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March 2001 Vol. 6 No. 3
“There is no greater legacy than to love and be loved by a dog”
This March 2001 edition is in memory of my partner Smokey
Table of Contents:
Woman and Running Pain
Is it the Stairmaster that is Guilty?
Body Changes, Diet and Physique
No Short Cuts to Fitness
Personal Trainers and the Risk of Liability in America
Elevating the Heel in Squatting
Hamstring Development
Body Fat Deposits: Exercise and Diet
Body Fat Guidelines for Children
How many glasses of water should you drink in a day?
Woman and Running Pain
Question: a small woman. about 5′5″ and slight. I do not know how much I weigh. I long ago decided that was not a number I needed to know. I eat. pretty well but I am sure (as with all busy people) that I could sneak in more vegetables. I have been training for about 10 years. I had been running a lot. about 6 miles a day, almost every morning. I have recently had a bone density test and that was fine. i went for a walk this morning and tried only about 2 steps of running and the pain kicked in from my knee(front), sharply up the leg.
Answer: Unfortunately not everyone is built for everyday running. Women are prone to running injuries especially in the knee/hip area due to the structure of the pelvis. This does not mean you need to permanently give up your passion. For now I would stop all running. There are times that certain stress fractures will not show up on x-rays.
Soft tissue injuries and muscle imbalances will also not show up on most diagnostic tests. You may have such severe muscle imbalances that a cascade of events are happening when you run.
Sharp pain is a sure indicator that you should avoid running at this time.
You need to find a good chiropractor that specializes in treating athletes. You need muscle testing. Finding a good massage therapist will help with soft tissue spasms-which I am sure you are experiencing as well.
Diet: No need to sneak with vegetables-add 2 cups from a variety of veggies each day. Drink more water [bottled or distilled] 10 glasses each day.
Finally, there is the route of supplementation to reduce inflammation and promote healing of the damage that may have occurred in the ligaments and tendons. There is excellent research on vitamin C, Glucosamine and SAMe, along with essential fatty acids.
Is it the Stairmaster that is Guilty?
How I Eat: I have a poor eating habit. I have sweets all the time. I cannot help it.
Fitness Goal: I am at the gym about 4 to 5 times a week. I love the Stairmaster. I am stating to get bulky at the legs and butt area. I want to be lean and slim there. i was told to do these machines with lower resistance. I like doing these as hard as I can to loose calories, but i don’t want to be bigger.
Answer: It is not your exercise that is making your legs and posterior larger it is the sweets. If you cannot help it-no one can help you!
You may be hypoglycemic and could benefit from visiting your doctor to determine this, or you may be stressed out and turn to sweets for the quick pick up and feel they provide. Make no mistake-sweets with make your assets larger in all the wrong places.
Please take the time to read our weight management position at:http://www.afpafitness.com/articles/AFPAPosWtMg.htm
This will give you dietary directions. I would substitute 2 days a week another form of cardiovascular exercise. The weekly grind of step machines will stress and eventually lead to overuse injury of your knees. Try rowing or walking combined with weight training for total body development.
Body Changes, Diet and Physique
How I Eat: I work nights and am the mother of 3 children 7,6 and 3. I have been trying to change bad eating habits - Paying close attention to cal/day and amounts of fat.
Fitness Goal: I am not so concerned with actual weight loss but want to get back in shape, especially my abs. Waist measurement is approx 26/27″, I have been walking on the treadmill and doing stomach exercises - if I push it really hard how many weeks before I get my stomach in shape for summer? That is my ultimate goal.
Answer: The key is really your diet. It is not just fat, but the type of carbohydrates you eat daily. White refined flour and sugar are empty calories that the body will store as fat almost as easily as storing fat as fat. Please read the guidelines in our weight management program at: http://www.afpafitness.com/articles/AFPAPosWtMg.htm
Regarding exercise. Walking daily is wonderful. It is important to change elevation and speed every few minutes to simulate a more natural pace that you would follow outdoors [this reduces overuse injury that is typical in individuals who use the treadmill at a constant speed or incline].
