The Fitness Guru

Bridgette asks: You always hear people say that the “trouble areas” of your body are the last to start losing inches. For example, I tend to put on weight first in my thigh area (definitely my trouble spot) and last in my mid-section. Over the past two weeks, I’ve had significant loss in my waist, yet haven’t lost even a centimeter in my thighs. So, tell me, is it truth or a myth that what someone would refer to as their “trouble areas” are always the last to show any sign of weight loss? Thanks!

Bridgette, good question. It reminds me of the old saying, “Look for something lost and you’ll always find it in the last place you look.” You are probably exercising and eating right in an effort to lose some pounds and inches and that is terrific. It may be that there is a particular are that, when you look in the mirror, your critical eye is immediately drawn to. That’s the case for many, many, many people. Your focus may be on that area for numerous reasons dating all the way back to childhood insecurities, and over time, you develop a hyper-critical view. Consequently, as you lose weight, you will always be slightly more critical of that area than others.

Now you may really have some extra inches in those areas. That may be the cause of your initial feelings. Through puberty, your body will build fat cells throughout the body. No matter how hard you work, you can shrink those cells, but you can never get rid of those cells. As you exercise, your body will burn fat from throughout your body without any sort of of strategy. So as you burn fat, stores will shrink from all the fat deposits. You can’t focus your burn in one particular area, or what people call “spot reducing”. It simply isn’t possible. What you can do is continue to burn your fat stores knowing that, at some point, you will get to the area you want to reduce. And the size of the fat cells will shrink, but they will not disappear.

A good friend of mine, a professional dancer, used to work out like a madman. He would dance several hours every day, work out, eat right, everything that you should be doing. But he had a little fat on his thighs that drove him nuts. As he had to stare in the mirror hour after hour for his profession, and as his thighs drove him crazy as the one imperfect area on his body, he finally had liposuction on that area. That is the only way to rid an area of the fat cells.

So keep up the work and know that you will hit those spots soon enough. You just need to be patient and keep fighting the good fight.

Rock on!

Juliana asks: “What is your opinion on cortisone shots and/or electrical stim for plantar fasciitis? My plantar fasciitis wasn’t getting any better with physical therapy (exercises, ultrasound, ice massage & electrical stim) so I decided to go for a cortisone shot. I thought the shot would give instant relief, but instead the needle and process made my foot hurt more. The doctor said to wait for 24 hours and expect a 20% reduction in pain. Then to come back for another shot next week and then more shots every two weeks. After the shot my foot hurt a great deal and also felt pins & needles all night. The next day there is some relief but also my foot is sore & bruised where he put the needle. I am wondering if I should continue these shots since cortisone can cause deterioration of the fat pads and the benefits seem not so great?”

Great question. And it’s one that I started dealing with about 12 years ago. Plantar fasciitis is a swelling and inflammation of the tissue at the bottom of the foot– insanely painful, particularly if you enjoy passtimes like running, walking, standing, sitting or sleeping. I suffered from it a while ago and it drove me crazy, and drove me out of a lot of the exercise that I enjoyed doing. I visited doctors, all of whom had their own particular way of dealing with it– including the one surgeon who was convinced it was bone spurs and he should operate (note to self:surgeons like to operate). Then I found an orthopedist who summed it up brilliantly: “your calves are ridiculously tight. Stretch your calves and the inflammation will disappear.” He had me Down Dog (see video below), a great yoga stretch, several times a day. At first, it was godawful. But slowly, my calves became more flexible and, lo, the inflammation disappeared.

As for cortisone, well, Juliana, I’m not a doctor, just a humble country Fitness Guru, but honestly I don’t like it. I could list the side effects (including but not limited to thinning of the skin, easy bruising, weight gain, puffiness of the face, elevation of blood pressure, cataract formation, osteoporosis, and a rare but serious damage to the bones of the large joints) but I won’t. My problem with it is that, by suppressing your immune system, it makes the pain go away. But it never gets at the source of the problem, the reason why the fascia is inflamed to begin with. So the cortisone shot acts as a crutch, a temporary relief of the pain. But as soon as you go back to your old behavior, the tension will build again and the inflammation will come right back, forcing you to go visit the doctor again and get another shot, thus increasing the risk of the side effects– urghhhhh! As for electro-stim, I would think that causing the muscles to contract would serve to created more tension and thus inflammation. I would think that ultra-sound, which is designed to reduce inflammation, would be the way to go.

