken to heart.

Take 7 or 8 minutes today, read the article, and make the necessary adjustments in your workout and exercise routine; we all need the immune-supportive benefits of consistent exercise these days more than ever.

Git ‘er done.

Working Out in the Heat: A Quick Primer

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It’s been hot as blazes here in North Texas (and much of the country of late); it was 81 at 625 this morning on my way to a local park to walk, and the heat index was pushing 105 three hours later as I finished my second workout of the morning. The image above was taken from the NWS site here locally yesterday…

Today’s post isn’t meant to be an all-inclusive, exhaustive commentary on exercising and thriving in the heat, it’s intended to answer a few common questions that are coming in from clients, and remind you of a few key principles to follow.

The Prime Directive for Working Out in the Heat: Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate

Working out (or working) in the heat, particularly when higher humidity levels are part of the game, means you’ll need to pay particular attention to hydration. Count me among those who opine that rigid, one-size fits all hydration guidelines (8-10 tall glasses of water per day) are kinda silly if you’re paying attention to what your body is telling you, but the game changes when you’re pouring sweat at prodigious rates in the heat.

Water with a pinch of salt and trace minerals is the ideal hydration tool, probably as is coconut water, perhaps diluted to half strength. Interestingly Sisson argues that fresh squeezed orange juice with a pinch of salt is one of his favorites; read his logic in this post.

Understand, and Watch For, the Early Symptoms of Heat Related Illness

Not to push you to be hypochondriacal, but there are a few symptoms you need to be on the lookout for, especially if you plan on exercising vigorously in the heat. These symptoms include dizziness or feeling lightheaded, excessive sweating, excessive fatigue, headache, confusion or perhaps anxiety, a weak and rapid pulse, muscle cramps, and possibly even nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea.

It can happen when you least expect it; it did to me yesterday in fact. I happened to be finishing a workout I routinely do without a significant struggle yesterday (heat index pushing 105) when I noted I was sweating excessively, felt a wave a global fatigue, the onset of a mild headache, and even a little nausea. My point – I knew immediately it was time to pack it in, cool off, and hydrate. You MUST do the same if the need arises.

Tips to Beat the Heat, and Keep On Exercising

Adjust your workout to fit the weather. Walking is almost always a great fall back; consider cycling (make your own breeze) or a pool-based workout as well. You may need to drop off in terms of intensity, pace, or volume during the hottest days.

Hydrate all day, not just during and immediately post your exercise.

Hit it early, with late evening a reasonable choice if early doesn’t work. These early summer mornings are some of the very best of the year, I love hitting the trails or the soccer fields for sprints before sunrise – it’s the coolest part of the day for most of the country right now.

Taking your fitness efforts indoors can be helpful; I know, I know – I much prefer to be outside as well, but there are some scenarios where the air conditioned gym wins the day.

Consider breaking a longer workout into several shorter intervals during the hottest days, or experiment with HIIT training if you’ve not utilized these short duration and damned challenging workouts.

Finally, considering carefully and thoughtfully embracing the challenge of building your fitness using heat as an hormetic stressor – here’s a great example.

Be safe, be smart, and we’ll have more to come about prospering in the heat in a few days…

Foundation Series: When It Comes to Exercise, There are Times When Less is More

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In the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual worldwide survey of current fitness trends (the 2018 edition), they ranked high-intensity interval training (HIIT) at the very top as per the image/list from the article to the right.

That’s of course no surprise to many, though it seems I run into people just about every day who aren’t sure what to think about HIIT, presume that it’s too extreme for those of us over 40, particularly if we’re significantly deconditioned and/or overweight. There’s another cadre of HIIT skeptics who fall into the “chronic cardio lifer” category.

Yet the pull of HIIT is inescapable.

HIIT offers for most identical – or greater – fitness benefits compared to much longer, historically traditional cardio-focused workouts. High-intensity interval training can be completed much more quickly, is damned efficient at producing its benefits, induces less physical (and quite possible biomechanical stress, pending your workout choices) stresses on your system, saves joint wear and tear, and provides a great change-up in your routine.

A Quick Glance at HIIT in the Literature

I know, I know, almost everybody you read these days reaches back to one of the first (landmark) studies published looking at HIIT vs moderate-intensity cardio – the 1996 study in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. HIIT completed five days per week was clearly more effective than traditional cardio in measures of both aerobic and anaerobic fitness; of note, the workout program in the study was eventually described as the Tabata protocol (20 second sprints, 10 second rests, 7-8 reps).

But wait, five days of HIIT per week? This study from the International Journal of Obesity in 2008 showed impressive benefits from only three times per week HIIT over 15 weeks, with body changes impressively better than the moderate-intensity cardio group.