Sit-ups are great for strengthening the abdominals, but they will not reduce the size of your waist.Add weight training for your upper body 2-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions. If you cannot get to a gym there are many exercises that you can do at home with virtually what you have in your cupboard. [Heavy cans, gallons of water, broom-stick]. Climbing stairs burns more calories than walking on a treadmill, and will develop better over-all leg strength and tone.
Exercise for at least 1 hour total each day. [I realize this can be difficult with small children].
Be diligent in what types of foods you eat. It is easier to avoid a 500-1,000 calorie desert [stress eating] than it is to spend 5 hours burning it off with exercise.
Follow this program along with the guidelines set forth in the position paper and you should be able to shed 3-5 pounds [1-2 inches] by May.
No Short Cuts to Fitness
How I Eat: I used to eat any thing that I wanted. Now since I’m in college, I found that I have gotten the “beer gut” I’ve only gained about ten to fifteen pounds. I’d like to tone up and I don’t really have time/energy for a full workout.
Question: Would an EMS device help me tone up? if just to tone, do you recommend a product? Would you recommend the product in conjunction with a workout to cut back time.
Answer: The only way to lose the beer gut is to stop drinking so much beer, and clean up your diet with more fresh and whole foods.
An EMS device is designed for those individuals recovering from soft tissue injury/surgery, to increase blood flow to the tissues. It will NOT tone your muscles. Work out daily with cardio and weights. Walk around the campus as much as possible. Those are the keys to fitness.
Personal Trainers and the Risk of Liability in America
Today’s trainers have greater risk of liability than in the past. Besides education, how can trainers protect themselves from possible litigation?
Answer: Using good common sense is the key. It is important to observe every new client or potential client for personal training. Take a complete health history, ask questions and then listen. Everyone has a goal.
Three questions need to be answered to determine your exposure to possible litigation.
One: Is the clients goals reasonable to attain based on the time frame you have to work with.
For example: Are they trying to lose 30 lbs of fat in 30 days? Educating your client increases the professional respect from them to you as the trainer.
You could refer to the AFPA Weight Management Position to determine safe guidelines: http://www.afpafitness.com/articles/AFPAPosWtMg.htm
Two: Upon review of the client’s health questionnaire does this client need to be refereed to a physician for medical clearance prior to beginning an supervised exercise program. Many times a trainer will believe because they have certification or a degree that they can make judgment calls on those individuals regarding an exercise program when they really should be seen by a physician first.
Three: Are you mature enough to handle personal relationships without crossing over the boundary of professionalism. Taking liberty with a male or female client can backfire severely and open you to sexual harassment charges.
Elevating the Heel in Squatting
Question: I have seen some people use plates or a mat under their heels while doing Squats? They said by raising the heels it placed less emphasis on the Glutes? Any truth to this? I have also seen another form of Squats using the Smith machine where the feet are placed approximately 12-18 inches ahead of the bar, is there a benefit to this? I’m assuming you feel Squats are a superior exercise than leg presses on the sled? One last question, how do you feel about Hack Squats?
Answer: Elevating your heels places an unnatural load on the Achilles tendon, creates a shearing force behind the knee and exposes the hip to an unnatural tilt. Smith machine or hack squat are ok as a change of pace. The real deal is walking lunges, and true squats at a comfortable stance.
Hamstring Development
Question: I need advice on leg exercises that will provide Hamstring growth, but limit growth in the Glutes. I’m happy with my Quads, but I’d like some more size on the back-side of my legs without too much Glute growth. I currently do leg presses, hamstring curls, and stiff-leg dead lifts for my quad /hamstring routine, I feel like my Glutes get hit more than the other areas?
