The Fitness Guru

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The good folks at the Wall Street Journal finally caught up with the hottest trend in fitness, Core Training. Its all the rage. Really.

“I worked my core!”
“Oooh felt that in my core!”
“Yeah, its a core-intensive workout!”

The word “core” has emerged like cicadas during a Midwest summer. Did you know cicadas are the among the few insects that sweat? Its true! And core training can make you sweat! Did you know that cicadas are relatively benign. True enough. Except that they can also do a great deal of damage to certain crops and trees. And did you know this “core training” is relatively benign– except for the incidents where it can do damage to various individuals who are leaping at it with eager feet?

“Core” is simply the latest in terms that have been latched onto by the industry in an attempt to capture the public imagination. And, because of that, it leads us down many wonderful paths– and many paths that are equally as dangerous. For many people, it has become a catch-all phrase for an abdominal-intense workout, in much the same way that “guns” would refer to anything having to do with the arms. But the “core” is made up of numerous muscles including but not limited to the muscles of the abdomen and back. And what a great deal of “core training” completely ignores is the need for stability and alignment in the skeletal structure underneath those muscles.

I have a new client: great guy, eager student, 49-years old. This guy has been training for his whole life. He has an abdominal wall that many 19-year old surfers would give their eye teeth to have: ripped, powerful six-pack sitting on a narrow waist, not the slightest hint of a “middle aged paunch.” He started coming to me because of intense pain in his hip. He was confused and irritated, primarily because he felt he was getting old and he couldn’t simply “train the pain away”. What we discovered was that, as he was training his “core” he was holding himself out of proper alignment and all that power he was generating was serving to build greater and greater imbalances in his joints– for him that meant stabbing pain in his hips when he would try to run. As we set about realigning his body, the pressure dissipated. He still had an amazing abdominal workout, but all the pressure that he had created was gone. And that story is repeated over and over and over again.

Ask any engineer: if you build a bridge with tons and tons of steel, and the pressure is only slightly off on one of the joints, it is only a matter of time before that bridge falls. That’s physics.

Many trainers understand this and will work their clients to get them to understand form and alignment before they increase the intensity of the workout. But many trainers simply increase the intensity on the core– greater repetitions, greater weight, greater use of gravity– in order to make their clients “feel the burn.”

The immediate result for the exerciser is fantastic. “Oh Nelly, I worked my core so good!” But, depending on the joints thresholds for pressure, it can just be a trap waiting to be sprung.

The Journal suggests that all this “core training” is something that can be done on one’s own. But, just as you probably wouldn’t try to do your business’ taxes or fix the transmission in your car on your own, I would strongly suggest getting some professional advice. Find a trainer who has some knowledge and understanding of alignment. Sign up for a couple of sessions to find out, not simply what to do, but how to do it properly. It is money very well invested, particularly if you are interested in both results and longevity. My 49-year old is going to be running better, stronger and faster in the next decade than he has at any other point in his life. That’s how it works. It’s not a miracle. It’s exercise science.

Here’s a video where Lawson discusses proper alignment and how to achieve it while exercising. She is aided by Michael (different Michael). The video is from our upcoming DVD, “Everyday Pilates”. For those of you wary of the word “Pilates” (as the word was yesterday’s “core”), fear not: it is simply a science of alignment and balance. Watch and learn, my friends.

Rock on!

Yesterday, I got into a pretty heated debate over the calorie count of an Italian Ice. It was a funny exchange as the guesses were all over the map. The answer is simple: it depends on a) the size of the serving, and b) the amount of sugar in the ice itself. As an Italian Ice is entirely water and sugar, you can estimate the calorie count based on the sugar content: roughly 4.5 calories for every gram of sugar.

But it is rarely that simple to deduce calorie calorie content when eating out. Restaurants have started posting calorie content of their menus. I have stood at the counter on many occasions and wondered what on earth I could eat, given the posted facts. Now, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal, those numbers, which many consumer have found discouraging, may not even give us the entire story. According to the article, the calorie counts may be underestimated. Scripps television stations sent out several dishes and found underestimates by up to 33%. The restaurants respond that not all dishes can be prepared at all the restaurants the same way. Okay….