This study from 2007 showed low-volume HIIT (sprint training) physiologic improvements were basically the same as (for the day) typical endurance training regimens. Another study from 2006 again demonstrated similar benefits in a low-volume sprint group compared to a high-volume endurance group in exercise tolerance/capacity and a detailed skeletal muscle analysis.

And despite chronic cardio’s dominant position for decades as the purported cornerstone of improving cardiac function and health, this study (2008) clearly demonstrated that HIIT was as effective as traditional endurance training in measures of arterial stiffness and flow-mediated arterial dilation. Even my own specialty (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) has recently published a study on HIIT in cardiac patients, with a good review of workout intensity recommendations as well.

A Few Quick Thoughts on Starting Your Own HIIT Program

Without a doubt those with significant cardiopulmonary disease such ischemic or other heart disease, valvular disease, history of MI (heart attack), or cerebrovascular disease (stroke) should clear a HIIT program with their physician. For that matter, if you have any major medical or orthopaedic issue (T2 or T1 diabetes, hypertension, any arthropathy whether it’s degenerative/osteoarthritis, gout, or others, or perhaps osteoporosis), it’s worth clearing HIIT with your doc.

Don’t forget that you can accomplish a very effective HIIT workout with lower-impact exercise; the HIIT game is all about intensity, briefly pushing to 85 (up to 100) percent of your age-adjusted maximal target heart rate with short bursts of more intense effort, combined with/alternating with brief (yet still moving) recovery periods.

For the more mature among us, I often suggest starting with common-sense, fairly simple, whole-body/at least multi-joint movements/exercise for your HIIT program. Think of simple stuff like swimming, walking lunges, walking up an incline/hill, hill jogging/running, simple sprints (i.e., running, stationary bike, elliptical). Even squats, pushups, or jumping jacks will work.

Start slowly, listen to your body, and don’t push for more than one HIIT workout per week or even every ten days to start. You may need to experiment with several different specific workout versions to find what fits your capacity, tolerance, current level of overall fitness, and interests today (remember, this is supposed to be fun).

More on HIIT to come shortly.

Foundation Series: Functional Fitness Is Where It’s At

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Way back when starting my residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Utah (Salt Lake was a great place to live back in the mid-80s), the term functional fitness wasn’t a popular buzzword in the everyday fitness world.

Functional fitness (as a term) was really used primarily in a medical arena, most often as we worked as a team to restore injured and compromised individuals’ mobility as well as their ability to do what are loosely termed “activities of daily living” – all those things we do to manage ourselves, our households, and most often our work in a given day.

A great deal of what the members of the rehab team did in this functional training was very practical, geared toward equipping a person to perform useful tasks with greater ease, efficiency, and proficiency. (To this day I’m deeply inspired by some of the transformations in function I witnessed during those years.)

Functional Fitness is a hot topic these days it seems, and for good reason. I’m all about the functional fitness movement (no pun intended), particularly for those of us over 40 (you could really easily argue that could be 30) who are beginning to feel some of the symptoms of joint wear and tear (aching, stiffness, etc), aren’t as fit as we used to be, are a bit too sedentary, are beginning to pack on extra pounds, or are just overwhelmed with the urgent life tasks that seem to dominate some (if not most) days.

Getting a Grip on Functional Fitness

Like most involved in the wellness and health worlds today, it seems like I’m singing the praises of and talking details about functional fitness just about every day.

I like to keep things direct and simple, and define (more or less) functional fitness as movement and exercise that’s geared toward improving our body’s ability to complete often complex life tasks we face routinely, as opposed to building, for example, the biggest biceps or triceps possible, or trimming seconds off a timed run or swim.

Functional fitness implies personalization. We’re all unique in terms of our specific physical construct, metabolism, and psyche; the tasks we complete as part of our home and work days are different and unique to us, as is our play.

Why wouldn’t we optimally build out an exercise routine that is designed to peak our performance of both these daily tasks and our play?

Yet so often we try and force our bodies to grind through training routines that aren’t necessarily functionally targeted, that might isolate and build impressive individual muscles yet leave us woefully unconditioned and unprepared for various challenges we face in the real world every day.

[I’m always reminded of an interview I read years ago back in the infancy of triathlon competitions; one of the earliest heroes of the sport, Mark Allen, noted in an interview that despite his being a champion swimmer at the collegiate level, he found himself woefully unprepared early in his career to meet the challenges of cycling and running.]

Functional fitness focuses on core strength, balance and stability, functional strength, solid cardio (without overtraining), and multi-planar, multi-muscle (often arm, trunk, and leg together) movements and exercise.

There’s no magic program to simply plug into; as noted above, functional fitness implies personalization to the demands your life puts on you. At the most basic level, Mark Sisson’s 4 Essential Movements of the Primal Blueprint could be a great place to start, though we’ll be talking a great deal more about functional fitness over the next months.

It’s time to get moving, and start building up your functional capacity and reserve. Life is all about function.