Answer: What makes your hamstrings grow the most are full range of motion squats and lunges, to a lesser degree leg curls and leg presses. Stiff legged dead lifts place unnecessary stress on the lumbar spine, while forcing the hamstrings to stabilize the knee with a very unnatural load.
Squatting and lunging improve the entire leg. Performing more leg curls does will not guarantee growth as you cannot load the muscle the same overload as squats or lunges.
The initial movement for all lower body compound movement, sitting, running, etc. begins with the Glutes.
There may be a genetic component involved that limits your hamstring growth depending on our muscle belly length.
Body Fat Deposits: Exercise and Diet
Question: I eat two meals a day and a few snacks. I almost always eat some sort of sweet after i eat and again at bedtime. I am just starting to work out… my problem area is my thighs.. the upper outer part.. is very bulgy and I am very self conscious about it.. was wondering which exercise would be the best to make the bulges disappear… and also.. i was wondering if there was an exercise to increase my breast size… or at the very least.. make them more perky…? thank you so much for your time and expertise.
Answer: The best defense for reducing your thighs is changing your diet. Sweets cause the body to store more fat-in this case in your generically pre-disposed areas [thighs, etc].
You need to replace the sweets with fresh fruits and vegetables [especially sweet red and yellow peppers].
Avoid refined flour [any bread or pasta made from white flour], white rice. Eat foods that are as unrefined as possible, brown rice, whole grain bread for example.
Drink at least 8 glasses [8 ounces] each of steam-distilled water or bottled water that is chlorine and fluoride free each day.
Walk whenever you can. Pick up a pedometer and wear it during the day. Your goal should be 3 miles of walking everyday-separate from your workout. This will increase your daily caloric expenditure by a minimum of 300 calories daily.
For your upper body. Incline dumbbell flys or standing upright cable cross-overs will increase the tone of your Pectoralis major and assist in lifting your breast tissue some. Working the muscles of the middle and upper back will support and improve your posture which will pull your shoulders back and improve the lift more. Exercises such as reverse flys, and rowing [machine or dumbbell or long pulley row]. 3 sets of 10 reps.
Remember, diet is the key. ”It is far easier to avoid a 400 calorie desert than to exercise for 1 hour to burn it off”
Body Fat Guidelines for Children
During adolescence, your body composition changes dramatically. The differences in body composition - both fat and lean body mass -between girls and boys are very small during infancy and childhood. However, they become significant during adolescence.
Although they usually mature more slowly, boys tend to add more lean mass and less body fat than girls during adolescence.
Girls put on more body fat than boys during adolescence. This is perfectly normal and healthy. A female should always have a higher percentage of body fat than a male of equal fitness because her amount of essential fat is higher and her reproductive function requires more energy.
There does not seem to be a consensus has to a range of body fat that is healthy for children. It is a documented fact that fat children become fat adults [90 percent of the time].
A healthy range for children would be between 11-18 percent.
Dr C. Everett Koop’s foundations http://www.shapeup.org/sua/
How many glasses of water should you drink in a day?
Question: How many glasses of water should you drink in a day and does coffee, tea and other drinks containing water?
Answer: There are a host of variables that would determine the amount of water that is optimal for a human, including: lean body mass, total weight, exercise level, physical activity, environment-especially humidity, and diet. [A high protein diet requires more water to assist the kidneys in flushing the by-products of protein digestion].
Rule of Thumb:
1.] Your urine should be consistently clear to pale yellow-even when you wake up in the morning.
2.] A minimum of 16-20 ounces of water should be consumed every 20 minutes of exercise and/or physical activity-[more if in hot/humid environments]
3.] Coffee and tea contain caffeine, which are diuretics. For every 8 ounces of coffee or tea consumed you will need 16 ounces of water to replace the loss.
4.] Fruit juices count, and herb teas w/o caffeine. Soups [not high in sodium, as well as fruit and vegetables [cucumbers, celery]
5.] The average consumption to maintain health is 64 ounces of fluids each day [not including water consumed during physical activity].