So if the pain is THAT bad, by all means seek out the immediate relief (though I am more inclined to use arnica cream and find a good acupuncturist). But first and foremost, stretch your calves. Stretch them, and then stretch them again. The more flexible you become, the less likely the inflammation will sprout up again.

Check out the Quick Fix video that Josie and I shot ages ago. Try to ignore the fact that Josie curses like sailor and focus on the exercise. Even with my limited hamstring capabilities, you can see why this is so effective.

Good question, Rick. Here is the answer. As we are in the midst of training the first Guru Marathon Team, I have spent a great deal of time recently explaining the reasons. Let me start by saying that Pilates is not for everyone. You should do what works for your body. But having done this training thing for a couple of decades now, I have become very frustrated by the number of people who had to give up running because the doctor has told them it is no good for their bodies. I find that attitude infuriating. Most pain and injuries stem from the combination of repetitive use and bad habits. Get rid of the bad habits and the injury will go away. Or at least that is what I have found in the people that I have worked with.

The key to all the Pilates work is finding a good instructor. Just because someone has hung a shingle on their door doesn’t make them good. First, make sure that your instructor is certified. There are different levels of certification, from a couple years of study down to a weekend on the internet, so you may want to research exactly what sort of certification the instructor has acquired. This is your body that your placing in his or her hands and you want to make sure that you are receiving quality care. Next, make sure you speak to your instructor at the very start of your relationship. Explain your present condition and your goals. Look them straight in the eye and listen to their answers. If you like what you hear, if it seems well thought out and intelligent, give it a try. If it sounds slapdash and confused, turn and walk. Bad Pilates is not only a waste of time, it can actually be injurious.

There are three main reasons that runners can benefit from Pilates:

1. One of the key elements of Pilates training is the balancing of the body: balancing the left side of the body with the right, balancing the top with the bottom and balancing the front with the back. Injuries (non-acute, accident –related injuries) tend to stem from a lack of balance in the body. A good Pilates instructor can help you focus on realigning your body and activating muscles that are underused. For example: a great many runners put a great deal of stress on their quadriceps, the large muscles that run across the top of the thigh. Focus so much on the quadriceps may bring tension to the outside portion of the thigh and start to draw the tracking of the knee away from the midpoint of the body. As the body tries to right the problem, tension starts to develop in the knee joint, particularly around the ACL on the inside (medial) portion of the knee. With Pilates, balance can be brought to the quadriceps, adductors (inner thighs), and hamstrings (backs of the thighs) so that the tension on the knee is greatly reduced.

2. As I am sure you know from reading the fashion mags, Pilates is a great “core” workout. As “core” is the most grossly overused word in the English language these days, let’s take a look at what that means. To maintain an ideal running form, the majority of the work is given over to the legs and, to a lesser extent, the arms. The torso will not propel you forward no matter how much you rock it side to side. So, ideally, the torso must remain stable throughout your run. This stability is achieved through a balance of the abdominal muscles – the Rectus Abdominus, inner and outer Obliques and, most important, the Tranverse Abdominus—and the muscles of the lower back—the Quadratus Lumborum and spinal erectors. Combine these muscles with the underused muscles of the pelvic floorand you are creating a very powerful torso that will remain stable throughout the duration of your run. Also, that torso stability will allow you to drop your center of gravity forward, creating forward momentum, without putting a great deal of pressure on your lower back.

3. Finally: flexibility. You wouldn’t believe the number of terrific runners that I meet who are unable to touch their toes. They see no correlation between their flexibility and their rate of injury. However, passive stretching, like drawing your heel toward your buttocks and holding it there, can cause more harm than good. Pilates offers you the opportunity to build functional strength through a wider range of motion. The key is eccentric muscle activation, when you focus on activating a muscle while you continue to lengthen it. It is this sort of activation and muscle work that originally drew the dance community to the work of Joseph Pilates in the 1940’s: dancers realized that they didn’t need to give up strength for flexibility or flexibility for strength. They could have their cake and eat it too. If dancers ate cake.

Check out our Runner’s Exercises video!!

If you have further questions about Pilates or instructors, please feel free to ask. Also note that the Guru offers both a Mat certification and Apparatus certification for instructors.

Good luck and run like the wind!!

