January 6, 1986
Fitness
ON READERS’ QUERIES: HILL RUNNING AND PAIN
Injuries seem to be on everyone’s mind these days, as reflected by the letters I get from readers on topics ranging from hill running to exercising without pain.
# HILLS—Wendy I. Murray of San Francisco wrote to comment on the column on hills: “You did not talk at all about running back down the hills.”
The topic of running hills is one that deserves a 5000-word article instead of the roughly 700 words in this column, and Wendy makes an excellent point. Running down hills can injure a runner very effectively. When doing hill workouts, pick a hill that is challenging when running up, but which offers a more moderate descent; and do the descent at a comfortable jog that allows for recovering and a minimum of jarring to the legs.
Of course, racing downhill is another matter entirely, and proper technique comes only with practice. We’ll talk more about hills as a training tool in a future column.
# EXERCISE AND PAIN—Elizabeth Priegnitz of Oakland asked about the possibility of finding exercises that do not leave her with aches and pains for days afterward.
If you experience pain and discomfort for several days after exercising, it is usually due to one of several factors: too much exercise, irregular exercise, or exercises that may seem modest but which push your current limits—or a combination of these factors.
And this applies to virtually any type of exercise or physical activity in which you engage.
Acute pain following exercise is usually a sign of injury, but Elizabeth isn’t referring to that type of pain. She’s referring to aches and discomfort—usually the result of overdoing it or, ironically, not doing it enough.
Aches and pains indicate that the muscles you used are repairing the damage your exercising did to the; they are attempting to adapt to the increased workload. As they repair, they come back stronger, ready to attempt to meet your next series of demands.
If there is chronic discomfort after exercising, try cutting bac on the intensity (effort and/or volume) until you reach a point where you are pleasantly sore the day after, but not uncomfortably so. Remain at that level a week or two, and then increase your load slowly.
Also consider that you may be doing your workouts without a proper warmup or cooldown. Especially for those of us beyond 30 years of age, the old machinery needs to be warmed a little before it runs smoothly. And when it’s finished working, it likes to be gently eased out of the activity.
The final point is that you may be exercising too infrequently, so that it is almost like starting over each time you do a workout. If possible, exercise at a lower volume 4-6 days a week instead of trying to squeeze all of it into one or two days out of seven.
# BACK PAINS—From Albany comes a letter from M. Randisi, who does stretching exercises daily and who runs/jogs five miles four times a week. The problem? Some of the stretches caused back pains. The question? What to do to strengthen the lower back.
The answer: consult an orthopedic specialist who deals with athletes. Lower back problems are nothing to trifle with. The ironic thing about the lower back is that it is best strengthened by doing exercises to tone the stomach muscles.
Although it seems that strengthening the stomach muscles is going about things backward, remember that biomechanically no part of the body moves in one direction without the full cooperation of the muscle groups that are opposed to it.
Strong stomach muscles help hold the spine up straight by taking some of the strain off the relatively weaker back muscles; weak stomach muscles also frequently lead to lower back problems that become more pronounced with age as muscle tone sifts away and bone loss undermines the functioning of the spine.
January 13, 1986
Fitness
AN OL’ REGIMEN TAKES ON NEW MEANING
If you talk to anyone about fitness, you find that one of the stumbling blocks people had to becoming physical was the daily ritual of high school gym. Almost no one has any kind words to say about the dread regimen known as calisthenics.
Those military-inspired chockful-of-boredom jumping jacks and pushups were usually administered as much for punishment as for exercise. (What did the coach do to punish you if you erred in your ways? Either “Take five laps” or “Drop and give me 20 pushups.”)
Calisthenics were a staple of virtually every gym class in the country. Why? Because they were something almost everyone could do. And they were something that everyone could do at the same time.
No different from most kids my age, I dreaded calisthenics. Not because I couldn’t do them, but because they seemed so mindless.
But now, more than 20 years out of high school, and sometime cynical about the financial expense some people go through to get fit, I’ve been re-evaluating basic calisthenics. Far from finding them wanting, I’m gaining a begrudging respect for them.
It certainly isn’t because calisthenics have undergone a catharsis and now come in a new, improved brand. And it isn’t because they can now be done more effectively and well.
It’s because they are so simple, so inexpensive, so easily portable, so quickly mastered, and so universal.
And let’s be honest: Behind all the disco music, leotards, mirrors, videotapes, books, and records, almost every movement associated with better muscle tone and fitness is based on calisthenics. They’ve merely been repackaged and hyped so that we don’t recognize them for the things we loved to hate and complain about years ago.
The beauty of calisthenics is that they are all based simply upon biomechanics, muscle use, and gravity. The pushup asks you to push your own body weight against gravity, getting it off the floor, then return it from whence it came. The deep knee bend (keeping your knees together) asks you to go with gravity in lowering your body into a squat position, and then defy gravity by using your legs to push your weight into a vertical position The sit-up and leg-lift are pretty much the same.