I worked for a very small restaurant chain very briefly a few years ago. This place prided itself on being fast, relatively inexpensive and healthy. They posted calorie content before it was the law. But they had arrived at their numbers using software that they had downloaded off the internet– not quite food science and certainly not consumer friendly. When customers started to question the numbers, ownership decided that it was time to send out the food and get accurate readings. But then they found that food testing labs can be difficult to work with and extremely expensive. Ownership didn’t like the numbers that were coming back in and, due to some numbers that were obviously inaccurate (including sodium levels in a salt free dish) decided that the labs should be scrapped. When last I checked, they were using the internet numbers. Scripps can send out one or two dishes for an investigative piece, but for the restaurant to send out the entire menu and get quality, accurate numbers is simply not cost effective.

So where does that leave the us, the consumers? Screwed. We feel that we are so responsible by looking at the calorie contents and making better decisions but then we find out that even those better decisions may be poor. And these little inconsistencies of 50 calories here and 100 calories there can lead to carrying additional weight over the course of a week or a month. The most responsible thing we can do is…….

…..avoid the fast food restaurants altogether. I know sometimes it’s impossible to avoid them– trust me, I just got in off a big business trip and there are many places where the options are few and far between. But we have to become aware of eating strategies. Fast food is fast food is fast food. And if you are forced into making the best possible choice in a bad situation, then be aware that you may have to take a little more time to figure out when and where you are going to eat.

In the meantime, we can only hope that someone somewhere is thinking about enforcing some sort of quality control on the posting. Getting restaurants to post them was the first victory. Now we need to insure that the numbers are accurate.

Page One of the Wall Street Journal, Thursday, July 23rd, 2009: “For the Body Conscious, It’s Now the Cankle that Rankles”. “Cankle” is a combination of “calf” and “ankle”, suggesting a widening of the lower leg in a way that is unattractive and suggests heft. According to the Wall Street Journal, all-out war has been declared on the cankle, with gyms offering cankle-centric workouts and plastic surgeons offering cankle liposuction.

Meanwhile, (same issue of WSJ) a group in New Jersey is suing the restuarant chain, Denny’s, for having excessive amounts of sodium in many of their meals. What qualifies as excessive? Well, the Center for Disease control recommends a daily consumption of no more than 1500 mg of sodium. Fair enough. Excess sodium can lead to hypertension, heartburn, ulcers, asthma, and edema, among other problems. So Denny’s has a one meal called the Meat Lover’s Scramble– eggs, ham, bacon, meat meat meat and meat– that has……drum roll……5690 mg of sodium. Quick math: one meal, 380% of the recommended DAILY intake.

So what do the two stories have to do with each other? You’ll note that of the effects of excessive sodium consumption is edema–swelling due to excessive fluid in your body’s tissues. And edema usually occurs in lower legs, ankles and feet. Gravity just pulls the fluid down, down, down. Starting to see the connection?

Now, some people do have a predisposition to store fat in the lower legs. But the Denny’s Connection should not be ignored. Americans consume, on average, 4500 mg of sodium daily (different studies will yield different figures, none of them good). Is it possible that the Cankle Crisis might be brought on by this high sodium diet? Not every single cankle, mind you, just as you can’t blame ALL hypertension on sodium intake. But maybe a great many cankles could be avoided if, rather than seek out surgery, or a canklecentric workout , people start watching what they are eating (p.s.– you can’t spot reduce folks– you can burn body fat, but not ankle fat specifically).

It’s not easy. Sodium opens the dopamine pathways, which means that it can be as addictive as a drug. So here are some ideas on how you can reduce the amount of sodium in your diet:

• Buy fresh, plain frozen, or canned “with no salt added” vegetables
• Use fresh poultry, fish, and lean meat, rather than canned or processed types. Use herbs, spices, and salt-free seasoning blends in cooking and at the table.
• Cook rice, pasta, and hot cereals without salt. Cut back on instant or flavored rice, pasta, and cereal mixes, which usually have added salt.
• Choose “convenience” foods that are lower in sodium. Cut back on frozen dinners, pizza, packaged mixes, canned soups or broths, and salad dressings — these often have a lot of sodium.
• Rinse canned foods, such as tuna, to remove some sodium.
• When available, buy low- or reduced-sodium, or no-salt-added versions of foods.
• Choose ready-to-eat breakfast cereals that are lower in sodium.