Eileen,

Turmeric has been used for centuries by the Chinese and Indian medical communities as an anti-inflammitory. The main ingrediant thought responsible is curcumin, which is the oil that gives Turmeric its yellow or orange pigment. The main reason that you might want to choose Turmeric in place of an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory is that, while Advil and Motrin have possible toxic side effects– ulcers, intestinal bleeding, liver issues (fun stuff)– curcumin is non-toxic and will not lead to problems with prolonged use. Studies have shown beneficial results battling IBD, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Cystic Fibrosis and it has even been linked to lower breast, prostate, lung and colon cancer rates. Your chiropracter is right on the money. Great suggestion!

Great podcast, I’m intrigued to learn more. Unfortunately, the article isn’t that clear. Can you break down an example of a Hurricane workout we could do at The Fitness Guru studio?- Animal

Ah, Animal. It is the pain of trying to capture the visuals of a magazine with the nuances of audio recording. The Hurricane is meant to shake up, stress, and push the system. It is a series of five exercises. Each exercise is performed for one minute with no rest in between. The idea is to get the entire body to work in the course of five minutes. Consequently, five variations of push ups probably wouldn’t be a good call. But you would want to mix up the exercise. Here is an example:

1. Push Ups
      a. Classic exercise for the upper body. Form is key. Try to keep an even pace as you both lower and lift. And don’t underestimate a full minute of push ups
2. Plyometric Squats
     a. With your feet parallel and should width apart, bend your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor. In one powerful motion, spring up and jump as high as you can. Repeat for aminute
3. Treadmill Sprints
     a. On the treadmill. As fast as you can. For a minute
4. Alternating leg scissors
     a. Lying on your back with your hands behind your head and your head and shoulders lifted, lift both legs straight up to the ceiling. One at a time, lower and raise each leg, maintaining abdominal activation
5. Bench Jumping
     a. Standing on one side of the weight bench, take hold of the sides. Using your arms for support, jump over and back across the bench

I’ll have a video up tomorrow for more specific details on how to best utilize the Hurricane in your workout.

Dear Guru,

So I’ve lost around 40 lbs over the past 5 months, and am quite pleased with my results. The one thing that is driving me nuts though, is that my skin is now really loose in certain places like under my arms or on my chest. Is there anything I can do to help my skin adjust down to the body underneath? If there’s nothing active I can do, is there a time-line over which I can expect to see my skin change while I keep my weight down? Thanks in advance.

Jack,

Congratulations on the weight loss. Anyone who has ever fought that battle can appreciate the dedication that has gone into what you have accomplished. That is terrific. Now, loose skin can be problematic after dramatic weight loss. The elasticity of the skin, its ability to retighten around your newly trim body, depends on a number of factors including your age and the genetic factors effecting your skin, like collagen levels. Collagen works as the structural supports within our body providing for our skins’ ability to “bounce back.”  Unfortunately, at a point, some skin won’t bounce back. Two factors you should consider are: how long were you heavy and how long has it been since you lost the weight? As the weight loss is relatively new (40 lb over over 20 weeks– which, by the way, is the perfect schedule of two pounds per week–Congrats again!) then I would wait to see how the skin reacts for at least another six months to a year. I would continue with your workouts and perhaps add more strength training to your upper body, as that seems to be the area that most concerns you. If we are having this conversation again a year from now and it still upsets you, then that would be one of the times I would suggest seeing a doctor for skin removal. In certain case, when people are losing a great deal of weight (and I mean far more than 40 lb), it becomes necessary to remove the excess skin. But, as the weight loss is new for you, I would not worry about that. Just continue with the excellent work that has brought you to this point and let’s see where it takes you.

First of all, watch who you’re calling insane… I wouldn’t skip my workout because I forgot my HR monitor, but I’d probably do a big eye roll and be pissed at myself. For those of us Type A people who have to be in control of just about everything the Heart Rate Monitor is crucial. For a personal trainer worth their salt it’s a must. For the pregnant woman, the triathlete, the marathoner, the even remotely serious fitness buff- it’s something we can’t live without. Thank heavens they come in cute styles and colors. They used to be God-awful and not have half the features. I guess you can tell you’ve stumbled into enemy territory, but I intend to make a believer out of you.