Strung together in a nonstop sequence, a series of sets of calisthenics can become an aerobic activity while doing wonders to build muscle tone and strength. And the wonderful thing about creating a sequence is that by varying the number of reps per exercise, or sets per exercise session, you can literally begin with a one-minute basic workout and progress to four or five hours if that suits your passion for fitness.
January 20, 1986
Fitness
BABY BOOMERS: LOOKING FORWARD TO THE BIG 4-OH
As the “baby boom” generation begins to turn 40 this year, some interesting ironies surface.
Perhaps the most predictable, yet striking, fact is that many boomers just don’t believe that 40 is as bad as everyone led the to believe. A generation that glories in its youth and made more of it than perhaps any other generation, seems unwilling or unable to let it slip away. With a life expectancy about 10 years longer than their parents’, it’s understandable that 40 doesn’t seem like middle age to them.
Another factor working on the side of prolonged youth is that more than any generation before or since, the baby boomers boast a higher percentage of their number who are aerobically fit.
If you think young, and your body—despite a few aches and pains—feels young, it’s difficult to restrain the urge to act younger than the calendar insists you are.
A surprising number of boomers, about the climb the stairs to 40 are looking forward to it. Those involved in aerobic sports are champing at the bit because they’ll be the young squirts in the next higher (40-49) competitive age group. To illustrate: in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon at age 39, a runner must do a marathon in less than 2 hours, 50 minutes; for 40-year-olds the requirement becomes a pedestrian 3:10. Expect to see the starting field at Boston swell over the next five years.
And ironically, while the boomers are feeling their oats at a time when they’re supposed to be led to pasture, the generation behind them (children born from 1965 onwards) is on the skids physically.
While the boomers were making front-page news during 1978-79 by instigating the “running revolution” and during 1980-82 when that revolution expanded into the fitness movement, a study conducted by the AAU found that 57 percent of American children age 6-17 came in below standards set for an “average, healthy youngster.” The significant detail of the study, however, is that, by 1984, 64 percent of American children were physically unfit.
In a similar study conducted by the Public Health Service, the prognosis was the same: “American children and adolescents are not developing the exercise and fitness skills that could help maintain their good health as adults.”
Unfortunately, physical fitness isn’t stressed in the schools as it once was. Many schools haven’t got the money they need to function as learning institutions, much less to buy equipment and hire teachers to conduct physical fitness classes.
And today, because of all the mind-numbing diversions available, as well as the proliferation of automobiles, there’s no impetus for many young people to develop their physical side.
There’s no easy answer to improving the fitness level of today’s youngster. Except to show, by example, how much more fun life can be when you are keeping fit.
January 27, 1986
Fitness
A BRAND NEW SLATE OF NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
The fatal flaw with New Year’s resolutions is the “s” at the end of the word. It’s difficult for most of us to keep faithful track of more than one thing at a time—especially when it’s something we sort of force ourselves to do.
My theory is that since we’re now several weeks into the new year, fully 75 percent of the resolutions have been forgotten, and we’re ready to start with a clean slate. In the interest of encouraging resolve on your part, here’s a sampling of resolutions from which you can choose in order to salvage some of the effort that was put into the original list.
Resolutions for myself:
# Make every attempt during 1986 to significantly cut back my intake of cholesterol, aware that high blood cholesterol levels promote heart disease, the leading killer of American adults. In this effort, I will limit my intake of eggs, even though I’ve become a brunch addict. What’s the sense of putting an hour of exercise in on Sunday morning only to follow it with eggs benedict?
# Take at least a modicum of control of the stress in my life. Although some stress is generated by the environment in which I live, and certain stress is necessary to growth, I shall work at minimizing stress that I generate on my behalf and to my detriment. Instead of rushing around at a frantic rate, I’ll plan my days and make an attempt to be on time.
# Set aside at least one hour per day for my fitness, seven days a week, and make strenuous use of four or five of those sessions. I shall not feel guilty, however, if I use one or two of them for relaxation, for to relax at the appropriate time can also contribute to one’s fitness and well-being. (And I shall not chide myself nor feel guilty on those several days a week when I do take an hour off and do absolutely nothing for its own sake.)
# To add variety and interest to my fitness activities, I shall keep my schedule open to occasionally train with others who share my interests. I shall not, however, become dependent on my friends who share my interest in fitness, and will never use their absence as an excuse for not exercising.
# Keep a daily diary of y fitness activities, and of things that seem significant to me that day.
Resolutions to help others:
# Be ready and willing to help—but not to nag—friends who have made resolutions to stop smoking during 1986. A. sympathetic ear is often better than a well-muscled tongue.
# Refrain from boring friends and relatives with the progress of my fitness. It is possible that many people are turned off by overexposure to a fitness lifestyle than by any other reason.
# Do what I can to help my friends realize their resolutions made on January 1, as I hope they’ll assist me with those I’ve made today.