Let’s start with what it’s for; Heart rate monitors can be simple, performing basic functions like, telling the time and monitoring your heart rate. They all come with a watch and a chest strap. Some are super complicated, we’re talking GPS foot pod, body condition programs that read your fitness levels from day to day letting you know whether to kick your own ass or take it easy based on the little computer’s findings, some even come with things like marriage counseling and mind reading. They cost anywhere between $60 and $400. I wear a Polar F6, which retails for $119.9. They’re discontinuing it soon (no matter how I beg) so enjoy it while you still can. This little beauty is in the mid to low range of complicated, it tells time, monitors your heart rate, alerts you when you’re out of your desired target heart rate zone, times the length of each workout, reads your average heart rate percentage during your workout, gives you the amount of calories burned and what percentage of those calories burned are fat. It also logs the history of all this fabulous information. Now that I write it out, that sounds like a lot of stuff, but honestly I’m pretty low tech (I have to ask my husband to set the Tivo) and I really need all that stuff the insure that I’m getting the most effective workout possible. Insane? Not really.

Now let’s talk about what it can do for you; Watch me shoot myself in the foot… if you’re self-motivated and have learned enough from your trainer, a good heart rate monitor can make your trainer obsolete. Once you understand proper form, exercise selection and learn what zones your heart rate should be in during your workout the monitor will tell you when you’re off base. Hate to waste time? So do I, which is why your heart rate monitor will ensure that every minute of your workout is as productive as possible, even your cool down. Most monitors will base fat burning percentage on your average heart rate during a workout. By including your cool down into the equation it will bring down your average thereby increasing the percent of fat burned in each workout. It can also be a great motivational tool. By tracking and adding up weekly calorie burns and number of workouts per week, you can track your proposed weight loss and strength gain goals. The monitor will even keep a record of your progress indefinitely so you can check yourself daily, weekly or even monthly and compare your fitness levels as you progress. To me, the heart rate monitor is about being your most productive and expecting the best result from your fitness regime, knowing when it’s time to tweak, change or stay with what you’ve got. Why not let technology be your guide? From a style stand point, I wear my monitor as my everyday watch and I’d call myself a sporty fashionista. My hubby wears his everyday to work and yes we’re in fitness, but I’ve got clients who are into everything from architecture to finance who wear their HR watches daily. It’s one less thing to pack in the gym bag.

Sold? I hope so, if not- at least turn a blind eye to your friend’s psychotic ramblings about target zone and fat burn. Let’s be serious, which one of you could get out of a burning building faster- okay…not fair. Which one of you looks better in a bathing suit? Thought so…☺

Don’t fret, whether they tell you about it or not, every woman’s stomach looks like a pouch without the papoose after having a child. It took 40 weeks for it to get that way, give it at least half that time to come back- and that’s if you really bust your butt with the exercise and watch your diet carefully! Most doctors say you must wait 6 weeks after having a vaginal birth and 10 weeks after a C section to exercise. Always check with your Dr. first before you begin exercising again. I know it’s a pain, but be a grown up- you have a child now so you’re forced to behave.

After you get the green light start back slowly doing only 75% of your pre-baby workout. As your strength builds you’ll be able to get back to your normal routines. A healthy mixture of cardio, strength and flexibilty work will yeild results. Pilates is a must if you want your abs back. I recommend starting with some private sessions on the Pilates apparatus with an instructor who has experience dealing with post pregnancy. It may sound like a splurge, but you can drop to down to taking Pilates Mat classes with so much more information and understanding of your body which translates to results! Everything, including your cardio and strength sesssions will be more effective and have a deeper mind/body connection. You just had a baby, you’re worth it!

Lawson

Bob, Pace yourself. You don’t want to overdo it, especially when you are under the weather. If you are lifting weights, I would cut the weight by about twenty percent. It may not seem like the usual challenge, but you are not up to your usual strength. As for cardio, it really depends how bad you feel and how much you are planning on doing. One time, I had bad congestion on the day I was supposed to appear in a friend’s exercise video. We ended up doing a great deal of cardio that day, and I ended up with sinus, throat and bronchial infections. Good times! If you feel like you need to get going again, then by all means, go. But take it easy at first and see how your body reacts. Make sure that you stay hydrated and don’t go wandering out into the cold winter air while you’re still sweaty.

In the end, go with your instinct: if you feel that you are pushing the edge of the envelope, back off. He who fights and runs away…..you know the rest.

Michael